Samsung and Apple: A Comparative Study - Research Paper Example

Samsung and Apple: A Comparative Study Introduction Communication and entertainments are integral parts of social life. Over the past few decades, there has been tremendous development in technology to aid the requirement of improvised communication devices. With the rapid changes in technology, demand and requirement levels increased in the global market for the electronic devices in general. The gradual course of time witnessed the entry and exit of several companies who offered innovations through a series of products like mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, laptops, music systems and television sets. Among all those brands of communication gadgets, Samsung and Apple are the most popular names. The superior status of these two brands’ market share and bargaining power despite the challenges from substitute products is incredible. This paper makes an evaluation of the Samsung and Apple as a relationship with their research techniques and marketing strategies employed in acquiring the current positions in the global market. Samsung Electronics Samsung is doubtlessly the biggest manufacturer of electronic devices in almost all fields of communication and entertainment. Apart from finished products, the company supplies products of various capacities to support other companies across the world. The Samsung Group deals in a number of fields outside electronics. They include industries in construction, petrochemicals, medicine, finance, hotels etc. The company has been making tremendous progress in all the areas it invests and keeping the stakeholders satisfied. The most appreciable feature of Samsung is its multi-faceted vision to effectively hold the business world’s attention as an all-powerful giant. It is appreciable that, “with the success of its electronics business, Samsung has been recognized globally as a industry leader in technology and now ranks as a top 10 global brand” (Samsung). The growth graph of the company shows a proportionate rise with the number of products and innovative trends it has launched year after year. Addressing the Audience Samsung’s success depends surely upon the great leadership that holds the rein of the company with matchless standards of vision and innovation. The fame of Samsung across the world was shot to the present height by the brilliant effort of the Vice president, Dr Oh-Hyun Kwon, who leads the Device Solutions Division of Samsung Electronics. It is from his supervision that the company started leading the electronic world with superior quality products especially in the field of semiconductor units. Samsung has a business progress card that has always shown a steep growth trend over the past few years (Samsung, ‘performance’). Samsung’s management is a collaboration of excellent visionaries who are capable of analyzing and addressing the audience. The marketing department of the company focuses on the timely changes in the consumer behavior and attitudes to assume trends much before the actual product launch. Samsung products, particularly mobile phones are the easiest means for the company to address the audience. As Johnson points out, the changes in models and specifications are made according to the need of the assumed market trends, with the latest innovation being the curved screen mobile phones. Samsung’s incredible success in the electronic market is a reflection on its efficient way to address the audience. The company has been developing and marketing a wide variety of products to respond to the ever-growing demands for infotainment products. Why Samsung adopts the focus on mobility based products is apparent; it is simply the company’s response to the demand of the audience. A vast majority of transit commuters in the developed cities and travelers across the suburbs require a gadget that supports their needs. The introduction mobile phones with navigation facilities and instant message delivery system makes the move easy for the commuters in many ways. In order to assist the necessity, “Samsung Display Solutions offer high-contrast displays with wide viewing angles for effective delivery time-sensitive information.” (Samsung, whitepaper). By providing the travel-friendly service at its best possible standard, Samsung is proud to declare through its websites and advertisements that it has made revolutionary changes in the audience requirements. Use of Website for Calling Attention Samsung uses its official website as a global messenger with a clear-cut theme in its vision statement, which in turn affects the business philosophy of the company. The company’s management is highly dedicated to implement the objectives of the constitution by guaranteeing that the mission of the collective labor of the men at work will only focus on the transformation of the electronic world. With the vision of the company for the next decade being the realization of a great dream of making a technically inspired world, the plans and policies are already on its developmental way (Samsung, philosophy). From the customer point of view, the use of website by the company influences their choices and lifestyles by teaching them the need for change. Samsung’s strategy to convey its care for the entire web of stakeholders who have direct or indirect role in the sustainability of the company is expressed through the website. Particularly, the usage of emphatic literature in the website makes belief in the audience. For instance, the sentence “Samsung Electronics strives to build a creative organizational culture, and acknowledge that the investment we make in strengthening the core competencies of our employees will have direct impact on