Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy of Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung Galaxy S9 Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy

  Samsung Electronics is a world famous technology brand that is also among the leading makers of smartphones. It is an innovative brand, known for bringing excellent television models and Galaxy smartphones. Leading the market in smartphone category, Samsung is a tough contender for Apple. Apart from televisions and smartphones, the brand makes a large range of electronics including refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines etc. Its sales and net income took a major jump from 2016 to 2017. While its sales jumped to 239.6 Trillion Korean won in 2017 from 201.9 Trillion Korean Won, its net profit also jumped to 42.2  Trillion Korean Won from 22.7 Trillion Korean Won.

Samsung has divided its business into several segments or divisions and the division that accounts for the highest sales and revenue is the IT and Mobile communications which also reflects the high sales of Samsung smartphones.  Americas constitute the largest market for Samsung accounting for nearly 34% of its sales revenue. Samsung has won global appreciation for several of its products and a large part of its reputation comes from the innovative Galaxy smartphones which set themselves apart in a  highly competitive smartphone industry. Apart from eye catching design and smart features that are above most of its competitors, (Galaxy has really very few in the market that can match it except iPhone), Galaxy provides one of the best experiences in the entire smartphone category.

The smartphone industry has grown highly competitive and every brand is pushing the line of innovation to grow the customers’ favourite. While the market is full of smartphones in various price ranges, Galaxy is a premium smartphone that suits the taste of the modern generation has excellent features for both work and fun. To make its product a celebrity, Samsung also focuses a lot on its marketing. Have a look at the main attractions of Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 plus through this marketing mix.

Marketing Mix of Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+

Product Mix:

The Galaxy series of smartphones by Samsung are  among the most innovative currently available in the market. The entire series consists of several models many of which gained more popularity than expectations. S9 and S9+ are two popular models whose central attraction is its innovative camera that gained it appreciation from several major sources including the prominent media brands. The adjustable aperture camera is the primary attraction of the two models. However, S9+ comes with a dual camera. The camera allows the user to capture stunning pictures in a  wide range of lighting situations including high day light and low evening light.

The camera love of smartphone users is well known. Apart from selfies, they use their smartphone cameras for making videos from their daily lives and posting them on  social media. This is why the camera many times becomes the deciding feature in terms of purchase of smartphones. However, the smartphone industry is now so competitive that  a single feature cannot help you win hearts and market. So, S9 and S9+ come loaded with other features too like the slo-mo video feature, emojis, an end to end uninterrupted display as well as  AKG tuned stereo speakers, data protection by Samsung Knox and extra speed through the carrier aggregation technology.

The line does not end here because Samsung has added extra rewarding features to make its piece attractive like rewards for paying with Samsung pay. Data security has become an important concern and that is why the Knox like features are important for smartphones. The face recognition feature is also an attraction. In this way, Samsung has done its best to provide its users with an immersive experience. The power of Dolby Atmos is there to attract music lovers.

Place Mix: 

Samsung is a global company with 15 regional offices, 55 sales offices and 39 production sites worldwide. It has a global distribution network including its brand physical stores. Samsung is one of the top selling brands in Asia. The Asia/Africa region excluding China accounted for 44.3 Trillion Korean Won of its total revenue in 2017. China accounted for 38.3 Trillion Korean Won of revenue for Samsung.  However, due to growing online retail, a large part of the entire sales now takes place online. Apart from Amazon and E-bay Galaxy phones and accessories are also available at other e-retailers like Flipkart and Alibaba.

Price Mix:

Samsung Galaxy s9 and S9+ are for the premium users. The brand has used a premium pricing strategy for its large screen, innovative smartphone. Both the phones are available in three varying capacities of 64 gb, 128 gb and 256 GB. Accordingly the prices of S9’s three models are  $719.99, $769.99 and $839.99 and S9+ at $839.99, $889.99 and $959.99 in USA. The premium pricing strategy is related to the premium experience that S9 offers.

