Samsung- The Making of a Global Brand - Case Study Example

? Samsung- The Making of a Global Brand SAMSUNG- THE MAKING OF A GLOBAL BRAND Q By 2002, Samsung was rated as one of the top 3 players in the global mobile handset market. Analysts attributed Samsung's success to its marketing initiatives. Discuss the role of marketing in Samsung's success. Samsung had a vision to become a global leader in the era of emerging digital convergence that is defined by the combination into one product of different products, as well as the linking of many technologies using a single network. The company underwent a huge transition to a high-end technological manufacturer whose focus was on the B2C market from the B2B market. Most technology consumers had come to associate Samsung with poor quality products. In order to alter the perception with regards to its products, Samsung came up with a restructuring process through a careful study that saw them alter their marketing strategy to meet these challenges. Samsung Electronics altered its strategy from technological segmentation to lifestyle segmenting. They started by carrying out extensive market research aimed at manufactured products, which were reflective of the customers’ lifestyle rather than those with technological features that were specific. By using segmentation by lifestyle, Samsung segmented their market followed by product positions. Samsung focused, on the quality of their products in their marketing, to change the image that consumers in the market had in their products. Samsung implemented quality initiatives like six sigma and various initiatives of manufacturing, like assembly manufacturing, to enhance their output via optimal resource utilization. Samsung also developed new products that were technologically superior and innovative. They developed products that were high end and fun for the phone sector to appeal to the preferences of customers in the market. Samsung integrated features like access dictionaries and the religious texts to appeal to local consumers. In addition, their 50-gram phone was introduced that while it did not significantly increase sales volumes, aided Samsung in projecting its image as a high-tech company. Samsung also associated their company with sport events, for example, by becoming the official sponsor of the Seoul Olympics that boosted its visibility worldwide. Q#2: Compared to established rivals like Sony, Matsushita, and Nokia, Samsung was a late entrant in the global consumer electronics market. Comment on Samsung’s brand building initiatives in the global consumer electronics market. Samsung, beginning in 1993, sought to create a global brand and acquire a new corporate identity. To start with, Samsung altered their logo, writing their full name in white against a blue background, which sought to represent warmth, reliability, and stability. Samsung was also looking to the global market, which informed their decision to change their brand name to English for the consumers worldwide to remember easily. It is also said that the design of their logo, which has the letters S and G partially breaking into the exterior of the oval was representative of Samsung’s will to appeal to the consumer’s wish to be connected to a company and their innovations. They also needed to improve their brand image in the market and they did this by offering technologically advanced and innovative products, as well as the initiation of worldwide marketing activities. These steps were taken with the view of increasing their brand visibility across the world. Samsung also sought to attach the name of their brand to quality and this saw them change their focus to high-end market products from those in the low end. Their new product designs won the IDE awards, which increased their brand awareness. This led to Samsung, by the early part of the century, to emerge as one of the world’s biggest brand in the cell phone sector. Their high prices were qualified by their high technology, coupled to additional features that they added to their products in comparison to their competitors like Nokia. These technologies included the ability to send emails and play electronic games, which improved their image as a progressive and innovative company. This all acted to increase the awareness of their brand. Samsung also sought to build its image through the provision of information regarding the company via radio and TV commercial, as well as media events, all over the world. They also invited various journalists to their country of origin giving them a detailed picture of Samsung’s operation, in the hope that they would comment positively on the company in their technology articles. This all combined to create a powerful brand image for Samsung across the world. Q#3: Which one of Samsung’s marketing strategies was mainly responsible for its success as a global brand? In what way did it help Samsung? Discuss. Samsung’s centralization of its advertising activities was a major step in revamping its marketing activities, and was one of the most important steps in its success as a global brand. This was because it allowed Samsung to come up with a globally streamlined campaign for their products that sought to highlight the technological superiority of Samsung’s products. This centralization of marketing activities allowed Samsung launch a new branding campaign with a global outlook; its globalized campaign was broadcast to about thirty countries with a centralized budget. This allowed Samsung to broadcast the same advert over different channels worldwide with their ad campaigns in the US and the UK, which were the major target markets for Samsung. This centralization allowed the organization to launch across other countries where Samsung had presence. Through this, they were involved in sponsoring regional and global levels. This centralized marketing strategy allowed Samsung to tweak some aspects of their marketing campaigns and guarantee that the same message was delivered globally and uniformly. It was reported their global brand campaign, aided by this centralized strategy, increased awareness of their brand by 7.5% between 2000 and 2001 with brand awareness in the US market and preference for Samsung products increasing by 17.7% for the same period. This marketing strategy was also enhanced, by their adoption of the online marketing, to reach more consumers globally. This saw the organization, buy ad space on BusinessWeek.com, Forbes.com, and Fortune.com among others. Finally, they integrated all their media forms to manage their promotions in real time globally and connect all their consumers around the world. Q#4: Do you think Samsung can beat Sony only through aggressive marketing without bringing out any technologically advanced products? Samsung declared in 2001 that they were out to beat Sony for global brand awareness strength by the year 2005. However, their global brand building initiatives needs Samsung to concentrate on the manufacture of high technology products rather than simply through aggressive marketing. While it is true that Samsung does manufacture DVD/VCRs, MP3 players, digital cameras, and televisions, the US market is more complicated for them because this market has a high demand for PCs and stereos, which Samsung does not make. In addition, the DVD players and walkman were still taken as the quality benchmark for consumer electronic sources, which means that aggressive marketing will not serve a significant purpose, as they do not have products that the market is looking for. In addition, Samsung has dealings with Sony, as Sony is their largest electronic chip customer, which means that any aggressive marketing could not directly target Sony in their marketing campaign. They would have to come up with new products that will compete directly with Sony’s products. There is also skepticism regarding their main products and their marketability with prices of PDAs, cell phones, and PCs dropping, as well as the inability to fund research and development because falling chip prices, which are its main source of income, would have a huge effect on their investment in this area. This will further hurt their ability to market their product aggressively. Simply, Samsung needs to invest more money in new technological products to compete with Sony. Read More