Group 5

Akshat Choudhary (15P065)

Deepawal Grover (15P075)
Jyothish K Jose
(15P085)
Neenu Suresh
(15P095)
Samaksh Chhabra (15P104)
Marketing Planning I
Tanvin Singh
(15P114)

ANALYSIS OF
ONEPLUS ONE
Analysis of OnePlus One Mobile Phone

Analysis of OnePlus One

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 3
WHY ONEPLUS ONE? .......................................................................................................................... 5
ONEPLUS AT A GLANCE ................................................................................................................... 5
SWOT ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................. 6
Strengths......................................................................................................................................... 7
Weakness ........................................................................................................................................ 8
Opportunities ................................................................................................................................. 8
Threats ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Findings from SWOT Analysis: ....................................................................................................... 9
PEST ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................................. 10
Political Factors ............................................................................................................................ 10
Economic Factors.......................................................................................................................... 11
Social Factors ................................................................................................................................ 11
Technological Factors ................................................................................................................... 11
Potters 5 Forces Model ................................................................................................................... 13
Application of Potters 5 forces model on OnePlus One ................................................................ 14
The Marketing Research Process ..................................................................................................... 17
Problem definition, Decision alternatives and research objectives ........................................... 17
Research Plan Development and Information Gathering ............................................................... 18
Information Analysis .................................................................................................................... 18
Buying roles and decision making process .................................................................................. 19
Purchase Behaviour...................................................................................................................... 20
Gist of Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 22
Positioning strategy for OnePlus One.............................................................................................. 24
Suggestions and Indicative Foresights ......................................................................................... 25
Conclusion ........................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 28

Analysis of OnePlus One

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Ease of carrying out business in India coupled with rise in disposable income of individuals has
enhanced the competitiveness of Indian Industry across all sectors. Era of digitalization has not only
led to an exponential growth in the demand for various electronic products but at the same time
dissolved the market barriers of reaching out to potential customers.
The impact of this transition has led to an exponential rise in the demand of various products. This
ever increasing demand and the rising competition with global competitors has made Indian
business market highly competitive. Innovative strategies are thus devised and adopted to cut down
the costs and subsequently reduce the price of products.
Traditional marketing and advertising can constitute up to 50% of the cost of the product. Thus,
social media channel of marketing has been widely adopted these days to curtail down this
marketing price substantially. Additionally, the SEO enabled social media marketing provides direct
access to targeted consumers.
The social media marketing channel offers a plethora of alternatives to market directly to the
targeted consumers at the lowest possible cost. Many companies still utilize both the channels of
marketing offline and online, but with different contributions of both towards realization of sales.
A few companies have dared to adopt social media only based marketing channel.
Additionally, in terms of the sales channel, e-commerce channels have a lot to offer to provide direct
access to customer and significantly cut down the cost associated with involving several players for
reaching out to the end consumer. Leveraging these incentives, several brands have been able to
provide exclusive offers for enhancing the sales realization through e-commerce channel. In fact,
many brands have been able to realize the benefits of this and shift to an e-commerce only mode of
sales.
An innovative and interesting strategy has been adopted by OnePlus that combines the benefits of
social media marketing along with the incentives offered through e-commerce only mode of sales.
Additionally it adopted an invite only model that not only provided the much required hype to its
first launch but also enabled the company to cut down their marketing expense to negligible figures.
In this report, we have conducted the market analysis of the strategy adopted by OnePlus for
marketing its product OnePlus One. The analysis encompasses all crucial analyses for assessing the
success or failure of the adopted strategy.

