Discuss about the Marketing Plan of Samsung.
For any organization to thrive and grow in the competitive market there is a need to be aware of the external and the internal market conditions. Any successful organization should start from the scratch by deciding the main objectives and goals of the organization, then move forward to external market research, and launch the business (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013).
The report will mainly evaluate the steps taken by Samsung to become successful and rule the market. The report will first look into the mission, visions and objectives of the company. It will then move on to evaluate the sales trends of the organization. Any big organization will face issues as far as economic perspective is concerned and Samsung is no different. The macro and micro–environmental issues will make the readers aware of the challenges faced by the organization (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). It will help in getting an idea about the types of issues one can face from the market. The report will further evaluate the marketing objectives of Samsung and will carry out the SWOT analysis to know the internal strength and weakness of Samsung. 4Ps is another essential factor of marketing that will help the organization to develop the product, give proper price and promote it in the market (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). The 4Ps is the indicator for the organization to tell them about how the product will fare in market. The perceptual mapping will help the company to check the competitors. The position of the competitors in the market will help Samsung to evaluate the proper positions where the company will be placed so that it is able to fare well than the competitors. The marketing pan also involves the planning of the expenditures of the company that will be required for promoting the company and hence, it should not be overlooked by any organization (Sheth and Sisodia 2015).
The mission statement of Samsung is to innovate new technologies, designs and products that will help in the enrichment of the life of the people and help in brining a sustainable future that will be socially responsible (Jeston and Nelis 2014).
The mission statement of Samsung of Samsung is “inspire the world and create the future’ (Samsung.com 2016).
The vision statement of Samsung can be explained by the vision 2020. It aims at innovation in the field of technology, solution and products. The organization invites the community to join them in this approach so that they are able to give better and richer experience of digital experience (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). By the year, 2020, Samsung aims at attaining an annual sale of USD 400 billion and place Samsung in the number one position among of the top 5 positions as far as overall brand value is concerned. The three strategic pillars will be able to better explain the business operation, management and culture of Samsung (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). The three pillars are:
The objectives of Samsung can be divided into quantitative goals and qualitative goals.
The quantitative goals include the achievement of USD 400 bullion as far as the sale is concerned. Moreover, be the number one in the global top 5 and the internal IT industry (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013)
The qualitative goals are to be an innovative and respected company. In addition to this, the objectives include to get a position among the top ten best workplaces, be the creative leader when it comes to build new markets and be the global enterprise that will attract the best talent of the world (Choi et al. 2012).
The sales record of Smartphone, one of the most dependent product line of Samsung has been slow since 2013 until the second quarter of 2015 (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). However, there has been a growth in the sale in the year 2014 as compared to the sale of the year, 2013.
Number of units sold by Samsung in the year 2014 is 76,129.2 and the market share 26.2 percent. In the year, 2015, the sale of units fell down to 72072.5 units and the market share decreased to 21.9 percent (NDTV Gadgets360.com 2015). Hence, it can be seen that the sales of Samsung hugely varied from the year, 2014 and in the year 2015. The main reason for the fall has been estimated to be the rise of cheaper 3G and 4G Smartphone in the market and the popularity of those phones among the consumers (Lusch and Vargo 2014).
The main product line of Samsung is the Smartphone. The market of Samsung is hugely depended on this product line. The two closest competitors of Samsung in the field of Smartphone are Apple and Huawei. However, the position of Samsung is strongest than the position of the two competitors. When on one hand, Samsung recorded a sale of 72.072.5 units, on the other hand, Apple recoded a sale of 48,085.5 units and Huawei a sale of 25,085.8 units in the same year (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). The market share of Samsung was 21.9 percent in the year 2015, whereas the market share of Apple and Huawei was 14.6 percent and 7.8 percent respectively. The difference in the units and market share was no different for the year 2014. Samsung recorded a sale of 76,129.2 units in the year 2014, while Apple and Huawei recorded a sale of 35,345.3 units and 17,657.7 units respectively. Samsung had market share of 26.2 percent in the year 2016, whereas apple had a market share of 12.2 percent and Huawei had a market share of 6.1 percent (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013).
Samsung took huge lead in the year 2016 over Apple (Stevens 2016). In spite of the introduction of the latest iphone 7 of the iphone family, Apple was not able to make the consumer attract towards them. The introduction of Samsung S6 edge and S7 edge was enough to attract the customers towards Samsung (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013).
