OnePlus Strategy

OnePlus currently occupies 35% market share in the premium smartphone segment, while
its competitors Samsung & Apple occupy 23% & 22% respectively. OnePlus has been able to
become the dominant player in India through its smartphone flagship killer products. The
company only makes top-end smartphones, coming up with phones with the latest best
specs in the market, a simple yet elegant OS with the most competitive prices in the market.
Their strategy is to appeal to the growing tech-enthusiast community in India who are cost-
conscious but who want to have the flagship experience. The OnePlus 6 & 6T came out on
similar trends, having the latest top-end specs with a higher screen to body ratio, small
notch & dual-camera setup, with the prices being 40-50% lower than the nearest
competitor phones – Samsung S9 & iPhone XS. This resulted in the company selling a record
one million units of the OnePlus 6 within 22 days of its launch and the OnePlus 6T becoming
India’s number one premium smartphone. One of the main reasons for this that the
company follows a Market Focus Strategy in which they are only focussing on the tech-
enthusiasts, premium smartphones aspiring customers which is a niche category. The
premium smartphone segment is expected to grow at 30% in India, which is one of the
strongest growths in recent times. Both the smartphones offered an ergonomic product
design, high reliability, supreme product quality & high performance which was at par to
what Samsung & Apple were providing at a much higher price.

The company’s marketing has used the Lean Start-up Methodology (Build > Measure >
Learn). This kind of approach allows the campaign to adapt to the market. It involves quick
implementation, examination and adjustment. The company has from time to time discarded
traditional advertising at the time of launch to give cost benefits to its customers and keep
the prices of their phones from rising up. Also, they sold exclusively through Amazon, thus
making it more convenient for its tech savvy customers to get the product. The company
targeted marketing of their products to the innovators & early adopters in the Technology
adoption curve who became the unofficial brand ambassadors. Taking influencer
marketing to a whole new level, OnePlus built an online forum for technology enthusiasts
who could use the platform to discuss various Android app development related queries. This
paved the way for these enthusiasts to become the first adopters of OnePlus. All the young
influencers on platforms like Instagram promoted both the products after their launch which
gave a massive boost to the sales.
 OnePlus Brand & Product Innovation
The company has always been a product – first company. They created the OnePlus forum
for the sole purpose of having their community in a common place to ask their users what
they want. Even today the brand asks its users what they want from their phones. This was
evident in the OnePlus 6. The company delivered a phone which had a higher screen to
body ratio which was the new trend in the market & also demanded from their users. They
came up with the fast charger in their previous phones to meet a faster charging experience
of their users. OnePlus 6 was criticized for not having wireless charging when the phone had
a glass back, to which the company replied that their users didn’t demand for one as they
were happy with the fastest fast charging in the market provided by OnePlus. In the OnePlus
6T, they listened to the users for having a smaller notch by coming up with the smaller tear
drop notch & an in-screen fingerprint reader to provide its users with the latest technology
experience as they have been doing from the start. During the launch of both OnePlus 6 &
6T, the company came up with pop-up stores in the major cities of India for the customers
to have an instant experience of the new phones and offers were also provided on the
purchases of the devices. This led to an instant increase in the popularity and demand for
the new phones.
The brand has always been the company that provides the best customer experience
whether in sales or after sales. Now the company can confidently vouch for their services as
now they claim to resolve 70% of the customer’s queries and problems within an hour and
having a network of their own exclusive network of service centres.
All this helped the brand enjoy a level of trust especially in India. Over 44% of their users
chose to upgrade again to the latest OnePlus device. The customers are those people who
left Samsung & Apple. Both the OnePlus 6 & 6T were the market leaders in India, beating
the likes of Samsung S9 & iPhone XS. The company even brings its core community users
along with its global management and senior product managers together for the Open Ears
Forum workshop that aims to help in identifying the customer pain points and the gaps in
the product. Their suggestions are then recorded and the company publishes a roadmap to
deliver on the mutually agreed priorities within a defined period of time.
Competitors Analysis
References
1. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322411
2. https://blog.markgrowth.com/the-story-of-oneplus-the-art-of-marketing-done-right-
648bcbabf59
3. https://www.exchange4media.com/advertising-news/what-has-been-the-market-winning-
formula-for-oneplus-96930.html