Analysis of OnePlus One

A comprehensive SWOT analysis was the first step towards garnering the information pertinent to
the adoption of this strategy. The SWOT analysis clearly highlighted the concern areas where
OnePlus needed to be more cautious and also identified the areas where they can further improvise
to add to the strengths of the marketing strategy.
SWOT analysis was followed by an exhaustive PEST analysis to analyse the impact of Political,
Economic, Social and Technology parameters on the adopted strategy. This clearly pointed out
towards the environmental impact of various parameters on the success of any marketing strategy.
Porters 5 Forces Analysis was also conducted to study the impact of external factors on OnePlus
One. The analysis of clearly categorised the risk from five most prominent parameters that impact
the market strategy of OnePlus One.
Further, a primary survey was conducted to capture the responses from consumers & understand
the brand perception that had been created. Also, consumer behaviour was analysed based on the
responses captured through this exhaustive survey, encompassing over 100 relevant respondents.
The market segmentation of OnePlus One was closely analysed and studied towards the end so as to
decipher its marketing strategy and assess the compliance of its positioning with companys planned
positioning.
The detailed analysis of the marketing strategy of OnePlus One after conducting all the above
mentioned analyses came out with interesting results. The gist of the results focuses on need to
continuously change the strategy and to come up with new modes of marketing to target untapped
markets such as Rural spaces.

Analysis of OnePlus One

WHY ONEPLUS ONE?

OnePlus One, a smartphone launched by a completely new company did amazingly well
when it came to marketing of the product. It has earned the title as the new king of midrange smartphones, and the buzz surrounding the product is still growing at an
unprecedented rate. Its the smartphone thats managed to dominate the market in a very
short amount of time, an impressive feat accomplished largely due to a clever marketing
plan.
What makes the marketing plan of OnePlus One unique is the invite-only system launched
by the company. The phone was sold only through the e-commerce channel using Amazon
in India. The buy-by-invitation system allows the manufacturer to gradually fulfill the
demand while customers are kept in a constant state of anticipation. This also adds to the
phones appeal as a VIP product for only a select group of people. This has been the
driving force in creating the craze behind the phone, as the manufacturers are appealing to
basic human nature: we always want what we cant have.
It was quite surprising to see people eager to shell out money for a phone they had never
seen. It was this craze in the market that helped the company sell 500,000 mobile phones by
spending mere $300 on the marketing of the product.
It is clear that OnePlus One has emerged as an epitome of implementing effective marketing
strategies that maximizes the sales with the least possible expense.

ONEPLUS AT A GLANCE
OnePlus was started by Pete Lau, former Vice President of Oppo, with an aim to build his
dream phone. The company has a tag line NEVER SETTLE, by which they mean that their
customers will never settle for anything less. The first product launched by the company to
the market is a smartphone names OnePlus One.
The OnePlus One is an Android based smartphone with CynogenMod OS. The One was
designed to be a low-cost smartphone comparable in performance and quality to competing
devices released at around the same time. The company's main goal was to design a
smartphone that would be cheap and still not compromise on the performance as well as
the quality; one that would balance the quality of high-end devices from its major

Analysis of OnePlus One

competitors with a lower price than other phones in its class. The company's primary costcutting measure was a decision to exclusively sell the device online.
The company introduced the concept of buy with invite only. The phone was first made
available for sale exclusively from the OnePlus website, but previously required prospective
customers to obtain an invitation before they could purchase it. These invitations were
primarily distributed by the company through contests, some of which attracted attention
for their unconventional in nature. Further the customers would get a couple of invites to
share with their friends and family. As per the company they viewed this strategy as a
source of sharing your happiness. People would share the invites for others to experience
what they have. As of now, the device no longer requires an invite to purchase.
Oppo, another Chinese smartphone company, manufactures the phones for OnePlus. This
way they company promises a good phone quality and also negates the doubts of product
quality being a startup.
The company took the smartphone industry by a storm and was an instant hit among the
youth who were happy to avail the best features without burdening their pockets.

SWOT ANALYSIS
With the above background about the company & the product, it becomes imperative to
conduct a SWOT analysis of the product OnPlus One, to understand which strategies
favoured them & which didnt favour them.
A brief schematic showing the key findings from SWOT analysis is shown below in Figure 1.
The component-wise explanation follows the schematic.

