Samsung

Samsung: Building a Great Brand Presented By: Michael Baccus, Marcial De Castro, Judith Dupin, Monica O’Neil, and Jose Santillan Marketing Management- MAR 3023-P80 October 5, 2011 Samsung grew its brand equity by 186 percent in just five years from 2000 to 2005. “Brand equity is the value of the brand name, its worth as an asset to the company. ” (Marketing Principles, 2011, Module 6 p. 1). When new management came into the South Korean based firm, it scraped the all the various brand names that the company was selling low end electronics under, and consolidated by branding all of the company’s products as Samsung. Ten years later,

Samsung is a force to be reckoned with to its competitors and a global brand name. However, the decision to only use the brand name Samsung is not the critical key to its success. Samsung has focused on innovation and product design to build its brand equity and it is working. Samsung implemented different innovative ways to inspire and deliver great designs. The former chairman hired hundreds of new designers, implemented usability laboratories, and opened design centers around the world. The investment in product design, the progressive culture, and Samsung’s ability to step outside the box has all been invaluable in uilding a great brand. The critical activity in the process of Samsung’s transformation into a world- beating developer of new cell phone handset designs and other product line designs was its innovation with investment in product design and quality. Samsung built its brand into a superior brand by thinking and acting outside of the box. Instead of focusing on textbook product development funnels, it focused on more cutting edge methods such as the implementation design centers staffed with highly trained, creative, and skilled young designers and no bureaucracy to get in the way of design and innovation.

According to Roll (2011), “Samsung has created a strong brand around innovation, cutting edge technology and world class design. ” (para. 1). Samsung Chairman Lee Kun Hee concluded that “great design and innovation would be the way to build Samsung into a great global brand,” and he was correct (Marketing Principles, Module 6, p. 1). Instead of forming panels and hiring managers or more marketers to come up with new gimmicks, he hired hundreds of designers. The designers were from prestigious colleges of design and had an average age of just 33. The design force at Samsung multiplied y over 400% to over 400 designers in 10 years. This out of the take on product development allowed Samsung to transform its product line into world class. Competitors such as Sony have also followed in Samsung’s footsteps. According to Kunkel: “With nearly 250 industrial designers; graphic, packaging, and logotype designers; user- interface specialists and Web designers working in offices from Tokyo to San Francisco to Cologne, the Sony Design Center is responsible for nearly 2,000 new products, concepts, packaging schemes and design strategies every year, driving sales of products nd services totaling nearly $50 billion per year” (Product Description, para. 2). Although Sony also employs a lot of designers, Samsung still leads the industry in allowing their designs to inspire innovation. Samsung’s progressive culture of effective, efficient, and fast implementation is part of its advantage over competitors. According to the dynamic theory of competition presented in Marketing Principles (2011): “Suppliers with an insatiable improvement drive are more competitive. ” “Suppliers who implement effectively, efficiently, and faster are more competitive. ” (Module 1 p. 6).

Samsung changes its product line three times as fast as its competition such as Motorola. Samsung has shown agility, according to Marketing Principles (2011) “… i. e. the ability to implement change to change processes to introduce new technologies, new skills into the organization very quickly and effectively” (Module 1 p. 7). Change is managed very well at Samsung and they have lower manufacturing cost on top of their time to market being faster than that of competitors. Samsung avoids bureaucracy at its 24/7 design centers. Designers can work through problems without being delayed by non-productive orporate presentations and politics. Samsung has a constant focus on improvement and being faster and implementing the next innovation before the completion. Fackler (2006) explained, “”Our TVs are better,” Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony’s chief financial officer, said in an interview earlier this year. ”But Samsung’s cash flow is amazing. It is hard to invest in and develop products” at the same pace as Samsung. ” (para. 23). Samsung’s use of usability laboratories have been key in its market orientation skills and understanding the user interface. Samsung does not follow the textbook best-practice of product development, which is idely now considered “yesterday’s best practice” in product development. According to Marketing Principles, Samsung uses concurrent engineering and fast prototyping in an around the clock approach to problem solving (Module 6 Case 2 p. 1). The traditional best practice only produces a success rate of 50 percent in product development. This out dated way of thinking is burdened with “gates”. These gates are where bureaucracy in an organization can delay forward movement of the product design. Samsung has “decentralized” and broke away from this way of development.

It is actually criticized in the case study with the example of the use of Samsung’s design centers. Product development is free to develop in a creative environment without lawyers or other hold ups. Samsung has taken its out of the box approach and its investment in design and turned it into profits. As Marketing Principles explains, according to the current CEO of Samsung “we still have a lot of things to do before we are a great company. ” (Module 6 Case 2 p. 2) With that approach and its constant drive to beat itself, The Samsung brand equity is likely to continue to grow. References:

Marketing Principles. (2011). Portsmouth, NH: Backbone Press Frackler, M. (2006). Electronics company aims to create break-out product. The New York Times, p. C. 1. Kunkel, P. (1999, September 4). Product Description [Review of the book Digital Dreams: The Work of the Sony Design Center]. Amaonz. com. Retrieved from http://www. amazon. com/Digital-Dreams-Work-Design-Center/dp/0789302624 Roll, M. (2011). Samsung: Building brand equity through brand community. Venture Republic. Retrieved from http://www. venturerepublic. com/resources/Samsung_Building_brand_equity_through_brand_community. asp

Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers; Samsung Electronics is also South Korea’s top electronics company. It makes many kinds of consumer devices, including DVD players, digital TVs, and digital still cameras; computers, color monitors, LCD panels, and printers; semiconductors such as DRAMs, static RAMs, flash memory, and display drivers; and communications devices ranging from wireless handsets and smart phones to networking gear. The company, which is the flagship member of Samsung Group, also makes microwave ovens, refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines.

