Brand Management Postioning,SWOT Analysis,Four P's and Strategies to Strengthen by Manik Gupta (student of FH Muenster University , Germany)

1. INTRODUCTION:
Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three
decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities
and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and
shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following
Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung
Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since 1990, Samsung has increasingly
globalised its activities and electronics; in particular, its mobile phones and semiconductors have
become its most important source of income. Recent data of Samsung is:
Key Facts
Name Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Geographic areas served Worldwide (80 countries)
Industries served Consumer electronics (digital cameras,camcorders,TVs,
blu-rays, laptops, home theaters,displays, tablets)
Telecoms equipment (phones, smartphones)
Semiconductors Home appliances
Headquarters Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea
Main Competitors Apple Inc.,Nokia OYJ, Sony Corporation, Toshiba
Corporation, Huawei, Xiaomi, Whirlpool, Panasonic etc
Employees 319,000 (2016)

2. HEADINGS AMOUNTS:
Revenue US$305 billion
Net income US$22.1 billion
Total assets US$529.5 billion
Total equity US$231.2 billion
MARKET POSITIONS OF SAMSUNG BRAND
Samsung, once known to be the low-quality service provider of all time is now one of the leading
mobile companies of the world. Having said that, we can see how it all comes down to proper brand
positioning and innovation, which takes a brand to its zenith.
After having its share of booms and slumps, Samsung came up with new ideas to be more customer-
focused and creative in order to establish a strong brand image in the global market. Rather than making
normal or usual handset devices, they started to produce smart phones to catch up with their competitors.
Their main strategy was to provide the best quality products in order to meet their customers’
expectation through constant innovation and introduction of new technologies, Samsung has been trying
to establish their point of parity. They have been constantly redesigning and introducing new series of
products, e.g. – Galaxy Series. Currently they are working on designing the lightest and slimmest phone
of the world, along with an amazing powerful performance to gain an edge over their
competitors. Samsung doesn’t have any particular tagline/slogan for the company as a whole; they
prefer to use unique taglines for each and every product. They tend to promote and position their mobile
phones/note/tab at all the 3 different levels of positioning. Two promo links have been provided below
of their Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6, which specifies the entire product attributes, values and benefits
that customers might look out for, before they choose to buy it. Samsung doesn’t target any specific
segment of the market, but mostly seem to serve the high-end people of the society, for e.g. – business
people, young adults. Here is the graph showing share of Smasung in global market:

3. When it comes to competition, we have noticed how Samsung has been in fierce competition with Apple
over the last few years. There were even rumors of Samsung replicating the product design or
specifications of Apple. Even though the dispute has settled down, the competition still remains to exist
between the two rivals.
Overall the performance of this brand seems to be very impressive in terms of popularity, revenue and
the contribution they are making to the mass public by offering their products. Nevertheless, I would
still like to recommend an improvement regarding one of their major drawbacks, which Samsung still
doesn’t seem to have overcome. Even though Samsung claimed they don’t actually make their
customers a wall hugger, in reality actually they do. Hence, they should focus more on these
specifications so that consumers don’t get the chance to switch brands in the blink of an eye.
SWOT ANALYSIS:
Strengths:

4.  Samsung enjoys the widest range of product portfolio which includes Mobile phone, Tablet,
TV/Audio/Video, Camera, camcorder, Home appliance, pc, peripherals, printer, memory cards and
other accessories.
 Samsung holds significant market share in most of the product categories
 Samsung is NO.2 in terms of market share in mobiles, it captured Nokia’s market share by superior
innovation in smart phones
 Samsungs is the best in terms of design features and technology. It was the first to introduced dual
screen mobiles , 65k TFT/LCD colour phone, first phone with polyphonic ringtones, phones with
rotating lens, thinnest and lightest note pad etc
 Samsung enjoys the first mover advantage in terms of introducing advance features in LCD,
refrigerator, Air conditioner etc. It introduced the world’s smallest MP3 player and India’s first 17”
TFT-LCD-TV monitor.
 Samsung took advantage of the growing economy of Asian market by setting up manufacturing plant
in India there by reducing logistics and supply chain costs.
 Samsung brand value increased by 80% in past three years.
Weaknesses:
 Samsung Mobile launched a series of Smart phones recently which led to cannibalization
 Still Nokia is considered to be the most preferred product in terms of ease of use, reliability and
resale value.
 Samsung is a hardware leader but has too much of dependence for software from other parties.
 Online stores which sell a wide range of products are giving better deals as they don’t incur cost in
distribution channel
 Samsung never introduces a new design on its own, it always waits to attack its competitors. Thus, it
missed the first mover advantages.
 Samsung does not charge high price for its products, therefore often people relate the low price to
begin a supplier of low quality products. General perception supports that the higher the price, the
higher the quality of products.
 Many Samsung products are not user friendly, therefore consumer often hesitate to switch to
Samsung products even if the price and quality is exceptional.