Analysis of OnePlus One

STRENGTHS:

WEAKNESS :

1. High Configuration

1. Poor Customer Service

2. Low price

2. Lots of bugs and glitches

3. Custom OS

3. Cyanogenmod legal dispute

SWOT
Analysis
OPPORTUNITIES:

THREATS :

1. Leveraging Upon Satisfied

pool of Customers

1. Competition

2. Leveraging Upon the Want

3. Lack of Exclusivity

3. Diversifying Advertising

4. Distribution

2. Change in Tastes

Figure 1: SWOT Analysis

Strengths
High Configuration OnePlus One offers an Outstanding Display, Smooth Performance,
Superb Battery Power and Excellent Camera Features, that are not only comparable to other
phones in the same category, but in fact better than most of the prominent brands. Some of
the prominent features are enlisted below:
i.

Quad-core 2.5 GHz processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with 3GB RAM

ii.

CyanogenMod 11S OS

iii.

3100mAh Battery

iv.

5.5 inch with capacitive display and 401 pixel density

v.

13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera support with LED flash

Low Price OnePlus One not only provides the one of the best features available in the
market but also ensures very low price than renowned Brands like Samsung and Apple.
Model name

OnePlus One

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Apple iphone 5s

Analysis of OnePlus One

Approximate Price (INR)

18000

42000

37000

Custom Operating System The distinction that One plus One offers to its customers
beyond the pricing, specification & configuration is in terms of a different OS i.e. Cyanogen.
The Cyanogen OS offers better localization, faster updates, and also generates user
feedback. This leads to seamless integration between hardware, software and cloud
computing (futuristic).
Weakness
Poor Customer Service- OnePlus One has limited number of service centres in India, only 37
as listed on their website. Considering the amount of sales, it becomes tough for these
service centres to cater to the demand.
Lots of bugs and glitches- With the recent update to Android Lollipop, there have been
complaints about several bugs and overheating of the phone.
Cynogenmod legal dispute- One plus one currently faces legal issues pertaining to providing
cynogenmod in India as Micromax holds the monopoly. Due to this, the updates are not
available for the customers.
Opportunities
Leveraging Upon Satisfied Pool of Customers The invite model instigates confidence
amongst the customers, as they get hands on feedback about the phone & thus, in a way for
every new phone bought through an invite, OnePlus One receives one indirect endorsement
from the customer providing invite. This has led to a creation of huge pool of loyal
customers for OnePlus & this pool can be suitably targeted for any new product launches.
Leveraging Upon the Want The invite system has made OnePlus One difficult to grab,
which has created a want for this product more than need. This fact can be leveraged to
encompass more customers by adopting different marketing strategies that release
targeted invites to few customers & further grow the sales.
Diversifying Advertising Even though the product has already clocked over a million sales,
with approximately $10,000 marketing budget for the first year of launch, starting an
advertisement campaign through different channels should exponentially add to the existing
sales, as well as add probable customers for OnePluss future launches.

Analysis of OnePlus One

Threats
Competition - OnePlus One is in a very competitive segment. There is a need to
continuously reinvent the phone to be able to keep the market share.
Change in Tastes The tastes of consumers with regard to smartphones are extremely
volatile as seen in the case of Blackberry smartphones which went from having 22 million
users in 2010 in the United States to 2.83 million in April 2015.
Lack of Exclusivity The companys decision to remove invite-only sales of the phone might
make an impact on its exclusivity as it will be available to the masses easily now, thus
reducing its attractiveness.
Distribution The distribution for this phone is only online. The average consumer is still
sceptical of purchasing expensive products like smartphones online. Competitors such as
Micromax may take advantage of this by pushing their products through retailers.
Findings from SWOT Analysis:
The SWOT analysis clearly brings out that the exceptional features offered by OnePlus One
at the lowest market price has clearly provided the distinctive edge that has helped them
achieve such exceptional sales. Also, the weaknesses show that even after capturing such a
big market, there are loopholes that can pose a challenge for the company.
The opportunities pave the pathway for catalysing growth in sales of OnePlus One & also
show high potential for subsequent launched due to the strong customer base. Also, given
the volatile nature of the mobile phone industry, it is highly recommended not to ignore the
threats & continuously work on improvement.