Apple has its headquarters in Cupertino of California. The company started its journey in the year, 1976 under the supervision of Ronald Wayne, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple.com 2016). It started working as a company that develop and sells personal computers. Apple was renamed Apple Computers Inc. In the year, 1977 and was again renamed as Apple Inc. in the year 2007. The latest production of Apple iphone is the most sought after product among the consumers. The latest release of apple is the iphone 7 (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013).
Ren Zhengfei, who was an ex-military officer, founded Huawei. The company started operating in the markets of China as a private firm (huawei 2016). The initial aim of the organization is to provide operations services and consulting services to the organizations in China. Currently, Huawei is having more than 140,000 employees working for it. Out of the huge number of employees 46 percent of them in involved in research and development of the products (Sheth and Sisodia 2015).
Microanalysis defines as the scanning of internal factors for any business organization that majorly affects the working of a company (Wilson and Gilligan 2012). If a particular company has favourable internal environment, then it is an asset to the company as well as leads towards increase in productivity and further growth opportunities at the same time. Samsung Company faces stiff competition on global economy especially in India. There is availability of cheap quality affecting business in the most appropriate way. It involves constant competitors for innovating in advancement of new technology (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). Samsung Company focus mainly on customer services as well as diversification on other segments in an overall manner. Bargaining power of buyers is higher in this case. There is large availability of choices that are provided to the potential buyers. Pricing requires to be kept depending upon the customer needs and expectations and demand at the same time (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). It requires adopting innovating marketing strategy for attracting the potential customers. Good market share considers as second option in comparison with Nokia and Sony. Buyers has misconception that Samsung is a Chinese brand It can be noticed that there is even availability of cheap Chinese electronic products that largely affects the market share of Samsung Company (Mudie and Pirrie 2012). There is even delay caused in technological innovation helping other competitors named as Apple Inc. It is saturated mainly on multimedia as well as communication field at the same time (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013).
Some of the major international environmental factors are as follows:
Innovation is one of the microanalysis factors for the company named as Samsung. Samsung believes in innovation as well as creativity in their business operations (Marshall 2014). This is major reason why Samsung is there in news for good reasons. Until now, Samsung has worked great with the association with Android. Samsung believes in upgrading their mobile phones and attain the needs of the potential customers (Lee and Carter 2012). Nexus, which is popular among the users in and across the globe
Android Platform is open for all the major players as well as there is increase in the Smart phones users as viewed from past few years (Kotler et al. 2015). Market has considerable shown growth in tern of volume as well as users. It has been noticed that there is large market for the smart phone users. These phones are rendering access to millions of users who will get applications as well as features. As far as perception is concerned, Market demand will grow in the upcoming years in terms of quality as well as quantity (Hutt and Speh 2012).
Samsung Brand has performed successfully well in the current years when it is discussed regarding high-end smart phones (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). Samsung plays major role, as there is high-end smart phones and supplied in the present global marketplace. This is being supplied by balancing with the forces of supply as well as demand. Samsung business strategy is well planned as well as better executed in desired way. It is for this reason when a particular model demand falls; Samsung comes out with latest version and launches with updated features and better performance (Hollensen 2015).
Samsung Company analyzes the opportunity cost as it refers to the loss of potential gain. Samsung moves around in planned ways from the past years as well as working at a minimum opportunity cost (Goworek and McGoldrick 2015). The company does this by accurate scan as well as research. This helps the company in making decision in the most appropriate way. Samsung launches some new product in the market and this gives rise to range of excitement among the minds of potential customers (Foxall 2014). Samsung users are on excitement phase for getting new as well as updated mobile phones.
Samsung business environment is largely affected by both external as well as internal influences. This majorly affects both local as well as global performance of close products. Macro environment can be easily understood with the help of PESTEL analysis for gaining understanding of the external analysis (Chan, He and Wang 2012).
These factors points out the government guidelines involving the intensity of economy intervention as well as types of goods and services at the same time. Investors are required to offers its citizens as well as priorities in stipulated time in case of providing business support. According to Best (2012), country political legislation affects various fundamental areas like education of the workforce as well as level of infrastructure and health of the nation. Samsung Company is subjected in viewing at the political risks levels for operational attributes (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). Level of political risks varies from one country to other and considers as one of the tormenting factor. Samsung Company now faces political instability especially at home country. Situation of home country is quite dissimilar as well as not intense in measuring attributes in and against other countries. Samsung experiences inconvenient business environment in countries like Africa and South East Asia. The business environment in these countries is hostile in nature possessing negative impact on Samsung Company. Countries like China as well as India offers advantageous business environment that majorly focus on markets in an overall manner (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013).