Nearly half of sales come from the Asia/Pacific region. Top industries for Samsung Electronics Co. are memory chip and module manufacturing, communications chip manufacturing, wireless telephone handset manufacturing. Samsung is no longer the company that it used to be, it is a company that has put in a lot effort and money for changing its reputation. Today, Samsung is striving and growing into one of the most successful companies ever. It has an extensive product line that caters to many different people. It no longer operates on low profits; it’s striving on the highest.

Therefore, let us look at the SWOT Analysis of Samsung to give an idea of how the company is operating in the world. All three companies are strong, despite Samsung takes almost a half of market share. Still Samsung has lots of thing to work on here, in Kazakhstan. I have made an analysis of all three web sites of Samsung, LG and Sony, compared them and indicated Samsung’s weak sides. Samsung. com/kz Samsung doesn’t have a local web site in Kazakhstan. While entering it for the first time system asks to indicate your location. When choose Kazakhstan, Russian language is chosen by default. It is also worth to mention that in Kazakhstani version of website Russian is the only language, Kazakh is not represented.

Generally web site is not very easy to use, even though most of major stuff represented on the main page. The problem is that in order to find an item customer is really has to search for it, using all these tabs and vertical search. Customer cannot just browse web site without knowing what exactly he wants. The main page represents new Samsung products as Samsung Galaxy Note II, Smart TV sets, etc. After clicking on the product you’d like to buy it immediately redirects you to product’s profile page where presented all the information about it, including Store Locator.

The problem with this locator that it works only in huge cities, engine does not allow to narrow search to smaller towns or districts. So, for example, if I live in Almaty and I want to buy smartphone, web-site will give the list of all distributors located in Almaty, not the nearest to me. Also, it doesn’t show the prices and discount that different distributors have. Instead they offer to call them by ourselves. The possible reason to this is security issues that require lot of financial investments.

Also profile page contains the feature called “Compare with other devices” where you can choose up to 5 devices and compare it in terms of technical characteristics. But this is all that Samsung offers as pre-order feature. They do not have any video review of products, 3D models of them, panoramic photos and many other things that could possibly engage them with new customers. Samsung actively works on creating local brand communities as on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. With help of those communities they try to engage together all Samsung current and possible customers.

Another option that web-site introduces is collaboration with KupiKipon company, which provides coupons and discounts on selected Samsung production. To become a participant, customers, firstly, have to enter into Samsung Premium Club, only then all features as KupiKupon will be available, as well as many other options like discounts for AirAstana, service of Toyota service Center, etc. Sony. kz Web site of Sony has Kazakhstani domain and as well as Samsung’s web site, it has not got any possibility of changing language to Kazakh or English. Web site is also quite easy to use, I would say much easier than Samsung’s.

Sony also does not have feature of buying online and store locator, no list of distributors and anything that could somehow get interest of Kazakhstani customers, seems like the web site is made for Russian customers with domain name . kz. Sony runs technical and customer support program that allows Sony production owners to upgrade, fix their gadget almost for free. They have created various brand communities in different social network in order to gather together their old and new customers, organize contests and actions. LG. kz

The web site of LG is pretty similar to Sony’s, especially in terms of search engine: it is very easy to use it. First of all the structure of site is very different from previous two: it all compact and arranged from left to right, so we do not have to scroll page up and down. The main page is divided on three parts: left, central and right. The first ad the last never changes, like a banner ad, they represent the list of production, vertical search and news and actions respectively. The central part is the most active, like a working are, where customer can look through products he chose, compare them and make a final decision.

But in comparison to Sony and Samsung only limited line of production is presented on their web site – only latest models. As LG has a domain name . kz, still default language is Russian and no possibility to change if to any other, only if change the location. Also as two previous web sites, LG does not have an option of buying production online (direct distribution). As it was mentioned earlier, this option might not be used because of very high financial expenses. So web site has only one direct task – to introduce new production to public. As well as Sony, LG has not got any information about it distributors or shops.

LG works a lot on CRM: they create brand communities on different social networks, provide customers with free OS upgrades and free application for their phones, microsite for SMART TV owners. Also they were the only who presented option for slow Internet connection, possibly aware of bad Internet in Kazakhstan. Customer relationship management (CRM) We are looking on internet strategy of Samsung Company. So, CRM in this case should not only manage a company’s interactions with customers, clients, and sales prospects, but also use technology, internet to organize, and synchronize business processes.

The goal is to find new clients, and safe those which company already have. Looking on the brochure that we received from representative of Samsung in KIMEP, we can make conclusion that now we know some characteristics of described printers, but nothing where to buy it. So, customer have to do it own research, to find where he could buy a product in which he is interested. Moreover, the lady that was representative is just from event agency. She cannot tell anything about the product in which students were interested, but which were not presented on the stand and material she learned.

This small research showed us how it is hard for customers find the shop were to buy the product they need. For sure it is cheaper to pay once lady from the agency for representing the material, rather than open department dealing with this. But, we thing department will be more productive, because they can answer on more questions, than just learned. Or not spending more money lady-representative can refer to the site, where customer can find more information about interested product. Also, site should be written on the brochure. Recommendations

While researching Samsung site, we found that company does not represent online shopping or delivery services as all sales go trough distributors and Samsung don’t interfere into contact between customers and dealers. Samsung has no official shop in Almaty or any other cities of Kazakhstan. As we understood their main aim is dealing with promotions, PR, advertisement and publicity. In Kazakhstan many products that are resell by disturbers always have special additional price that have a huge difference between initial and final prices.

