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The battle of Me & Mi – Realme v/s Xiaomi

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Saloni Surti
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Oppo Realme marketing strategy

Oppo's Realme 1 or Xiaomi - Social Samosa takes a look at the marketing initiatives that set apart Me & Mi

The launch of Oppo’s online only smartphone range, Realme, has been the talk of the town. Touted as a budget smartphone, Realme is in a silent battle with Xiaomi’s Redmi, given the name play. Both the mobile brands are active with marketing plans to beguile newer audiences.

Realme

As a part of the Oppo Realme Marketing strategy -  Oppo has created independent social media profiles for Realme, creating communication specifically around the new range. Right now immersed with launch marketing of Realme 1, Oppo has invested in a heavy social media mix, attempting to reach out to audiences of various strata and interests.

A rather active page, Realme’s social media profile is swamped with posts, tweets, reviews and more.

Pre-buzz

Prior to the launch of the phone, Realme kept up the buzz    with content around specs and durability of the phone. Further various USPs such as service centres were also a part of the communication.

Further, the launch of the phone was live tweeted by the brand and the influencers involved.

Influencer Outreach

Unboxing has evolved as a legit technology marketing technique, and Realme leverages the same with a network of influencers who also share a review of the new handset. Few of the top tech influencers such as Technical Guruji, Geeky Ranjit, Rajiv Makhni, and Sharmaji Tech have been actively speaking about Realme 1.

Also Read: All new Oppo Valentines Day campaign racks up 15M views within 3 days

#GoodByeForGood

Further, Oppo launched a contest, Good Bye For Good, urging consumers to share their selfies with their index fingers held up as a sign of Realme 1 and sharing reasons as to why they will say good bye to their existing phone for Realme 1.

The winner of the contest was to be gratified with a Realme 1 while lucky participants were promised Amazon vouchers worth INR 1,000.

Branded content with Sahil Khattar

Leaving no stone unturned, Realme partnered with Sahil Khattar, who in his signature style went around the city creating buzz around the upcoming smartphone.

In the second video, Khattar toured the city showing off the phone’s specs and garnering eye balls for the same.

Xiaomi

While Oppo might not have made any reference or taken a dig at Xiomi’s Redmi or MI phones, Realme is being directly compared to the former (for obvious reasons). As Realme takes on with a multi-platform launch campaign, Xiaomi initiated a brand awareness-recall campaign, re-iterating their position in the market.

#IndiaIsWithMi

As a part of their efforts, Xiaomi is positioning themselves as an Indian brand, synonymising themselves with the length and breadth of the country. Sharing various facts as to how if all Xiaomi phones sold in India were to be stacked up, they’d be 25 times the depth of the deepest point on earth – Mariana Trench.

As opposed to Realme, Xiaomi relies on micro-influencers and niche fans to create conversations around #IndiaIsWithMi. Technology enthusiasts, IT professionals, and similar profiles find themselves creating conversations, spelling out Xiaomi’s precise targeting.

#NoMiWithoutYou

Further, the brand is using their global hashtag #NoMiWithoutYou taking a tone of gratitude towards their fans and followers. The hashtag is used by Xiaomi’s official handle and top management to communicate various feats achieved by the brand in India.

#MakeInIndia

Xiaomi faced the stigma of ‘made in China’ when the first entered the country and has since been working on overcoming the same. In April 2018, Xiaomi doubled down its #MakeInIndia efforts adding three new plants in the country and has been prompt in leveraging the same to build an India first brand image.

Xiaomi created a heart-touching video of family that found support through a job at one of the Xiaomi plants.

Additionally, Xiaomi’s various timelines are also focussed on creating buzz around their upcoming phone with #FindYourSelfie. Creating high quality teaser videos and creatives that give a sneak peek into the specs, the brand has managed to create buzz.

There is also #GiveMe5, creating buzz around Redmi Note 5, launched nearly a month ago.

Also Read: TVF’s content to be available on Xiaomi Mi TV’s

Realme v/s Xiaomi

Just to give you some perspective, latest data suggests that Xiaomi leads the smartphone market in India with 31 per cent of the market share in first quarter of 2018. Oppo on the other hand stands at 5.6 per cent market share.

With Realme, Oppo attempts to create stir and take a larger bite of the smartphone market.

While Realme has independent social media profiles that lead the brand’s marketing initiatives, Xiaomi’s social media strategy has spread out between all their handles.

The key difference between the two would obviously be the theme of communication – Realme focuses on creating buzz around their first smartphone through an integrated digital plan; Xiaomi is focussed on establishing the brand’s loyalty and strength in India market.

According to data by Keyhole, Realme’s #GoodByeForGood saw a reach of 43k and over 70k impressions on Twitter. #Realme however, has managed to create buzz with a reach of 2,627,836 and 3,003,774 impressions.

Xiaomi’s #IndiaIsWithMi on the other hand created a reach of 1,079,979, with 2,678,177 impressions on Twitter. #NoMiWithoutYou (a global hashtag) witnessed a reach of over 9 lakhs with 1,502,501 impressions.

It wouldn’t be fare to compare the strength of both the brands on social media as Realme created profiles only earlier this year.

Whether Me manages to take a bite out of Mi’s pie, time will tell; right now both the brands go strong in their pursuit of brand awareness, recall, and more.

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