our competitiveness” (Sustainability Report, 2012). makes a potential impact on the audience as they will be inspired to consider imaginations as truths. Another significant fact about the company’s effective use of the website is all about displaying its economic potential in the global electronics industry. The statistical presentation of Samsung’s economic status in the website is helpful for the public to understand that the company is feasible to undertake more innovative enterprises. Apple Inc. For the high profile users, Apple is an esteem brand rather than the name of a quality product. Apple is a consumer electronics company who makes a series of electronic gadgets, computers and software apart from information technology devices. The strategy of the company to keep away from the generalization of its news makes it a special looking one in the world. Apple is in a number of ways similar to Samsung in the market conditions and product range in electronics. Apple products like Mac, iPod, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad etc dominate the market by attracting the superior range of customers. The company is famous for its stern stand towards quality and prestige. Apple relies on the importance of inspiration. There is a common quote, “A job at Apple is one that requires a lot of you but it’s also one that rewards bright, original thinking and hard work.” (Apple.com). Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, the company focused only on innovation and designing superior quality products. The present status the company holds in the business world is the result of the team work at Apple that has been mentored and monitored by the best brains of the industry. Apple and Audience The most significant feature about Apple products is that they don’t compromise price for achieving higher market share. The company seems to run its smooth and happy business with the existing policies on price and product launch techniques. In Samsung, the price selection and product variability are meant to focus on the customers ranging from commoners to high profile. Apple makes designs its own software platform for its communication devices and computers. Unlike the operations of Samsung, Apple focuses only on the software and networking industry based on information technology. Apple is not merely a seller; it is an operator of the spiritual bond between a product and its user. That is why it is said, “Each groundbreaking release is the result of meticulous planning by Apple marketing gurus that oversee the entire life cycle of a product” (Apple.com). From this point of view, the two companies differ in their objectives. While one focuses on the economic growth through multi-range products, the other looks for the tradition of credibility oriented brand growth and global trust. Over the past few years, Apple has faced tough business competition in global market share acquirement from its rival Samsung Electronics. Moreover, the company could not match the product range and distribution system of the competitors due to leadership changes and legal battles over its patent technology. The recent approach of Apple to adopt flexible options of product standard is meant to promote new audience to the company. Apple has recently adopted the strategy for making variable product range such as good, better and best in order to make a classification of customers for easy access to the market like other companies. The company seems to realize that, “A wider point of price points means a bigger audience for Apple” (Villapaz). Considering the market conditions and global economic trends, Apple recognizes the importance of acquiring more audience attention by reduced price range without compromising the quality of its products. Website Support The share of website support in the marketing of Apple product is comparatively lower than its opponent group Samsung. In all the media advertisement proportions, Apple never appears frequently on web media or social media declaring the launch of its products for traditional reasons. The company seems to keep a safe distance from media except for the few weeks of any particular product launch. During the Steve Job-era, there was a traditional bond with the ad agency TBWA but the things changes with rapid transition of global trends. According to a report (Ad Age), Apple is set to change its online marketing strategy by working with four new agencies of digital advertising campaigns. (Taube). This move will help the company to make ties with new and innovative advertising brilliance which will surely make the promotion of Apple products with an unforeseen effect. The online advertisements of the company are digitally modified forms of traditional video clips which attracts audience with real-like feeling of its quality. The most outstanding indicator of Apple’s effective use of website for addressing the audience is its specialization in simplified marketing decision-making process. Apple realizes the pressure of the Americans to analyze the hundreds of advertisements they are exposed to everyday, and makes the process simple yet superior. It is important to notice that, “The popularity of Apple’s products is largely due to their simplicity and intuitiveness, making them accessible not noly to tech-savvy consumers, but also to kids.” (DeMers). Apple definitely achieves the popularity through its simplified advertisements that only display the brand and the product, which are the essential factors for the elite purchaser. The specification of Apple website that aims at reaching out to the audience is the imposing way of informing the entry of an Apple product rather than the random acknowledgement that is usually