Introduction:

In recent times, mobile phone has been an essential use in daily life. Demand for mobile phone has been
increasing a lot day-by-day over the years. Based on the demand of mobile phones, mobile companies
needs to meet the requirements through marketing strategy. A marketing strategy refers to an approach
of any organization with the fundamental goal of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage by
understanding the needs and wants of customers. Even mobile companies has faced lots of difficulties
due to the pandemic situation (covid-19) and mobile companies are trying to find any eligible way of
success and not to have losses on their company

Based on the international marketing strategies, Walton Mobile and One-Plus Mobile are trying
to expand the market all over the world. Walton is one of the renowned electronic companies in
Bangladesh and One-Plus is the most famous mobile companies that have attracted a lot of customers in
recent times.

Overview of Walton mobile:

Walton is one of the leading electrical and electronics manufacturing company in Bangladesh. Walton
only targets the niche market for their home appliance products commencing their marketing strategy
as of their high quality and reasonable price. Their prior target is not to focus on particular group of
people; their focus is to those who have the ability to buy their product. Walton mobile is currently a
renowned brand name in the mobile phone market of Bangladesh. Moreover, all its products are
assembled and tested in its own subsidiary named “Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd” situated at Chandra,
Gazipur. Walton Mobile started its journey in December 2010 and after completing ten years it is now
flourishing and expanding in every possible market segments along with product offerings.

 Mission: “To grow and increase value by implementing advanced technologies, new products
and services to provide excellent solutions to satisfy customer requirements” (Ininet, n.d.)
This indicates that Walton wants to grow their mobile phones brand value all over Bangladesh
and even outside of Bangladesh. They will come with best mobile phones into the market with
the help of the advanced technology. The customer’s satisfactions is their main priority.
 Vision: “To provide the best solution and equipment to customers” (Ininet, n.d.)
Walton wants all their mobile phone into the local and international market. With their price
and quality, they want to satisfy the customers.
  Goal: “To achieve market leadership, profitability, good corporate citizenship and a sustainable
growth” (Ininet, n.d.)
Walton looks for profits, and wants to be the leading company in the local and international
market. They also want a sustainable growth rate and have good relationship with the
customers by providing best mobile phone product which would achieve customers’
satisfactions.
 Objectives: Walton have strong objectives that is to increase the market share in both local and
international markets through their mobile phone as the products and to assure the potential
customers by quality and durability of the products.

Overview of One-Plus Mobile

One-Plus Technology Co. Ltd is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer in Shenzhen, Guangdong. The
company was first discovered by Oppo’s former vice president Pete Lau and Carl Pei back in December
2013. Pete Lau has emphasized the “Never Settle” motto of One-Plus, which aimed at providing the best
possible technology to users globally by creating elegantly designed devices with premium build quality
and high performance hardware. The company was built around razor-thin margin. The company’s main
goal is to design a smartphone that would balance high-end quality with a lower price than other phone
in its class, believing that users would “Never Settle” for the lower-quality devices produced by other
companies. He emphasizes its focus on high-quality products with simplistic, user-friendly designs. Their
first device was One-Plus One that was unveiled on 2014. They made their products available all over
Southeast Asia in 2015 for the first time and expand its operations to all European countries in 2014.
 How companies are dealing with pandemic

Companies have faced a lot of difficulties during pandemic. Most companies are going worn out or faced
lot of difficult with investment and even going global. Even the sales and profits have gone down and
put into a vital risk for the companies.

Walton mobile during pandemic: Walton has faced a crushing blow during the pandemic. Walton-Hi
Tech has faced serious loss on their sales, profits but somehow managed through their strategies.
Walton wants to try to meet the people’s demands with new designs and modern technology, and the
process should be continuous. Walton wants to feel customers to feel different about the mobile phone.
Walton even planned on extending the investments in mobile phone not only in local demand, but also
in global demand. The consumption of mobile phone is not big but it is growing. They are thinking
positively in the potential of rise of consumption along with urbanization and growth of per capita. Even
Walton touched upon the thorny subject of job and pay cut amid the pandemic. Walton recommended
people diversify the mobile phone and this diversification would target and attain specialization, thus
helps in compete in the marketplace.

