STP, Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of Samsung Galaxy S2 - Assignment Example

Marketing Plan Contents Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Company Analysis 3 Marketing Objectives  5 STP Analysis -Market segmentation, targeting and positioning 7 Marketing Strategy - 7Ps 9 Marketing Strategy 9 Product Strategy: 9 Pricing Strategy 9 Place/Supply Chain Strategy 10 Promotional Strategy & Promotion Strategy 10 Physical evidence 11 People 11 Process 12 Implementation 12 Evaluation 14 References 17 Executive Summary The marketing plan is prepared for the launch and marketing of a new product from Samsung electronics which is Samsung Galaxy S2 in the mobile phones segment of the United States of America. The marketing plan is prepared by providing a background and overview of Samsung Electronics and its business in the market of united Sates and in the global markets. This is followed by an identification of the marketing objectives for Samsung Electronics and a mapping of the marketing objectives of the company with the present business position of the company. A segmentation-targeting and positioning analysis is done to evaluate how the new product of Samsung is to be positioned and marketed in the country. The marketing objectives form the underlying base for the formulation of the 7Ps of marketing mix prepared for the product of Samsung Electronics. The report also includes an analysis of how the marketing strategies would be implemented in launching and marketing the Samsung Galaxy S2 in the market of the United States. The report is suitably concluded by an evaluation of the marketing strategies done in order to analyse and assess the expected impacts of the marketing strategies in the new market. The evaluation also includes an assessment of how the formulated marketing strategies can be profitable for Samsung Electronics and a short recommendation of how the marketing strategies can be improved for continued success. Company Analysis Samsung Group is a transnational conglomerate company of South Korea. It has its headquarters in Samsung Town in Seoul. The company has many supplementary and affiliated business among which most of them are under the brand name of Samsung and it is the largest business conglomerated in South Korea. In 1938, Lee Byung-chul founded the company Samsung. The company has diversified itself into many new directions like textiles, insurances, retail, food processing and securities. In 1960’s the company started its business in electronics industry. Samsung group was been separated into four business groups after Lee Byung-chul died in 1987. In 1983, the company started producing personal computers and in 1988 it started producing semiconductors and telecommunication devices and networks. Samsung was considered to be a producer of low end products that used to be cheap in comparison to the other costly Japanese products. The company was also known to produce reliable and products of high quality which made the company gain lot of popularity among the customers and also in the market. By the end of 1992, Samsung became the leading semiconductor manufacturer in the Dynamic Random Access Memory market. The company became the first company in Korea to grow its business in the global world market and its success was because of the strong management’s work towards growing the company’s standards to world- class business and grows in a hug way in future (Samsung, 2014). In 1983, the company diversified and started its business in telecommunications sector also with great hopes to grow in a huge way in future. It launched its first built in car phone SC-100 in 1986 but it was a big failure because of the low quality of the product. Finally n 1988 the company launched its first mobile phone which was the first by any Korean company SH-100 but the company faced a lot of problem in creating a good brand image as people preferred phones from Motorola more than any other mobile phones available in the market. Apart from launching new and high quality mobile phones the company also looked to build a good relationship with the distributors and build a good chain of retail outlets across the whole world to create good brand awareness. In the smartphone business along with Google’s android as OS, Samsung grew in a huge way and captured a huge market share in the whole world and became the leader in mobile industry against the top competitors like Nokia, Motorola etc.(Knapp, 2000, pp. 34-37). One of the most popular model of Samsung mobile phone is Samsung Galaxy S II, which has all the high specific features and also been priced at $729.99 in the US market which has been able to gain lots of popularity and also has swiped the smartphone market not only in US but across the global market. Marketing Objectives  Samsung Electronics has successfully established itself as one of the largest and most reputed mobile phone manufactures in the globe. The company has tasted success in not only its home market but in all other foreign markets that it has entered into. The entry of Samsung electronics in the mobile phones market was a huge success which has contributed significantly to the profit growth as well as the brand reputation of the company in the global market. Though the intimal entrance of Samsung Electronics into the mobile phone segment was perceived by many as a fast and reckless decision, yet Samsung proved these to be