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(ICP) A1 Research Report - Team Uncensored - Class Group 2 PDF
(ICP) A1 Research Report - Team Uncensored - Class Group 2 PDF
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2018)
1. Background
3. Key findings:
A - Target Profile
B - Insights
● Google’s concern
● Other findings:
- Regional interest
4. Recommendations
5. Reference list
I - Background
Market overview
Vietnam is a fertilized land for mid-price smartphones as this "playground" becomes more
exciting than ever. Specifically, the market share of mid-range smartphones in recent years
has increased by up to 30% according to GfK statistics (cited in Dan Tri, 2019). From 2017
to 2018, the market share of mid-price smartphones in Vietnam had skyrocketed from 34%
to 51% (Ha & Anh 2019) . In this segment, the market is narrowed due to the drastic
competition, which provide both the choices of most appealing design and quality at
affordable prices. The brands such as Samsung, OPPO and Xiaomi are paying their efforts
in developing the most advanced technologies for mobile devices i.e AI system, full-screen
display,... which surrounding the consumers with the most attractive offerings. In which,
Counterpoint Research (cited in BrandsVietnam 2019) suggests that within the second
quarter of 2018, Samsung and OPPO is dominating the market share with 37% and 22%
respectively.
Brand Performance
that has been successful in the Chinese and Western markets. Since 2018, the brand has
made a great effort to expand its business to Southeast Asian countries. The brand has
been famous for its innovation in technology and the quality of camera. Additionally, GPU
Turbo is considered at a unique selling point of HONOR with the outstanding advantages for
B - Brands Issues
In 2018, HONOR launched a line of mid-range smartphones named X series that focused on
the best ratio of quality including power spec, design, and price (average VND5-8 million). At
present, HONOR is going to introduce its next generation of X-series, called Hulk (Client's
brief 2019). However, as the market of mid-price smartphones is in fierce competition, the
brand awareness of HONOR is hindered by the competitors brands. It is necessary to raise
brand awareness and to refresh the image of the brand. Consequently, the purpose of a
This research report is conducted to exploit the informative and useful data to properly savvy
A - Research objectives:
● To understand the consumers' demands and opinions over Product Features and
● To identify the position of HONOR X-series in the market among the competitors.
● To reveal the gap between HONOR and competitors and to understand the reasons
B - Research questions:
from consumers?
C - Methodologies:
research report, which aims to exploit the qualitative data and information that are available.
In which, NodeXL and Netlytic are adapted to spot the significant online discussions on
Youtube Channels, besides, SocialBakers and Google Trends are adapted to gather the
information of competitors. After being collected, the data will be analyzed by the method of
III - Findings:
A - Target Profile
Figure 01: The target profile of HONOR X-series consumers
B - Insight
By applying NodeXL Pro to identify the most significant discussions about the key
term “dien thoai HONOR X (HONOR X smartphone)" on Youtube in Vietnam, the top
videos of the discussion about HONOR X with the most comments of numbers had
been recorded.
Figure 02: the most significant discussions about HONOR X Vietnam on Youtube
2. Netlytic to analyze the demands of the consumers toward a typical mobile phone
To select the videos for analyzing data in this research report, all of the videos in the
top results were audited by Netlytic via the word-clouds to spot the most informative
and useful content. By this phase, the videos of technology reviewers of Vat Vo
● Search Engine:
Figure 01: The discussion of Google in the Youtube video of reviewing HONOR 8X by
According to VNExpress (2019), due to the result of the US-China Trade war, Google - the
most popular search engine in the world, has ended up its ties with HUAWEI. Actually,
despite being a product line of HUAWEI, HONOR's smartphone will only have difficulties in
updating the newest version of the Android system by Google. However, this was incorrectly
assumed by the Vietnamese community as they think that every product line of HUAWEI will
be out of Google’s service and become inaccessible to Google. This is identified as the main
concern as consumers are worried about the availability of Google via comments. For
example:
“Có ảnh gì đến Google k?” means “Is there any impact on Google usage?”
“Điện thoại không có Google thì mua làm gì?” means “Why I need to buy a smartphone
without Google?”
“Không có Google cứ cảm thấy thiếu thiếu" means “I feel incomplete if I do not have Google"
● Game
Figure 02: the discussion of games in the Youtube video of reviewing HONOR 8X
Duong De channel.
