Samsung’s mission, brand positioning and core competencies
Samsung is a South Korean multinational company formed in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul. Its headquarters are in Seoul. It has numerous subsidiaries and associated businesses which are under the Samsung brand name. Throughout the years, the company has transformed itself to one of the largest electronics company in the world with several of its products that have clustered the market. In 2012, Samsung electronics was by far the world’s largest technology company in terms of revenues and market value. Samsung’s mission is expressed through the company’s philosophy. Over the years, it has been changing the mission to incorporate new aspects that are continuously mushrooming and match the current corporate world. They also do this to keep pace with the escalating competition being posed by the well-established rivals and growing needs in the society. Its current mission states that, “We will devote our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society” (Michell, 19).
This mission has apparently propelled the company to the right direction and that is why we currently know it as far as marketing prowess is concerned. Despite the stiff competition in the industry, the company tops the industry as far as revenues and market share are concerned. It is the 2nd largest semiconductor chip maker and the largest mobile phone maker (Michell, 76).
Samsung has devoted itself to living its mission. Its several products such as the Smartphone, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and PCs are among the best in the global market. They use a very effective technology that has enabled the company to produce high quality and effective products that have met the rapidly changing and divergent needs, tastes and preferences of the contemporary consumers.
Samsung has perceptually distinguished itself from other electronics manufactures. A good example is their smart phones. Brand Positioning is the essential of marketing strategy. It has played a great role in the success of Samsung’s advertisements. They showcase the “S Beam” technology that allows the transfer of seamless data between devices. Due to this, consumers have perceived the company to deliver unique features. The company also highlights specific features that other close competitors such as Apple Inc. are just starting to implement while Samsung implemented them long ago. The company has created a distinctive image of itself in the minds of targeted consumers and most of them find themselves using the products of the company either knowingly or unknowingly. In this way, consumers have perceived Samsung as the pace-setter and this have had a positive effect on its sales. Use of such technologies has enabled the company to create highly differentiated products that the consumers can easily identify as well as a strong brand name. This has apparently enabled the company to create a strong customer base since most of them are aware of the products produced by Samsung and their respective capabilities, use and strength. Apparently, the brand positioning of Samsung so well ties and supports the mission statement of the company.
Use of apt new technologies and effective marketing strategies are Samsung’s core competencies. Technology has enabled the company to produce appropriate, original and unique products. This has helped the company to achieve its financial goals as well as its quest of making the society better (Michell, 98). Through comprehensive advertising, the company has created an interminable confidence in its consumers and its growth is as a result of this.
Competitive positioning of the company
The mission statement of Samsung Company states its dedication to innovativeness and devotion to the creation of superior products and services. This dedication and strive to attain the firm objectives in the ever advancing technological world puts the company in a better and appropriate competitive position (Payne, 1998). The company is ever employing new technology in product production moving from simple phones to the most recent Samsung galaxy S4. Over the years, the company has set up short term and long term goals that it accomplishes through marketing strategies that aims at putting it at the best position to compete with its fiercest rivals namely Apple and Nokia.
In the competitive market environment, Samsung has integrated its mission statement in every endeavor so that it is lead towards its goal in mapping its competitive position. Samsung has achieved this by producing products that meet the consumer’s needs, requirements, tastes and preferences (Payne, 1998). The innovativeness of the company in applying new and modern technologies helps it in migrating from one competitive position to another in a quick motion replacing old technology with new and matching rivals. A good example is the production of the Smartphone to match Apple’s iPod and Tablet.
Creating a competitive value map, the firm has to track between prices and products’ key benefit over time (Payne, 1998). The company has achieved this through marketing strategies that enabled the firm to produce products with features that the consumers need therefore justifying the prices of the products in relation to what the consumers are willing to pay.
In drawing the position maps, the company defines the market and then chooses the price and the primary benefit. Samsung has a global market with all it electronic products selling in all parts of the world from Europe, Asia to Africa. It produces a variety of products that meet every consumer needs. The products e.g. phones have better features that make the favorable to consumer. Their prices are attractive compared to their competitors making it better competitively positioned.
