Marketing Strategy of Samsung in India
Marketing Strategy of Samsung in India
Marketing Strategy of Samsung in India
SUBMITTED BY
Pratyush singhal
B.com (Hons.)IIISem
ENROLLMENT NO-A7004615105
This project work is partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of
commerce from Amity University Lucknow Campus, Uttar Pradesh.
Dr SACHIN SRIVASTAV
AMITY UNIVERSITY,
LUCKNOW CAMPUS
UTTAR PRADESH
STUDENT’S CERTIFICATE
Date.______________
I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard
I declare that
The work submitted by me in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree
Bcom(Hons)assessment in this is my own; it has not previously been presented for another
assessment.
(a) I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person to
submit it as my own.
(b) I have not permitted, and will not permit, anybody to copy my work with the purpose
of passing it off as his or her own work.
(c) The work conforms to the guidelines for layout, content and style as set out in the
Regulations and Guidelines.
Date: ------------
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my faculty guide Dr. SACHIN
SRIVASTAV well as my area head Prof.R.P.Gupta who gave me the golden opportunity to
do this wonderful project on the topic “The relationship between packaging characteristics
and consumer brand preference” which also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came
to know about so many new things ,I am really thankful to them.
Secondly, I would like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame.
SWOT ANALYSIS
6. FINDINGS 17
7. SUGGESTIONS 18
8. Conclusion 19
9. Bibliography 20
INTRODUCTION
Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading. Over the next three
decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance,
securities and retail. Samsung entered the electronics 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 HansolGroup. Since
1990s, Samsung has increasingly globalized its activities and electronics, particularly
mobile phones and semiconductors, have become its most important source of
income.
Notable Samsung industrial subsidiaries include Samsung Electronics (the world's
largest information technology company measured by 2012 revenues, and 4th in market
value), Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's 2nd-largestshipbuilder measured by
2010 revenues), and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T (respectively the world's
13th and 36th-largest construction companies). Other notable subsidiaries
include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th-largest life insurance company),
Samsung Everland(operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South
Korea) and Cheil Worldwide (the world's 15th-largest advertising agency measured by
2012 revenues).
Samsung 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". Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total
exports. Samsung's revenue was equal to 17% of South Korea's $1,082 billion GDP.
COMPANY PROFILE
Samsung Electronics commenced its operations in India in December 1995 and is today a
leading provider of Consumer Electronics, IT and Telecom products in the Indian market.
Samsung India is the Regional Headquarters for Samsung’s Southwest Asia operations, which
provides employment to over 45,000 employees with around 11,500 employees being
involved in R&D.
Samsung began operations in India through its manufacturing complex located at Noida (UP),
which today houses facilities for Colour Televisions (including 3D, LED and LCD Televisions),
Mobile Phones, Refrigerators, Washing Machines and Split Air Conditioners categories.
Samsung commenced operations of its second state-of-the-art manufacturing complex at
Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in November 2007. Today, the Sriperumbudur facility
manufactures Colour Televisions, Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machines,
Refrigerators and Split Air Conditioners. Samsung India has three R&D Centres in India–two
in NCR and one in Bangalore. While the Noida R&D Centres develops software solutions for
high-end televisions such as Plasma TVs, LCD TVs and Digital Media Products, the other
Centre is engaged in R&D solutions for product hardware. The Bangalore R&D Centre works
on major projects for Samsung Electronics in the area of telecom, wireless terminals and
infrastructure, Networking, SoC (System on Chip) Digital Printing and other
multimedia/digital media as well as application software.
Samsung India is the Market leader in product categories like Mobile Phones, Smart Phones,
Panel TVs, Side By Side Refrigerators, Frost Free Refrigerators, Microwaves and Inverter ACs.
Samsung India has won several awards and recognitions for both its corporate initiatives as
well as its product innovations in Audio Visual, Home Appliance, IT and Telecom Product
categories.
Apart from development of innovative technology, Samsung places great importance on
acting as a responsible corporate citizen in the communities where it operates. Its CSR
programs respond to the social and environmental needs and seek to give back to
communities that support the company. In 2009, Samsung launched the company’s
Corporate Social Responsibility initiative ‘Samsung Hope Project’ with projects in the areas of
education, culture, sports, social welfare and community development. Each programme,
under the Hope Project, uniquely addresses the needs of individual communities while
emphasizing on innovations for development of the community including education,
technology, engineering and IT technical training.
The Company’s CSR initiatives such as Samsung Smart Class and Samsung Technical Schools
have been recognised by several reputed organisations, and the Company has won accolades
from these projects aimed at giving back to the society.
LITERATURE REVIEW
These documents and data’s are very useful for the theoretical,
conceptual and organizational background analysis.