It would be a good idea if Samsung on their site near the products placed their prices so customers will know at first hand the cost of the product. On the other hand it could cause discontent of distributor since clients choose negotiated price of other dealers or no profit will be gained. Samsung in advance can discus and find the optimal additional price for distributors so both customers and dealers will be satisfied. Here is the situation; Customer is surfing Samsung site to find the product he or she liked and willing to by right away.

Site provides all dealers addresses and contact numbers and this entire list is about50 shops around one city. Customer need to find on the Google maps of any other gadget where these shops located. While processing all the Almaty streets aspiration can go away and company loosing a potential client. We suggest directing present location of the customer and pick out top 5 closest shops to get product they like. No need for searching and finding out which store is right next to your location. This novation facilitates search and willing to own Samsung products.

Any tracking for products creates a desire to possess and enjoy them. Samsung can create online delivery through dealers just right on their site. No potential customer is missed and no dealer left without profit. This ability gives a client to choose any dealer and store he liked and order the product without leaving home. Another convenient option would be listing all Samsung goods dealers have in the moment. It can ease life and prevent the buyer in the way there will be no need to have a long ride to the store and find out that good you need is out of stock.

Very often happens the situation when a client came to buy a Samsung product but because it is out of stock shop assistance offer goods of other companies, which is detrimental for Samsung sales. The main aim of dealers is to make a potential customer buy and if there is no special product he or she needs they can easily find a substitute as the world of technology is extensive and easily replaceable. Process improvement What makes Samsung’s potential customers to enter the site and search it further? Most important page on the whole website is main page. It makes client be interested in products company offer.

Is Apple better than Samsung?

Along with the rapid development of science and technology, electronic products has become a very important part of our life. And there are many electronic companies in the world such as Apple, Sony and Samsung. Apple and Samsung are two of the most famous electronic companies in the world.

They both produce abundant kinds of electronic products such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. So there are many comparisons of these two companies’ products.

Apple Inc.  Business Overview

In 2011, there is a lawsuit of Apple accused the Samsung that they damage their many patents in samrtphones and tablets fields (Jackson, 3).

Also Apple’s complaint included specific federal claims for patent infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition, and trademark infringement, as well as state-level claims for unfair competition.

Although Apple won the lawsuit, however after that the Samsung accused Apple as well. And these lawsuits are still continuous. These make people pay more attention of the comparison of the two companies. Many people want to know which one is the best electronic company in the world. To answer this question different people have different ideas.

Most people think Apple is better, however others prefer Samsung. And, following are researches about the two companies, they will tell people the reasons that why Apple is better. Apple Inc. is an multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers.

The company was founded on April 1, 1976, and incorporated on January 3, 1977. There are many kinds of products that it produce, however Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

Also, Case Study will describe why Apple Inc. is a very successful company.

Its software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems and the iTunes media browser ( Fisher , 3). Apple is the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia.

Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012 (Fisher, 5).

However, the company has received widespread criticism for its contractors’ labor practices, and for Apple’s own environmental and business practices (Musgrove, 35).All these things tell us that Apple is a successful company and it have a powerful strength.

This logo is the logo of the Apple Inc. The silvery white give a person with science and technology feeling. This is the meaning of the logo: the bite off the gap arouse the curiosity of people, doubt, want to know the taste of apple will personally have a taste (Niv N. P. ). According to Michael M. Scott the former president of Apple Inc. “it is the most expensive and creative logo ever designed. “( para, 5)

Samsung Company Overview

Samsung is a South Korean multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul.

It comprises numerous subsidiaries and affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean company. Samsung produces around a fifth of South Korea’s total exports and its revenues are larger than many countries’ GDP; in 2006, it would have been the world’s 35th-largest economy.

The company has a powerful influence on South Korea’s economic development, politics, media, and culture, and has been a major driving force behind the “Miracle on the Han River” (kelly, 56). Samsung is also a great company, it is the South Korea’s national industry.

And it is the pride of all the South Korea people. As well Samsung is a company has a long history, it was made up in 1938, and with the 75 years of development, it has became a world-class company.

Samsung also has many famous products, but the most well-known is the Galaxy series products, such as smartphones Galaxy s3 and tablets Galaxy note2.

This figure is the logo of Samsung company, it is a concise and clear design, and the sideling background expressed Samsung people’s positive and enterprising spirit (Niv N. P. ).

All the above show people the powerful of the Samsung company, it has the strength to compete with the Apple company. With the fast development of technology, a lot of new stuff appeared. These products become the most powerful things to prove the technology of their company.

Many experts do researches to compare these products of two companies because products can tell people the quality of each company clearly. In addition, all the products top class products from smartphones and tablets market. Such as iphone5 and galaxy s3. People compare every details of them and try find which one is better.

Through Chaffin’s research people can found that a lot of evidences that believe iphone5 is better. Firstly, iphone5 unveiled at 2012 September, at the first week, iPhone 5 sold millions. Even galaxy s3 sold 10 million units during 4 months, iphone5 just cost 7 days got the half number of galaxy s3 sold for four months( Chaffin, 1).

Then, he make some further analysis that start with design. The thick of iphone5 is 7. 6mm and galaxy3 is 8. 6 mm. iPhone 5 just makes the body as thin as possible, a full millimeter less than Samsung galaxy 3. ( Chaffin, 3). And apple has also try to make the phone feel a bit less severe in the hand.

Even there also had some slight issue happened on iphone5, because of a part of outer skin made by aluminum, the character is more easier be scratched. A lot of user feels a little angry about this.

Next, for the screen, obviously, galaxy 3’s is bigger. but Apple’s technology is higher. it makes the screen looks more clear. For power, just like before iPhone always use non-removable battery and galaxy use removable battery(Chaffin, 3). According to this research, they think iPhone5 is better than galaxy s3. From this, Apple is better than Samsung in Smartphone field.

