Why OnePlus Couldn’t Exploit the Pakistani Local Market?

OnePlus mobile has been able to garner immense popularity around the globe because the company has been rendering impressive smartphones with high-end specs at a comparatively lower price. The smartphones of the company have been able to gather many positive reviews and the majority of its latest models like the OnePlus 9, OnePlus 8T, etc have high-end specifications and processors that make them much appealing. The vision for the OnePlus mobile company is to bring power technology to all with innovation and upgraded specs. However, you must be wondering that why this company hasn’t been able to exploit the Pakistani market? Well, there are a number of reasons behind them which will be part of my next discussion.

Why OnePlus Couldn’t Exploit the Pakistani Local Market?

• Not a ‘Flagship Killer’ Anymore:

OnePlus was once regarded as the flagship killer due to which it has been able to attract a number of users. But now, the dynamics of the company with respect to the market have changed. The first and foremost reason is the price. In the beginning, the company launched phones with specs parallel to flagships of the other companies, while there was a significant difference in the price of the former and latter. However, things have changed now and there is not a big difference between the price of the phones.

Secondly, other companies especially Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has replaced OnePlus as the flagship killer in many regions around the world. Xiaomi has been releasing some extravagant phones at a much lower price as compared to OnePlus. The feedback of the people regarding Xiaomi’s smartphones is also very good. So both of these reasons had a combined effect due to which OnePlus isn’t regarded as the flagship killer anymore.

• Lack of Marketing:

Marketing has become an underlying requirement for almost every business around the world and specifically the smartphone business. Especially, digital marketing has become the epitome of the modern connected era. Now if we scrutinize OnePlus and its marketing campaigns, we see that the company hasn’t invested much in its marketing campaigns. I will give you the latest example to support my argument. Recently, OnePlus has launched the NORD CE 5G. Now according to our research, the majority of the people in Pakistan don’t even know about this latest phone. So why people don’t know about it? It is because OnePlus hasn’t advertised its device in the local market and on digital media.

Now if we compare it with its competitors like Xiaomi, OnePlus lacks behind in terms of marketing. They need to learn this from Xiaomi as the company invests a lot in the marketing of its devices even before their launch. Because of this, most of the people in the Pakistani market have good information regarding Xiaomi’s devices and prefer to purchase them.

• Brand Preference:

Another factor that has slowed the growth of OnePlus in Pakistan is the brand preference by the people. As the company mostly launches smartphones that compete with the flagships of brands like Samsung, Apple, etc. with a comparatively lower price in other parts of the world. However, in Pakistan, if we compare the price of OnePlus devices with other brands, there’s isn’t much of a difference. For example, if we look at the price of the company’s recently launched handset, the OnePlus 9 (available for PKR 134,999), we see that there isn’t much of a difference between its price and the price of Samsung S21, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, etc.

Therefore, in my point of view, people in Pakistan would always prefer to buy the phones of renowned brands like Samsung, Apple, etc. in contrast to OnePlus devices. Because it is natural that people in Pakistan purchase established brands as compared to the new ones.

• Lack of Distributors:

The lack of distributors is another aspect that is hampering the growth of OnePlus in the Pakistani Market. Currently, there are only two distributors for OnePlus devices currently operating in Pakistan. The first is the Rock Mobile which is the pilot distributor for OnePlus smartphones. However, the distributor itself doesn’t have enough presence in the market and is not very renowned. Only the tech-savvy population knows about this distributor and even the smartphone retailers in many parts of the country don’t know about it.

On the brighter side, the latest partnership between one of the most renowned Telecom Distribution companies, United Mobile, and OnePlus has seen the light of day and now interested customers can officially get their hands on the latest OnePlus phones anywhere in Pakistan along with legit customer services.  United Mobile has been in the telecom industry of Pakistan for 20 years now. However, as this collaboration is new (signed in April 2021) due to which we haven’t been able to see the propagation of OnePlus devices all around the country. According to United Mobile,

 United Mobile understands the needs and expectations of the consumers in this region, and with mission to offer its customers the highest quality products and services, we have joined hands with OnePlus, being the official partner, and authorized distributor of OnePlus in Pakistan.

Still, we will have to wait and see how United Mobile manages to make a difference for OnePlus.

• No Customer Service Centre:

Another thing that is a cause of concern for OnePlus is the absence of customer services in Pakistan. If you are running any business and there is a lack of customer service, then it can cause serious damage to your reputation. Angry customers whose concerns haven’t been solved can often take to their keyboards and show their frustrations online either in the form of a negative review, an irate tweet on Twitter, or something similar. Therefore, it is highly important to have good customer service if a company doesn’t want to lose its customer or malign its image overall.

 How OnePlus can Achieve Success in the Pakistani Market?

We are going to provide some suggestions which can help OnePlus in achieving success in the Pakistani market.

• Hefty Investment is Required For Marketing: 

One thing which holds the utmost importance for OnePlus is to market themselves in a better way if they wish to achieve success in the Pakistani market. For that, the company has to heavily invest in marketing in order to protect their devices in all parts of the country.

• Must Take More Distributors on Board:

Another thing that OnePlus should do is to sign a deal with other major distributors like Advanced Telecom. By doing so, its reach will be expanded and its devices will reach all major and minor retailers currently operating in different parts of the country.

• Price Adjustment:

Another thing that OnePlus must take into account is the price adjustment if they want to find success in the Pakistani market and compete with the flagship devices of other renowned brands. They will have to create a viable difference between the prices of their devices and its competitors with similar specs if they want their devices to penetrate in the market.

Conclusion:

This is a purely opinion-based article, if you like it or have any queries regarding it, do tell us in the comment section!

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