Success of OPPO and Vivo Smartphones in the Philippines, Explained

Within just a span of two years, Chinese handset brands OPPO and Vivo Mobile have been able to achieve tremendous success in the Philippines, the leading mobile devices market in the entire Asia Pacific region where competition among players in the smartphone industry is probably at its tightest.

In fact, based on the findings of a research conducted by  International Data Corporation (IDC), OPPO and Vivo were actually the 3rd and 5th most prolific handset vendors in the country in Q2 2017 -- joining Cherry Mobile (1), Samsung (2), and CloudFone (4) in the Top 5.

For consumers and tech enthusiasts who have yet to get their hands on a phone made by these two players from China and are now wondering how these brand achieved great success in our market, IDC offers an explanation.

According to Mr. Jerome Dominguez - Market Analyst for Client Devices of IDC Asia/Pacific, "OPPO and Vivo disrupted the smartphone retail space through cash-rich marketing, aggressive sales promoter incentives and previously unseen levels of retailer support. This challenged the traditional vendor-dealer relationship smartphone vendors have been accustomed to, and while leading vendors have been able to adapt, smaller players with less marketing and merchandising budget on their disposal were unable to do so, thus suffering drops in market shares."

"As the battle for mindshare intensifies, top global and local mobile phone vendors were left with no recourse but to double down on marketing spending to maintain the brand presence. Aside from the tried-and-tested formula of appointing A-list celebrity endorsers and conducting roadshows, new marketing strategies such as co-branding and strategic product placements are being explored by local and global vendors as means to remain competitive against Chinese vendors," he added.

As a technology blogger who is part of both OPPO and Vivo's digital marketing campaigns, I would say that their active partnership with bloggers and online influencers also contributed to their dominance in this space.

On the other hand, as a millennial mobile consumer, I think their Selfie-Centric brand positioning also helped in capturing the interest of millions of Pinoy consumers who love to take selfies alone or with their friends and loved ones. I've heard many Filipinos praise the selfie-taking prowess of smartphones made by these companies.

On top of all that, I would say that OPPO and Vivo's partnership with Home Credit, a financial company that helps consumers purchase gadgets at 0% installment, along with wise choice of celebrity endorsers (Sarah Geronimo for OPPO and Steph Curry for Vivo), and carefully planned mall shows in the metro and in the provinces also became instrumental to their success.

Qouting IDC, The rise of OPPO and Vivo further affirmed the importance of combining an expansive sales and distribution approach with strong marketing and advertising strategies to capture consumer mindshare. To preserve brand equity among consumers, leading global and local vendors who have previously cut down on marketing spend back in 2016 were seen to divert their resources to funding actively on integrated marketing campaigns this year. (source)