Consumers who care about HONOR X-series will care about the function of playing games
also. In which, their favorite game on mobile phones are PUBG & Arena of Valor (Liên
Quân) and PUBG (Player's Unknown BattleGround). They are discussing the ability of a
“Máy này chơi Liên Quân được không?” means “Can I play Arena of Valor on this device?”
“HONOR chip Kirin 710 này chơi PUBG có lag không nhỉ?” means “Is this HONOR with its
“Ai mua để chơi game như Liên Quân thì có thể mua con HONOR này hoặc Xiaomi Note là
ok" means “For anyone want to play the games like Arena of Valor, you can buy this
2019)
Figure 04: Mockup of “Player's Unknown Battleground" game on mobile phones. (Adapted
of fighting with teammates against enemies in the stimulated battleground, which attracts
them to join the game and tend to invite their friends to be teammates in the battles (The gioi
di dong 2019). On the side of smartphone functions, players of both the games are likely to
require the strong connection between servers through the internet, high quality of graphic
resolution and effective cooler parts for the more interesting experience of gaming.
● Camera
Figure 05: the discussion of the camera in the Youtube video of reviewing HONOR 8X by
Besides the game, people are also having attention towards the camera of the X-series
phones. Particularly, camera performance is not only having its attention toward the quality
of images but also the design style. People are being inspired by the fashionable design
style of the camera. To their mind, the camera is extremely important as it decides the
attraction of a smartphone's appearance. Some most popular comments for this section are:
“Camera xấu thế? Có lẽ điện thoại chơi game nên không chú ý chuyện này" means “The
camera's shape is so ugly. Probably it's a gaming phone and this is not a priority"
“Camera xấu ớn đúng là được này mất kia" means “The camera's shape is so ugly. Win
“Camera của Nokia x7 Pro thiết kế ổn hơn" means “Design of Nokie x7 Pro's camera is
better"
3. The opinions of the consumer over the Functional Benefits of HONOR X-series.
● Kirin chip.
Figure 06: the discussion of the Kirin chip’s performance in the Youtube video of reviewing
Kirin is the core technical part of HUAWEI in general, features in supporting the operations
of the phone (reflects in the speed of the download, reload pages. running apps,...). Kirin is
good at running the operating system and saving battery, however, it does not receive the
positive comments in regards to supporting game online on mobile phones while chip
Snapdragon of Xiaomi is having its direct comparison in better game support. This means
the functional benefit of HONOR X-series, at the moment is standing by far the needs of
consumers, which is indicated via the loop comments in the review video on YouTube
“Nói về khoản chạy game thì Snap 636 mạnh hơn Kirin nhiều" means “Snap 636 chip is
“Ai mà bảo Kirin chơi game tốt thì chưa thử Snapdragon bao giờ" means “For anyone who
suggested that Kirin is the best support for the games, you have not yet tried the
Snapdragon" .
“Kirin tiết kiệm pin thì tốt chứ chơi game mượt không giật lag thì cứ phải nói đến Snap của
Xiaomi Pro" means “Kirin may do good in saving battery, however, chip Snap of Xiaomi Pro
Be able to see through the loops of comments, HONOR X-series phones are being directly
compared with the Redmi Note Pro series of Xiaomi in many aspects i.e prices, game
some comments of customers with Redmi Note Pro, is better than HONOR 8X.
For example:
● “Tầm giá này mà chơi game ổn hơn nữa thì mấy con Redmi Note của Xiaomi không
có tuổi" means “If it still keeps this price range and upgrades its ability to play the
game, I think it will be much better than the Redmi Note devices of Xiaomi"
● “Cái này khá ổn nếu nhìn chung, nhưng chức năng cụ thể thì Xiaomi vẫn tốt hơn"
means “Overall I think it is quite good, however, Xiaomi is still better in some
particular functions".
● “Camera đẹp hơn Redmi Note nhiều. Không có gì để chê" means “Its camera is
Figure 07: the discussion of the Xiaomi Note Pro in the Youtube video of reviewing HONOR
OPPO Realme Pro is also being compared with HONOR 8X through the comments.
However, people seem to slightly prefer the HONOR 8X than OPPO Realme Pro.
