Samsung's Brand Rubik's Cube

In January 2012, Samsung became one of the most dazzling stars at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is known as the vane of the global electronics industry. The new connected application experience implemented in product lines such as computers and home appliances stunned the American audience present. But who would have thought that in 1993, Samsung brand products were cheap and second-rate products that few people paid attention to in electronic stores in the United States?

Fifteen years ago, during the Asian financial crisis, Samsung almost went bankrupt due to its high long-term debt. Fifteen years later, Samsung entered the global $100 billion club, with nearly 20 products ranking in the global market share First. According to the survey results of Interbrand, an internationally renowned brand research institution, the value of the Samsung brand has been upgraded from the 43rd ($5.2 billion) in the world in 2000 to the 17th ($23.4 billion) in 2011. Samsung has become the face of a world-class brand that Koreans are proud of.

What is the secret of Samsung's success in growing from a regional brand in the Korean domestic market to a global first-class brand? Especially when Samsung first entered the electronic technology market, there were already many rivals with mature technologies such as HP, Intel, Nokia, Motorola, Toshiba, etc. As a latecomer, how can Samsung catch up with Japan and surpass the United States?

Relying on independent technology to catch up

In the 1980s, Samsung Electronics mainly focused on the production of cheap products, with low prices and low profits, focusing on the low-end market to achieve sustained growth. However, this strategy has seriously affected the brand's image.

In 1991, Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee was on a business trip to Los Angeles, and found that Samsung's video player was covered with dust in an electronics store, and no one was interested. Angered, Li Jianxi bought two Japanese similar products and came back to study, and found that the parts of Samsung projectors were 30% more than those of Toshiba, but the price was nearly 30% cheaper than that of Toshiba. Lee Kun-hee realized that the brand and technology gap with leading companies must be shortened for Samsung to have a chance to produce top-notch products.

As early as 1983, his father Li Bingzhe accepted Li Jianxi's suggestion and invested heavily into the semiconductor business. At that time, Japanese counterparts sneered at Samsung, and the Korean government, from the government, to the news and public opinion, were opposed to this huge investment.

Samsung has withstood enormous pressure and went all-in on its new venture. At that time, Samsung developed 64KB dynamic memory technology, and then developed 64MB dynamic memory technology and 256MB dynamic memory technology. In 1992, its semiconductor dynamic memory technology has reached the world's leading level. Many experts in the industry said that Samsung seized the investment opportunities of emerging semiconductors in the 1980s and continued to innovate on the basis of introducing American semiconductor technology, gaining the initiative for the subsequent global market competition.

In August 2001, the 15th year of Samsung Electronics' investment in the semiconductor business, Japan's Toshiba put forward a request for joint cooperation in the semiconductor business. At the time, Toshiba had a 45% market share and Samsung 26%. Samsung Group Lee Kun-hee and Yoon Jong-ryong held an emergency meeting in Tokyo and agreed that "although Samsung's technology currently lags behind Toshiba, it will catch up in a few years. The core plan for cultivating new businesses must be carried out through sole proprietorship." Samsung rejected Toshiba's request for cooperation.

In 2003, the situation reversed. Samsung increased its market share to 60% by relying on its own memory technology, while Toshiba's market share fell to 30%. In this year, Samsung stopped the production of all low-end products, and relied on leading technology to upgrade to a brand enterprise operating mid-to-high-end products.

In 2005, Li Jianxi proposed a new strategy to build a high-end brand through "quality improvement". He emphasized in his New Year's speech: "To become a super-first-class enterprise and a world-class high-quality brand, maintaining technological advantages is the most important key. Before 2005, Samsung borrowed technology from world-class enterprises and learned management methods to grow up to now; but from now on In the beginning, no company will be willing to lend us technology or teach management management methods. If we cannot overcome this problem, we have no future."

Samsung Electronics has been engaged in patent management since 2005 to expand the quality of patents , cultivate core talents, and deploy Samsung's new business foundation in the future through a patent strategy that emphasizes quality and not weight. Samsung also attracts world-class talents and implements the Samsung academician system. Samsung sets up research laboratories named after individuals for these world-class talents, provides favorable treatment and considerable research funds, forms research teams and leads external activities of international standard technology, etc. . This year, Samsung Semiconductor, LCD and other 1,604 patents were recognized by the US Patent Office, making it the sixth largest company in the world with the number of patents.

Samsung's dedication to technology has paid off. In 2011, Samsung has surpassed its counterparts in Japan and the United States to become the world's largest supplier of DRAM and NAND flash memory. important chip customers. Samsung has established itself as a world-class brand with leadership in chip technology and sales.

At the same time, in order to reduce the defect rate of products, Samsung introduced the lean production management method of Toyota of Japan. Li Jianxi personally instructed to investigate the defect rate of the production line of the Suwon plant. Targeting products such as washing machines, mobile phones, color TVs, and video recorders, a kanban system was introduced at the Suwon Plant. Once a problem was found in the production plant, the production line was stopped immediately, and the wrong product was removed or the cause of the defect was eliminated before restarting. production line. Samsung mobile phones have encountered the embarrassment that defective products cannot be improved. In the decades since the introduction of lean production, the quality of mobile phones has continued to improve. In the innovative design and continuous quality improvement, Samsung mobile phones surpassed Nokia and Motorola in one fell swoop and became the main choice of fashionable young people.