 USA Marketplace: During pandemic Walton has come up with something extraordinary. They
will export their smartphones to USA market but will come in a different brand name
(confidential) but will be labeled as “Made in Bangladesh” in each phones. According to the
managing director of Walton Hi-Tech, he told that their locally-finished smartphones has drawn
attraction to the customers with the quality and advance features of the smartphones. Walton
has even inked an agreement with Amazon to market their local finished smartphones in the
USA market. They are expanding into the USA market through production process known as
“contract manufacturing”
 India Marketplace: Even in amidst of the pandemic, Walton has also exporting started mobile
phones and other electronics alongside with exporting products in USA. Walton has also been
serving in the field of technology for a couple of year in India. Bangladesh and India have the
same kind of similar markets when it comes to smartphones. Moreover, they don’t only export
smartphone, they are also exporting button phones for the old comers. The price of Walton
mobile are quite reasonable that would help customers not to hesitate on buying their phones.
 Nepal Marketplace: Walton Bangladesh have their own headquarter, warehouse and has
separate own office locations in Nepal. Even in the pandemic situation, Walton still tries to
feature their smartphones, tablets (Walton calls tablets as Walpads) and featured phones for
 the target market. Nepal has almost 60-65% users who are using smart mobile phones. With the
help of the demand, Walton will tries to customers serve with smartphones that have good
battery longevity and even designed to serve better battery life. As Nepal’s smart mobile phone
market is in growth stages and featured phones market is in maturity stage, the demand for
both mobile phones is still high in which Walton can capture the market. Based on all this,
Walton needs to use ethnocentric pricing as well as market penetration strategy.
 Bangladesh Marketplace: There is an online portal for local called “Walton E-Plaza” where
Walton sells their products. Walton has offered flat 6% discount on the purchase of all model of
smartphones that are available at E-Plaza. They even ensured that customers will get their
product while staying at home and the delivery will be safe and hygienic. Even the payments can
be made through debit and credit cards, online banking, mobile banking such as bKash, Rocket
and even have cash on delivery facility.
 UAE Marketplace: Walton has their operation at full swing at UAE. During pandemic they still
stick to their marketing strategy that they have been using. They are providing mobile phones
based on the lifestyle of the future, customers in geographic locations, variety of means for
accessing customers, conversion channel.

One-Plus during Pandemic: One-Plus has been aggressive all over the worldwide market during the
pandemic. They even launched a flagship smartphone known as One-Plus Nord and premium
smartphone know as One-Plus 8 & 8t. One-Plus Nord became the breakout star in the midst of the
pandemic by upending the rules of mobile phone marketing and hopes to continue its offbeat marketing
success. One-Plus decided to turn this strategies on its head. With the pandemic beginning to spread,
the company opted to give its loyal brand of followers a four-part behind-the-scenes looks at how it
pieced together its new product. One-Plus created out a unique visual identify for this product with the
high specification features and low pricing. The online strategy led to a bigger impact in terms of digital
and social-media engagement.

 India and Bangladesh marketplace: Even at the pandemic period, One-Plus added
changed strategy could be seen in the light of evolving market condition, especially mid-
premium segment driving mobile phone volumes. Their objective during pandemic is to
share technology with the consumers. That means they want to expand their user base
much wider and must have concrete plan for expansion. One-Plus even shared that they
 will look for new product lines that would be accessible and diversified and their aim is
to diversify across price segments.
 Nepal marketplace: One-Plus sets the right target audience that gives everything for
One-Plus. During pandemic their biggest marketing strategy is to create hype in the
market which can be associated with the fact that the company usually faces a situation
of over-demand in the market. Not only that, One plus comes with an elegantly
executed guerrilla marketing strategy – that means they use an advertisement strategy
that One-Plus uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote
their mobile phone.

There are several elements that did not stop One-Plus in their marketing strategy during pandemic in
India, Nepal, UAE and Bangladesh marketplace.