When it comes to tablet market. According to Catanzariti the tablet expert ,”New pad have the best scream –‘retina’. The ‘retina’ screen is by far and away the best display on any mobile device we’ve come across. (page, 2) . People can see the texts on this screen more clearly and easily. Even Photos and videos look bright and vivid can have a better presentation. The iPad’s screen is so sharp that it constantly highlights the low quality of many images on the Internet ( Catanzariti, para3). By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. 1 has a larger screen with a rather standard low resolution.

Whatever from the definition or the presentation of texts and pictures Samsung Galaxy Note less the than the new iPad. This means it won’t be able to display the same super crisp text as higher resolution screens. ( Catanzariti, para5). So most researchers prefer New iPad, and it can prove that Apple is better than Samsung in tablet field. In computer market, Apple is better , Apple’s computers such as Macbook is one of the top class computers in the world, and Samsung do not has any computer reach it. Young people prefer Apple’s computers because its fashion appearance design and they give them a sense of science and technology.

However, Samsung’s computer do not have these factors, just have a common appearance. Adult people prefer Apple’s computers because they have a perfect operating system, and it very helps for design and other professional works. In addition , Apple computers users are more than 3 times of Samsung’s users in the USA.

Costumer Satisfaction

Researchers also do many researches of satisfaction. According to J. D. POWER& ASSOCIATES 2012 U. S. TABLET SATISFACTION STUDY, apple tablets are tops in customer satisfaction. The study measured satisfaction using five factors on a combined 1,000 point among customer who used their tablet for less than 2 years.

The factors include such as performance, ease of operation, styling and design, features, and price. Apple’s tablet satisfaction is most high, achieving a score of 848 by considering well in performance, ease of operation, styling and design, and features. Amazon followed closely at 841, and Samsung came in third as got 827 rating. And below the industry average of 832 points, followed by Acer, Barnes &Noble, and HP. Gap between Samsung and Apple’s score of 21.

Although it is a low number, his is not a number to be ignored, because the users number of their tablets are very high. In comparison with the only Apple and Samsung, as this research, customer prefer Apple’s tablet more than Samsung’s tablet. Some people can say that this study alone, in this paper’s conclusion, cannot say Apple is better. However, the survey was based on experiences reported by 1,985 tablet owners in July 2012. (Calif, para 6)

Overall satisfaction was 857 among owners who watch three or more hours of video per week on their tablet, or 45 points more than people who don’t. Calif, para7) In addition, people who spend three or more hours seeing video are more likely to purchase another tablet from their current manufacturer in the future than are those who do not watch as much video content, the company said. The percentages are 90 percent and 81 percent, respectively.

The survey also found that tablet owners spend 7. 5 hours per week browsing the Internet, watching videos, listening to music and reading books on their device compared with 9. 6 hours per week on a personal computer for the same activities. As can see, tablet was used various functions and multiple perform by applications that use the master. Calif, para 8) When seen from a variety of used tablet, Can expect that the Apple tablet preference and other Apple’s products are also better than Samsung’s one.

As mentioned earlier in this paper, as well as that Apple can be seen to people to more go ahead and advanced technology, productivity than Samsung’s did. With the researches above, more people prefer Apple. However according to the Beer Jeff the author of [APPLE SMASHER “In the second quarter of 2012, Samsung shipped about 50 million smartphones, the most ever sipped in a single quarter by any vendor, according to market research firms Strategic Analytics and IDC Worldwide.

By contrast, in the latest quarter Apple sold 26 million iPhones and Research In Motion shipped just 7. 4 million Blackberries”. (Para 7) He also discusses about the consumer goods company Samsung, and also pay attention on the Samsung’s business strategies about how Samsung can selling more smartphones than the company Apple. Besides this article include what different between Samsung and Apple’s social media marketing, hardware and software. However, he just talk about the sales of only one year and only in the smartphone field.

When it comes to the whole electronic products market share, Apple takes more parts than Samsung. The user of Apple of electronic products is also more than the users of Samsung. In addition, after the Samsung lost the lawsuit, many Samsung users sold their phones, they wonder some functions of Samsung phones would not work.

Difference between Samsung and Apple

Therefore, competition continues to be positive, and the evolving technology in consumer products to better fit their own would pick that. (Carrier, 6) The two companies all have their advantages and shortcomings, they are better than each other in different fields, but with the comparison they have, the both becoming better. In conclusion, this paper shows the various aspects, the current technology in society the more advanced the opinion that Apple’s products have.Samsung indispensable to Apple is a good competitor, Of these two companies compete, consumers are able to access the more advanced technology. These positive competition exist Samsung and Apple, and the company has made efforts to better technology and customer service.

Works Cited

• Catanzariti, Ross. “Tablet comparison: Apple new iPad vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 10. 1. ” Web. 10 August. 2012.
• Chaffin, Bryan. Spec Comparison: Apple’s iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S3: The Mac Observer. 15 Sep 2012.
• Print. Calif, Apple, Amazon Tablets. Tops In User Satisfaction:TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics, 1 October. 2012.
• Beer, Jeff. “Apple smasher”. 10/29/2012, Vol. 85 Issue 17, p54-57, 4p, 5 Color Photographs. Mlot, Stephanie. ” Galaxy S III Helps Samsung Widen Smartphone Lead Over Apple. ” Jul 2012, p1-1, 1p. –, “Apple Investor Relations “FAQ, Apple inc.
• Retrieved March 2, 2007.
• Kelly , Olsen . “Samsung chairman resigns over scandal”. Associated Press via Google News. Archived from the original. Retrieved June 4, 22. Jackson, White International Business Times. “Apple vs. Samsung-The Legal Battle”. 05 Oct. 2012
• Fisher, Anne “America’s Most Admired Companies”. Fortune 157 (5): 65–67. March 17, 2008 Carrier, Michael A. “A Roadmap to the Smartphone Patent Wars and FRAND Licensing” (PDF). CPI Antitrust Chronicle (Social Science Electronic Publishing). Retrieved July 27, 2012.