Samsung has a vast product portfolio and its presence is in several different
product categories. The brand image driver for Samsung are the Samsung
Smartphone’s such as the Samsung note series or the Samsung galaxy series.
Overall, Samsung is present in the following product categories.
1) Tablets
2) Televisions – LEDs, LCDs. Plasma TV, SMART TV, HDTV etc
3) Cameras and Camcorders
4) Refrigerators
5) Air conditioners
6) Washing machine
7) Microwave ovens
8) IT – Laptops, printers and accessories) Mobile phones – Smart phones,
normal phones
The benefit of Samsung in terms of its product is that there is a trust on all
Samsung products because of the way Samsung products have performed in the
last few years. Problems with the products has been negligible. And with its
Smart phones, Samsung has achieved a status symbol for its customers. At the
same time, Samsung is known for its service and people know that Samsung
gives a very fast service for any of its product. Thus in the marketing mix of
Samsung, the product portfolio is one of the strongest point for Samsung.
Viral marketing is also extensively used by Samsung as one of the most effective
advertising methods. For example, the latest 60-second viral marketing video
titled “Anticipation” is a successful attempt to associate Samsung Galaxy S6 with
excitement and a sense of achievement and recognition.
Sales Promotion
Samsung uses sales promotions as a marketing tool more extensively compared
to the majority of its competitors. It has been estimated that the company had
spent about USD 4.6 billion on sales promotions during 2013 alone globally, that
included USD 888 million sales promotions budget on its home market in South
Korea. It is important to clarify that this budget is separate from the marketing
budget illustrated in Figure 3 above. Moreover, Samsung official website
contains sales promotions announcements on mobile phones, accessories,
cameras, back to school offers, as well as, bundle offers
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 all the
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.
Geographic Segmentation
Samsung geographic segmentation is world wide, they sell their phones in 61
different countries. They make slight variations in languages and applications but
the physical appearance of their phones is universal.
Demographic Segmentation
Age Segmentation : Their target age segmentation is teens,young adults
and adults in early and mid 30's.
Income Segmentation : Their target income segmentation is middle class
and high class income.
Ethnic Segmentation : Since Samsung sells world wide, they don't have a
specific ethic segmentation.
Family Life Cycle Segmentation : Their target family life cycle is young
single, young married or divorced with or without children.
Gender Segmentation : Smartphones are not gender specific but since
women shop more than men I would assume they have more women buying
their phones than men.
Benefit Segmentation
When Samsung customers buy their phones the benefit they expect from it is
simple appearance, new and updated features and reasonably priced.
It is a fact that there is a link between innovation and the economy of a country,
the culture of its peoples and those businesses running on it. South Korea, where
Samsung originated, is not rich when it comes to natural resources
In the present day, the accomplishment of a business depends not just on the
product quality rather on how efficiently and effectively the value of the product
is presented to the clients at the last part. When it comes to this aspect, Samsung
Company has taken big steps in its development, whether financially or
operationally.
In order to improve the product value of the company, the following are some of
the branding strategy of Samsung that other business owner must kept in mind:
• Establishing identity on the product
• Cost involved in the repositioning of the product
• Reaction from opponents or competitors
• Techniques adopted in costing
• Research and development
When it comes to cost efficiency, it was taken care of which the rules adopted by
company were not “cost prohibitive”
• Also it was observed that company strengths leverage has lead in acceptable
dividends and which it leads to “focused hard works.”
Past few years, Samsung Company adopted a lot of measures in order to make its
existence felt worldwide. Some of them include:
Sponsoring
One such significant instance was when Samsung sponsored the 1998 Seoul
Olympics. Samsung had made an agreement together with the International
Olympic Association.The business executives anticipated that through
sponsoring special and worldwide events and by means of embracing different
marketing methods as well as investments, the product of value of the company
would be improved. Because of this the value of the product of the Company
escalated by almost 200 percent, obtaining $8.3 billion in 2002 from 3.1 billion
dollar in the year 1999. Valued through Interbrand Incorporation.The different
measures obtain by the company didn’t go in waste because Samsung was listed
amidst the topmost products, the product being evaluated by the Interbrand
Incorporation. Among the non Japanese products, Samsung Company was the
only company from Asia.
Samsung focussing on its online sales strategy for the Indian market
Samsung has been facing fierce competition in the Indian smartphone segment
from the likes of Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus, and ASUS, and some Indian brands,
which are focussing on online sales. Now, Samsung has revealed that the
company is focussing on and fine tuning its online sales strategy in the country.
The company is also focussing on sales from the rural market, which has
contributed significantly to sales.