Economic factors include interplay between finance as well as resources of a particular country. This factor consists of interest taxes, economic development and growth, taxation dynamics as well as inflation and foreign exchange rates. These factors mainly posse’s remarkable impact on the business operations of Samsung Company (Goworek and McGoldrick 2015). High interest rates majorly have tendency in reducing the borrowing capability for future analysis purpose. Inflation majorly affects higher salaries by employees that increase operational cost. This particular economic situation influencing decisions of Samsung Company
Social environmental factors involve customs, practices as well as tradition varying from one social group to other (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). This revolves around variations for checking the social status affecting demand for a particular product. Readiness of people deals directly with work. Ageing is one of the social factors that posses tendency for increasing the pension payments by business firms. Samsung has succeeded in overcoming the social challenges by incorporation especially in new markets (Sheth and Sisodia 2015).
Technological factors involve inventions change products as well as production process. One of the instance of innovation means online market as well as bar coding and other computer aided designs in advancement of technology (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). One of the benefits of technology is the ability in cutting down production costs as well as improving quality at the same time. Samsung Company has strong usage of technology and ability in graining towards culture of innovativeness. Samsung believes in technological inventions that employs in introduction of new products in global marketplace (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013).
Environmental factors involve weather as well as climate variations that influences over business operations. It means that increased ways for safeguarding the environment for creation of impact on given industries like transportation industry (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). In case of current climate change, spreadsheets by global warming affecting the business largely
Legal factors associates with operations with the company. Legal constraint influences over business operations as well as demand characteristics of consumers. Adopting minimum wage rate policy by government largely affects business firm as increasing the cost of production (Lee and Carter 2012).
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Strength |
Weakness |
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Samsung Company believes in providing innovative designs in its products (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company engages in integration of open source operating system as well as software Samsung Company has low cost of production(Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company has largest market share especially in mobile phone market Samsung Company is recognizable brand across the world (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company has strong brand reputation Samsung Company has strong research and development department (Lee and Carter 2012) Samsung Company focus on best cost and quality Samsung Company has too large product diversity as well as sale stability Samsung Company is the first mover advantages in most of the countries Samsung Company growing market share develops in the developing countries like India as well as Bangladesh Samsung Company has strong intelligence especially in gaining marketing capabilities Samsung Company has large skilled employees in and around the world with 489000 Samsung Company majorly captures more than 40% market shares especially in Netherlands |
Samsung Company suffers from low profit margins (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company damages its image due to infringement (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company lacks focus on product diversity Samsung Company lacks essential operating system (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company has less quality after making comparison with Apple Inc. Samsung Company depends largely on consumer electronics (Lee and Carter 2012) Samsung Company uses Android operating system that has various disadvantages as well Samsung Company majorly depends upon software (Lee and Carter 2012) |
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Opportunities |
Weakness |
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Samsung Company in Indian Smartphone is growing at faster pace (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013) Most of the individuals using features phones switches to use smart phones (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). There is growing demand for technologically advanced phone (Lee and Carter 2012) Samsung Company has strong financial position Samsung Company has growth especially in tablet market (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) Samsung Company has the opportunity in involving in acquisition of new companies |
There are large number of competitors for Samsung Company Samsung Company competitors includes Apple and HTC (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013) Chinese competitors are majorly gaining over competitive advantage (Lee and Carter 2012) Individuals shows interest in purchase f good quality smart phones (Lee and Carter 2012) There are large number of products falling under one and affects others at the same time There are huge threat from Chinese as well as Indian and Taiwanese products (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013) |
S Means Specific
Samsung Company should conduct specific activities for carrying out proper sales planning by the sales manager (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). They should enter into 3D video Gaming market by collaborating with Microsoft. It will help in capitalizing on growing video gaming market as well as intends in partnership with Microsoft. It helps in developing virtual gaming product at the same time (Lee and Carter 2012).
M Means Measurable
Samsung Company should implement strategies that can be measurable in qualitative and quantitative terms (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). This company should launch comprehensive campaign that focus majorly on gaining competitiveness in 3D technology.
A Means Achievable
Samsung Company should implement strategies that should be achievable in the upcoming financial year (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). This particular company should achieve market dominance and leads the market position in the most appropriate way
R Means Relevant
Samsung Company should implement strategies that should be relevant in nature for future purpose (Samsung.com 2016). This particular company involves in advancement of product for the potential market.