Analysis of OnePlus One

PEST ANALYSIS

POLITICAL:
1. Make in india
campaign
2. Growing market
3. Suspicion on foreign
products

ECONOMICAL:
1. Smartphone
Industry in India
2. Low inflation rate

SOCIAL:
1. Youth
2. Social media
presence

TECHNOLOGICAL:

3. Consultation from
the users

2. Regular update in
OS

1. Cloud Storage

4. Internet
penetration

Political Factors
Make in India- The launch of Make in India campaign by the Government of India on 25th
September 2014 will soon witness growth of existing Indian mobile phone companies such
as Micromax and also facilitate mushrooming of new companies in this sector. A noticeable
impact of this campaign can be seen through the announcement by Spice group to set up a
new plant in Uttar Pradesh. Electronics being one of the key sectors of Make in India, tough
competition in the fastest growing mobile phones sector, from Indian companies, is assured.
Growing market- India ranks among the top two mobile phones market in the whole world.
This provides companies a huge base for revenue production and innovation.
Suspicion on foreign products- Lately India has become suspicious of phones coming from
foreign countries like China. Indian Air force issued alert against Xiaomi last year fearing that
the company leaked Indian data to Chinese authorities.

10

Analysis of OnePlus One

Economic Factors
Smartphone Industry in India Witnessing a 33% growth in the Indian smartphone market
for the year 2014-2015, India looks to dominate the global market in future. Other than the
existing 34 brands, new brands look to enter the market here as it promises quick growth
and penetration. OnePlus has not yet dominated the Indian markets but seems to have a
bright future.
Low inflation rate Indian Economy is growing at 7.3% and the Inflation rate has raised
from what it was at the start of this year, but is still relatively low at 5%. Smartphones are
the new trend and people seem to have an ever higher purchasing power for them.
Social Factors
Youth The youth is always looking to get the best features at a low price. OnePlus One
fulfils that requirement by providing features that are available in substantially expensive
smartphones of other brands. Also the invite only mode entices the youth to but this
exclusive phone & flaunt amongst their peers.
Social media The social media presence of the metropolitan youth is quite substantial due
to which OnePlus One has been able to get a lot of publicity from its users. The word of
mouth publicity & the leverage to offer their invite to anyone of their peers of their choice
has increased the want for this phone substantially.
Internet penetration - The internet penetration in India is only 19%. Thus, the exclusive
availability only through online mode considerably cuts down on the potential number of
customers.
Technological Factors
Regular updates in OS- Cyanogen mod which was the OS used has gone for an exclusivity
deal with Micromax in India and thus will no longer be updated in existing OnePlus One
mobiles. In a market where update plays an important role, this can spell disaster for the
company. However, they have come up with their own OS, which may resolve this issue.

11

Analysis of OnePlus One

They are providing regular updates for their OS which are custom made for the model. Also
the new update witnesses lesser crashes as compared to previous OS.
Cloud storage: OnePlus has partnered with Dropbox and now offers a whopping 1TB of
Dropbox space on its OnePlus One which definitely entices users in todays era of cloud
computing. Also, the two-step verification ensures enhanced data safety.

12

Analysis of OnePlus One

Potters 5 Forces Model

Named after Michael E. Porter, Porters Five Forces methodology is used in this project to
analyze the business strategies of smartphone manufacturer OnePlus. The five forces
involved are:
1. Threat of New Entrants
2. Threat of Substitutes
3. Bargaining Power of Buyers
4. Bargaining Power of Suppliers
5. Competitive Rivalry

This tool is a handy method to assess how each of the market drivers impact the companies
and then based on the analysis suitable business strategies can be devised. Further,
companies are known to study the markets they want to approach thoroughly and deeply
before they make a move and it is in this perspective that this analysis is undertaken.

