Samsung

Oppo’s Titanic Achievement

Leave a Comment / August 8, 2011

–

Leonardo DiCaprio does something in China that he dare not do in the US: peddle product. He is appearing now, unnamed but clearly recognizable, in ads for a Chinese domestic mobile phone brand called Oppo. His face is currently plastered all over my local subway station in Shenzhen.

It’s a bold move by a little-known Chinese mobile phone company to storm into the big time, and grab market share from Nokia, Samsung, LG and Apple. None of these global brands uses a big name to front its ads in China. Oppo is determined to compete as equals with these larger companies. It’s still learning the rules of building a successful brand. Its tactics and ad strategy are a little off-beat. But, Oppo has the resources and distribution in China to challenge the large global mobile phone brands, and so cause them headaches in the world’s largest mobile phone market.

The ads are a bit of a head-scratcher. They are framed to look like a strip of celluloid and feature, in the background, a European cobblestone street, a moped making a fast getaway while someone, maybe Leo, gives chase. The only text are the words “Find Me”, in English. In other words, it doesn’t have anything to do with mobile phones, not even subliminally. It looks like a movie poster. Still, seeing an A-List Hollywood star in a Chinese ad for a Chinese brand is no workaday occurrence.

Leo is hugely popular in China, especially among women under 40.  “Titanic” may well be the most-watched American movie of all time in China. No one knows for sure, since the movie came out in 1997, and circulated in China mainly through pirated video and DVDs.

Getting Leo to appear in the ads is quite a coup for Oppo. The Chinese company reportedly paid Dicaprio $5 million. A steep price, but the company is betting that Leo can pry open wallets in a way no other celebrity endorser can. The reason: Oppo is the only “girls only” major mobile phone brand in the world. The company’s phones are all aimed at, and advertised to, females.

Oppo’s phones are all  pretty standard, with no unique technology under-the-hood. But, they come in bright colors and feature girly do-dads like crystal keys. Oppo’s marketing, with the exception of the new DiCaprio ad, features Chinese women traveling in exotic locations, or chatting with friends.

Oppo is trying to pull off a challenging feat:  to catapult above the hundreds of no-name mobile phone manufacturers and brands, and establish itself as a premium brand in China. The other Chinese mobile phone brands do little to no advertising, and instead compete mainly on price. With its big ad budget and quirky strategy of targeting women from 18-40, Oppo aims to compete head-to-head with Samsung, Nokia and Apple.

Will it work? My guess is that Oppo will get a decent return for the $5 million spent on DiCaprio. The Chinese market is ready for a splashy self-confident Chinese domestic phone brand with some star power.

“Cometh the hour, cometh the man.”

 

–

–

Meet China’s Newest — and Maybe Most Deserving — Billionaire

1 Comment / June 2, 2010

Aisidi

According to the most recent calculation by Forbes Magazine, there are about 800 dollar billionaires in the world. As of last week, there may be one more, Huang Shaowu.  And he’s a friend of mine.

On Friday, trading began on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange of mobile phone distributor and retailer Aisidi (爱施德) (Ticker: 002416) The IPO raised over RMB1.8 billion for the company, at a price-earnings multiple of 50. It leaves Shaowu’s holding company still in control of about 70% of the shares, now worth a little over $2 billion.

I was at the party to celebrate the IPO at the Hyatt in Shenzhen, along with about 300 others. The last time I saw Shaowu was about three weeks ago, after traveling around Shandong together for four days. Shaowu is a modest and sincerely warm man. He would never brag about his business. But make no mistake, he has a lot to brag about.

Aisidi is a leading distributor and retailer of mobile phones and Apple products in China. Its 2009 revenues were Rmb 8.75 billion (USD$1. 28bn), while net income reached Rmb875mn ($128mn). In the first quarter of 2010 net income rose by 70% over first quarter of 2009.

Aisidi got its start back in 1998, at a time when the mobile phone market in China was a fraction of its current size. That year, China Mobile had 25 million subscribers. As of now, they have over 700 million. In 1998, China was still then considered a poorer, developing nation. Shaowu took a big gamble back then, to begin distributing only brand-name mobile phones, and sell them at full market price. Shaowu saw more clearly than most the direction China’s mobile phone industry would take.

Aisidi’s business has grown enormously since 1998.  It acts as the trusted distributor for many of the top mobile phone brands, including Samsung, Sony Ericsson as well as Apple’s iPhone. It also has partnerships with China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom.

Aisidi doesn’t distribute, sell or otherwise transact in any way with shanzhai manufacturers. Only the genuine articles. Aisidi is also the key part of Apple’s retail strategy in China, with a market share of 45% of all Apple products sold in China.

The boss of Apple China was at Aisidi’s IPO party last week. I chatted with him, and for those who are wondering, there is still no timetable for when Apple’s new iPad will go on sale in China. When it does, it is certain to add significantly to Aisidi’s revenues and profits.

Way ahead of the pack, Shaowu saw that there was a market – and it turns out a truly enormous one – serving the Chinese who would pay top-dollar for phones they knew came straight from manufacturers, and would be repaired professionally and promptly if anything went wrong.

Shaowu built Aisidi to have the products and prices that allowed it to make money from the start and to become one of the larger private corporate tax-payers in China. Now as a public company, Aisidi has the resources to grow into one of China’s biggest entrepreneur-founded companies.

Shaowu  made his money doing something that took guts and insight. It was a real joy helping him celebrate Aisidi’s IPO. His success is deserved. He is both a nice guy and a helluva businessman.