Using literature, art and sports as brand marketing vehicles

Interbrand global CEO Jez Frampton pointed out that brands are playing an increasingly important role, and companies must grasp the cultural and value trends of the global market. Communication activities to establish a symbolic image representing the brand in the market. Samsung is well aware of this, and in its international brand promotion, the use of Olympic marketing and cultural marketing has rapidly enhanced Samsung's brand image and brand value.

In 1988, after Samsung became the local sponsor of the Seoul Olympics, it gradually began to pay attention to Olympic marketing. In 2000, Samsung officially launched its international market strategy and adopted a brand strategy centered on enhancing brand awareness. Olympic marketing is the best way to build a global brand image in a short period of time in addition to advertising.

Take the 2000 Sydney Olympics as an example, Samsung Electronics provided about 25,000 sets of communication equipment to help solve all communication problems during the event, successfully sponsored the Sydney Olympics, and established an Olympic image of cutting-edge technology products. Therefore, it is logical for Samsung to obtain an excellent opportunity to provide cutting-edge communication products in the subsequent Olympic Games and various major domestic events. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Samsung continued to be the global partner of the Olympic Games, strengthening its global brand image through Olympic sponsorship, and thus entered the world's first-class The ranks of businesses.

According to the evaluation results of the top 100 global brands released by Interbrand, Samsung's brand value was US$3.2 billion after participating in the Salt Lake City Olympics, US$12.5 billion after the Athens Olympics, and exceeded US$16.2 billion at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. The brand value of Sony in Japan. In 2011, the brand value rose to 23.4 billion US dollars, and the Olympic marketing greatly enhanced Samsung's brand value. At the same time, Samsung leveraged on the provision of cutting-edge mobile communication equipment for the Olympic Organizing Committee to establish Samsung's brand image as a leader in wireless communication.

Samsung, which has long recognized the importance of cultural marketing, has established a higher-level and more differentiated brand image through the sponsorship of art activities in the process of global brand management. In Russia, Samsung continues to show concern and support for art and cultural activities by sponsoring the Tolstoy Prize for Literature, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and the Hermitage Museum. In particular, the Bolshoi Theater, which is famous for its performance of the "Swan Lake" ballet, has invested about 2 million US dollars in more than ten years since 1993, giving the theater financial and technical assistance, providing Samsung computer screens, cameras, video recordings These sponsorship methods have improved the local brand awareness of Samsung products, and have successfully shaped Samsung's art-loving corporate image.

Samsung has systematically managed its brand value since 1995, when the brand was regarded as an asset. Years of experience in Samsung's internationalization journey have shown that brand asset management is not only based on advertising and publicity, but requires long-term planning and overall company efforts from design to management.

Strengthen the global brand with the Chinese market

"The construction of Samsung's global brand includes not only the sales of products on a global scale, but also the dissemination and cultivation of the brand. In these aspects, the Chinese market plays an important role. role," said a Samsung official.

How to maintain the unity of Samsung brand globalization and take into account the particularity of the Chinese market? The answer given by Samsung is to adhere to two principles: first, to build a unified global brand policy; second, to build an evaluation and improvement system for sustainable development.

In 2011, Samsung changed the logo of its mobile phone brand "Anycall", which has been used in the Chinese market, to "SAMSUNG". Although mobile phones with the "Anycall" logo have made leaps in development in China, in order to adhere to the global brand policy, Samsung has changed the mobile phone logo, reflecting Samsung's determination to move towards international integration.

Samsung also recognizes the regional uniqueness and complexity of the Chinese market. As early as 2005, when Park Geun-hee was the president of Samsung Group Greater China, Samsung publicly proposed to "build a second Samsung in China". In his blueprint, "Samsung China's positioning is not just a simple factory or market, but Samsung's business base." This includes not only the introduction of the financial and service industries under the Samsung Group into China, but also the entire chain from planning, R&D, production and sales of all Samsung products produced in China to be completed in China.

Samsung Electronics has established research institutes such as the White Goods R&D Center, the Communication Research Institute, and the Shanghai Design Center in China, to conduct in-depth exploration of the needs and preferences of local consumers and develop products with more Chinese characteristics. For example, the "Red Rhyme" LED display developed by the design and development team based on Chinese consumers' preference for red has achieved sales of over 1 million units a year since its launch in January 2011.

In order to increase its popularity, Samsung has carried out a variety of sports marketing, cultural marketing and public welfare activities in China. Samsung sponsored the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics in 2008, the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, and sponsored Chinese tennis player Li Na in 2011. After winning the French Open in 2012, it sparked a Chinese tennis boom.

Since 2005, Samsung China's continued localization strategy has boosted Samsung's performance in Greater China. In 2009, Samsung Greater China achieved sales of US$41.8 billion, accounting for about a quarter of Samsung Group's sales. In 2010, the turnover of Samsung Greater China exceeded 50 billion US dollars.

In 2012, Zhang Yuanji, the newly appointed president of Samsung Greater China, said that in the context of the international financial crisis, the Chinese market, which has maintained rapid growth, is playing a leading role. At present, 90% of Samsung's products have been produced in China. At the same time, Samsung's Chinese market has become Samsung's second largest market in the world, and is gradually becoming the core of its entire international market.