Interview with OnePlus Li Jie: Don't consider profits OnePlus is the most "poor" company in terms of "marketing".

Burdened with the ridicule of friends and the expectations of netizens, OnePlus 12 finally arrived on December 5. For this product, which is considered by friends to be deliberately released and engaged in sneak attacks, its topicality has already exploded before it has been released.

After the press conference, Li Jie, president of OnePlus China, accepted an exclusive interview with the media and responded to several rather sharp topics.

Explosive product thinking does not consider profits, is OnePlus a little stupid?

Remember the 9th anniversary of OnePlus, OnePlus proposed that the comprehensive net profit margin of OnePlus hardware in the next three years could be 0. This is the confidence of OPPO's tens of billions of subsidies, and now it is still very strong.

I still remember that in August 2022, OnePlus Ace Pro took the lead in eliminating 8GB and started with 16GB, and since then it has led the trend in the industry. At that time, there was no memory price reduction, but OnePlus insisted on doing it, giving priority to products rather than cost-oriented.

"Profit is not our biggest consideration at present", Li Jie said directly: "OnePlus's route must be to create explosive products, make fewer high-quality products, and make product strength stronger." We will put more competitiveness on product strength and technology, so we have done a lot of in-house technology self-development. ”

This sentence is evident in the OnePlus 12 this time, in terms of design, image, performance, battery life and other dimensions, this product is very competitive. And this powerful product power is not only reflected in the simple configuration, parameters, hardware and price part, in addition to many first technologies, but also a lot of experience innovation, such as motor vibration adaptation, super signal engineering, rain touch upgrade, games, including small functions like the game window, OnePlus 12 has taken into account!

There is a lot of R&D resources behind it, and every function and every specific experience is polished at the pixel level. Taking mobile phone battery life as an example, OnePlus cooperated with Qualcomm and exclusively set up a joint project team, which did a lot of performance and technical optimization, including the logic of touch, CPU and memory scheduling, which took a lot of effort. In addition to Qualcomm, OnePlus and BOE also have very in-depth cooperation, and there are also a lot of school-enterprise cooperation.

In view of the general standard version in the industry, which is the largest sales volume, and the Pro version is a show to promote technology, OnePlus has also thought about whether to make two versions?

However, if you add "product power first" or stronger explosive product ideas to make products, you must focus on them.

"If we put all our energy or resources into one product, can we do it all"? In the end, we found that it was the right thing to do, and we would choose it this way again. ”

"I believe that such a good reputation of the product can help us attract more users who have not used OnePlus, we hope to do a good job in the product, establish a good reputation, and a good reputation will then influence the path of the people around us, so that we can get more users"!

"One, that is, all", we have done all aspects of this mobile phone, a lot of meticulous polishing, which is why it is a little late, but I don't think it makes everyone wait in vain.

At present, many manufacturers release products multiple times a year, and even users are tired of remembering their names. OnePlus's product line is very simple, with four products (digital series, Ace V, Ace digital, Ace 2 Pro), with more than 4000-5000 digital card positions, and the others are 2000-2500, 2500-3500, and 3000-4000 gears. But OnePlus, which plays one a year, can it cope with the intensive product bombardment of friends by taking the route of less and finer?

In the face of this problem, Li Jie also bluntly said: "The iteration of general technology, whether it is chips, screens and other industrial chains, is unlikely to have great innovation changes in half a year, which is a problem of the law of the industrial chain." We don't iterate on products for the sake of iterating. ”

If you can make a good product at the end of the year or the beginning of the year, why do you have to upgrade it in the middle of the year? Why can't you communicate with users in one step?

"We want each of OnePlus's products to be more explosive, that's our way of thinking. ”

OnePlus 12 does not have Pro, one is all, this product will be played for a year, Li Jie believes that from the entire experience to the pricing, there is no problem in playing for a year. "If we can make the best products through all the technologies including self-research and industrial chain integration, why do we have to do two?"

The overall sales volume of OnePlus also illustrates the success of the strategy, according to the data released by Li Jie, OnePlus has increased by 275% year-on-year this year, and the new Ace series, which was only 11% of the K series of its competitors last year, has achieved 57% of them so far.

OnePlus does not rely on the number of products, but on the explosiveness of a single product to solve, make breakthroughs and sprints, this is our core strategy, we will not do machine sea tactics, but each product does the best in this gear. Each product will be played for a year, and there will be no iteration in the middle, and users will be very clear about this plan.

Prioritizing product power is not an empty phrase

For OnePlus's product power priority mentioned in the past two years, it is not an empty word.

