SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a multinational electronics based in Suwon, South Korea.

This world largest technology company by revenue since 2009 is subsidiary of the Samsung Group of conglomerate. Samsung Electronics is a leader in the industry of consumer electronics, telecoms equipment, semiconductors and home appliances. Besides being known as the worlds second largest semiconductor chip maker, it is also the worlds largest smart phones vendor. As of the year 2011, Samsung Electronics has an outstanding amount of 221,726 employees and assets totalling USD 135.131 billion. Samsung Electronics mainly produces LCD and LED panels, mobile phones, semiconductors and televisions. Samsung Electronics is not owned by a single person, it is a corporation with a twoperson team as the topmost decision maker. In December 2010, Samsung switched its management system from the single CEO system of last year under Choi Gee-Sung, to a twoperson management team with Choi Gee-Sung, CEO and Vice President, and Lee Jae-Yong, Chief Operating Operator and President.In June 2012, Samsung appointed Kwon Oh-hyun as the new CEO of the company (Wikipedia, 2004). GENERAL ELEMENTS OF MACRO ENVIRONMENT The macro environment includes all factors which are external to the firm and cannot be controlled by the organisation. Decision maker adjust their marketing approach as per the change in the environment. The important factors comprising the macro environment are demographic, economics, socio-cultural, natural, technological and political-legal. Demographic environment as the name suggest is related to population and population mix. It is people who make market. It is they who contribute to demand and also serves as manpower which helps in produce and supply. Thus as a marketer, one must understand the demographics of the nation and effect of globalisation as global population also influences the decision. For example, due to the extreme population growth of India, this currently ranked second after China. The population as per Census estimates as in July 2009, India has a population of 1.17 billion with a growth rate at 1.58%. This provides an exceptional opportunity for business, and has attracted many Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) firms and retailers.

On the other hand, population mix is another aspect of demographics environment where we can see firms in India chose to stand a position of pro-youth because the population is compromised mainly of youths. Famous names include MTV, Adidas and Coke. Household pattern like large families, small families or nuclear families also affect marketing decision. In rural areas of India where the trend of large and joint families still prevails, the purchasing decision is taken by all family members whereas in nuclear families the decision is taken by a single member. Thus marketing firms have to adjust their advertising and promotion strategies based on this factor. Geographical shift prevails in continents like the Europe where language changes every 100 miles and a different culture is practised every 10 miles, the marketer must have knowledge of the culture and language of the region in order to position its product in a better way. Economics environment in simple words affects how much a customer is willing to pay for a product desired. Demand is defined as desire for a product backed by willingness and ability to pay, thus it is not only the people but also their ability to pay is vital for marketer. Ability to pay can be measured in terms of income distribution, economics condition of the nation and credit availability. Malaysia being an emerging economy with a GDP of USD 278.67 billion and a per capita income of USD 9,000 annually has many potential for the markets. This also impacts the general economic condition of the economy. The distribution of income is another parameter to be considered. A high inequality in distribution will lead to limited potential as the market is widely controlled by the rich few as they have purchasing capability. This gap between the rich and poor is a major turndown for many firms to target a country as for marketing purposes. Credit availability and saving trends in an economy has an influence on the purchasing ability of the consumer. The existence of hire-purchase options and home loans has boosted the demand in real estate and automotive industry. For example in the United States, the real estate industry was at a high bloom because sub-prime lending which exponentially increases the credit availability options. Socio-cultural environment is controlled by the elements of belief, customs and religious. A marketing campaign has to be in tandem with the belief of the society its target to approach. For instance, McDonalds in India had to stop its products containing beef as cow is regarded sacred by the Indian citizen.

Natural environment includes the raw material and pollution aspects. The raw material used must be renewable, infinite or not depleting. In all cases, the raw material shall not be wasted and usage must be minimised. Pollution on the other hand must be reduced and kept at minimal level to preserve the ecology. Marketer in the current scenario is adapting the GoGreen and Eco-Friendly concept. Technological environment changes every day. Obsolesce is becoming faster than it is spelt. Hence marketer must be aware of recent technological update. Being technologically latest provides competitive edge over competitors, as cost can be reduced and resources used minimised as well as time is saved. There are unlimited opportunities for innovation and every manufacturer tries their best to exploit the new usage of the product. Innovation can be in term of new usage, new products, new packaging, new material, new method of production or even a new kind of promotion. The recent era has seen many indescribable innovations such as the smart phones, tablets, mobile banking and micro credit. Political and legal environment consists of government regulations, policies and social groups. Any kinds of business must abide by the constitutions of the nation. The law is for the purpose of protecting the rights of customer from exploitation, to protect interest of society and to defend companies from unfair competition. There is various kind of law regarding to marketing of products to end-consumer in countries across the globe. For instance, the Consumer Protection Act and Intellectual Property Act. Policies like displaying the expiry date on product and allergic alert is practised in most countries. Also there is a special interest group like NGOs who oppose any unethical acts by business. In recent history we saw opposition by large customer group against Cadbury as worms were found in one of its products. Also Coca-Cola suffered lots of oppositions as pesticides were found in its cold drink. The growth of consumerism has changed the businesses into pro-consumer and the market into a consumer driven market. A marketer must understand each and every parameters of the macro environment and be flexible to the change in the environment. As the factors are external to the business and cannot be controlled, ability of being flexible towards the change in these factors will provide competitive advantage to the firms over its competitors.