5.  Samsung does not focus on a specific niche; it offers its products to the mass market only and does
not create its own software therefore it often relies on other sources to complete the products.
 Samsung faces immense competition from new companies and online companies
Opportunities:
 Samsung is planning to make the air-condition product category more strong with unique technology
called ‘Triple protection proposition’
 Samsung should participate in product development and attract more customers. It should also
consider participating in various events to attract attention.
 Samsung is the India’s official ‘Olympic partner’ for the 2012 London Olympic and recently
launched ‘Olympic Ratna Program’. This will result enhance brand awareness and increase the sales
 Samsung Mobile and Home appliance has future plans of launching Customized products for Indian
market. This will improve the market share in rural market
 The youth population is growing and mobile phone sales is expected to increase due to lesser call
rates
 Its financial position is strong and there is a scope of entering into unrelated diversification
Threats:
 Samsung has wide variety of product lines, failure of one product line will have impact on the other
and will result in brand dilution.
 The competitors like Nokia are focussed only in one segment
 Since some countries are potential market, entry of foreign players is likely high. Foreign players
like Haier and Panasonic have already started gaining market share in home appliances.
 Low cost Chinese products are eroding profits of Samsung
 Retail Chains like Bigbazaar sell consumer electronics and home appliance in low cost strategy
which are procured in bulks from foreign market

6. STRATEGIESTO STRENGTHEN WEAKNESS
Our commitment to lead innovations in technology, products and solutions that inspire communities
around the world to join our aspiration for creating a better world full of richer digital experiences. As
we recognise our responsibility as a creative leader in the global society, we also dedicate our efforts and
resources to offering new values to the industry and customers while fulfilling shared values of our
employees and partners. At Samsung Electronics, we want to create a future that is exciting and
promising for all together.
As a guide to common understanding and measurable goal, a set of specific objectives is incorporated
into our vision. By 2020, we seek to achieve annual sales of USD 400 billion while placing Samsung
Electronics’ overall brand value among the global top 5. Three key strategic pillars that are now part of
our culture, business operation and management describe the governing initiatives to this end:
‘Creativity ’, ‘Partnership’ and ‘Great People’.
We pride ourselves on delivering the world’s best products through operational excellence and
innovation prowess. As we look forward to exploring new business areas including healthcare and
biotechnology, we are excited for new challenges and opportunities ahead. Samsung Electronics will
continue to build on top of its current achievements new capacity and expertise to further its
competitiveness and its history of innovation.
FOUR P’S OF SAMSUNG
PRODUCTS : Tablets, Mobile phones – Smart phones, normal phones, Televisions – LEDs, LCDs.
Plasma TV, SMART TV, HDTV etc, Cameras and Camcorders, Refrigerators, Air conditioners,
Washing machine, Microwave ovens, IT – Laptops, printers and accessories
PRICE: Samsung’s smart phones are one of the best in the market and are the market leader in terms of
the features and USP’s that they provide. The recent Samsung Note 3 + Gear is another entrant in the
market which is catching people’s eyes. Thus Samsung uses Skimming price for these products wherein
it tries to get a high value in the start before competitors catch up. Once the model is old or any
competitor has launched a similar product, Samsung immediately drops the price. For products other