Samsung marketing strategy in China Nowadays, China’s communication industry is developing rapidly, and China has become the biggest mobile phone market all over the world. There are many international renowned mobile phone manufactures and local producers in this market and these companies are competing fiercely in China’s mobile phone industry. It is known that, in 1999, when the domestic mobile phone brands entered the mobile phone market, few people had expected that the domestic mobile phone brands would survive in this market.

However, with the passage of time, the local brands made great development and their total market share surpassed that of the international mobile phone giants including Nokia and Motorola. In 2001, the market share of domestic mobile phone was 15%; in 2002, the rate was more than 30%; and in 2003, the market share rose to more than 50%, which was a historical breakthrough for the domestic brands. However, since 2004, the condition of China-made mobile phones has become negative.

As the competition in this market gets fiercer, foreign mobile phone manufactures are consistently developing new brands and improving their distribution channels, and the domestic brands have lost the once-owned channel advantages. Because of some problems of domestic mobile phone industry, the market share rate has dropped dramatically, and most of the domestic mobile phone companies have suffered great losses. What was worse, some domestic mobile phone enterprises such as PANDA, EASTCOM, and SHOUXIN were so badly defeated that they were out of the Chinese mobile phone market.

In this market with fierce competition, Samsung–a Korean mobile phone brand has developed quickly in recent years and continuously won the first place in market share. As one of the world’s top three major mobile phone manufacturers and the Korea phone leader, Samsung mobile phone’s product concept is “fashion-leading technology”. Its brand development strategy is to create the best products in the world. Samsung has created many number ones, such as the world’s first mobile phone that has a rotating screen–SGH-V200, the world’s first MP3 phone, the world’s first TV phone, watch phone and the world’s first CDMA/GSM dual-mode mobile phone.

Samsung mobile phone is taking the high-end product strategy, which is different from Nokia and Motorola. In the high-end electronics market, Samsung is always the first to launch a variety of superior products and it always makes high profits by virtue of time advantage. In China in the year 2008, Samsung introduced 20 models of mobile phones, of which the appearance, the function and the quality are designed with advanced concepts, innovative technologies and world-class standard.

Samsung mobile phones are always popular in China and the other countries all over the world. The success of the Samsung mobile phone enterprise in China lies in its unique industry background and professional strengths, and the company also benefits from research and development and the marketing strategies which are compatible with the environment. Marketing strategy is the marketing logic whereby the company hopes to achieve its marketing objectives, which includes special strategies for target markets, positioning, the marketing mix and marketing expenditure levels.

Once the overall competitive marketing strategy is set, the company is ready to begin planning the details of the Marketing Mix, one of the major concepts in modern marketing. The Marketing Mix consists of many variables that the company should do to increase its product demand. These variables are known as the 4Ps: product, price, promotion and place (distribution). The reasonable Marketing Mix could help the company to establish strong positioning in the target markets. Based on the understanding of the importance of 4Ps Marketing Mix and its impact on China’s mobile phone industry, this paper is divided into five chapters.

Chapter one is the introduction. It briefly introduces the research background and its academic and practical implications. Chapter two is the thorough analysis of current domestic mobile phone market. After the introduction to China’s mobile phone development history, this chapter mainly analyzes the internal and external environment of China’s mobile phone industry by virtue of the SWOT Analysis Method. Though the analysis, it is known that domestic mobile phones have some advantages, such as the cost advantage, localization advantage and fast market reaction advantage.

The weaknesses of domestic mobile phones are that the core technologies are weak, mobile phone qualities are not guaranteed, there is serious product homogenization and most of the domestic mobile phone enterprises are on a small scale. It is certain that the local mobile phone industry has many opportunities for its development, which include the sound economic conditions, the support from the government, the coming of the 3G era and the coming of phone replacement rush. However, domestic mobile phone companies do face some threats, such as the threats from copycat mobile phones and the international mobile phone’s fierce competition.

Chapter three is the introduction to Samsung mobile phone and the analysis of its successful marketing strategies in China. In this chapter, it is known that Samsung’s successful marketing strategies could mainly be expressed by the variables in its Marketing Mix. In product, Samsung is always focusing on producing high quality products to build strong brand image and enhance the brand value, offering perfect after sale services to own good reputation, launching continuous product innovation to maintain brand image and brand vitality and supplying distinctive and fashionable designs to maintain brand differences.

In price, Samsung has effectively assessed the value and the quality of its digital electronic products, the importance of the product’s unique, stylish design and knows that the consumers are willing to pay high price for such products, and therefore it adopted the skim pricing strategy. In channel strategies, Samsung has always insisted on national agents, and it has prudently selected the national agents to do its distribution. In terms of the promotion strategies, Samsung always focuses on unifying advertising agencies and launching a series of effective advertising campaigns.

Two of its excellent promotion strategies are launching a variety of sports sponsorship, focusing on Olympic TOP Program and making use of entertainment activities to enhance fashion marketing, which proved to be qui te effective. Chapter four concluded some implications to the local mobile phone industry. It is suggested that, in terms of the product, the domestic manufactures should master and develop core technologies, enrich the product line and produce more high-end products.

Samsung Background Samsung is a Korean company that has risen to prominence in many fields over the years. The size and the scope of the company is almost unimaginable, as they are one of the largest and most diverse companies in the world. While the company is mostly known for their technology division (cell phones, radios, MP3 players, computer screens, and the like) they have many other divisions as well. The company has expanded from a humble storefront launched in the late 1930s to the largest company in Korea and the second largest company in the world.