According to sources within the company, the South Korean smartphone giant is
looking to tap into the booming e-commerce market in India, and the
company has even a separate team at its headquarters to plan online sales
strategy. The company had to face revolt from offline retailers after online
retailers started providing huge discounts and price cuts on Samsung devices.
When asked about the company’s plan to tap into the e-commerce segment,
Rushi Suri, Samsung India Director-Product Marketing Consumer Electronics,
said, “For us the consumer is the key. Where the consumer would want us, we
would be there and would be offering right kind of products at right price. In case
of (consumer) electronics, the clear understanding with the management is
where the consumer would want us, we would be there.”
SWOT ANALYSIS
Samsung Electronics Co. Limited (OTC: SSNLF) is actually the consumer
electronics subsidiary of the Samsung Group, a conglomerate based in Suwon,
South Korea. Outside of Korea, Samsung is best known as the world’s largest
manufacturer of mobile phones and smartphones, including the highly popular
and successful Galaxy.
It is also the world’s largest manufacturer of televisions and LCD panels. Thanks
to its manufacturing and marketing expertise, Samsung is regarded as the
world’s second largest consumer electronics company. Only its American
rival, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), reported larger revenues.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine exactly what Samsung’s are because it is
based in Korea and not covered by U.S. corporate reporting laws. Samsung did
report an estimated TTM revenue of $42.35 billion for the second quarter of
2015. That figure is based on sales of 48 trillion Korean won.
Strengths
Samsung is the world’s most successful electronics manufacturer. It is the
world’s largest manufacturer of television sets, liquid crystal display (LCD)
panels, mobile phones and smartphones.
Samsung is the world’s number one marketer of mobile phones with 21.4%
of the world’s largest market share in the second quarter of 2015. Apple is
number two with 13.9%[2]
Samsung has impressive research and design capabilities. It was able to
create and roll out Samsung Pay, a payment app with similar capabilities to
Apple Pay, in less than a year. Samsung has been able to replicate many of
the capabilities of both Apple Inc.’s phones and Google Inc.’s Android
operating system for mobile devices.
Samsung has strong manufacturing and marketing capabilities.
Samsung has long-standing relationships with retailers in the United States
and Europe that provide a steady sales channel for its products.
Weaknesses
Samsung has not been able to match Apple Inc.’s marketing capabilities for
smartphones. Its share of the U.S. smartphone market fell by 2.3% between
2014 and 2015. In contrast, Apple’s share price grew by 34.9%.
Some Chinese competitors are catching up to Samsung in the smartphone
market. Between 2014 and 2015 Huawei’s share grew by 48.1%, and
Xiaomi’s share grew by 29.4%.
Samsung is heavily dependent upon consumer electronics sales in markets
with limited potential for growth, such as the United States and Europe, for
much of its revenue.
Samsung’s devices use the Google Android open source operating system.
Many consumers seem to view Android as an inferior product to Apple’s
iOS. The public has not been as accepting of Android as the tech community
has.
Some consumers view Apple products as more advanced and dependable
than Samsung products.
Samsung’s marketing efforts are not as sophisticated as Apple’s.
Opportunities
Growing market for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices,
especially in developing regions such as Africa and India, where consumers
are unfamiliar with PCs. Sales of tablets finally overtook sales of traditional
personal computers in 2015.
Increased demand for tablet and smartphone-based solutions such as
Samsung Pay
New technologies such as wearable tech
Growing middle class in developing world will increase market for
consumer electronics.
Growing online market from sales channels such as Amazon.com
Threats:
Apple has emerged as the dominant smartphone and tablet brand in some
markets, such as the United States. Samsung has not been able to overcome
Apple’s reputation for reliability.
Apple’s reputation for quality, reliability and sophistication seems to be
growing.
The Google Android operating system, which Galaxy devices depend upon,
is not as popular with average people as iOS is.
Declining or stagnating middle-class incomes in North America and the
United States could reduce consumer buying power in those key markets
for Samsung.
Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi could emerge as serious
rivals to Samsung. These companies’ share of the critical mobile device
market is growing while Samsung’s is falling.
Apple could enter more consumer products areas such as home appliances
and cameras and directly compete with Samsung in those markets.
Samsung maintains impressive research, design and manufacturing capabilities,
but it appears to have lost its edge in marketing. This company may need to
revamp its smartphone marketing and perhaps design efforts in order to
maintain market share in critical arenas like the U.S.
Porter’s Five Forces methodology is used in this article to analyze the business
strategies of white goods makers like Samsung. This tool is a handy method to
assess how each of the market drivers impact the companies like Samsung and
then based on the analysis, suitable business strategies can be devised. Further,
companies like Samsung are known to study the markets they want to approach
thoroughly and deeply before they make a move and it is in this perspective that
this analysis is undertaken.