 Clever use of influencer marketing: One-Plus did not stop their influencer marketing even in the
pandemic situation. This is to raise awareness and draw the attention of people to their
products. They engaged with many actors, youtubers, and even collaborate with other
companies.
 Leveraging on word of mouth: The biggest achievement came for One-Plus is from word-of-
mouth. It is one of the best marketing strategies created by One-Plus that has created an active
community in all over India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Many consumers are satisfied with the One-
Plus mobile phone because of their high-specification features and giving consumers a rightful
price that is cheaper than that of Apple and Samsung. Consumers creates out the review for the
consumers that creates reliability and even flexibility for One-Plus
 A Quality Product: One-Plus has taken over the market share in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, all
because of their quality mobile phone. Competing with the rivals like Samsung and Apple, One-
Plus comes up with the level of product that is of premium quality and competitive pricing that
came from the greatly reduced marketing costs. Even there are many user reviews and ratings
on One-Plus mobile products that gained huge customers satisfactions.
 Building loyal community members: The reviews and ratings of one-plus mobile led to loyal
community members. They have gained certain customers that they would be loyal for One-Plus
mobile phone. It even creates strong word of mouth that creates a happy state for the
marketing efforts of any marketer.
 Affordability of the Product: This is one of the biggest marketing strategies that achieved a lot of
customers loyalty and even a community for One-Plus. They have created high-spec mobile
phones at a competitive price. Even the high-end user and mid-end user are attracted to this.
 USA Marketplace: During the pandemic, only One-Plus holds the sales growth that
increased by 2% whereas the whole mobile market falls down by 21% according to the
reports of Counterpoint. This is actually due to their sales of One-Plus 7T 5G, one of the
most quality product sold by One-Plus. One-Plus has done a remarkable job during the
pandemic with their pricing strategy and delivered a solid product. Their mobile phone
has given at such high configuration and competitive pricing and with that, they have
stepped up their game with ease. They have even sustained their growth.
 Comparison on “Marketing strategy” of One-Plus Mobile and Walton Mobile
4Ps (Marketing Mix)
One-Plus Mobile
Product:
 One-Plus only provides smartphones, but
does not provide any type of featured
phones or mobile tablets
 One-Plus smartphones have extremely
good hardware that is a very strong
specifications, designs and camera.
Pricing:
 One-Plus follows a very aggressive pricing
strategy. They are giving out the best
specifications smart phones at the
competitive price.
 The price is almost half of its competitors
(e.g. Samsung or Apple)
 Low Marketing Cost
Place:
 One-Plus sold their products online
 Delivery in every developed market
 One-Plus uses indirect distribution such
as Amazon in USA, Verizon in Australia
etc.
Promotion:
 One-Plus created the invite and signup
system generates want
 Online reviews
 Social Media Presence
Walton Mobile
Product:
 Walton provides smartphones, tablets
and featured phones.
 Walton provides various range of
features on their smartphones from Low
category to high category.
Pricing:
 Walton sell their mobile phones at an
affordable price by targeting at the
average middle income group
 The price is almost the lowest compared
to other mobile companies
Place:
 Walton imports their mobile phone to
other countries by linking with the other
brand companies
 Walton use distribution channel
 Walton sells their products online as well
and have own online sale portal known
as “Walton E-Plaza”
Promotion:
Walton promotes their own product through
advertising, campaigning, billboards, leaflets etc.
They mainly focuses on quality feature orientated
product at a budget price for all walks of people
  Word of Mouth
PESTEL Analysis
One-Plus Mobile
One-Plus has been using PESTAL analysis to gain
“crossing the chasm”
Political Factors:
It is one of the most vital roles played for the
growth of One-Plus based on type of human
resource development, modern technology
advancement as well as establishing of institutes
for transferring innovations.
 Government contributes towards human
resource and technology development
 Policies for recruitment of high-tech
talent introduced
 R&D efforts have been a biggest priority
Economic factors:
One-plus had to focus more on economic factors
that are:
 Unbalanced demand and supply
 Cash flows issues for manufacturers
 Price should be lower than the cost of
Dynamic Random Access
Memory(DRAM)
 Recession is a major concern
 Improvements in efficiency levels can
lead to excess supply
 Closure of firms because of low revenue
Social Factor:
Social factor is another major factor for one-plus
Walton Mobile
Walton’s PESTAL analysis are given below:
Political Factors:
 Walton has to follow the rules and
frameworks implemented by government
and the changes in rules and frameworks
in order to operate business.
 Taxation policy affect Walton business
cost
 Environmental taxes and value added
taxes are applied
 Legal changes, government spending,
interest rates, trade regulations
 Foreign pressure, political instability,
lobbying
Economic factors:
 Fluctuating economic growth
 Inflation rate
 Competitors Pricing
 Foreign Exchange Rate
 Disposal Income
 Unemployment Level
 Product Pricing
Social factors:
 As Walton is focusing mostly on culture
of Bangladesh, they did not focus more
on the international side.
 They focus more on the local side that is
  Human capital development is a major
focus