misconceptions within a short period of time. The continuous success of Samsung Electronics in the mobile phone sector is driven by the continuous innovation of the company incorporated in its products every time a new product is launched. This makes it necessary for Samsung electronics to have a clear marketing objective of ensuring continuity of its success through the launch of its new product, the Samsung Galaxy S2 in the market of the United States of America. Other marketing objectives of the company include positioning itself more strongly in the market of the United States and capturing more market share in the mobile sector in the country. This is also aimed at combating the existing competitions in the markets from other giant mobile phone manufacturing companies like Apple Inc., Nokia Corporation, Motorola, Sony Corporation, HTC etc. The strategic marketing objectives of Samsung electronics are aimed at evaluating the market of the United States in a proper manner and launch the new product of Samsung electronics i.e. Samsung Galaxy S 2. Other marketing objectives of Samsung electronics are launching the new product to meet the market requirements of the United States and to add value to the mobile phone business line of the company. The major objective of launching the Galaxy S2 model in this market is aimed at ensuring competitiveness while continuing the success of other smartphones of Samsung Electronics in this market (Kim, 2002, pp.340-360). The mobile phones of Samsung Electronics like the Galaxy S and Galaxy Grand have been immensely popular in the market of the United States as well as in other markets of the world. The main objective of the company in launching the Galaxy S2 in the United states mobile phones market is to ensure that the brand image that has been built by popular mobile phones like the Galaxy S and the Grand do not fade away from the minds of the customers in this industry and in the specific country. The launch of the smartphones like Galaxy S, Galaxy Y and the Grand have been characterised by mass acceptance with the products being main profit drivers for the mobile business line for Samsung Electronics. The launch of these innovative and feature stuffed mobile phones have helped Samsung Electronics to reap high profits and ensure competitive advantage over other mobile phone manufacturers. The launch of these popular mobile phones was followed by huge sales volumes of these products which had helped Samsung Electronics to surpass the sales of one of its toughest competitors, Sony Corporation in the year 2012. The launch and success of the new model Samsung Galaxy S2 can help Samsung Electronics to maintain its current position as one of the market leaders in the future years as well. Samsung Electronics has already surpassed its avid competitors like Apple Incorporation and Sony Corporation in important emerging markets like China. Samsung Electronics mobile phones are the most preferred and most sold mobile phones in the market of China despite huge competition from other foreign as well as local mobile phone manufacturing companies. One of the main objectives of Samsung Electronics is to capture the huge value market of the United States in a suitable manner as it has captured the market of China by assured competitive edge created over other companies in terms of product specification, product innovations and product development (Hyun, Han and Yeh, 2004, pp.100-102). The marketing objectives of Samsung electronics in the market of the United States also include creating more value for the customers, attracting new customers, retaining exiting customers, capturing more market share in the country and increasing customer loyalty and customer satisfaction to ensure continued profitability for the company as well as to foster a positive and strongly established brand image in the market. The implementation of suitable marketing strategies as devised by the marketing managers of Samsung electronics should be done to meet the strategic marketing objectives of the company in the market of the United States. The identification and evaluation of the marketing objectives of the company has acted as the foundation for devising and implementing the marketing strategies for the new product. The marketing objectives are in alignment with the mission statement of Samsung Electronics to build a future through innovative products, creative solutions and new technology. STP Analysis -Market segmentation, targeting and positioning Samsung for Galaxy S II needed to target and segment its market in a proper way so that the product is been launched in a perfect way and competes hard with the competitors market and also gets the maximum market share with huge sales. Segmentation The segmentation is been done based on the different factors of geographic, demographic and also psychographic. Geographic- This product was been manly launched in the urban areas across the different countries in the whole world. Demographic- Samsung launched its Galaxy S II for the age group of 16-29 years by providing 3G enabled handset and also other features which can attract highly the Smartphone’s users (Burgemeister, 2003, pp. 45-53). Psychographic- This brand of mobile is been launched based on the lifestyle of the people. The range of the Samsung for Galaxy S II has been in the range for the urban populations that is for the upper middle class and the higher