Recently, Counterpoint released the 2021 annual European smartphone market share report, the European market as a whole increased by 8% year-on-year, in addition to the top six manufacturers, "others" manufacturers combined, a year-on-year decline of 55%. However, domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, realme, and vivo have increased significantly year-on-year. Among them, Vivo shipments increased by 207% year-on-year, ranking first among the top six manufacturers in Europe.
This is not the first time vivo has achieved significant growth. In the third quarter of 2021, Vivo increased by 22% sequentially, and by 238% year-on-year. In just one year, Vivo's market share in Europe has more than tripled.
Doubling the market share in one year is not easy in the Red Sea of smartphones and the European market affected by the epidemic. So, how does vivo do it?
Leverage brand growth with sports
On the occasion of the Continental Winter Olympics, Vivo reached a cooperation with La Liga. As the first official sponsor of la Liga's smartphone category, the cooperation between Vivo and La Liga will continue until 2025.
La Liga (full name: LaLiga) is a global sports league responsible for organizing the Spanish professional football leagues - La Liga and La Liga, covering 20 La Liga clubs and 22 La Liga clubs, affecting more than 2.8 billion people worldwide. La Liga, as the highest football league in Spain, has been at the top of the standings for many years according to the official points of FIFA and UEFA, and has considerable appeal among fans around the world. Now vivo joins hands with La Liga, which will greatly enhance vivo's brand influence in Europe and even in the global market.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Vivo has held hands with a football partner.
In May 2017, Vivo announced a six-year global sponsorship cooperation with the International Football Federation (FIFA), and Vivo became the global official sponsor of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups consecutively.
In October 2020, Vivo officially announced its entry into six European countries in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, and reached a long-term strategic cooperative relationship with UEFA, officially becoming the global official partner of the next two European Championships. Together with La Liga, Vivo has won three most influential football tournaments in the world. However, Vivo's sports partners have not stopped growing.
On January 21, 2022, the Italian Women's Volleyball League announced that the Chinese smartphone brand vivo has become the title sponsor of the league. The Second Half of the 2021-2022 Season will be named "Vivo Italian Women's Volleyball League" and "Vivo Italian Women's Volleyball League Two". The partnership will bring vivo a range of marketing opportunities, including appearances in more than 35 stadiums and major media platforms, as well as the possibility of involving players and users in events and live events.
As one of the world's top leagues, the Italian Women's Volleyball League will further expand vivo's popularity in Italy and Europe, and help vivo gain more European market share.
It can be seen that from the World Cup to the European Cup, La Liga to the Italian Women's Volleyball League, Vivo has shown an all-round and continuous state in brand building.
Any business that wants to grow for a long time needs to create a positive brand image. Analyzing today's world-renowned brands, it is not difficult for us to find that to build a cultural enterprise brand with international influence, it is necessary to adapt to local conditions, so that various cultures can be integrated, and the cultural products produced by integration can be welcomed globally.
According to the length of time of signing vivo and major sports events, it can be seen that vivo is investing in a medium- and long-term brand influence. Brand building is not a day's work, and it requires long-term investment by enterprises. Typical examples such as Coca-Cola, since 1950, Coca-Cola advertising has appeared in all the stadiums that host the World Cup. In 1976, Coca-Cola signed a contract with FIFA as the official sponsor of the World Cup, and its contract with FIFA has been renewed until 2022. It is Coca-Cola's decades-long commitment that has made it globally recognizable today, becoming one of the most valuable brands in the world. Vivo undoubtedly understands this.
Sport is an important cultural carrier and a window of cultural dissemination, and is a language that can be used in the world. Vivo and European users can establish an emotional connection through sports, increasing understanding and trust between each other. For a brand that is entering a new market, nothing can infect the audience more than the passion and joy conveyed by sports.
However, the reason why Vivo has been able to double its growth in the European market, using sports as a medium for brand promotion to increase recognition is on the one hand, and on the other hand, vivo's successful "localization" strategy.
Tailor-made according to local conditions
Vivo's global development strategy is called "More Local, More Global", that is, using local thinking, local management, etc. to run local business. The same is true in the European market.
Since the economic development level, consumption capacity and culture of each region are different, it is an essential quality of globalization to create suitable products according to local conditions and formulate targeted localized operation strategies. The European market is different from other markets. Overall, the European economy has a good foundation and a relatively high level of consumption. Therefore, consumers have the ability and willingness to spend money to buy high-end brands with good quality. This is also why Europe is a strategic place that mobile phone manufacturers must win to conquer the global high-end market.
However, although there is fertile ground for the development of high-end brands, Consumers in Europe are also more discerning, and it is not easy for companies to build brand trust when they first enter this market. The reason why vivo has been able to grow its market share in Europe and win the trust of consumers is because there are two horse-drawn carriages:
First, as mentioned earlier, with the help of football as a world sport, vivo has delivered a warm and friendly, positive, youthful and energetic brand image to European consumers, solving the problem of "wine is also afraid of deep alleys"; second, vivo has created a unique European product for the needs of local users.
In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the demand for machines used by European consumers and fully enter the European market, Vivo surveyed 9,000 consumers. After interviewing and researching with these local European residents, Vivo found that European locals love music and sports, and they demand simplicity and privacy on mobile phone operating systems.
After deep insight into the corresponding needs, as a former "HiFi acoustics factory", vivo launched a popular Bluetooth wireless headset to meet the needs of local users who like outdoor sports and love to listen to music. In terms of systems, under the strict privacy requirements of Europe, vivo has set up a global data protection special team since 2018 in accordance with the Eu's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and has made comprehensive preparations from three dimensions: organization, process and technology.
It is worth mentioning that on the official Twitter of Vivo Europe, the "Vivo Privacy Policy" was placed in a prominent position in the introduction, which shows how much Vivo cares about user needs. In terms of operating system, vivo pre-installed a pure and minimalist Android native system in the European market, which fully meets the needs of European consumers.
Write at the end
Compared with domestic manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, vivo has entered the European market much later. However, an analysis of vivo's efforts in various fields in recent years will find that the latecomer has always been vivo's style of doing things.
From the "dual brand" strategy, the layout of the Internet of Things, to the creation of operating systems, chip research and development, vivo has not rushed to catch the wind, but first conducted in-depth research on the needs of consumers, and then carried out corresponding research and development innovation and market layout. It can be said that it is vivo's principle of "not simply to increase market share" and "innovation without innovation" that makes the industry see that when everyone is frizzy and "grabbing the wind", vivo is not in a hurry, but has done the latecomer first.
The same is true for the European market. Although the entry was a little later than other manufacturers, under the correct strategy of adhering to the "consumer orientation" and "More Local, More Global", it was steady and steady, and it did not rush forward steadily, achieving good results of doubling growth.
The world's top sports event has always been the focus of competition for leading companies in all walks of life, such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, etc., because it is an important opportunity for brands to go global. Looking back at vivo's layout in global sports events, it can be seen that vivo is committed to adhering to the long-term brand and promoting the brand globalization strategy.
For a long time, the strategy of Chinese brands going overseas has been plagued by the problem of "quantity without quality", because many products are only going to sea, but brands have not been launched overseas. Nowadays, vivo's firm investment in building international brands is undoubtedly an important change for domestic manufacturers from products to brands.