 Training aimed at increasing knowledge
of resources
 IC Industry has professionally built
divisions of labors worldwide
Technological Factors:
One-Plus has always target technological factors
as their prior analysis
 Taiwan manufacturers depend for
technology
 Foreign government reluctant to transfer
technology
Environmental Factors:
Another factors for One-Plus is environmental
factors.
 Highly favorable region for DRAM
manufacturing
 Offers ease in capacity expansion
Legal Factors:
Legal Factors is the major factors for One-Plus
 Protection through IP rights
 Limitations through contracts
our income distribution and standard of
education and skills, not on international
side.
 Age Distribution (Smartphones for
teenagers and adults and Featured
phones for old comers)
Technological Factors:
 Walton has their own research and
development team
 Walton are used to develop their new
materials and processes
 Their rate of technological change is high
 Depends on technology (For e.g.
Operating system, processors)
Environmental Factors:
 Environmental Issue
 Company Leadership
 Employees Attitude
Legal Factors:
 Employment Law
 Consumer Protection
 Industry-specific regulations and
regulatory bodies and their processes
according to the Companies Act 1994
 Environmental Law (rules and regulations
needs to be followed under Bangladesh
Construction Act 1952, Bangladesh
Environmental Conservational act 1995,
The Environmental Conservational Rules
 1997)
SWOT Analysis
One-Plus Mobile Walton Mobile
Strength: Strength:
 Fastest growing smartphone company  Local Brand Loyalty
having exclusive partnership with  Manufacturing plant near the capital
Amazon  Wide range of products
 Low Cow smartphones with latest  Good Quality in low price
technology and high specifications  Superior Brand Image
 Special platform android OS which sets
One-Plus apart from other smartphones Weakness:
 Unable to capture high-income group
Weakness:  Relatively new in both local and
 One-Plus has a limited production international market
capacity compared to other smartphones  Reliability and Trust
companies  Non-listed company in international
 One-Plus with a limited marketing budget perspective
will face issues in the smartphone market
 One-Plus is restricting itself with online Opportunities:
communication. For e.g. Amazon which is  Walton is the only local company who is
benefitting for the early adopters who exporting their mobile phones into the
are comfortable making online purchase. international market.
This step may affect the reach of  Potential untapped market in Africa
customers still prefer offline purchase region
 Tax Break on import of parts
Opportunities:  New Innovation and Technology
 One-Plus can use different marketing
channels Threats:
 One-Plus can target different customer  Market share dominated by foreign
segments brands
 Price inflation
Threats:  Corruption in port hampering imports
 New entrant One-Plus will face lots of
 difficulties in the smartphone industry
which is highly dominated by other
companies
 One-Plus has to spend huge money on
the marketing of the product, to increase
the brand awareness in the market
 One-Plus will face competition for the
established smartphone companies like
Apple, Samsung etc.
Porter’s Five Force
One-Plus Mobile
Barriers to Entry:
One-Plus’ barriers to entry is high. This is because
the leading mobile phone companies are
currently engaged in battles over patent issues.
One-Plus needs to create brand identity and
identify the brand switching costs. One-plus need
to have high capital requirements and economies
of scale.
Power of buyers:
One-Plus’ power of buyers is high. Many
companies are producing high-specifications
mobile at a competitive price. Price Difference is
getting smaller. Even the companies offer similar
packages just like One-Plus, the buyers seek out
best value for their money. Even though there is
low threat of backward integration for One-Plus,
still they need to bring popularity as they also lag
behind in this area.
Power of suppliers:
One-Plus’ power of supplier is moderate. It is
and exports
 Competition in new products and
innovations.
Walton Mobile
Threat of New Entrants:
The threat of new entrants is high. MNCs from
other countries have the encourage to invest in
Bangladesh due to other tax benefits and local
companies may buy phones and rebranded them
and sell them to local and make it easier for them
to enter into the market.
Bargaining Power of Buyers:
The bargaining power of buyers of Walton Mobile
is medium as they are selling tablets, featured
phones and smartphones to meet up demand.
Not every companies sell featured phones and
tablets.
Threat of substitute product:
Walton’s threat of substitute product is low. The
portability and versatility of modern mobile
phones have reduced the threat of substitute.
Bargaining power of suppliers:
Bargaining power of suppliers of Walton is
because of moderate impact of inputs on cost of
differentiation and moderate switching costs of
firms in the industry.
Threat of substitution:
One-Plus’ threat of substitution is low. This is
because in our daily lives mobile phones has been
an essential part of human life. It is more of a
necessity and there is no or little substitute
product that will replace mobile phone. In order
to replace mobile phone, companies has to deal
with high switching costs for the substitute
product. It has even high price-performance
ration that is value.
medium. Walton manufacturer rely on key
suppliers for their quality component parts at
competitive price. The distribution channel in
Bangladesh for Walton is huge.
Competitive Rivalry:
Competitive Rivalry of Walton is very high. There
are several companies like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo
are entering into the market and grabbing the
market with their competitive pricing and high
quality specifications.