class members. Targeting After good segmentation the company needed to target its customers in a proper way. Samsung for Galaxy S II targeted the right customers in the age group of 16-29 years, the trendy people, the professionals, business persons and also the common smartphone users. The company has also looked to target the institutions for sales and organizations. Positioning Positioning is related to the way the company creates its position about a particular product in the minds of the customers. Samsung for Galaxy S II positioned in a very broad manner as it focused more on the mid- to- high end segments, by creating a good lifestyle and good status statement for the customers. It created a unique brand image for Galaxy S II as high value driven product for the customers. Thus the market segmentation, targeting and positioning for Galaxy S II has been done very carefully in a way that the company has been able to attract more customers and increase more market share and also increase its sales revenue in a huge way (Jobber, 2012, pp. 34-42). Marketing Strategy - 7Ps Marketing Strategy The 7Ps of marketing mix are evaluated and explained in order to identify suitable marketing strategies for the launch of Samsung galaxy S2 in the market of the United States (Borden, 1994, p.90). Product Strategy: As the Samsung Group going to launch one of their products Smartphone Galaxy S II in the US market so at first they will look about the design of the product. The mobile phones will be smart looking, slim and light weighted to attract the customers. This smart phone has a super wide screen that makes customer’s viewing experience much better. High technology is used. Different types of accessories are required to make it different from the other existing brands in the market. Brand value will make it special from the other brands. Packaging will be attractive. Warranties will be given more than the other companies and service centres will be also available in the country. Services will be given on time to meet, satisfy and solve all the needs of customers. They also have to highlight on the usefulness, quality and value of the product. Pricing Strategy Price can be defined as a worth which customers are ready to pay when they will appear to consume any product or want to avail any service. The price will be fixed after considering the prices of competitive products but it would not be cheaper or cheapest among those products. So the company would target the economically stable companies in the global market context (Dickson and Ginter, 1997, pp.1-10). The US economy is the most stable economy in the world. So the price will be fixed after considering standard of living and income level of the target customers. The product will be able to compete with larger competitor products by adding extra services that will offer customers better value for money. The most important point is product pricing must also cover the costs of that product and provide a profit. Giving discount will be another strategy to attract customers and increase sales especially in festive seasons (like Christmas, New Year etc.). Place/Supply Chain Strategy Provide the applications on its website and across mobile application stores. The product will be available as per requirements of the customers. Supply will be immediate whenever demand will arise. At the same time company will maintain proper stock by applying high level inventory management and storage facilities. But this inventory and storage costs, distribution costs, carriage costs must be on that level that can be accepted for generating revenue. A place also indicates a showcase which helps to display any particular product. The shop windows of Samsung mobile showrooms can be used for this purpose. These shop windows can be designed in such a way which helps to make the offer appropriate and attractive to the customers. Strong dealer support is very much important. Mail order or online shopping facility will also be helpful. Multi channel distribution will be effective in this case (Viardot, 2004, p.60). Targeted place will be the populated cities in US. Promotional Strategy & Promotion Strategy The company can use print media and electronic media both for promotion of this product. Attractive, unique and smart advertisement will help to capture market. User trials in every shopping mall and retail showroom will also promote the product in a positive way. Attractive posters beside the main roads of the cities and direct mailing will also be helpful. Giving gifts and gift vouchers with the product will also help in promotional activities. In festive season giving gift coupons to the customers for buying cakes from a famous cake shop will attract other potential customers and once they will use this product and get satisfaction then they may be will become regular customers. Apart from the advertisements in print media and visual media, Samsung Electronics would also focus on using the non-conventional modes of advertising like the social networking sites and popular websites which would make it possible to create product awareness among the customers in the country. Also, the Samsung galaxy s2 would be kept exclusively in the Samsung Electronics official website in the beginning to ensure the creation of more product value while attracting the customers to buy from the official website of the company. Physical evidence The company have to