13

Analysis of OnePlus One

Application of Potters 5 forces model on OnePlus One

Threat of
new
entrants HIGH

Bargaining
power of
suppliers HIGH

Rivalry
between
competitiors
- HIGH

Bargaining
power of
buyers HIGH

Threat of
substitutes
- MEDIUM

Threat of new entrants

The analysis clearly indicated that the threat of new entrants was High.
1. Proprietary Learning- Mobile phone manufacturing requires patents and proprietary
knowledge. Companies like Apple and Samsung which are leaders in phone
manufacturing are also involved in the patent wars.
2. High Capital Investment- Mobile phone companies require a lot of money to be
invested in the set up and also in the R&D department to keep evolving with every
passing day.
3. Trade regulations- For companies like OnePlus which import products from China,
quite a few trade regulations have to be met in order to sell their products in India.
4. Setting up of distribution network- A lot of effort and money is involved in the
distribution network required for the phone manufacturer to reach the customers.
5. High Resistance for new player- The smartphone industry is full of competition as of
date and this provides a stiff resistance to any new player who tries to enter into the
market.

14

Analysis of OnePlus One

Threat of substitutes
The analysis clearly indicated that the threat of substitutes was Medium.
1. A Necessity rather than Luxury - Mobile phones have become more of a necessity in
todays world and people find it hard to find any substitute for it when away from
home.
2. Value for Money - Smartphones provide the maximum features at the cheapest price.
Smartphones provide us with options of phone calls and text messages, emails and web
surfing, songs and games, camera and other numerous apps.
3. Tablets, Netbook, Smart Watch are Potential Substitutes - There can be different
substitutes solving different purposes but not all can be substituted by one device. This
leads to high switching cost to substitutes.
Bargaining power of buyers
The analysis clearly indicated that the bargaining power of buyers had High impact on the
success of OnePlus One.
1. Customers have huge influence in phone design and technology selection It is the
consumers that drive the innovation in the smartphone industry. The smartphone
companies constantly evolve to meet the demands of the customers
2. Intermediate service providers The network and strength of the intermediate
service providers providing after sales services play a crucial role as customers
approach them for after sales services and spare parts. This does not mean that the
customers are at the mercy of the companies but it helps them choose a company
which provides them with better service.
3. Exclusivity to the customers In order to please the customers and give them
exclusive treatment OnePlus started a unique feature of selling their phones through
invite system.

15

Analysis of OnePlus One

Bargaining power of suppliers

The analysis clearly indicated that the bargaining power of suppliers had High influence on
the success of OnePlus One.
1. OS provided by CyanogenMod OnePlus boasts about having an OS based on
CyanogenMod which is similar to android but provides more options of
customization to the consumer. But since it has to rely on the outside supplier
for providing the update and support for the CyanogenMod, it gives high power
of bargaining to the supplier.
2. Support from OPPO OnePlus products are manufactured and the support for
the same is provided by OPPO, another Chinese phone manufacturer. This makes
OPPO a key equipment manufacturer.
3. Supplier availability The suppliers for OnePlus one are available only in China
and all the products have to be imported on demand. This makes the customers
rely heavily on the suppliers to provide the products on time.
Competitive Rivalry
The analysis clearly indicated that the threat from competitive rivalry was found to be High.
1. Established Brands Entering a market with numerous established brands like
Apple, Samsung, Nokia (now Microsoft) and others provide a stiff competition to a
new entrant.
2. Breaking loyal customers Big brands have loyal customers and breaking them
away for a new company is difficult and requires a unique feature like OnePlus
provides the best features at the cheapest price.
3. High diversity of rivals OnePlus has come out with only one phone as of now
whereas rivals have number of models in the market catering to different segments
based on price and purpose of buying the phone which gives people more choices to
choose from.

16

Analysis of OnePlus One

The Marketing Research Process

Problem definition, Decision alternatives and research objectives
OnePlus brand launched a new smartphone- OnePlus One. The One was designed to be a
low-cost smartphone comparable in performance and quality to competing devices released
at around the same time. The company's main goal was to design a smartphone that would
be cheap and still not compromise on the performance as well as the quality; one that
would balance the quality of high-end devices from its major competitors with a lower price
than other phones in its class. The company's primary cost-cutting measure was a decision
to exclusively sell the device online. Their method of entering into the market was by
conducting a competition, by selecting a few potential customers and by giving them
invitation to buy the phone online. This novel idea is being researched and focused mainly in
this project.
The phone was first made available for sale exclusively from the OnePlus website, but
previously required prospective customers to obtain an invitation before they could
purchase it. These invitations were primarily distributed by the company through contests,
some of which attracted attention for their unconventional in nature. Further the customers
would get a couple of invites to share with their friends and family. As per the company they
viewed this strategy as a source of sharing your happiness. People would share the invites
for others to experience what they have. As of now, the device no longer requires an invite
to purchase. The whole campaign was successful and it created wide brand awareness
about the company. They are selling the phone at cost price. The strategy of the company is
to redistribute their costs to better benefit the user. Rather than putting money towards a
large marketing budget, they are focusing on online marketing and community interaction.
Rather than working with retail partners, they rely on selling the device online. The
relevance of this approach is the marketing strategy of online phone companies or even ecommerce companies to have no profit or even loss to run a successful brand.