Industry Rivalry
This element is especially significant for Samsung as the other White Goods
multinationals like LG, Nokia, and Motorola not to mention Apple are engaged in
fierce competitive rivalry. Indeed, Samsung cannot take its position in the market
for granted as all these and other domestic white goods players operate in a
market where margins are tight and the competition is intense. Apart from this,
Samsung faces the equivalent of the “Cola Wars” (the legendary fight for
dominance between Coke and Pepsi) in emerging markets like India where
Samsung has to contend and compete with a multitude of players domestic and
global. This has made the impact of this dimension especially strong for Samsung.
Barriers to Entry and Exit
The White Goods industry is characterized by high barriers to entry and low
barriers to exit especially where global conglomerates like Samsung are
concerned. Indeed, it is often very difficult to enter emerging markets because a
host of factors have to be taken into consideration such as setting up the
distribution network and the supply chain. However, global conglomerates can
exit the emerging markets easily as all it takes is to handover and sell the
business to a domestic or a foreign player in the case of declining or falling sales.
This means that Samsung has entered many emerging markets through a step-
by-step approach and has also exited the markets that have been found to be
unprofitable. This is the reason why white goods multinationals like Samsung
often do their due diligence before entering emerging markets.
Power of Buyers
The power of buyers for white goods makers like Samsung is somewhat of a
mixed bag where though the buyers have a multitude of options to choose from
and at the same time have to stick with the product since they cannot just dump
the product, as it is a high value item. Further, the buyers would have to
necessarily approach the companies for after sales service and for spare parts. Of
course, this does not mean that the buyers are at the mercy of the companies. Far
from that, they do have power over the companies, as most emerging market
consumers are known to be finicky when deciding on the product to buy and
explore all the options before reaching a decision. This means that both the
buyers and the companies need each other just like the suppliers and the
companies, as we shall discuss next.
Power of Suppliers
In many markets in which Samsung operates, there are many suppliers who are
willing to offer their services at a discount since the ancillary sectors are very
deep. However, this does not mean that the companies can exert undue force
over the suppliers as once the supply chain is established; it takes a lot to undo it
and build a new supply chain afresh. This is the reason why white goods makers
like Samsung invariably study the markets before setting up shop and also take
the help of consultancies in arriving at their decision.
Threat of Substitutes
This element is indeed high as the markets for white goods are flooded with
many substitutes and given the fact that consumer durables are often longer
term purchases, companies like Samsung have to be careful in deciding on the
appropriate marketing strategy. This is also the reason why many multinationals
like Samsung often adopt differential pricing so as to attract consumers from
across the income pyramid to wean them away from cheaper substitutes.
Further, this element also means that many emerging market consumers are yet
to deepen their dependence on white goods and instead, prefer to the traditional
forms of housework wherein they rely less on gadgets and appliances. However,
this is rapidly changing as more women enter the workforce in these markets
making it necessary for them to use gadgets and appliances.
Stakeholders
This is an added element for analysis as the increasing concern over social and
environmentally conscious business practices means that companies like
Samsung have to be careful in how they do business as well as project themselves
to the consumers. For instance, white goods makers are known to decide after
due deliberation on everything from choosing their brand ambassadors to
publicizing their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives.
SAMSUNG
With the passage of time use of sophisticated software tools- ERP, Trend
Data, Qualitative field inputs will increase and as a result forecasting would
be better.
One major finding is that, while branding differentiates the image of the
near future and this difficult markets will only be cracked by companies that
SAMSUNG companies are now realising that change will come faster and
harsher than ever before, so why not change before change is thrust upon.
Last but definitely not the least with all attention now being centred on
Supply chain and logistics specifically in marketing sector, this could well
Samsung India ltd. Is a leading Electronic company in India and from last
five consecutive years has shown accelerated growth in electronic
portfolio. Customers in India are also spending more in electronics as their
standard of living is growing. Samsung has placed itself successfully in the
position of market leader in electronic products. Though there was some
downfall in sales and profit of the company in the beginning of this decade
but after that Samsung has shown considerable rise in both sales and profit.
The future of the company is also looking bright as electronic market in
India is still expanding and so we can safely conclude that Samsung will be
able to secure its number one position in electronic product.
Samsung has also started project , that has provided it direct reach to rural
market. This may be considered a revolutionary step since the urban
market is reaching its saturation level and there is a huge scope exploring
rural market. This will also be helpful not only increasing its market share
but also fight competition
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In order to make this project we have taken the help of the following
websites & books:
www.wikipedia.com
www.oppapers.com
www.samsung.co.in
www.scribd.com
C.K.KothariResearch Methodology