Samsung & the Marketing Environment

Samsung

             Samsung has evolved into a highly innovative and technologically sophisticated brand by producing highly creative and user friendly smartphones that appeal to consumers of all segments, regions, and economic classes. The company constantly endeavors to bring out the best in technology through rigorous research and development to ensure its products are advanced, highly innovative, and superior in quality to its competitor’s products. The company’s success is evident form its worldwide popularity and business success. Samsung became the world’s second largest mobile manufacturer in the year 2003 overtaking Motorola. The company’s performance and success showed consistency as years passed and it was in the year 2009 that Samsung overtook Hewlett Packard to become the world’s largest technology business by accomplishing net revenue of $ 117 Billion. The company aspires to achieve annual revenue of over $ 400 billion within the next 10 years.

            The success and glory of Samsung is self-explanatory considering its performance, productivity and rising business ambitions. With increasing demand from consumers for highly sophisticated, user friendly, light weighted, and durable mobile phones, Samsung has all it takes to become a pioneer and global leader in mobile communication technologies. With technological superiority, implementation of effective marketing strategies too plays a key role in determining business success. This essay will discuss how marketing environment influences Samsung operations in Japan and provide insights on the company’s marketing objectives and strategies.     

The Marketing Environment  

Organizations operating in Japan need to overcome various challenges in order to ensure their business activities are executed efficiently to realize anticipated business benefits. These challenges are identified as external forces that constantly interfere with organization’s functions and therefore it is extremely important that organizations are capable of effectively addressing these external factors to ensure a smooth business journey operating on foreign soil. PESTLE analysis enables organizations to evaluate various factors that impact their business performance and productivity. IT includes Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Law factors as discussed in detail below-

Political- it refers to the political setup of a country where the firm operates. It includes factors such as tax, labor, legislation, tariffs, and political stability. Samsung needs to effectively address the political barriers in order to succeed in Japan.

Economic- Japan today adopts a policy for free market economy and western forms of enterprise capitalism. Economic factors are the key determinants of a firm’s success and expansion operating in foreign lands. Any changes in interest rates can generate significant impact on Samsung’s organizational performance and productivity. Changes in exchange rates affect the export commodities and costs and supplies of import goods further impacting businesses in positive or negative way  ("PESTEL Analysis Of JAPAN | Japan").    

Social- this factor mainly includes the people, culture, and society as a whole. Since Japan is a culturally conservative yet technologically superior nation, people stick to traditional values, culture, religion, and adopt conventional perspectives towards life. Samsung needs to ensure that its products are designed and developed so as to meet people’s tastes and preferences. Since 99% of Japanese speak their native language and adopt it as first language, it is important for firms to ensure they understand and incorporate these small yet critical aspects of life when marketing.

Technology- it refers to technological competence in the market and in case of Samsung, there are many competitors in Japanese market that pose threat to its growth and success. Japan’s telecom sector is one of the highly competitive markets in the world revolutionizing the world through VoIP and triple play services and continued 3G competition among wireless operators. However, regardless of competition, Samsung enjoys a brand name that creates a stiff resistance to new comers in the form of barriers to entry. The company needs to ensure it always brings the best of innovative products for its consumers to stay ahead of competitors.           

Environment- it is important that Samsung effectively addresses the critical issues concerning environment considering the potential environmental hazards caused due to company’s business activities by acting in a socially responsible way.   

Legal- it refers to factors that include governmental regulations, business policies, and corporate laws, that determine the ways a firm needs to execute its business activities. Samsung needs to act in complete adherence to Japanese legislations to ensure the firm can efficiently conduct its business activities. Laws such as labor laws, trademark law, and consumer contract act are some of the important laws governing businesses in Japan ("PESTEL Analysis Of JAPAN | Japan").

 SWOT Analysis for Samsung <>

Strengths- the company enjoys a strong brand name, global popularity, ranks #1 in mobile manufacturing with over 22 % market share, and has strong manufacturing and marketing capabilities. The firm enjoys long standing business relationships with USA and European retailors.    

Weaknesses- despite being on top in mobile manufacturing, Samsung still struggles to match with Apple’s marketing capabilities. Furthermore, Samsung’s OS based on Google android platform is deemed inferior to Apple iOS. Competitors such as Huawei, and Xiaomi are catching up to Samsung in terms of quality and innovation.

Opportunities- the company has good opportunities as Samsung plans to deliver quality mobiles devices to corporate partners such as biotech companies, automobile manufacturers, and others. Development of innovative apps such as Gear VR, note taker and scheduling will allow the company to sell its products to real estate clients that are extensively using this app for property sales.     

Threats- the company faces stiff competition due to emergence of new entrants into the Japanese market, impact of well established brands such as Apple and scope for Chinese companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi in Japan. This has caused significant declination in demand and scope for Samsung.

Marketing Objectives and Strategies

The company aims to enhance its corporate image in the local market by way of spreading awareness about its products. In order to win consumer trust and loyalty, Samsung has planned to adopt technology and innovation through social media and e-marketing in its marketing campaigns that not only reach potential target segments of consumers but also allows the company to cut down its advertising costs and marketing costs. This is because the company faces strong resistance due to emerging successful new entrants into the market such as Huawei, and Xiaomi that has limited its scope and growth in Japanese market. Samsung aims to reach annual revenues of $ 400 within the next 10 years through innovation, technological sophistication, and product quality.          

Based on the discussion presented in this paper it can be understood that Samsung mobiles in Japan has to overcome stiff marketing competition in order to retain its reputation and market share. The company requires implementing significant research and developments in its products to overcome the current competition created by new entrants and Apple’s craze among Japanese consumers and also maintain prices in control in order to expand and grow in the market.