In fact, OnePlus has always done this. I still remember that the cloud layout technology launched by OnePlus 11 solves the network delay in some scenarios, OnePlus Ace2 Pr's rain touch function makes it no problem to make a call or take a taxi in the rain, OnePlus mobile phone does not need to face the camera with NFC, you can stick it on the front... Similar details are really related to user experience, and OnePlus has always been ahead of the industry!

"Product power priority seems simple to say, it's a choice of ideas. But in fact, when it really lands, it is actually very difficult to do it from the perspective of making products or doing business", Li Jie told the media, when you encounter a time to market and the ultimate business conflict, do you want to ensure "product power first" or go to market faster?

Insist"Product power first",If you want to use the oriental screen, you have to develop it separately,This takes time、It takes a lot of manpower、Material resources need to be invested,There is also signal、Performance、Endurance optimization, etc.,A lot of things have to be invested in each item。

"Our best communication language for users is product power, to make users feel satisfied, get a real experience better than others, such a competitive strategy in the market trend or future changes is a more effective strategy."

There will be large models, but they must bring value

When it comes to products and development conferences this year, many of them are large models, but OnePlus's attitude is very pragmatic!

Li Jie was straightforward: "Let me ask a question, now that so many AI large model mobile phones are mentioned, what is the specific application?

Li Jie said that OnePlus still wants to return to user value more, and we decided whether to do this thing, and more to consider what different experience and value this thing can bring.

And Li Jie also revealed that in the future products, OnePlus will have some experience innovation based on large models, which is our way of thinking, "We will not pursue some hot spots too much, nor are we inclined to talk about technology on technology, we want to think more about what different experience and value this technology can bring, which is the direction of our products." ”

For OnePlus, which uses improving user experience as the only yardstick, this is a good OnePlus!

A couple of pointed questions

1. There is no overlap with OPPO and real me

OPPO and OnePlus are dual-brand strategies, and realme is developing alone. OnePlus is more focused on the performance track, and OnePlus's entire model includes product positioning and user groups, focusing more on the young male market, student groups, etc., and the products are also more targeted. For example, the game hot zone touch、Dark light eye protection These functions,OnePlus is developed for the real needs of its own student group,These things may not be needed by some people,There is no resonance,But OnePlus's target users will like it very much;And OPPO is an omni-channel brand,It covers a larger group of people than OnePlus。

OnePlus has independent products, and the brand, market, and product teams are separate, but it shares the underlying R&D, technology, supply chain, after-sales, and channels with OPPO, which is the synergy and difference between OnePlus and OPPO's overall dual-brand strategy.

2. Friends ridicule OnePlus for always engaging in sneak attacks?

Regarding what Lu Weibing said about the release of OnePlus after the sneak attack, Li Jie also said, I have already set this time, and many media teachers also know the actual situation. He seems to have known when we were going to release it, "He wanted to release it in the front, and it turned out that we had to release it later." ”

Li Jie also said that we have our own established product planning and roadmap, and will not disrupt our rhythm because of some interference from external competition. "I'm telling the truth, you can ask your OnePlus colleagues, and the supply chain can also ask, when was the OnePlus product originally scheduled to be launched?"

3. OnePlus is the poorest company in marketing?

Don't look at the fact that OnePlus has given enough products under the tight budget, but the press conference is rarely held, and even borrowed other people's venues to promote, so "money-saving" OnePlus has done a lot of work.

For example, AAC and OnePlus engaged in the bionic vibration motor activity, the main body is AAC, OnePlus said on stage that it would be the first to launch, and the investment was very small; this year, BOE engaged in the 100 million-piece OLED offline ceremony, OnePlus hugged his thighs to show his face, "Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to invite Academician Cao", Li Jie was very frank; OPPO held a film festival in Paris, and OnePlus itself rented a building from China Resources in Chunzhu, Shenzhen, and the venue was very cheap, so I took advantage of the situation to communicate with the media about OnePlus images...

It can be said that OnePlus really doesn't spend much money on marketing, and the media can feel it from the number of press conferences it has attended. OnePlus marketing partners posted on Moments that "with the poorest budget in the industry, do the most things".

"Other people's hot searches often buy there several times a day, and we are the poorest and least budgeted marketing. We are definitely the poorest in this aspect of marketing, and the money is spent on products and pricing. Li Jie said.

In the face of the problem of involution in the industry and the intensification of competition, Li Jie also has his own thinking. I am often asked how OnePlus breaks the circle? My answer is that I will continue to roll up next, and let everyone see more things that others do not have in terms of product power, which is the most effective way to improve brand power or break the circle of brands. "In the future, on the product, Plus will debut more new technologies and experiences, which is the core and even the only means for us to enhance the brand. ”