reassure its customers by building relationship. Well trained staffs are required who are ready to solve any kind of service related problem or technical problem. Detailed explanation of product features, functions and accessories of these phones in the web site also is needed. The physical evidence should be appropriate to the expectations of the customer. Smart and comfort facilities should be given. People Always employees are representative of a company who are engaged to keep contact with customers. They are responsible to create an impression of the company to the customers and it is very much desirable that the impression should be positive. For creating positive impression proper training, well behaviour, and positive attitude are very much required. If the company will motivate to its employees then this will reflect on their works. Hence reputation of the company will be increased by the employees who are already well motivated from the organization. If the company provide after sales support and advice then value will be added to their offer and this will give an important edge from other competitors in the market who don’t give such kind of facilities. In such cases products are different from the staffs who insist the customers for purchasing it. They rely on the words which are given by the company’s sales person and depend on them for choosing and taking decision to purchase better quality product among the wide range of variety. Friendly behaviour and on time customer services will satisfy the customers and they also show loyalty to the company. Process The process of selling products or providing services is very much important for customer satisfaction. Process for handling customer complaints, process for smooth and hazard free online payment facility, process for handling orders so that customers can get the product within very short of time after giving the order, process for identifying customer’s requirements- these all are very much vital which help to keep customers happy. The business will run in a smooth way if there are processes which can be understandable by the staffs. So user friendly processes are required to run the business efficiently and to act as a base for supporting the marketing plan of the new product. Implementation In the segment of implementation at first the company will take into consideration the process of manufacturing of the product. Company should reduce the manufacturing cost to earn more profit in the business. As this US market is new to them so to compete in this market and to maintain stability in the market the price will be as per the market standard (Shaw and Goodrich, 2005, p.240). In such case if manufacturing costs will be high then company will face huge losses. So at first they have to reduce labour overhead [like wages, bonus etc], variable overhead like rent of the factories, salaries to the staff, electricity expenses, advertising expenses, packaging expenses, carriage expenses etc. But some new technologies should be used for unique and smart design and to make the set slim. Providing various accessories and more functions will incur maximum percentage of cost from the budgeted or projected cost. Packaging should be attractive but cheaper. So if the company will order huge packaging materials at a time then purchasing cost will be less as the vendor may be will give huge discount for one time huge order. Servicing centres will be available across the country to provide hazard free and smooth after sale services. Whenever the customers will ask for services the door step facilities will also be provided. A high level of storage system is required for maintaining the good quality of the product. Proper pesting is required for it. Always First in First Out method should be applied. Number of staff will be less but they should be well trained, hard worker and can mange any kind of situation. They should be prepared to face any kind of questions regarding products or any kind of services which the customers may ask. In case of implementing the promotional strategy, the company decided to choose a world famous cricket player to become the brand ambassador of this product and promote it through electronic and print media. The front pages of most famous newspapers will be used for giving advertisement on regular basis. Television media will also be used for it. Company will sponsor popular programs like “Big Boss” to promote this product. Multiplexes also would be used for it. Mobile stores will be opened at all the shopping malls and advertisement will be shown before starting a movie at all the cinema halls in major cities of the country. The company will also sponsor mega events for promotional purpose. Cricket World Cup, Football World Cup, T20 World Cup, Olympic games etc will be among those events. Distribution channels will be multiple. Dealers will play very active role to make the availability of the product. Therefore, Samsung electronics would focus on creating a wide base of dealers and suppliers so that the distribution network and the overall supply chain management of the company are strong (Saunders, 2009, p.145). This will help Samsung electronics to launch the new products and back up the marketing through the use of an efficient distribution network. The company will aim to establish a distributor base that would be efficient and resourceful. This would ensure the high visibility of the