BBK Electronics: Classic Sub-Branding Story

We are all familiar with smartphone brands such as Apple and Samsung. Huawei is also pushing itself harder with innovation such as foldable devices but its position has been put into jeopardy due to Huawei’s ban from US markets. But have you heard about BBK electronics?

Probably not...

BBK is a Chinese multinational corporation and has products across various consumer electronics markets, including headphones, Blu-ray players, and smartphones. 

What might come as a surprise to you is that BBK is the parent company for major smartphone brands like — Oppo, Vivo, Realme, OnePlus and IQOO.

BBK Electronics began its journey manufacturing a range of CD, MP3, and DVD players, along with other household appliances and was founded by Duan Yongping, a reclusive billionaire. 

In 2004 Duan founded Oppo with CEO Tony Chen. Oppo built on Duan’s experience in the video market by selling DVD and Blu-ray players, before moving into the smartphone market. The company now owns factories spread over 10 hectares of land and more than 17,000 employees.

Let’s meet the BBK brands:

OPPO & VIVO

OPPO was launched in 2004 and by 2016 it became the largest smartphone manufacturer in China. Vivo was the first major BBK subsidiary and was founded in 2009. 

What’s interesting to note here is that both brands are managed separately with different teams and manufacturing facilities but have a lot in common. 

• They both have the same target market.
• Both rely heavily on celebrity endorsements to capitalize on the smartphone boom. 
• Both spend a lot of money in building the offline market and strengthening of distribution channels.
• Both brands play on price and specifications and target diverse consumers across cities and small towns.

REALME

Realme is also very similar but much newer Oppo spin-off. It was established by the previous Vice-President of Oppo Electronics, on May 4, 2018. Realme’s phones combine cutting-edge tech with affordable price tags and compete with Xiaomi’s Redmi series in India. 

ONEPLUS

OnePlus offers smartphones in the premium category . It was also established by former Oppo VP Pete Lau and co-founder Carl Pei in 2013. While OnePlus is the most globally known brand of any of the BBK electronics, it is still a subsidiary of Oppo, making it a subsidiary of parent company BBK too. OnePlus follows a retail based business model and targets its customers through its E-commerce platforms like Amazon.

When it comes to India, BBK Electronics has understood the Indian smartphone market very well and is catering to all segments: the top-end, the mid-end and low-end. 

BBK has been very clever and if it sees that demand for smartphones of one brand starts falling, it can switch to another brand or create an entirely new brand to cater to customers, and their latest new brand is IQOO.