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.