Promotion Mix:

Digital channels are the most prominent in the promotions mix of Galaxy S9. Apart from media and technology blogs as well as paid advertising, Samsung has used some other channels too for promotion of its Galaxy S9. The phone has received very high level of coverage in media owing to some special attractions like its magnificent camera and other features. Tech blogs too carry a lot of information regarding its specs and pricing. Apart from that e-retail brands that sell these Galaxy smartphones have also played an important role in the marketing of S9.  These are some of the most important methods Samsung uses for marketing and promotion of Galaxy S9. Samsung’s website and social media are also two important pillars of its promotions strategy.

Marketing strategy of Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ :

One important aspect of Galaxy S9’s marketing strategy is differentiation. The world of smartphones has grown heavily crowded and as such one very important thing to do to make it stand out from the crowd is to offer a differentiated product. In the world of technology disruptive innovations are happening at a fast pace. Every brand is trying to outdo its competitors and investing heavily in innovation. So, before much times has passed the next model in the same series becomes available in the market. Samsung and Apple are particularly very aggressive in this area.

Two specific such innovations that make S9 an outstanding smartphone include its adjustable aperture camera and the end to end screen. In most of the smartphones, the screen does not provide such a complete and immersive experience except Apple’s new iPhone X. While such hurdle free screens provide better viewing and gaming experience, they are also better for the use of other apps. Samsung’s camera is a special attraction that does not just allow you to shoot cool pics in a wide range of lighting conditions but also allows you to shoot slow motion videos which can help you create epic fun moments. There are more important advantages too that Galaxy S9 offers like higher data security by Samsung Knox. So, these are some of the features that Samsung has used to create an innovative and differentiated experience and that have helped S9 easily stand out of the crowd and invite attention.

Digital Marketing:

It’s the era of the digital and every product and brand is exploiting the power of digital to the fullest to reach its target audience and grow its sales. Samsung also relies heavily on digital technology for the promotion of its products. Samsung promotes its Galaxy smartphone first through its own website. Apart from that Samsung also exploits the power of media to promote Galaxy smartphones. S9 was also promoted through media events so the product could receive adequate media coverage.  However, Samsung’s brand equity is already an important strength that helps it publicise its products with relative ease as compared to its competitors. Even if the brand is not as famous as Apple, yet in various corners of the world and specifically Asia it is among the celebrity brands.

A large part of the global population can be found online and in case of smartphone users, they are the ones who remain online most of the time during the day. It is because most of the smartphones are designed to help you stay connected. The most common digital marketing techniques that Samsung or any other brand adopts include paid advertising, video marketing, brand website, social media and other digital marketing techniques and channels. However, once your product has created some buzz in the market, it is generally not difficult to reach the prospective customers because Google does the rest of the work for you. Once you Google for Samsung Galaxy S9, you will find that the result from Amazon and other e-retailers come up at the top and then there are other websites including Samsung’s and blogs and news sites. In this way, there are several digital channels from e-commerce brands to news sites that Samsung uses to reach its audience.

Social media:

Social Media is now an inseparable part of major brands’ marketing strategy. From Facebook to Twitter and Instagram, brands exploit all these channels to reach their customers and grow their customer base as well as keep customers engaged. Samsung has several accounts on Twitter. One of these is Samsung Mobile solely dedicated to the promotion of Samsung smartphones. It makes tweets related to upcoming Galaxy models and the ones in vogue, regularly. Apart from that, Samsung also promotes its products and engages its customers using Instagram and Facebook. When it comes to video promotion, YouTube is the best social media site. Twitter and Facebook also allow to share videos but YouTube is dedicated especially to videos only and has a larger audience than any other social media site. Samsung has made several magnificent videos to promote its Galaxy smartphones. In this way, Samsung has utilized the power of several channels together including social media and digital channels to market its Galaxy S9 and S9+.

Sources:

Samsung Annual Report 2018

Samsung Social Media Accounts