Samsung Group, was founded in 1938 by Byung-Chull Lee, a celebrated Korean entrepreneur. Lee started a small trading company with a $2,000 nest egg and 40 employees. He called it Samsung, which means ‘three stars’ in Korean. The company enjoyed moderate growth before the Communist invasion in 1950 forced Lee to abandon his operations in Seoul. Lee established a sugar refinery in 1953, a move that was criticized at the time because sugar could be easily obtained through American aid.

But for Lee, the act was important because it was the first manufacturing facility built in South Korea after the Korean War. From sugar, wool, and other commodity businesses, Lee moved into heavier manufacturing. The company prospered under Lee’s philosophy of making Samsung the leader in each industry he entered. In addition to the electronics division, which is the most profitable and successful one in the world, the company also has forayed into finance, chemicals, retail, and straight-up entertainment – all with great degrees of success.

The company employs many of South Korea’s finest employees, including many with PHD level education. This is not surprising, seeing as the company’s assets total somewhere around $300 billion. The company has some of the most loyal employees around and many work every day – that means no holiday time off or weekends — both because they want to and it is expected. Samsung as A Learning Organization A learning organization have five component of knowledge management, there are : Culture and Trust; Knowledge Worker; Supporting Facilities;

Kashun Davis TMAN 680 Fall 2012 Balanced Scorecard: Samsung Samsung is the technology-based organization that will be the subject for my Balanced Scorecard. Founded in 1938 in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. engages in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of finished electronic products and device solutions worldwide. They offer consumer products, including mobile phones, tablets, televisions, Blu-rays, DVD players, home theaters, multimedia players; home appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, etc; Laptops and personal computers.

The company also designs and manufactures integrated circuits for digital information storage in consumer electronics. It has operations in Korea, U. S. , Europe, Asia, Africa, Africa and China. Because of the large size of the Samsung Corporation, I will focus on Samsung smartphones, one of their technology-intensive business units. The vision of Samsung: “Samsung is dedicated to developing innovative technologies and efficient processes that create new markets, enrich people’s lives, and continue to make Samsung a digital leader. Their mission statement, “At Samsung, we follow a simple business philosophy: to devote our talent and technology to creating superior products and services that contribute to a better global society. Samsung’s net sales have risen from 158. 9 billion in 2007 to 220. 1 billion in 2011. Their total assets grew from 280. 8 billion in 2007 to 343. 7 billion in 2011. Unfortunately their total liabilities went from 181. 7 billion in 2007 to 202. 6 billion in 2011. Stockholder’s equity almost doubled from 80. billion in 2007 to 141. 1 billion in 2011. Samsung’s net income also increased from 12. 9 billion in 2007 to 21. 2 billion in 2011. It’s also not strange to see their employee base increase due to their explosive growth over this five-year time p. They had 254,000 employees in 2007 and now have over 344,000 employees in 2011 (“About Samsung,” 2010). Their electronics division has 190,500 employees at the end of 2011. With respect to the Smartphone business unit out of the 1. billion mobile phones sold worldwide in 2011, Samsung accounted for 330 million of those units. Their Galaxy S II sold more than 20 million units since its launch in 2011. In 2012, Samsung launched the Galaxy S III and expects to strengthen their brand and increase market share in the mobile phone arena (“About Samsung,” 2010). The balanced scorecard is defined as a management system that maps an organization’s strategic objectives into performance metrics in four perspectives: financial, internal processes, customers, and learning and growth (NetMBA, 2002).

The four perspectives mentioned above construct the balanced scorecard framework. To create a balanced scorecard for Samsung’s Smartphone business division this framework has to be applied. First, I will assess the mission, vision, challenges, and partners of the company. The vision of Samsung: “Samsung is dedicated to developing innovative technologies and efficient processes that create new markets, enrich people’s lives, and continue to make Samsung a digital leader. Their mission statement, “At Samsung, we follow a simple business philosophy: to devote our talent and technology to creating superior products and services that contribute to a better global society. Samsung not only makes smartphones, but they also create components like displays and integrated circuits that also go into competitor’s smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone. Samsung’s competitors in the mobile phone market are Apple, Microsoft, Google, HTC, Nokia, and Blackberry. Samsung doesn’t make their own proprietary software and hardware as Apple, Google, and Blackberry.

Samsung exclusively uses Google’s Android Mobile OS for their phones. Another challenge Samsung faces, is that their mobile phones are not only in competition with other phones that have different software platforms, but they are in even stiffer competition with other phones that also use Google’s Android Mobile OS. This market in itself is very fragmented from the fact that more than 4,000 distinct smartphone models exist that uses the Android operating system (Valazco, 2012). Fortunately for Samsung they command 25. % of the smartphone manufacture market putting them on top. LG, Apple, Motorola, and HTC own 18. 4%, 16. 3%, 11. 2%, and 6. 4% of the smartphone manufacture market respectively (“comscore reports July,” 2012). With respect to the balanced scorecard framework, a strategy map will assist with connecting the four perspectives and how they relate to each other. The strategic measures chosen for the Learning & Growth Perspective were chosen based on information listed in the Samsung’s annual report. Samsung’s employees have grown over the past few years. Samsung’s social etwork presence is currently greater than their competitors, but there is always room for improvement. Samsung invested $8B USD in R&D, which this funnels down to organizational capital and learning from their competitors. With respect to the Internal Process Perspective $8B USD were invested into R&D for innovation. Customer Satisfaction is never perfect in any organization, thus leaving room for improvement. Not to mention customer satisfaction can translate into sales. Management of operations was chosen because process improvement is always needed in an organization.

