PRODUCT CATEGORIES

The product categories of Samsung are as follows

Mobile phones
Tablets
TV/Audio/Video
Camera
Home Appliances
PC/Peripherals
Memory cards
Product
Category
Mobile phones
Tablets
TV/Audio/Video
Camera
Home
Appliances
PC/Peripherals
Memory cards

Market
Share
21%
9.90%
30%
15%
24%
8%
42.40%

Market
size(units)
86.6 million
4.4 million
39 million
129 million
1.7
million+7
lakh
1.9 million

ROLE OF SAMSUNG IN EACH PRODUCT CATEGORY

Mobile
In the mobile phone category, Samsung has made sure to have a lengthy
extension of its products starting from basic phones to the most advanced
smartphones. In India the brand equity of Samsung is very high. About a decade
back what was once dominated by the Nokia and Motorola have now been
captured by Samsung. The brand ambassador for the company is Aamir Khan
known for his integrity in the Bollywood industry. Amir Khan mainly promoted the
hero series of mid-range phones.
Later in 2009 Samsung launched its corby series which was believed to
take the mobile phone market to a whole new level. Affordable cost multimedia
combined with the mobile internet made customers go crazy after the product.
The positioning of the corby series was perfectly made by targeting the youth

segment of the country, which constituted more than half of the target group in
the mobile phone segment. Instant updates on facebook and affordable touch
screen phones added further value to the phones.
In 2010 Samsung further raised the bar by introducing the galaxy series
which took Samsung to higher end segment which was enjoyed only by
APPLE. Ads were made targeting the customers of Apple. Most of the ads
implicitly instigated customers to move from apple to Samsung. Samsung
promised better feature at a lower cost.

Television
In 2009, Samsung sold around 31 million flat-panel televisions, enabling to
maintain the world's largest market share for a fourth consecutive year. In early
2010, the company had set the year's sales goal at 39 million units (including 10
million LED televisions). In March 2009, Samsung launched the "Finger-Slim"
super-slim LED television. In 2009, the product sold around two million units.
The company has led the flat-panel television market for the past five years with
the 2006 introduction of its "Bordeaux" line, followed by the 2007 Bordeaux
model, the 2008 "Crystal Rose" line, and the "Finger-Slim" in 2009. The company
retained the leading position by successfully selling more than 1 million 3D
televisions as of August 2010. Samsung launched its first full HD 3D LED
television March 2010. Samsung had showcased the product at the 2010
International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010) held in Las Vegas.
Samsung sold more than one million 3D televisions within six months of its
launch. This is the figure close to what many market researchers forecast for the
year's worldwide 3D television sales (1.23 million units). It also debuted the 3D
Home Theater (HT-C6950W) that allows the user to enjoy 3D image and surround
sound at the same time. With the launch of 3D Home Theater, Samsung became
the first company in the industry to have the full line of 3D offerings, including
3D television, 3D Blu-ray play, 3D content, and 3D glasses.
Smart televisions
In 2007, Samsung introduced the Internet TV, enabling the viewer to
receive information from the Internet while at the same time watching
conventional television programming. Samsung later developed "Smart LED TV",
(now renamed to "Samsung Smart TV") which additionally supports downloaded
apps. In 2008, the company launched the Power Infolink service, followed in
2009 by a whole new Internet@TV. In 2010, it started marketing the 3D television
while unveiling the upgraded Internet@TV 2010, which offers free (or for-fee)
download of applications from its Samsung Apps store, in addition to existing
services such as news, weather, stock market, YouTube videos, and movies.
Samsung Apps offers for-fee premium services in a few countries including Korea
and the United States. The services will be custom-tailored for each region.