Throughout all comments about both phones, camera feature is the only thing of Realme 2
Examples:
● “Phân vân con này với con Realme 2 Pro. Khó chọn quá!” means “It’s so difficult to
● “Realme 2 pro thì camera ổn hơn nhưng hiệu năng HONOR ok hơn” means “While
the camera of Realme 2 is more stable, the overall performance of HONOR is better”
● “Camera Realme thì ổn hơn nhưng chip HONOR mạnh hơn. Ai quan tâm chơi game
thì mua HONOR!” means “Although the camera of Realme is more stable than
HONOR, the chipset in HONOR is better. Anyone who care about game experience
○
Figure 09: the discussion of the OPPO Realme Pro 5 in the Youtube video of reviewing
Figure 10: the segment of the discussion about OPPO Realme among the other contents.
5. Other findings:
After identifying the direct competitor of HONOR X-series phones is Xiaomi Note Pro series
through the loop comments by Netlytic. SocialBakers is applied to measure the effects of the
online activities of Xiaomi on social media and to sufficiently understand the particular gap
Figure 12: distribution of interaction by Xiaomi Vietnam page. (adapted from Socialbakers
2019)
Figure 1x: distribution of interaction by OPPO Vietnam page. (adapted from Socialbakers
2019)
Figure 11: distribution of interaction by HONOR Vietnam page. (adapted from Socialbakers
2019)
From figure 11, 12 and 13, it is obvious to see the gap in the distribution of interaction
(Reactions, Comments, Shares) between the HONOR Vietnam, OPPO Vietnam and Xiaomi
Vietnam. Overall, the fan pages of competitors are receiving much more attention, which
To further investigate these gaps, the top promoted posts of attention from 3 fan pages are
captured as below to analyze the strengths of the online activities by the competitors.
Figure 13: Top reached post by Xiaomi Vietnam fan page (care a lot about the camera of
The top post of Xiaomi with its caption: “High quality of photography on each image. Create
your moment of creativity by Redmi Note 8 Pro. The quadral set of cameras with 64MP
resolution”. It is able to see via this post, Xiaomi clearly promoted its value of the qualified
camera and the necessary specs, which significantly indicated the functional benefits.
Figure 13: Top reached post by OPPO Vietnam fan page (care a lot about the camera
The top post of OPPO Vietnam with its caption:” Through the lens of a camera by OPPO
Reno2, the quadral system that reflects the art of individuality. The creativity from the photos
gives you the exclusive style”. To promote the camera quality in taking photos, the
communication strategy by OPPO Vietnam is endorsing KOLs images via the platform of the
To the side of HONOR, the top post of attention by HONOR Vietnam with its caption is about
a mini-game to give away a free HONOR Band 5 smartwatch but not about the smartphone.
Figure 14: Top reached post by HONOR Vietnam fan page (HONOR Band 5 smartwatch is
Meanwhile, the post about HONOR about X-series smartphone is at 51th position with the
poor interaction.
Figure 15: The post of HONOR 9X by the fanpage HONOR Vietnam (adapted from
Socialbakers 2019)
The post about HONOR 9X with its caption in English:” The Xtraordinary journey - HONOR
functional benefit via camera quality, the promoted value of the post about X-series
smartphone by HONOR fan-page is vague and does not provide information sufficiently
about the product, which does not meet the requirement of consumers.
Figure 16: Top 10 provinces, regions in Vietnam with the most popular ratio of searching the
term “HONOR X" on the online devices. Hanoi & HCMC stay at 5th and 7th position
By applying the Google Trends to investigate the ratio of searching the key term “HONOR X"
on Google, it spotted that the highest ratios are in the sub-regions and provinces i.e Ca Mau,
Binh Phuoc,... This can be explained based on the economic shifts between cities. The
result proved that although the urban areas are considered as the main platforms for
IV - Recommendations:
+ Based on data from the research, HONOR X-series needs to get its images to the
selection as one of the most suitable products for gaming. Focus on communicating
and promoting the features that benefit the player's experience i.e long duration
+ The low interaction on Facebook can be the root of the brand awareness issue.
HONOR needs to re-audit the content and its performance in the posts. Like Xiaomi,
the posts should directly highlight the functional benefits that match the needs of
+ Profitable locations are in the provinces and sub-regions as there are more
consumers in these locations care more about HONOR’s smartphone. HONOR may
need to re-adjust their marketing and sales plans to get their profitable sales. .
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