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ELEMENTS OF MACRO ENVIRONMENT IN SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Samsung Electronics is a multinational corporation with involvement in various industry related to electronics, ranging from semiconductor to home appliances. Any changes in the economics related to electronics goods shall effect this organisation; therefore it is very important for their team of decision maker to recognise these elements of macro environment. Samsung Electronics manufactures and markets its product in various countries across the globe, including the Asia as well as Europe and United States. Hence recognising the demographics of the target group is crucial and this varies among different country. For instance, youths make up most of the population in countries such as the Europe and India, whereas in some parts of Asia, most of the consumers are made up of large families with at least 6-7 members. The economics aspect of macro environment affects almost all organisations as this aspect determines the buying power of consumer and whether they are able to fulfil their desire for material goods. Since Samsung Electronics markets electronic appliances, and it

most countries especially in the undeveloped part of Asia, electronics are considered as a wealth. Economics elements such as distribution of income and credit availability are very crucial to Samsung Electronics to market its good in these countries. In the current era of going green, the natural elements of macro environment must never be neglected by any organisations, especially one that dwells in the industry of electronics where the use of heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium is pertinent. Therefore Samsung Electronics must never oversee any aspects of pollutions caused by its plants in order to maintain a trust and good relationship with its customer. On the other hand, natural resources such as those needed in the production of LCD and LED fluctuates in term of price and this severely affect the production cost. For Samsung Electronics, technology is not a strange or unfamiliar parameter of macro environment. Instead, Samsung is one of the technology leaders for home appliances as well as android-based smart phones. Being the largest vendor of smart phones in the world and home appliances in Asia, keeping up with the latest technology in order to lower production cost or to stay ahead in market with a technologically latest product is Samsung Electronics operating strategy. In the recent years, political and legal issues have been affecting Samsung Electronics in marketing its products, especially the smart phone families. For instance, injunction by the Apple Inc. to stop Samsung from marketing its Galaxy series smart phone in the Europe and United States, as well as numerous copyright infringements allegations still on trials between Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc. In a nutshell, Samsung Electronics like every other organisation faces many challenges of the elements from macro environment. Therefore necessary steps of identifying them should be taken and thence shall steps to overcome these challenge can be devised and carried out. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE MACRO ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT Macro environment management refers to the steps taken to overcome obstacle caused by the elements of macro environment in order to maintain the smooth running of the organisations operation.

Samsung Electronics is affected few elements of macro environment which are listed earlier. First of all, the demographics of target consumer is crucial to be recognised and then steps should be taken whether to heavily market latest gadgets such as smart phones or focus more on conventional items such as home appliances. For instance, in the Europe the IT gadgets market is currently blooming, hence it is advisable to heavily promote and market the latest member of the Samsung Electronics smart phone family, whereas in countries like Malaysia where the demand for home appliance is more prevalent compared to IT gadgets, therefore more functionality should be embedded in home appliances products marketed here as compared to smart phones, this is due to the demographic of Malaysia where the average marrying age is at 23 years old, hence we have more families than youths in the population. The economic aspect of macro environment is harder to be managed single-handedly by the corporation by itself as it usually a national or global issue. However there are steps that can be taken to overcome the decrease in demand due to the economics aspect. Samsung Electronics may come up with an instalment payment plan for its appliance which are marketed at country with lower per capita income. Besides, the option of instalment payment plan will also overcome the lack of credit availability to consumers. The natural element of macro environment is perhaps one of the most important aspects due to the many laws as well as regulation being enacted recently regarding the environment. Pollution and scarcity of natural resource or raw material is a familiar issue for all manufacturing plant even since the era of industrial revolution in the Europe. In line with the going green concept, there are many options available in market to filter out or ionise the waste material of an industrial plant in order to neutralise them as to not cause any harm to the biotic and abiotic organism before releasing them into the ecosystem. Besides, there is always alternative to replace the need of using raw materials that is scare. Keeping up with the latest technologies in the market, be it in term of production or consumer use, is always a daunting task. Nevertheless, with a team of expert team of 900 designers and 500 scientists, Samsung Electronics should not have a problem to continue being the trailblazer of the industry in innovations. However, a meticulous market study and customer need study should be carried out in order to ensure that the innovation introduced to market is in line with the demand and trend or fashion of consumer. In conclusion, Samsung Electronics just as any multinational corporation have to face the elements of macro environment.

All in all, steps to improve the macro environment management must never be treated lightly, as it is very important to address the issue caused by elements of macro environments. For a large multinational corporation such as Samsung Electronics, even a simple matter such as a new policies or regulation enacted by the government might cause millions of lost. Therefore, it is always advised to better be ready than sorry. CONCLUSION With an array of macro environment elements affecting the organisations, a proper management of these parameters are needed, and as a step for future planning all sorts of recommendations should also be taken into account and analyse. As a result of the demographics of its customer, Samsung Electronics came up with many promotional sales for its home appliances as well as mobile phones including trading in an old for new appliance and extended warranty in order to reduce the purchasing cost and extending the peace of mind of its customer. Besides that, Samsung Electronics also practice a strategy known as regional based selective product marketing, where the need of customer is determined based on the demographic of the nation, thence it is decided whether which type of product is suitable to be heavily marketed, be it mobile phones or home-appliances. Economy is a very delicate ecosystem, both a nations as well as global economy affects the demand and supply balance of a product. However, in the current economic setting micro creditor often provide temporary solutions for customer with limited monetary resource in order to satisfy their needs or wants. Besides, there are many instalment plans available which can be used to finance the purchase of products offered by Samsung Electronics. Therefore it can be said, that within the current economic setting, economy is the least of the worries Samsung Electronics should consider as there are many alternative options available for customer to opt for. Currently it is very important for large corporation to portray an image of sustaining a green operating procedure due to the concern on environment among the public, therefore Samsung Electronics is trying its level of best by coming up with gadgets and appliances that uses less power and saves energy. Besides, Samsung Electronics is taking every measure In order to have its plants being certified as green and not harmful to the environment.