Samsung plans to offer family-oriented applications such as health care

programs and digital picture frames as well as games.
Camera
After having successfully captured the mobile phone industry in India,
Samsungs next big plan is to become the market leader in the camera segment.
The market was valued at Rs 17.5 billion during the fiscal year 2010 and is
expected to attain a CAGR of 43% to reach Rs 104.6 billion by 2015. There
prevails a cut throat competition between the major players which includes Sony,
Nikon, Kodak, Canon and more recently Samsung. The strategies followed in
marketing the cameras sound similar to the strategies followed by Samsung in
the mobile industry about a decade back. They have entered the industry by
releasing 12 new digital cameras at the lower end which starts at Rs. 5000. They
have understood the fact that 80% of the sales come from under Rs 10,000
segment. The high feature rich and affordable pricing makes Samsung products
desirable. With the brand loyalty created by home appliances and mobile
phones, Samsung was able to efficiently leverage on its secondary associations.
Samsung took enough measures to understand the brand feelings among the
customers. They efficiently differentiated its brand association between its lower
end segment and the higher end segment. The lower end segment cameras were
positioned among the middle class and upper middle class families. The emotion
in the families was captured in the ads. On the other hand the higher end SLR
cameras were positioned among the professionals and youth segment.
Laptop/PC
Samsungs entry into PC segment began by launching monitors. This was
a huge success and even today many people prefer having a Samsung LCD
monitor. But their entry into laptop segment was a bit late. Moreover their
market share is also less. This clearly shows that Samsung has identified its key
strength and decided to concentrate only on those rather than focussing in every
segment.
Tablet
Samsung with the launch of Galaxy Tab series of tablets compete against
the much stronger Apples I pad. But Samsungs tablets run on Android platform
and the prices are also quite low when compared to its competitors. Samsung
would definitely come up with further new innovations in this field as Microsoft
has also entered the market with its launch of tablets which would further
increase the rivalry.
Home Appliances
Samsung is also a leading manufacturer of many home appliances. Among
them it leads in the microwave segment where there are no stiff competitions.
Refrigerators and Washing machines are manufactured by Samsung.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A questionnaire was created and was circulated to collect the responses.

Apart from the questionnaire, the focus group discussions had during class was
also used to collect responses to frame the key insight.
Sample Size: 30
Male: 21; Female: 9

Age wise details

13%
<25
25-35
>35
27%
60%

Differentiating factor
cutting edge
technology

23%
33%

Pushing through the

dealers
Affordable price
Innovative design

3%
40%

DATA
COLLECTION

Average satisfaction level: 3.7/5

BRAND ASSOCIATIONS
MENTAL MAPPING

POINTS OF PARITY AND POINTS OF DIFFERENTIATION

Samsung electronics produces consumer electronics in five categories , they are

TVs and video /audio players , mobile phones, computers , cameras , home
appliances . we have discussed the points of parity and points of differentiation
of Samsung with its competitors in the following pages

TV/Video/audio players Samsung has become the company with the highest
sales of TVs . They were the first to introduce 3D Led tvs .They have always
had a head to head competition with sony in the TV segment. In the past few
years Samsung has managed to become the leading producers of TV. Their
possession of Samsung chip has also enabled them to come up with innovative
products like the smart tv in response to sonys internet tv . They have been
successful in integrating technology with electronics thus becoming the market
leaders . they also have the advantage of manufacturing their TVS in their own
factory while sony outsources the manufacturing
Points of parity Both sony and Samsung give importance to innovation and
picture quality . both had a tough competition introducing slim/ultraslim
Tvs .sony introduced internet TV , while Samsung introduced smart TV .
Samsung also introduced 3D LED tv
Points of differentiation-samsung has 3 points of differentiation .First one was
it tried to create an emotional connect with the Indian families. They wanted
to project the TV as a member of family through advertisements that spoke
about naming the TV . This campaign was specially developed for Indian
audience because TV was considered to be integral part of every Indian middle
class family.Another point of differentiation was providing more value for the
money they pay . The third point of differentiation was design . their ad
campaigns had tag lines like design that performs , dikhayiye acha , dikhiye
aur bhi acha
Overall positioning:- better quality and design , innovative features value for
money , integral part of family

Home appliances:- Samsung has a variety of products under home appliances

category . They include air conditioners, microwave oven , refridgerators
,washing machine , vacuum cleaners , etc . In india Samsung has tough
competition from another south Korean company LG.

Points of parity:- There are a lot of pops between Samsung and LG . Both
concentrated on innovation and brought new technologies. LG bought
innovation in the form of side by side door fridge , automatic doors for fridge
,health guard in AC , tallest cooler in fridge .while Samsung imtroduced
innovation like s series compressor in AC,Digital inverted compressor that
keeps food fresh for 7 days ,uniform cooling , FRUNCH new sound of
freshness , bubble generator in washing machine ,biosleep :-ac sets temperature
according to body temperature.Both concentrated on healthy lifestyle.LG s tag
line itself is lifes good . while Samsung concentrates on keeping food fresh ,
pure air from ac , protection of soft clothes and other product benefits .

Points of differentiation:-samsung has a brand ambassador for its home

appliances segment whereas LG doesnt have a brand ambassador . samsungs
brand ambassador is priyanka chopra . having such a popular personality as
a brand ambassador helps in keeping the brand in peoples memory .samsung
also develops appliances specifically for Indian market . they have ACS
designed specifically for Indian summer .washing machine that protects soft
clothes like Indian cotton ,silk etc and also removes toughest of stains
.microwave ovens campaign says way to his heart is through his stomach .The
most important differentiation is that samsungs appliances are energy
efficient and runs on less power hence gives 20% percent savings in
electricity bill . This is specifically for india where Indian middle class segment
is very much concerned about growing electricity bills .

