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1. By 2002, Samsung was rated as one of the top 3 players in the global mobile handset market.

Analysts attributed Samsungs success to its marketing initiatives. Discuss the role of marketing in Samsungs success. The brand value of Samsung appreciated by 200% from $3.1 billion in 1999 to $8.3 billion in 2002 and consequently in 2002, Samsung emerged as the only non Japanese brand from Asia to be listed in the global top 100 brands valued by Interbrand Inc. This remarkable success has to be attributed to various marketing strategies adopted by Samsung. Initially, though Samsung was able to establish its brand image in the Korean market, it was regarded as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the global market and consumers perceived its products as low quality products. To change this consumer perception, Samsung decided to revamp the image by: Moving away from cheap imitated products Offering innovative and technologically advanced products Initiating marketing activities worldwide to increase the visibility of the Samsung brand

In order to change its brand image, Samsung became the official sponsor of the wireless technology of the Olympics held in Seoul. This step helped to boost the image of Samsung worldwide. Similarly, Samsung partnered with Best Buy and conducted customer research on buying behavior. The results were used by the Samsungs engineers to produce products that met the customer expectations. In 2001 sales of Samsung products through Best Buy were reported around $500 million which grew progressively thus capturing the US market.

In countries like Nigeria, it focused on building its image by providing information of the company through TV and Radio commercials. Besides, Samsung also entered into a marketing alliance with AOL Time Warner and its products were promoted in AOL Time Warnerss magazines which highlighted its ever increasing popularity. Samsung also launched its first corporate advertising campaign- Nobel Prize Series where it tried to convey message that Samsung used Nobel Prize Laureates ideas for making its products. This increased the reputation of the brand as people started to think Samsung products as high end products which was contrary to their original conception. Samsung also unveiled a new campaign in the US with the slogan Samsung DIGITall: Everyones invited. It also redesigned its logo to convey its objective: making life filled with convenience, abundance, and enjoyment through innovative products. Also in 2001, Samsung launched its new brand campaign created by True North Communications which was aired in 30 countries on various channels like CNN, ESPN, NBA games etc. The advertisement showed various Samsung products being used by people from different background. Besides, it adopted internet marketing to reach high profile consumers and bought ad space on more than 50 websites such as fortune.com, forbes.com etc. It also bought a 65 foot tall electronic billboard in New Yorks Times Square. Moreover, Samsung also extended its

DigitAll campaign by launching new global campaigns like DigitAll Passion, DigitAll Escape etc. These campaigns were aired in TV across the US, the Europe, CIS, Southeast Asia, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and China.

Thus we have seen an aggressive marketing process adopted by Samsung with series of activities aimed at building the brand of the company which once was considered as poor brand with many defective products. However, these continued and persistent marketing activities have increased its brand visibility. Consumers all over the world started believing that Samsung produced high end products as it emphasized in customization over mass production which was visible only though marketing. The brand value of Samsung appreciated by 200% from $3.1 billion in 1999 to $8.3 billion in 2002 and consequently in 2002, Samsung emerged as the only non Japanese brand from Asia to be listed in the global top 100 brands valued by Interbrand Inc. It was also reported that Samsungs 2001 global brand campaign increased brand awareness of consumers of US from 56.4% to 74.1%. Because of these reasons, Samsung posted a net profit of 1.7 trillion won for the third quarter in 2002-03, emerged as number three player in the global cell phone market and also emerged as world leader in memory chip market.

2. Compared to established rivals like Sony, Matsushita and Nokia, Samsung was a late entrant on the global consumer electronics market. Comment on Samsungs brand building initiatives in the global consumer electronics market. Compared to established rivals like Sony, Matsushita and Nokia, Samsung was a late entrant on the global consumer electronics market. However, the brand building initiatives of Samsung propelled it ahead of its rivals. In order to change the perception of consumers who thought Samsung as an OEM player with low technology products it decided to revamp its image by: Moving away from cheap imitated products

Offering innovative and technologically advanced products Initiating marketing activities worldwide to increase the visibility of the Samsung brand

To achieve these objectives, Samsung in 1994 restructured its design department i.e it integrated all its design activities under four design groups called Samsung Electronics Design Institute which was dedicated in designing new products. Similarly, the CEO of Samsung brought about a major change and based the design philosophy in technological excellence with human adaptability. Realizing the importance of customization over mass production, it started to develop innovative products for mobile phone sector according to customer preference. Samsung used Lifestyle Segmentation instead of Technological Segmentation after a detailed survey in the market to identify the lifestyle and purchase pattern of people. Similarly, it also established Lifestyle Research Group for studying consumer behavior, Advanced Design Group for exploring new products. This strategy was very successful in building its brand image from producers of cheap products to producers of innovative products. All these development of products also had to be brought to the notice of target customer. So they became the official sponsor of Olympic Games in Seoul and Sydney 2000 Olympic Game. This strategy helped Samsung acknowledge its target consumer regarding its change in product line from cheap imitated products to innovative and high end products. As a result of these initiatives, Samsung announced its plan to become one of the top three digital product suppliers in markets like personal multimedia, mobile multimedia, home multimedia and

