Why Xiaomi launched POCO? Brand War – Xiaomi vs BBK

Why Xiaomi launched POCO as a new sub-brand when it was running a great business? After all, it had two segments called MI and Redmi.

This is not something new in any industry. You might have seen how BMW, Mercedes, and Audi keep mocking each other. Also, Coca Cola and Pepsi rivalries are famous worldwide. Likewise, McDonald’s and Burger King don’t leave any chance to pull each other’s legs.

So, this is a brand war between Xiaomi and BBK. Let’s divide this war into two teams – BBK team and Xiaomi team.

What is BBK team?

For all those who don’t know, BBK Electronics is the parent company of brands Oppo, Vivo, One Plus and now, Realme. Technically, Oppo, Vivo and One Plus belong to the same company.

Oppo and Vivo have always been known for their selfie camera expertise and mass marketing. They could never fit in the category of budget smartphones.

What is Xiaomi team?

Xiaomi has always been playing in the budget-oriented smartphones. Reason being that Xiaomi has always been launching with a very minimum margin. Also, they have two sub-brands namely MI and Redmi.

Redmi smartphones are mostly in a cheaper range than MI phones because MI was more into mid-range smartphones.

What sparked between Xiaomi and BBK?

While both the brands were playing in their own segments, BBK took a move towards budget smartphone market. BBK launched its sub-brand called Realme. As the name yells out, Realme was made to beat Redmi.

Realme launched Realme 1 as its first smartphone but it gave a direct hit to the most selling smartphone of Xiaomi – Redmi Note 5 Pro.

The competition was fierce and this is where Xiaomi got a burn.

The burn was real and no one provided a Burnol. In other words, it had to give a harsh reply to BBK.

Xiaomi smartly targeted the most selling smartphone of BBK and decided to disrupt the market of One Plus 6.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi launched POCO with very competitive specifications and completely defeated One Plus 6 in terms of the price range.

One Plus 6 was for Rs 34,999 and Poco F1 was costing around Rs 20,999

Why such Marketing Terms?

Redmi ~ Realme

Oppo ~ POCO

Sounds similar? Yeah, branding is done smartly with a competitive attitude. Also, now look at the tag lines.

One Plus = flagship killer.

POCO = the ultimate true flagship killer of all flagship killers = One Plus killer.

If you like such brand case studies then you might like this post as well: How Xiaomi became #1 brand of India

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