In the figure below player A is Nokia, player B is Samsung and player C is Apple. These are the two close competitors of Samsung. Of the two firms, there have been a continued market rivalry and competition with each trying to outdo each other. This is done through innovation and continuous production of new software and products that are of better quality and meet consumer needs and interests. In this rivalry, Samsung have frequently won the battle due to the features and prices of its products.
Figure 1: Samsung Company competitive mapping
- Player A: NOKIA
- Player B: SAMSUNG
- Player C: APPLE
Player A, Nokia, is placed at the left side of FVL. This is because of it market competitiveness prowess. Nokia has been producing products that have fewer features but a higher price as compared to the other players in the market (Payne, 1998). This has been reflected in its market performance over the years.
Player B, Samsung, is at the middle because its products meet the consumer requirements both in quality features and prices. This has been the strategy to Samsung’s success as it has maintained a good consumer relation through investment in market research before investing in production therefore producing the quality demanded by the consumers.
Player C, Apple, is on the right hand side because, despite producing quality products, its prices are very high. This has hindered its penetration to the global market in a swift and profitable way like Samsung.
Learnt idea from Marketing Management
One of the biggest ideas from Keller and Kotler’s book is the importance of a strategic marketing for a company. Keller and kotler has provides four dominant strategies that each company should followed towards achieving a competitive advantage. The outlines four strategies are Product, Pricing, distribution and marketing communication (Keller &Kotler, p.853).
Product
According to Keller and Kotler, product strategy is marketing technique that involves decisions covering product mix, labeling, packaging and warranties. In the case of Samsung Company, there has been reposition of the product since 1990. The company was alleged as a conventional manufactures and continually associated its brand with bargains. The company discovered that the low price is a strategic marketing to compete in lower-market, while brand and technology are competitive means in the upscale marketing. Therefore, Samsung embraced the upscale market by repositioning all series of their products including consumer electronics, memory flash and mobile phones to upscale. This repositioning has assisted the company to shape its noblest image. The technology innovation has also helped the company to penetrate to the global market; hence they have switched from mass manufacture to production of brands that are digital technology based.
Pricing
As Keller and Ketler suggested, “price strategy covers decisions about setting initial prices and adapting processes in response to opportunities and competitive challenges.” Among the 4 Ps of marketing, pricing is developed as a different strategy to different target. For instance, the pricing strategy for consumers is different from that of retailers who buy product in bulk amount. Thus, Samsung has set discounts when a consumer or a retailer buys product in bulk quantity. Furthermore, the consumers are becoming more prices sensitive day by day so that they want to consume good quality product at a favorable price. Due to this reason, the company has adopted strategy to satisfy customers with the superior quality and classic product in a sensible price.
Distribution
Distribution strategy entails selection and management of channel relationships to ensure that customers are conveniently reached by the value of the company’s product (Keller &Katler, 853). In the case of the Samsung Company, final consumers and the producer are considered to be part of every channel, which has different levels. A one level channel has a single selling intermediary such as a retailer while the two- level channel consists of two intermediaries; a wholesaler and a retailer. On the other hand three-level channel is made up of three intermediaries, such as wholesaler, jobbers and the small retailers. Since it is challenging for a company to obtain information from the end consumer when the channel levels increases, Samsung has adopted the three types of distribution discussed above.
Marketing communication
According to Keller and Katler, marketing communication strategy entails all communication efforts to reach the targeted audiences and the channel members. In this case, Samsung has used different promotion techniques such as advertisement, personal selling, public relation, sales promotion and direct mail. The company is using non-personal paid form of communication involving the mass media to advertise its new brands. In the public relation, Samsung has developed favorable relationships with its media public, and it is able to successfully handle the negative attention from publicity. In the direct mail, the company is sending publicity materials to specific consumers who fall under their target segment. Samsung offers information regarding the new product and its collection with an aim to capture more potential consumers.
Works Cited
Kotler, Philip, and Kevin L. Keller. Marketing Management. Boston, [Mass.: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Michell, Tony. Samsung Electronics and the Struggle for Leadership of the Electronics Industry. Singapore: Wiley, 2010. Print.
Payne, Adrian. Relationship Marketing for Competitive Advantage: Winning and Keeping Customers. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998. Print.
