The Marketing Mix Strategy of Samsung LED TVs - Essay Example

?Marketing Mix Table of Contents 0 Introduction 3 2.0 Product 3 2 Features that s Care the Most 4 2.2 Features of Samsung LED TVs vs. Features of its Competitors 4 2.3 Consumers’ Criteria of Choices and Use of LED TVs 5 2.4 Branding of Samsung LED TVs 6 3.0 Price 6 4.0 Place 7 5.0 Promotion 9 6.0 Conclusion/Recommendation 11 References 12 1.0 Introduction The research paper is designed to review the marketing mix of the product “LED Television” produced by the company “Samsung”. The LED television has led to a new dimension in the mode of entertainment through television. The objective of this paper is to focus on the marketing mix used by Samsung to sell its range of brands under the product category “LED television”. Information about each and every category in the marketing mix of Samsung’s LED television will be collected and critically evaluated in this paper. The paper will significantly concentrate on product, price, and place and promotional attributes of the selected product. It was Sony who manufactured a “LED-backlight LCD television” in the year 2004. However, Samsung was the first company to coin the term “LED TV” when they manufactured this product on their range of Edge-LED lit LCD televisions in the year 2009. There are even an enormous number of competitors in the marketplace of LED TVs such as LG, Vizio and Sharp. Focussing on the marketing mix strategy of Samsung LED TVs, the research paper will also try to recommend a few modifications in the existing strategy followed by the company. 2.0 Product The LED (Light Emitting Diodes) is a modern technology in the range of televisions. It has swapped the use of ‘standard florescent tubes’ in television. This technology is used by Samsung for producing high quality and fine images. This section of the research paper will focus on the product qualities that are offered by the company along with the likely qualities sought by the customers. 2.1 Features that Customers Care the Most The features that are mostly sought by customers in the LED TVs are as follows: The images that are displayed by the LED TVs should be livelier The size of the LED TVs are expected to be drastically small, even hardly an inch The LED TVs should be energy savers and consume at least 40% of less power than that of other televisions The images produced by LED TVs are expected to be finer dark Last but not the least, the vibrant images’ quality should make the price paid worthy (Hall, 2011) 2.2 Features of Samsung LED TVs vs. Features of its Competitors The biggest competitors of Samsung LED TVs are Sony. It is better to compare the two with respect to a particular brand for making the differences distinct. Samsung C6500 vs. Sony EX700 The picture of Samsung C6500 has a stellar view with its input of High Definition signals. This feature makes the picture look extremely bright. On the other hand, Sony EX700 has a major drawback of contrast degradation at the side angles that ranges to even more than 15 degrees off-centre. Thus, it is evident that the picture quality of Samsung LED TVs is better than that of Sony’s. The black level/contrast ratio of Samsung is better than that of Sony as in the dark scenes it maintains an inky black view. But the series of Sony EX700 maintains a view that is little ineffective than Samsung C6500. In case of appearance, Sony EX700 has a drawback of framing bezel which is wider. Moreover, it has a depth of 2.25 and a rotating table stand. On the other hand, Samsung C6500 has a depth of just 1.2 inches along with a bezel frame that has thickness of just 1 inch. The “swivelling chrome quadrapod stand” makes it look expensive and attractive (Wiley, 2010). 2.3 Consumers’ Criteria of Choices and Use of LED TVs The most important thing that the consumers look for while deciding to buy an LED TV is the budget. It is important to decide on the amount that they can pay for buying the product as there are quite a few ranges of price in this category. Next, the customer should decide on whether they would prefer to use an edge array LED or a full array LED. This depends on the mode of possible uses by the customers on the basis of the space they can use for placing the TV. The budget should be fixed depending on the range of functionalities desired in the TVs and the second choice is on the basis of the mode of using by the customers. 2.4 Branding of Samsung LED TVs The ranges of televisions offered by Samsung are considered to be the “best brand to buy”. This is because Samsung has continuously manufactured televisions that have always stood up to the level of expectations by its consumers. There is an extensive line up of televisions by Samsung that provides the consumers a number of options to choose from along with an opportunity to buy the best quality product at their presumed budget. A purchase from a trusted name as Samsung that bears a positive history is itself a major advantage to the consumers. 3.0 Price The pricing strategy that Samsung follows in assigning the selling price of its LED TVs differentiates the same from its competitors. This is because Samsung LED TVs are priced according to the ranges of features that are offered. The LED TVs segment of Samsung offers a complete line-up of altogether eight series that ranges from 19 inches to 65 inches. Thus, it can be inferred that with the varied ranges of product and diverse pricing strategies, Samsung LED TVs stand apart from its competitors. The employment of such pricing strategy is rationale for Samsung considering the wider ranges of products offered in the market. This is, in fact, true that consumers preferably buys Samsung LED TVs considering the wide ranges of prices that it has to offer to its customers. Nevertheless, Samsung is likely to face a stiff competition from its competitors such as Vizio that launched its LED TV which is at a price of one-third than its comparably sized model of Samsung. Considering the quality level of Samsung products, customers prefer to strive for Samsung LED TVs. Moreover, Samsung has LED TVs of lower sizes than 32 inches to provide that again puts them strongly in the prevailing competition (Meredith, 2009). 