products of the company in the stores as well as ensure that the distributors are motivated to push the sales of the Galaxy S2 over other mobile phones in their stores. The distributors of the company would be given high incentives for storing the Samsung Electronics mobile phones in their respective stores. This would continue to act as a support system for the launch of the new products as well as the sale of other mobile phone products in the market of USA. Giving gifts and gift vouchers with the product will also help in promotional activities especially in festive seasons. Process for handling customer complaints, process for smooth and hazard free online payment facility, process for handling orders so that customers can get the product within very short of time after giving the order, process for identifying customer’s requirements- these all are very much vital which help to keep customers happy (Kotler, Keller, Brandy, Goodman and Hansen, 2009, p.40). The company have to reassure its customers by building relationship and will call them on their birthday, marriage anniversary to wish them and to make understand that they are also a part of the family of any particular customer. Company will give discount on purchase only for that particular date. Evaluation As the economy of US is very much developed so target customers will be under high income group. So this set with high quality and high technology will be acceptable by the customers. As the country is Wi-Fi so internet on mobile phone is very much desirable. As the screen is wide and large so it will help for searching websites and using social networking sites. 2 mega pixels front camera will be good enough for watching clear videos, video calls and also using for the purpose of video conference. Extra guidance for using various new functions, applications, procedure for playing new games will be provided by the sales representatives to the customers. But giving proper training to staffs will take a huge time to become well trained (Smith, 1996, pp.200-212). Sales for such product are very unstable. If a person will purchase this set one time he or she will again purchase it at least after 7 years as because it is not a daily consumed product. The local repair shops which can provide quality services will also hamper the demand for this particular set. For increasing fluctuations of currency rate and also for the changes in interest rates, the company will face huge problems in imports and exports of the materials. There are huge numbers of smart phone producing companies in the market and they all have own unique features. So besides them establish the stability of this product will be challenge to the company. Since the mobile phones and cellular services market in the United States is a huge market encompassing a large number of customers, it can be expected that Samsung electronics would be able to generate high profitability from their sales in this market. Also, the popularity of smartphones with innovative features and premium characteristics has accelerated to a high degree (Chung, 2012, p.100). The smartphones with huge touchscreens and packed with a number of features are extremely popular among the young generations well as the professionals. The population in the United States is a highly educated and professional population which finds much use of smartphones in their personal as well as professional lives. The smartphones are commonly used to surf the web, send emails as well as for advanced purposes like making presentation, notes, video conferencing and video calling. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is perfectly designed to suit such needs of the population in the United States. The product specifications are designed in a way to enable the mobile phone to fulfil all the requirements that can be expected from a smart generation phone. Thus, the marketing process of the product is likely to be successful as viewed from the perspective of product development and features (McDonald and Meldrum, 2013, p.44). The brand name of Samsung electronics is already a globally established brand. The sale of the new product is likely to be pushed by the brand image of Samsung electronics. Also, the company has an established base of loyal customers across the globe including in the market of the United States. These customers have extensive brand loyalty and they often wait for a new launch of mobile phone by Samsung to buy these products (Young, 2011, p.116). The Samsung Galaxy S2 is likely to attract a lot of attention in the market. The loyal customers of Samsung are likely to buy the product. Also, the high end features and the strong distribution process planned by Samsung electronics would ensure that potential customers can be converted into actual customers of the company in an effective way. References Borden, N. 1994. The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Journal of Advertising Research. Vol. 30(2), p.90. Chung, J. 2012. The Secrets of the any call Myth Hit. Product Research. Vol. 286(1), p.100. Dickson, P. R. & Ginter J. L. 1997. Market Segmentation, Product Differentiation and Marketing Strategy. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 51(2), pp.1-10. Hyun, S., Han, M. & Yeh, J. 2004. Any call: Building a Powerful Brand. Korea Marketing Journal. Vol. 5(4), pp.100-102. Kim, J. H. 2002. 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