17

Analysis of OnePlus One

Research Plan Development and Information Gathering

Our research plan is developed in a way to have a direct interaction with the customer. We
have gathered information using primary data sources. The research instrument used is a
questionnaire. There are closed ended questions specifying all the possible answers and it
provides answers that are relevant to the topic and easier to interpret. There are open
ended questions too which allows the respondent to answer in their own words thus
measuring how people think in a certain way. We have used Dichotomous questions to
know where the user buys the phone from- online or offline, a Multiple Choice question to
know the various factors which the respondent consider while buying a phone, Likert Scale
questions to know the importance of service centres and the importance of offers for a
respondent and Single Answer questions to know the price range, the reason for buying a
phone and the motivation to buy one.
The Indian smartphone sale is driven by teens and youth. 22% of the buyers are teens and
majority of the users are youth. So the major sample consists of this majority section in India
to know the general trend of smartphone usage. We have analysed responses from over
100 respondents. The respondents were contacted through social media and online
mediums such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Gmail. We have also used our personal contacts
to get the response. Online research is inexpensive, fast and versatile. Also respondents in
Asia feel more pressure to conform and therefore not be as forthcoming in offline activities
such as focus groups as online. So the complete information collection was through online
media.

Information Analysis

18

Analysis of OnePlus One

Buying roles and decision making process

For analyzing the buying roles and decision making process, we have used three questions.
These were how different people/factors affect buying decision and the unstated and secret
needs in purchasing the phone. We analyzed the questionnaire to find out the possible
options customers look into for advice on their purchase and found out that friends and
online forums has a 89% chance of affecting a customer decision. With its invitation model
and high online presence OnePlus One definitely manages to score points in this section.

Persons affecting the decision making

6%

5%

Friends

45%

Online forums
Relatives

44%
Shopkeepers or service centres
review

While analysing the unstated needs of the customer, we found most of the respondents
needed the phone to have a good battery back-up (84 respondents) and a good processor
(80 respondents). Again one plus one comes out winner in this as well as it has both a good
process as well as a good battery back-up.

19

Analysis of OnePlus One

Requirements of specifications
Sum of Operating System

38

Sum of Better Camera

49

Sum of Slim and light weight

45

Sum of Pen drive compatible

14

Sum of Stylish

34

Sum of Cost effective

30

Sum of High Screen resolution

32

Sum of Good battery backup

84

Sum of Good Graphics processor

29

Sum of Good processor and RAM

80

Sum of Large Screen size

36
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Also we tried evaluating the secret needs of the customer when they buy a phone. Majority
(71%) of the surveyed group wanted their phones to show them as formal, mature and techsavy while and/or at the same time being an owner of an exclusive phone, which are the
parameters OnePlus one has positioned itself in. In fact 20% of the respondents wanted an
exclusive phone, which is a need that OnePlus One managed to tap in by making their
phones available on invitation basis only.

Secret needs when buying a phone

Formal and mature

6%

Latest released phone

Popularly used phone

27%

20%

Stylish
7%

Tech-Savy

Using an exclusive phone

Others

24%

8%
8%

Purchase Behaviour
Consumer purchase behaviour was tracked by analysing response of the customer to the
channel used, the amount they planned to spend on purchase, effect of flash sale on
consumers, importance of good service network and trade-off between brand and
specification.