The customer perspective measurements are strengthening the brand, gaining OEM market share, and exceeding customer expectations. All of these links to financial success within the organization, thus focusing on these measures is vital to the growth Samsung expects to see in the future. Stockholder equity, net sales, and net income all affect the customer, internal, and learning & growth perspective measures and vice versa. This provides a top to bottom and bottom to top flow balanced measures. Learning & Growth Perspective| Objective| Measure| Target| Initiative|

Grow Human Capital| # Of Employees in Samsung Electronics Division| 200,000 employees| Aggressive Recruitment and Retention Program| Improve Information Capital| Social Networking Effectiveness| 6 Million Twitter Followers; 40 Million Facebook Likes| Aggressive & Interactive Social Networking Campaign| Build Organizational Capital| Submittal of Employee Ideas| 5,000 Employee Ideas Submitted| Conduct Organizational Learning Study of Samsung Mobile Division (Amiri, 2010)| Learn from our Competitors| Mobile OEM Market Share| Increase Mobile OEM Market Share by 20%| Analyze competitors customer base and meet the needs of that customer base through innovative mobile technology | Internal Process Perspective| Objective| Measure| Target| Initiative| Manage Innovations| Successful Research & Development Projects| Double R&D Projects| Allocate more capital to R&D projects and their implementation| Manage Customer Relations| Customer Satisfaction| Double and Sustain Customer Satisfaction scores| Aggressive ustomer service training for employees| Manage Operations| Value Added & Non-Value Added Operations| Increase Value Added Operations and Reduce/eliminate non-value added operations| Lean Six-Sigma Process Improvement Initiative (Qun, 2012)| Customer Perspective| Objective| Measure| Target| Initiative| Strengthen Samsung Smartphone Brand| Market Share| Increase Market Share| Aggressive Marketing Campaign| Gain Smartphone OEM Market Share| OEM Market Share| Increase Mobile OEM Market Share by 20%| Analyze competitors customer base and meet the needs of that customer base through innovative mobile technology| Exceeding customer needs and expectations| Customer Satisfaction Scores | Customer Retention| Double Customer satisfaction scores & retention | Customer Loyalty & Rewards Program | Customer Perspective| Objective| Measure| Target| Initiative|

Increase Stockholder Equity| Stock Price| Increase from $489/share to $510/share| Increase Market Share| Increase Net Sales| Net Sales| Increase from 135B to 170B| Aggressive Marketing Campaign| Increase Net Income| Net Income| Increase by 15%| Make Operations Efficient and reducing costs| Sources About Samsung. (2010). Retrieved from http://www. samsung. com/us/aboutsamsung/corporateprofile/ourperformance/samsungprofile. html Amiri, A. , Jandghi, G. , Alvani, S. , Hosnavi, R. , & Ramezan, M. (2010). Increasing the Intellectual Capital in Organization: Examining the Role of Organizational Learning. European Journal Of Social Science, 14(1/2), 98-108. comscore reports July 2012 U. S. mobile subscriber market share. (2012, Sept 04). Retrieved from http://www. comscore. com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/9/comScore_Reports_July_2012_US_Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share NetMBA. (2002). Netmba business knowledge center.

Retrieved from http://www. netmba. com/accounting/mgmt/balanced-scorecard/ Samsung Group. (2011). Samsung profile 2011. Retrieved from http://www. samsung. com/us/aboutsamsung/corporateprofile/download/Samsung_Profile_2011-EN-final-revise. pdf Qun, Z. , Irfan, M. , Khattak, M. , Abbas, J. , Xiaoning, Z. , & Shah, M. (2012). CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL LEAN SIX SIGMA IMPLEMENTATION IN PAKISTAN. Interdisciplinary Journal Of Contemporary Research In Business, 4(1), 117-124. Valazco, C. (2012, May 15). Techcrunch. Retrieved from http://techcrunch. com/2012/05/15/3997-models-android-fragmentation-as-seen-by-the-developers-of-opensignalmaps/

Executive Summary

This report will discuss whether Samsung Group can establish a company in Malaysia. The report will be divided into two parts: the external environment and SWOT analysis of the external environment. In the external environment, it provides six sections which are political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, and legal environment, each of them gives the analysis and suggestions to Samsung Group. Furthermore, the findings will be presented in the recommendation and conclusion of the report.

Introduction

Samsung group is the largest electronic manufacturing company in Seoul. The company mainly produces electronics such as stylish phones, semiconductors, and digital TV. Now the company considering expanding the subsidiary company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This report will focus on a detailed analysis of the external environment of Malaysia. The aim of this report is to provide an evaluation of the external environment of Malaysia in the context of the electronics manufacturing industry. The investigation will report on the political, economic, socio-culture, technology, and legal environment of Malaysia. The report will help the company do expansion of analysis opportunities & threats for Samsung in the Malaysian electronics industry and assess the strengths or weaknesses of Samsung. The report will discuss the possibility of expanding Samsung group operations in Malaysia. It provides political, economic, socio-cultural, technology, and legal environment analysis. Then it will cover SWOT analysis and provide recommendations.

Political Environment

Government stability

Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. The system of government is a legacy of British colonial rule. The head of the state is referred to as the king and selected every five-year term. Compared with other countries, the death penalty is still used, therefore, Malaysia’s crime rate is lower. Because of the Consolidate leadership, Malaysia’s political situation keeps stable in recent years, the crime rate becomes down. It shows the level of government stability in Malaysia is high.

Government and contribution

Malaysia serves as a bridge between the East and the West and also plays an important role in the world stage by establishing a long-term cooperative relationship with the other ASEAN members, such as China, South Korea, and Japan. The government implements several plans and welcomes outside investments.