T Means Time Bound
Samsung Company should implement strategies that should be performed on time for future purpose. This particular company need to focus majorly on innovative strategies and engages in research and development activities (Samsung.com 2016). This will help in gaining understanding on the needs as well as expectations of the customers.
Perceptual Map is a visual representation whereby target customers viewed as competing with nearest competitor’s alternatives representing the present market condition (Samsung.com 2016). There are various characteristics of Perceptual Map explained below:
Figure: Perpetual Mapping of Samsung
(Source: Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013)
It is mainly specified in viewing at the relevancy of objects as well as products for the company named as Samsung
Relevance means set of products that is selected from set of competitive products in managerial decision-making process (Samsung.com 2016)
There are three major possible methodologies for collection of information on consumer’s perception from products (Samsung.com 2016).
First method reveals the similarity-based method using multi-dimensional scaling (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013)
Second method means attribution based method considering factor analysis (Peñaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013)
Third method is the joint space mapping adding up perception and preference factor (Samsung.com 2016)
Uses of Perceptual Maps
Customer Analysis as well as competitive analysis- It requires understanding the competitive market structure as perceived by customers. It is positioned in relation with competition as well as selection as a set of competitors competing in the near future. It represents customer’s perceptions for bringing effective communication as well as discussing with the management of Samsung Company (Samsung.com 2016).
Product- It involves perceptions of the new product within the existing brands in the current global marketplace (Samsung.com 2016).
Samsung Company offers wide-range of diverse product mix in the market. It offers LED, LCD as well as Plasma 3D TVs, mobiles and other electronic goods. Samsung products come under sources of income matrix. Samsung products offer thinnest TV that is technologically advanced with streaming with live television and also offer a diverse range of mobiles also. One of the advantages of Samsung Company is the buying Samsung 3D TV for the consumer that is technologically advanced in nature. This mainly offers Samsung gaining brand recognition in the global marketplace. Offering of various implemented designs in the product also help the company to create a better image in the marketing strategies.(Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013).
Samsung Company prices ranges from $1200 to $7000. They offer diver range of product mix starting from mobile phones, Television and other electronic products. Development of the diverse range of price for the mobiles that have created an impact in the market that attract the diverse range of consumers towards the market. It has been found that the company has concentrated on the price strategy to develop better market capture comparing with the rival companies.
Samsung Company believes in providing its products in and across the world predominantly in North America and Europe. It also has market share in Asia market (Samsung.com 2016). Samsung has designed the product for every age group and for every segments of the market and thus the proper placement of the product is very essential for the market growth. In this aspect it is important to develop appropriate proportion of outlets in the target market. Samsung has maintained that aspect in a proper way in every country .
Samsung Company focuses mainly on launching advertising campaigns as well as spends billions of dollars in and across continents such as North America as well as Asia. This company spend more than $8 million for advertising its products in Europe and $3 billion in Asia individually. They also use celebrity endorsement for promoting their newly launched products (Homburg, Kuester and Krohmer 2013). In this regard it has been found that, Samsung is contributing the major attention towards the implication of digital media for the proper promotion of the Samsung mobiles. As mentioned already Samsung is spending a lot in the promotion and major involvement in the social media is contributing towards the development of the proper promotion of the Samsung products.
Projects- Samsung Company has collaborated with the world leading renewable energy companies involving CS wind, Siemens as well as clean energy components. This involves wind towers as well as blades and solar modules. It renders manufacturing facilities in Ontario. Samsung focus mainly on working on the major components as well as solar projects at the same time. These projects act as attainment of largest cluster of wind as well as solar power. It has direct Agreement committing towards collaborating for investment purpose.
Conclusion and Recommendations
At the end of the study, it is concluded that Samsung Company leads the current market in electronics section. It is further suggested in involving in various innovative activities for retaining in the global marketplace. It is advisable to Samsung Company in taking initiatives as well as providing more environmentally friendly electronic products for gaining the leadership position. Samsung Company enhances in conducting advertisement campaigns for creation of greater brand awareness.
Samsung Company needs to consider aspects regarding attainment of Corporate Social Responsibility. Samsung Company needs to enhance their brand image by engaging in social causes like good corporate image as well as for people. Samsung Company should make improvement in the after sales services as satisfaction leads directly to customer retention policies. Samsung Company should make ways for conduct efficient research and development activities. Conclusions are drawn by using SWOT analysis of Samsung Company. Strategies involve digital vision as innovation as well as meeting challenges and creativity. Target debt-to-equity ratio arrives at 50% and 7% of total revenues should be under research and development activities. This company has overseas partners namely technology transfer arrangements as well as joint investments.
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