20

Analysis of OnePlus One

While analysing the sales channel preference we noticed that only 56% of consumers prefer
E-commerce over retail outlet. We felt this was not a good thing for OnePlus one phone
since it sells only through the e-commerce channel. However, targeting the customer who is
planning to buy phones in the range of 10,000 to 30,000, we found out that a higher
proportion (61%) of people were willing to buy online.

Sales channel for Rs.10,000

to 30,000 Budget

Sales Channel

39
44%
56%

61%

E-commerce portal
E-commerce portal

Retail Outlet

Retail Outlet

Studying the importance of flash sales, we asked respondents if they were willing to wait for
an offer to come. On analysing the responses we found that a staggering 74% were
expected to wait for the flash sales and will attempt to make a purchase in the flash sales.
Also we studied the expenditure people are planning to incur on the phone and found
majority of them wanted a phone in Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 30,000 category (82 respondents).

Budget

Sum of

Expected

Likelihood

response to

Score

flash sales

No of people

Percentage of

willing to spend

people expected to

in the given

participate in flash

range

sales

Below Rs
10,000

38

7.6

10

76

20,000

198

39.6

56

71

Rs 20,000-

96

19.2

26

74

Rs 10,000-

21

Analysis of OnePlus One

30,000
Rs 30,00040,000

27

5.4

90

Rs 40,000

19

3.8

54

Grand Total

378

75.6

105

72

Above

Similar study on importance of service centre to customer showed a Importance score of

390 which means an expected 74 out of 105 gave importance to presence of service centres
nearby before making a purchase. With importance to brand v/s specification to trade off,
we got a importance to specification score of just 308, which meant that only 59% of
respondents would value specifications over branded phone, which is something that will
cause problems for OnePlus one.
Budget

of Specification

current

preference

phone

score

Percentage
index

Count

Expectation specification
expected

10000-15,000 65

24

13

54

15000-20,000 72

22

14.4

65

20000-25,000 48

16

9.6

60

5000-10,000

54

16

10.8

68

Above 25,000

67

25

13.4

54

5000

0.4

20

Grand Total

308

105

61.6

59

Less

of

than

Gist of Analysis
The analysis of the marketing model of OnePlus One through an exhaustive primary survey
clearly indicates towards the success of this model across all the parameters considered i.e.
the decision influencers, which were primarily social media forums and OnePlus One due to
its strong presence throughout the social media definitely scores well in this criterion;

22

Analysis of OnePlus One

matching all the secret needs of consumers and also at the same time catering to the
specification requirements of them. The results of the sales channel favored e-commerce
channel but given that the questionnaire was primarily filled by online users and still the
preference for e-commerce for these consumers was just around 56 %. This figure clearly
indicates the preference for retail medium for Indian consumers. On an overall basis, the
analysis clearly proves the marketing model of OnePlus One to be highly efficient.
On the other hand, Porters 5 Point analysis clearly indicates that the threat from the
analyzed parameters towards the success of OnePlus One is high and thus, OnePlus needs
to continuously devise new strategies to stay updated and competitive in the market.

23

Analysis of OnePlus One

Positioning strategy for OnePlus One

The customers perception about a brand relative to other competitive brands, based on
various product attributes, positions a product in market. Innovative positioning strategies
adopted by different companies, leads to perception building, which establishes a brand in
the market & positions it in the requisite domain. The innovative strategies adopted by
OnePlus One to position itself in the Indian market are enlisted below:
1. Never Settle The branding statement of the company, which means that company
would strive for the best user experience and not rest till they have found it.
2. This positions OnePlus One amongst a niche range of products that strive for perfection.
3. Branded itself as Beast often referred to as The Beast due to its unparalleled
configuration, which ensures smoother and faster performance.
4. This clearly positions OnePlus One as an invincible product amongst competitors.
5. Most Economical Phone OnePlus One has the best features available when compared
to phones priced in its range. It leaves behind several high end phones when it comes to
a comparative assessment based on the configuration.
6. This ensures OnePlus One offers the best configuration in its price band and leads it.
7. Exclusivity OnePlus One positioned itself apart from others by providing exclusivity by
invitation-only mode of sale. This provided leverage to customers having an invite, and
the requests they received for the invite ensured they enjoy exclusivity. This led to
branding of its proud owners into a niche bracket as well.
8. An all new OS CynogenMod gave the first experience as the new android based OS of
OnePlus One. This helped the company create a demand for itself by introducing a
unique OS that would break the monotone of using existing OS.
9. Segmented Consumers Youth, the company positioned itself in a way that it targeted
the technology savvy youth which is always hungry for more when it comes to
performance and configuration. Also, the economical price bracket which is a major
influencing factor for youth ensured there was no stopping for the success of OnePlus
One.