4.0 Place Samsung is a Korean company which is better known as the world’s largest electronic company. Thus, Samsung LED TVs are sold worldwide. The most important aspect that they observe during planning the placing strategy of its LED TVs is the target customers. The target customers for Samsung are the ones who strive for enjoyment through watching of the television and are early adopters of the new innovations with new technologies. The target customers are considered to be the opinion leaders among their peers (Wong, 2010). The locations selected for placing the product or the world market consists of the type of customers mentioned above. It would be incorrect to mention that Samsung LED TVs are consumed by elite classes as they have a wide range of priced products to offer. Thus, the targeted world market is definitely viable to find customers for Samsung LED TVs. This is because the world market consists of different categories of consumers. Samsung LED TVs are not only sold online but also through the retail markets. There is expected unavailability of complete transparency between the online sale details and direct manufacturer sales details. This is because the market varies in case of online sales and retail sales. In addition, it would not be correct to compare the details provided online and those can be accumulated through personal interactions. 5.0 Promotion Samsung follows the STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning) strategy as a part of their marketing communication. In segmenting the market, Samsung follows geographic segmentation by penetrating those regions where the markets are viably accessible. Following the demographic segmentation, Samsung targets those customers who have a craze of adopting the innovative technologies. The psychographic segmentation deals with the lifestyle and personalities of the customers. The people, who lead enjoyable lifestyle and are considered as pioneer in the society, generally show eagerness to buy Samsung LED TVs. Targeting is that strategy in which the marketer targets a particular segment of the market. Under this strategy, Samsung targets two categories of the market. One is the local market and the other is the niche market. The third and perhaps the most important marketing communication strategy followed by Samsung is that of positioning. Samsung positions itself as ‘digital technology leader’ in the minds of the people. It positions itself in the world market as a portfolio of exciting products (Slideshare, 2011). Samsung focuses heavily on the strategy of advertisement for promoting its products in the world market. The company appoints mostly celebrities as its brand ambassadors for the purpose of positioning its products. Apart from the promotion through advertisement, Samsung heavily depends on its distribution network as well. The following is the standard distribution network followed by Samsung in promoting its products. Source: (Slideshare, 2011). Samsung strives to convey the message to its consumers “Turn on Tomorrow”. Through this message, the company endeavors towards a better future with its innovation and advanced technology. This message is Samsung’s brand slogan that motivates its world consumers. The image that Samsung has in the world market is that of the pacer of the pioneering technology. Its consumers believe that Samsung has helped them to keep updated and stay ahead in the modern innovative world. Samsung plans to hold on a number of advertisements for enhancing their communications with its consumers (Corporate News, 2010). 6.0 Conclusion/Recommendation From the discussion on the marketing mix of Samsung LED TVs, it is clear that the popularity and brand belief of Samsung have been created through its several decades’ services. The services are in terms of innovation and up gradation of all modern amenities. As far as the marketing mix of Samsung is concerned, in this modern competitive world, they need to focus more on their promotional activities all over the world. Along with advertisement, the other promotional tools such as direct marketing and personal selling should also be effectively used. Considering the distribution channel that Samsung follows, the network should be more flexible in order that timely deliveries of products can be made at the right time and at the right place. The pricing strategy that Samsung used can be even made flexible for creating more stiff competition in the world market. References Corporate News, (2010). Samsung “TURN ON TOMORROW” In Pursuit of a Better Future. Samsung. Retrieved Online on February 14, 2011 from http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/news/newsRead.do?news_group=corporatenews&news_type=corporate&news_seq=19834 Hall, J., (2011). Samsung LED LCD TV Features. Ezine Articles. Retrieved Online on February 14, 2011 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Samsung-LED-LCD-TV-Features&id=4313496 Slideshare, (2011). Samsung Presentation on International Marketing. Samsung. Retrieved Online on February 14, 2011 from http://www.slideshare.net/abhiroopsur/samsung-presentation-on-international-marketing-presentation Meredith, L., (2009). LED TV Prices to Drop in 2010. Livescience. Retrieved Online on February 14, 2011 from http://www.livescience.com/9781-led-tv-prices-drop-2010.html Wiley, R., (2010). Samsung C6500 vs. Sony EX700. LED TV Reviews. Retrieved Online on February 14, 2011 from http://led-tvbuyingguide.com/ledtvreviews/best-led-tv-shootout.html Wong, E., (2010). Samsung: Innovation Sells in a Recession. Brand Week. Retrieved Online on February 14, 2011 from http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i5c964e4d188f558105a303759915f559 Read More