component business. In order to launch various digital products in different categories, the company announced R &D investment of around $1.4 billion over next 10 years. All these painstaking efforts began to show positive results. By the 21st century, Samsung emerged as one of the biggest brand in the mobile phones segment. In cell phone market, it changed its focus from low end mass products to high end markets. The selling price of Samsung mobile phones was higher than that of Nokias products because of its high technology and additional features. Moreover, products like 50 gram phone, which was said to be the worlds lightest phone, though did not generate volume but projected the brand as a high technology company. Thus it is clearly seen that the above initiatives have successfully changed its brand image from an OEM player with low technology products to innovative, high end and technologically advanced products.

3.

Which one of the Samsung marketing strategies was mainly responsible for its success as a global brand? In what way did it help Samsung? Discuss.

Originated as low-cost manufacturer of black and white televisions in the year 1969, Samsung delivered massive volume of low-cost consumer electronics to domestic and OEM products to both domestic and global markets until 1993. Due to this fact, company didnt develop global brand awareness until then. In the global arena, Samsungs brand message was fragmented and its logo presentations were inconsistent. However, Samsung realized this drawback and tried to establish the brand as a successful global brand with various marketing strategies. Among those strategies, increasing the brand visibility was mainly responsible for its success.

In order to increase the visibility of the brand, Samsung used Olympic Games as a platform to demonstrate new products and technology. The most powerful way to introduce a new product and technology is by publicity. It is not only cost-effective but also more credible. Samsung provided its latest wireless communications technology during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Game. Focusing on the future of wireless communications, Samsung launched futuristic products such as the mobile phone watch, the PDA-phone, the digital camera cum mobile phone, the MP3 mobile phone and the its latest model of 3G mobile phone. This strategy of increasing the visibility of the brand has helped Samsung increase its brand awareness and enhance market position considerably. Samsungs dedication in Olympic Games brought great success in elevating its brand awareness. Samsung's sponsorship of the Sydney Olympic Game in 2000 raised awareness of the brand by 5% to 16.2 %. The awareness rise led to the sales surge. The first year after the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, sales of the telecommunications products increased by 44%. Four years later in Athens, its brand awareness was raised to 62%. Similarly, the brand value of Samsung appreciated by 200% from $3.1 billion in 1999 to $8.3 billion in 2002 and consequently in 2002, Samsung emerged as the only non Japanese brand from Asia to be listed in the global top 100 brands valued by Interbrand Inc. Because of these reasons, Samsung posted a net profit of 1.7 trillion won for the third quarter in 2002-03, emerged as number three player in the global cell phone market and also emerged as world leader in memory chip market. However, all these positive developments cannot only be attributed to brand visibility as Samsung has made great efforts on moving away from cheap imitated products and offering innovative and technologically advanced products. But in order to let the consumers know about these high end products, they had to rely on visibility of the products and the brand visibility as

discussed above was very successful in reaching the high end products to all the consumers. Thus increasing the brand visibility was mainly responsible for its success as compared to other strategies. 4. Analysts felt that it would not be easy for Samsung to beat Sony, which was known for technologically superior products like the Trinitron television, Playstation and Walkman. Do you thing Samsung can beat Sony only through aggressive marketing, without bringing out any technologically advanced product? In order to be a successful company, it has to take care of two aspects. Firstly, it has to produce quality products which would satisfy the customers for years. A product with inferior quality will attract consumers only once but a quality product will entice the same consumers again and again. Secondly, the information regarding quality products and services has to be circulated effectively so that all the target consumers are aware of the products. This will not only provide the information of the products to the consumers but it will also establish brand name in the mind of consumers. Now considering the case of Samsung, it has shown a remarkable growth in its innovative product line as well as its brand value. This has been possible only because of their strategy to move away from cheap imitated products, offer innovative and technologically advanced products and initiate marketing activities worldwide to increase the visibility. These two aspects complemented very well and resulted in massive growth of the company beating established brands like Nokia. However, Sony was still ahead of Samsung as it produced technologically superior products like Trinitron television, Playstation and Walkman etc. In 2002, while Samsung was ranked 34th with a brand value of $8.1 billion. Sony was ranked 21st with an

estimated brand value of $13.9 billion So, if Samsung is to beat Sony they have to concentrate on developing various innovative, high technology products like stereos and personal computers which enjoyed high demand in the US, the worlds largest market for consumer electronics which has to be supported by proper marketing strategies. So I dont think Samsung can beat Sony only through aggressive marketing, without bringing out any technologically advanced product.

Reference: 1. http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Marketing/Samsung Marketing%20Case.htm 2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/27997783/Samsungs-Case-Study 3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/47312382/SWOT-Analysis-Of-SamsunG 4. http://www.slideshare.net/tenzingsamdup/samsung-making-of-global-brand-8498771

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