seen in most other advertisements. A comparison between Apple and Samsung In order to improve credibility of products, both Apple and Samsung rely on advertisement. However, the Samsung advertisement strategy involves frequent appearances on all sorts of media irrespective of the innovation introduced with new products. In contrast, Apple focuses on the technical specifications of the new product with its advertisement by letting one-at-a-time policy, mostly by using online agencies (Strategic minds). A very important contrast between the two companies is seen in their respective selection of audience. Samsung makes a wide range of products of variable prices focusing on the attention of mediocre customers also in the mainstream. This strategy is not appreciated well in Apple’s marketing policies. Apple’s management is keen on the sustained brand value of its products and therefore focuses on more on the product-wise market share rather than overall business. From the particularities of the advertising policies, Apple continues to keep its focus on brand-oriented customers. More often than not, Apple’s market stance is monopolistic in nature as it normally leads the innovation in music and communication industry. The company seems to reduce the stakeholder participation to a great extent for the purpose of maintaining the separation from other brands of electronics. However, they seem to lead the show by setting up a marketing philosophy that ensures empathy to understand the customer needs and focus on specific objectives and professionally creative advertising to impute the quality of the product among the consumer community. (Samsung, careers). Samsung, on the other hand, entertains the participation of all levels of customers in the advertising process with intent to make it more people friendly. The fact that Samsung requires wide-range public appreciation is evident from their new approach to marketing. There also frequent advertisements by Samsung that invite the participation of new entrants in the field of marketing in its various branches of industries. Such advertisements displayed on the websites not only resolve the marketing requirements, but also acknowledge the public that the company can provide employment to the talented people globally. The illustrations given below will make clear both companies’ financial performance for the year 2013. 2013 Financial Highlights (Samsung) AMOUNTS IN BILLIONS WON DOLLARS EUROS Net Sales* 302,939.5 268.8 208.4 Total Assets 503,677.1 470.2 356.2 Total Liabilities 279,298.0 260.8 197.5 Total Stockholder's Equity 224,379.1 209.5 158.7 Net Income* 29,537.0 26.2 20.3 * Won/U.S. Dollar yearly average exchange rate : 1,126.88/1$. Won/Euro: 1,453.68/1€  * Won/U.S. Dollar as of the end of December 31, 2012 : 1,071.10/1$. Won/Euro: 1,413.85/1€  (Source: Samsung.com) (Source: MacRumors) Conclusion Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics are the biggest brands in the consumer electronic industry. The two companies are almost similar in their popularity and market share; however, the difference in marketing strategies and product development systems add to their identities and goodwill. Samsung focuses largely on business growth along with innovation; as a result, the company is engaged in a number of business activities in and around electronics. Apple, on the other hand, is product specific and highly innovation-oriented. Apple products are generally treated as superior to others because of their brand value. Both companies identify their specific audience and develop the products desirable for the market trends. They use their websites to address their audience and introduce policy changes on the basis of requirements. Works Cited Apple.com. https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/corporate.html DeMers, Jason. “Here's The Simple Secret To Apple's Marketing Success”. Forbes, 7 Sep 2014. Johnson, Lauren. “Samsung sharpens focus on image-conscious audience with curved screen”. Mobile Marketer, October 1, 2013. Web 8 Nov 2014 http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/manufacturers/16272.html MacRumors. ‘Apple Reports Q4 2013 Year-End Results’. Web http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/28/apple-reports-q4-2013-year-end-results-7-5-billion-profit-on-37-5-billion-in-revenue/ Samsung, History. ‘Fortune Global Top Company, Samsung’. Web 8 Nov 2014. http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/samsung_group/history/ Samsung, Performance. ‘Samsung Profile 2013’. Web 8 Nov 2014 http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/samsung_group/our_performance/ Samsung Whitepaper. Samsung Display Solutions for Transportation. Web 8 Nov 2014. http://www.samsung.com/uk/business-images/resource/white-paper/2014/04/NEW_Samsung_Transportation_Whitepaper-0.pdf Samsung, Philosophy. ‘Values & Philosophy’. Web 8 Nov 2014 http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/samsung_group/values_and_philosophy/ 2012 Sustainability Report. Global Harmony with people, society & environment. Web 8 Nov 2014 http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/sustainability/sustainabilityreports/download/2012/2012_sustainability_rpt.pdf Strategic Minds. The Apple Marketing Strategy. Web 8 Nov 2014. http://www.strategicminds.eu/blog/the-apple-marketing-strategy Samsung, Careers. Web 8 Nov 2014. http://www.samsungtelecom.com/careers/sales-marketing.asp Taube, Aaron. “Apple Could Be Moving Its Entire Ad Strategy Out Of The Mad Men Era And Into The Modern Day”. Business Insider, April 11, 2014. Villapaz, Luke. “How Apple Expands Its Market And Pushes Users To More Expensive Devices”. International Business Times, October 21 2014. Read More