Rivalry between competitors:

One-Plus’ rivalry between competitors is high.
The industry growth is intense between
competitors. Most companies are facing stiff
competitions that leads to a change in business
model. The smartphone segment offers the
largest margin for many in the mobile value chain
and it has therefore become the most
competitive. Brand identity is vital for long-term
success in mobile phones markets but there is
still growing competition. Many of the customers
are tied into the long-term contracts so switching
from one handset to another will be difficult and
expensive for the consumer.

STP Model
One-Plus Mobile Walton Mobile
Market Segmentation Strategy: Market Segmentation Strategy:
In order to understand the market need, One-
Plus conducted various market research and even
take surveys from the consumers
 Geographic Segmentation: One-Plus has
divided the marketing regionally, this
helped in understanding the different
needs and wants of different regions
separately
 Demographic Segmentation: One-Plus is
determined not to categorize their
potential users based on age, sex,
occupation, family cycle etc. They have
targeted all the users who are so
particular about the product that needs
to be made out of high quality material
and want the best specification in their
smartphone.
 Psychographic Segmentation: One-Plus
segregates and targets those people
whose lifestyles are more revolving
around technology.
 Benefits Segmentation: One-Plus offered
customers the best value for money
product. Customers benefited from high-
end specifications, build quality and
design.
Targeting Strategy:
One-Plus’ target market lies within the limit of
14-35 years of age and also based on their ability
to buy their products and also for the tech
fanatics and Android lovers. The age group from
Walton has studied the region of local areas and
not on international area. Based on their market
research, they have created this segmentations
 Geographic Segmentation: Walton has
divided each and every area both locally
and internationally into part of zone. (For
e.g. In Bangladesh they have divided into
eleven zones and In Nepal, they have
divided into three zones)
 Demographic Segmentation: Walton
mainly considers occupation and family
size of the consumer. It targets the
people of middle-income people and
design its products for mainly nuclear
family
 Psychographic Segmentation: Walton
targets people who have mid-level life
and people who are enthusiast about
technology that are made in Bangladesh.
 Benefit Segmentation: Walton comes up
with products that have low pricing level
and offer valuable products to customers.
Targeting Strategy:
Walton’s target market lies within the limit of 16-
51 years and even for those who would like to
use android phones loaded with user-friendly
features. Walton also follows a Differentiated
Marketing Strategy where it produces different
product for different group of customers.
Positioning Strategy:
14 to 25 years old utilizes the smartphones for
socializing needs. The age group from 26 to 35
years utilizes the smartphone as a daily driver
and they have the capability in buying
smartphones.
Positioning Strategy:
One-Plus positioned their company based on two
attributes. The mobile should be at high
specifications and low pricing. This would attract
more customers and make it easier for the
targeted customers to pick without thinking.
Walton has created huge enthusiasm among the
customers of its target market with its slogan
“AmaderPonnyo”. They even opened their own
physical stores (known as Walton Plaza) and even
own-made online stores (known as Walton E-
Plaza) in Bangladesh. Walton even distributed
their products to the distribution channels both
locally and internationally.
 Conclusion

Based on the international marketing strategy, we can understand the companies had faced a lot of
difficulties during the pandemic. One-Plus has managed a strong marketing strategy especially with their
high-specifications features and competitive pricing whereas Walton needs to come up even a stronger
marketing strategy. Even though Walton provides a strong relationship with the low-end user and mid-
end user, they should ensure that they can provide mobile phones for the high-end users in the
international market. A marketing plan or strategy is dynamic and can evaluate results based on their
marketing research.
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