Analysis Depending on the political stability and global trading relationships, Malaysia can make a closer operation with the other countries. With the mutually-beneficial foreign policy, Samsung Company has a great opportunity to operate smoothly in Malaysia.

Legal Environment 

Regulatory framework

Malaysia and South Korean do not have a similar legal system, Malaysia’s legal system is based on English common law while the South Korean legal system is based on civil law. South Korean government. It means the Samsung Group would not be familiar with the regulatory framework.

Business laws

Although there are some legal restrictions on certain products imported from other countries. (Malaysia business guide) The law allows foreign companies to import raw materials. (Malaysia customers) However, the corruption problem in Malaysia has become much worse. (Corruption Malaysia’s top enemy)

Labour laws

Malaysia labor laws have improved in recent years, there are age and working hour restrictions in Malaysia. (Malaysia labor law)

Analysis

The government holds encouragement on foreign investment in Malaysia which presents an opportunity for foreign companies. However, due to Samsung Group is unfamiliar with the regulatory framework, it exists a threat to Samsung Company.

Economic Environment 

Interest rate (%)

The benchmark interest rate in Malaysia is 3. 00 percent. Malaysia’s interest rate is likely to keep unchanged in these years.  South Korean’s benchmark interest rate is 2. 75 percent. It means that the interest rate in Malaysia is higher than that in South Korean. Central bank rates. Currency Exchange Rate ($) Based on the exchange rate in March 2013, one Malaysian Ringgit equals 358. 31 South Korean Won. With the exchange rate increased each year in Malaysia, Samsung Company will invest more money in Malaysia in the future due to the cost will be increased. However, it is also a chance for Samsung to earn more money in Malaysia. Therefore, this is not only a threat but also an opportunity for the Samsung Company. Malaysian Ringgit to South Korean Won The money converter). Economic Trends/ forecasts Malaysia keeps one of the best economic records among Asia countries. GDP is predicted to rise by 4. 5% in 2013 and increase by 5. 4% in 2014. Over the next decade, GDP is expected to grow by 4. 2% a year on average. According to forecasts, one of the fastest-growing sectors in the manufacturing industry over the next 10 years will be electrical equipment. (Oxford Economics) Nowadays, Malaysia begins a transition towards a more multi-sector economy that means the economic forecast in Malaysia is strong.

Analysis

Although the interest rate and exchange rate in Malaysia are high, the international trade ability of Malaysia is still locating at the forefront of the world. This kind of ability makes a great positive impact on the international stage.

Socio-cultural

Overall, the Samsung Company should organize teamwork for its Malaysian employees.Work design – Malaysian employees prefer to work in groups while South Korea employees prefer to choose personal works.

PlanningPower Distance affects the hierarchical order in an organization. Compared with South Korea, Malaysia employees accept hierarchical order more than Australian employees. Therefore Samsung Company’s manager should take an autocratic style.

The planning in Malaysia employees would like clearly aims while South Korea employees prefer relaxed attitudes. It demonstrates that clear rules and regulations are more suitable for local employees. Time orientation. Planning–South Korea employees prefer having a long time orientation, however, Malaysian employees are known to prefer having short time plans. Therefore, Samsung Group should set short term targets for its staff.

AnalysisMasculinity and Femininity will have an impact on social competition, achievement, and success. Both Malaysia and South Korea are similar in this level of Femininity. It shows that Samsung Company can perform female leadership in Malaysia.

Although both Malaysia and South Korea would be inclined to work with females, there are also several differences between Malaysia and South Korea.

Technological Environment 

Technological infrastructure

Malaysia has a well developed technological infrastructure while (Asia’s New High Tech Competitors) the infrastructure in Malaysia is one of the best in Asia. (Invest in Malaysia) It demonstrates the brilliant infrastructures can maintain the good operation of Samsung Group in Malaysia.

Communication networks

Compared with South Korean, the telecommunication network in Malaysia is developing faster.

The communication network in Malaysia is served by digital and fiber optic technology. (Invest in Malaysia)

Logistics networks

The logistics networks in Malaysia cover sea, land, and air transport modes. The Malaysian government will strengthen the management of roads and improve the quality of transport in the future. (Trade and Transport in Malaysia: an overview of the logistics)

Analysis

The great Technological infrastructure, Communication networks, and Logistics networks in Malaysia will provide an opportunity for Samsung Group.

SWOT Analysis

Samsung Company has: 

• good reputation
• high-quality products
• large scale international corporation
• strong financial resource
• a strong market influence
• weakness

Samsung Company: 

• lacks business experience in Malaysia
• the shortage of qualified personnel
• no stable customers in the local market

Opportunities

Malaysia has:

Political environment-stable governmental environment -good trading relationship legal environment-improvement in labor and business law economic environment-strong economic forecastsocio-cultural environment-similar in female leadership. Advanced Technological infrastructure – good communication networks. A legal environment-different regulatory framework to South Korea- corruption problems economic Environment-high interest rate in Malaysia-high exchange ratesocio-cultural environment-used to work collectively-higher power distance-lower Uncertainty Avoidance-only achieve short time target.

Recommendations

Based on the analysis of the external environment of Malaysia, it is suggested that Samsung Company should:

• continue to produce high-quality products to make a good reputation in Malaysia (strengths)
• train more new professionals in the local market (threats)
• use the new technology and the political system to achieve mutual benefit (opportunities)
• seek professional legal advice and the lowest cost supplies (threats)

Conclusion Political, socio-cultural and technological environments constitute opportunities for Samsung Company. However, the threat appeared in the different socio-cultural, weak legal environments and the economic conditions will in recession in the future. According to this report, there are still more opportunities than threats. To sum up, from the current market environment, there are many favorable aspects for Samsung Company to be expanded in Malaysia.

References

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