7. than smart phones, Samsung uses competitive pricing. Samsung as a brand hardly uses penetrative
pricing because it doesn’t enter late in the market.
PLACE: It works on the channel marketing concept wherein there are three segments. Sales and service
dealers, Modern retail and Distributors. The distribution network is the most interesting in the case of
Samsung. In several cities, Samsung has a single distributor through whom they distribute throughout a
territory. This distributor has a huge investment in Samsung and both, the distributor and the company,
go hand in hand for the sale of Samsung’s products. Thus all material of Samsung will be sold to a
single distributor who in turn will sell it forward to retailers.
PROMOTION: This distributor has a huge investment in Samsung and both, the distributor and the
company, go hand in hand for the sale of Samsung’s products. Thus all material of Samsung will be sold
to a single distributor who in turn will sell it forward to retailers. Thus on one hand, Samsung uses
various marketing vehicles across the year covering festive season as well as non festive time. On the
other hand, it gives many offers and discounts to its trade partners to motivate them to sell Samsung
above competition.
StrategyMobilization
9 out of 10 corporate strategies fail – often due to weak communication. We help companies reframe
their strategies in order to make them stick. As a result, employees and other stakeholders not only
understand and embrace their employers‘ strategies but also act accordingly. As of today, Zense has
helped many Fortune 500 companies move forward. Our SWISS Case, for example, is even taught at
Swiss and German Universities as best practice for strategy communication.
Strategies regarding improvement for brand
 Marketing efforts should receive regular attention and became a permanent agenda item for the
partnership meeting and firm meeting.
 Managing effective marketing strategy like Flash mobs to put curiosity and attraction among people
and also by organising contests and award winning functions in shopping malls, or other places to
capitalize upon the awareness, attention, goodwill, and other benefits.

8.  Samsung could start creating softwares for their hardware devices and reduce outsourcing.
and could launch sub brands to the company, with new and improved strategies
 Samsung should participate in product development and attract more customers. It should also
consider participating in various events to attract attention.
 Samsung could offer additional services to retain existing customers and attract new ones
 Commitment to excellence. Each attorney was expected to attain a level of expertise in an area of
brand practice which will enable that attorney to be "marketed" as a true leader in that field
 Advance planning. Annually every attorney was accountable to identify his or her own goals and
objectives for client development for review with the marketing committee.
 Cut back on the number of models, which leads to cannibalization
 Partner more closely with local companies in key markets such as China and India, and established
goals to be achieved.
 Agree upon marketing objectives to satisfy the market related goals and develop a marketing plan by
coordinating specific strategies to achieve the marketing objectives
 Lead the client to make the proper decisions. Attorneys were encouraged to provide clients with the
tools to make a decision, without forcing the decision.
 Seminars.will encouraged to participate in the presentation of seminars sponsored by the Smasung or
others targeted at specific groups of existing, former and potential clients.
 Meet deadlines. Attorneys were instructed to avoid setting unrealistic deadlines
 Focus more on software and services
 Focus more on Trendy young people
 Institutional sales for colleges, schools and others
 Figure out its end goal

9. References
 http://www.joelarose.com/articles/marketing_strategies.html
 Doyle, C. (2014). Samsung Electronics to get aggressive and acquire more global firms ? report.
 [online] Silicon Republic. Available at: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/34742-
 samsung-electronics-to-get [Accessed 19 May. 2014].
 International Strategy: The Strategy of Samsung Group (PDF Download Available). Available
from:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285370984_International_Strategy_The_Strategy
_of_Samsung_Group [accessed May 19, 2017].
 http://www.studymarketing.org/articles/Strategic_Management/Sample_of_SWOT_Analysis_:_
SAMSUNG_Case.html
 http://mithilachowdhury.blogspot.de/2015/02/brand-positioning.html
 https://www.scribd.com/doc/47312382/SWOT-Analysis-Of-SamsunG
 https://www.google.de/search?q=samsung+market+share+chart+2017&client=firefox-b-
ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyo6iS3o3UAhVMalAKHcXsALYQ_AUI
CygC&biw=1366&bih=664#imgrc=fIr8BxjGq0cyDM