Overall positioning:- healthy living , innovative product features , energy

efficient hence cost saving

Cameras:-Samsung is not a very big player in cameras segment buut still its a
popular brand . it has got tough competition from canon and sony. Cameras
segment include handy cam , digital cameras .

Points of parity:- Product features and innovation like super zoom , 270 degree
wide angle shots in sony . better picture quality in canon . dual view and multi
view cameras from Samsung
Points of differentiation:- There is not many pods in this segment . all the
companys are focused only on increasing the product features and innovation
and samsung too does the same

Mobile phones:-samsung is one of the highest sellers of smart phones .it has a
tough competition with apple . There is a tough competition between apples
iphone and samsungs galaxy . In india Samsung has tough competition with
nokia . it has also raced ahead of nokia .They used the possession of their own
chip to their advantage and bought about lot of innovation
Points of parity:- product features and innovation is a major point of
parity.Nokia focuses on features like music player. And also on emotional
connect with family , which Samsung does it with the guru phone . while apple
focuses on innovation which Samsung does it with corby and galaxy phone
Points of differentiation:-samsungs main point of differentiation is more
features and better features for the money that you pay . they have the tag
line sab kuch behtar hai for Samsung guru .they have aamir khan as their
brand ambassador because his personality and image of a reliable superstar who
can perform a variety of roles to perfection matches samsungs personality and
positioning. Samsung guru was introduced as a competition to nokias 1100. It
positions itself having better features than other lower end phones . they also
used innovation as a point of differentiation , they were the first movers in
smart phone segment in india by introducing corby and galaxy .
Overall positioning:- better and innovative product features , value for money
, affordable luxury

Laptops:- Samsung is an emerging player in laptops . Though it has its own

chip , it uses intel chip in its laptop to be on par with the competitors . it has
competition from dell and hp
Points of parity :- The major points of parity is performance and style .

Points of difference :- samsung laptops focus more on some basic needs of

customer like light weightedness , longer battery life , safety in the form of spill
proof keyboard , brighter screen
Overall positioning :- samsung laptops have a better version of the consumers
basic expectations from a laptop

Overall brand positioning of samsung

All samsung products focus a lot on product benefits and features .
They want to provide a variety of benefits and features from a single
product
Most important feature is the integration and use of technology in
delivering the necessary value
Innovation is also a key criteria .
All samsung products focus on value for money . one of their positioning
is that of getting more than what you pay for .
They also position themselves as better providers of the points of
parity than their competitors
POSITIONING STATEMENT OF SAMSUNG
For every person who wants to get the maximum value for the price that
they pay .
The samsung electronics is an electronics firm that provides electronic
goods that satisfy all your explicit and implicit needs more than your
expectations .
Unlike other electronic firms , our products are innovative , at the same
time provides maximum value . on the whole its affordable luxury .

KEY INSIGHT Innovation with value

Analysing the brand associations collated, it was observed that most of the
consumer insights were touching upon the following dimensions of the brand:
innovation, market leadership, design, performance, reliability and affordability.
After many deliberations the group arrived at Innovation with Value as the key
insight. The value factor adds significance to the innovation by creating

solutions for the consumer and sales and revenue for the company. The key
insight is validated even when tested with Brand Key elements as it goes hand in
hand with the Brand Essence.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Competitive Environment
Target
Consumer Insights
Benefits
Values and Personality
Reasons to believe
Discriminator
Brand essence

Also when looked from the Brand Dynamics Pyramid perspective, the key insight
seats Samsung at the highest pedestal of Bonded
Brand Dynamics Pyramid
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Awareness
Relevance
Performance
Advantage
Bonded

From the Brand Pyramid perspective

Also the key insight with the use of with value (to consumers) addresses the
top of the Brand Pyramid:- Relationships
On doing a mental mapping within the group and by placing brand
associations from the survey, Samsung comes across as a soft, simple and
rational and also sophisticated, exaggerated and contemporary.
ANNEXURE
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Gender Male, Female
2. Age - <25, 25-35, >35
3. Do u have any of the following manufactured by Samsung Mobile, Tablet,
TV, Camera, Home apps, PC, Memory card
4. Are you satisfied with the product Yes, No
5. Please describe the brand Samsung in one word
6. What do you think is the differentiating factor of Samsung compared with
its competitors Affordable Price, Innovative design, cutting edge
technology, Applications
7. Will you be ready to buy a Samsung product just because of its brand
name
8. Do you believe Samsung could become the market leader in majority of
their product categories
9. Do you feel purchasing a Samsung product to be worth Yes, No

The majority of the respondents were students of PGP 2. Apart from them
survey was also done with people outside BIM. Most of them were young
professionals in various organizations. The survey was clearly done only with the
respondents who had prior exposure to products of Samsung in order to avoid
getting any guesses.