The
question many are asking is why the Oppo range is being launched in South
Africa in the midst of a pandemic.
“There’s no better
time than the now,” says Liam Faurie, Oppo business head of go-to-market
Operations in South Africa. “Oppo has had its eye on this market for some time.
It has already opened up markets like Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt.
“Oppo’s main strategy is to make sure that there’s a strong
focus on quality, and working with the operators. It’s also been quite a recent
introduction with the big operators in Europe, so together with really
understanding those operator markets, we wanted to make sure that consumers
have got not only quality hardware, but also a quality experience on the
networks. That’s why it’s taken longer to ensure that business models are
adapted and catered for in big operator markets like South Africa. Covid-19 definitely
did have an impact, as we wanted to launch a lot earlier this year.”
Sam Zhang, CEO of Oppo South Africa, said that Huawei’s
challenges in working round a ban of Google services did not have any impact on
Oppo’s timing.
“It is just coincidence. We are not focused solely on our
competitors. The focus is to bring quality products to this country. Competition
breeds innovation, not only from a product point of view, but also from a
communication point of view as well, but we are laser-focused on aspects like
the quality of product and service.”
Faurie is clear on the target market in South Africa, and
the reason for its careful selection of devices for release here.
“The product strategy is to penetrate the mid-range market. Oppo
is very strong in the mid-range, but not just to bring in any old mid-range
product. It’s understanding what the local market wants, effectively what price
points are popular, and bring the product and feature set that specifically
talks to those price points.
“This year we are launching three models and we believe that
we have a good, competitive strategy in terms of the quality of our products,
the quality of our service, the way that the product feels, the way it looks.”
The three devices, he says, target specific market segments.
“The A53s, is going to be speaking to gamers. Once you see
the feature set and experience the device, you’ll see this is the best gaming and
best entertainment device for its price. We follow with a very strong pre-paid
product, the A15. The A72 is the camera and audio leader, and we’re also going
to bundle it with TWS ear buds.”
The underlying significance of this range is that it is only
setting the scene, rather than being Oppo’s main act.
“We are setting the market up for the big flagships, the Reno and the Find X series, to come in the first half of next year,” says Faurie. “The idea is to make sure our team is ready. We’ve got a very strong, very knowledgeable team, that has worked for the big tech brands for many years. We are getting the environment ready to prepare for our flagship launch.”
Read more about Oppo on the next page.
Pages: 1 2 3
