Samsung Hbs Case Answer
How would you assess the challenge of repositioning the Samsung brand?
Samsung, in wanting to reposition itself as a high value added preferred products provider from a value, or cheap OEM products provider, faced many challenges. A big challenge for Samsung was that the Samsung brand was at different stages of development in different country markets – so while in some markets the Samsung brand had high brand recognition and loyalty, in some the brand had low awareness. This caused management of different regional and product groups to disagree as to how much local adaptation of marketing and global brand-building communication strategies were necessary. Internally the managers could not conceptualize the value that global branding and marketing could make for their brand and ultimately their sectors. There was no consistent brand message for Samsung but rather 55 different marketing plans and 20 different slogans. Wanting to compete in the global league with global sectors but having 20 different slogans meant no consistent brand message or recognition for the Samsung umbrella. Additionally Samsung needed to change consumers’ perception of them being a low-cost value-added provider to one that had product leadership and innovation. To reposition the brand, Samsung needed to unify it’s regional and product segments to have a more global presence and thus increase brand awareness for the Samsung brand itself. Additionally, managers had to be incentivized and persuaded into believing that money spent on advertising could be better for them as a whole than money on R&D and that customers don’t always respond to good products but need to be told why Samsung products ought to be their first choice – managers that were short-sighted, or focused on their specific product or region had to, were made to recognize that global marketing would allow for the long-run success of the brand and in tern their respective segments. All these challenges were multiplied because
Samsung, in wanting to reposition itself as a high value added preferred products provider from a value, or cheap OEM products provider, faced many challenges. A big challenge for Samsung was that the Samsung brand was at different stages of development in different country markets – so while in some markets the Samsung brand had high brand recognition and loyalty, in some the brand had low awareness. This caused management of different regional and product groups to disagree as to how much local adaptation of marketing and global brand-building communication strategies were necessary. Internally the managers could not conceptualize the value that global branding and marketing could make for their brand and ultimately their sectors. There was no consistent brand message for Samsung but rather 55 different marketing plans and 20 different slogans. Wanting to compete in the global league with global sectors but having 20 different slogans meant no consistent brand message or recognition for the Samsung umbrella. Additionally Samsung needed to change consumers’ perception of them being a low-cost value-added provider to one that had product leadership and innovation. To reposition the brand, Samsung needed to unify it’s regional and product segments to have a more global presence and thus increase brand awareness for the Samsung brand itself. Additionally, managers had to be incentivized and persuaded into believing that money spent on advertising could be better for them as a whole than money on R&D and that customers don’t always respond to good products but need to be told why Samsung products ought to be their first choice – managers that were short-sighted, or focused on their specific product or region had to, were made to recognize that global marketing would allow for the long-run success of the brand and in tern their respective segments. All these challenges were multiplied because