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Analysis of OnePlus One

10. Positioning Aligned Goal OnePlus One aims to provide the configuration of high price
segment phones to the consumers of the low price segment phones, at the same time
ensuring that quality is never compromised.
Suggestions and Indicative Foresights
1. Aligned with the companys tagline Never Settle, it should constantly evolve new
models loaded with upgradations. The delay in release of new models leads to
questioning the brands objective & poses a threat to its positioning.
2. Needs to improve the customer service network as it was an important feature which is
present as a weak area in the company, when it comes to expanding in Indian markets
3. Since the company focuses on the niche market of phones catering to tech-geeks, it
needs to ensure timely updates on its Oxygen OS. In fact, it should make all attempts to
make it open source to cater to needs of tech-geeks.
4. Another method of maintaining its positioning as phone is exclusively for tech-geeks, it
should maintain the by invite only model of sale in the initial phase of product life cycle.
Also in the primary research of market, it was noticed that 20% of respondents had a
secret need for their mobile phones to be exclusive.
5. Company must continue with its forum of collecting opinions of users through social
media channels, to ensure that target group of tech-geeks can feel connected to brand.
6. OnePlus should continue with having an exclusive e-commerce partner, so that it can
keep the marketing cost down. Also as the smartphone model has already entered star
segment, having an exclusive e-commerce partner aggressively advertising for the
product, could enable OnePlus to gain better profits even though the phone price is
maintained. Also 61% respondents would prefer to purchase from the online portal than
from the retail stores.
7. As barriers to entry are very low and there is every chance another brand can target the
niche market of phones for tech-geeks, OnePlus could organize competitions for techgeeks on an annual basis to ensure better brand perception in the minds of target
customer.
8. OnePlus also needs to enter into other tech related fields other than smart phones and
cater to the tech-geeks to keep the loyalty of tech-geeks.

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Analysis of OnePlus One

9. Flash sales also could be used to attract early adopters as 71% of respondents in primary
market research have been found to be in favour of flash sales.

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Analysis of OnePlus One

Gist of Findings
The market analysis of the success of OnePlus One based on several analyses could be
summarised as follows:
a) The SWOT analysis clearly indicates that OnePlus One marketed itself by exploiting
the weakness of the other products and using them as its own strengths. The
Strengths were highlighted in such a manner that people did not pay attention to the
weaker side of the phone.
b) The Potters 5 forces model was applied on the product and it showed that since
there is high threat to new entrants, still OnePlus was able to create a market for its
own by banking on its technology and exclusive selling strategy.
c) PEST analysis focused on the political, economic, social and technological aspects of
OnePlus One. It emphasised on various issues the company faced while launching its
first product in the Indian market. Though it faced problems on the political front
being a Chinese brand, the good economic condition helped in its sales. Similarly
being advanced in the technical aspect, the phone targeted the youth of the nation.
d) In the last part of the project we studied about the STP of the product. It was clear
that the phone was targeting the youth and techno-savvy people. The phone
provided best features at the cheapest price and hence positioned itself as a Beast
in the market of smartphones.
To conclude, it can be stated that the innovative approach adopted by OnePlus for
marketing its product One has been highly successful for achieving outstanding sales figures
and at the same time drastically cut down on expenses. Even though, there were several
risks involved but being the first risk taker definitely gave OnePlus the edge to create a niche
for its product. As the saying goes, High Risks, High Gains, has been actually instrumental
in this scenario.

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Analysis of OnePlus One

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