Branding Strategy of Samsung

If somebody asks you to think of a brand that offers Android products, the first name that would come up to your mind would surely be Samsung. Samsung is a South Korean company that was founded as a grocery trading store on March 1, 1938, by Lee Byung-Chull. Lee-Byung-Chull started his business in Taegu by trading noodles and other goods produced in and around the city and exporting them to China. In 2017, Samsung was the 6th most valuable global brand; besides, the company also booked record profits of over USD 26 billion on revenues of USD 180 billion. In this article we are going to discuss the branding strategy of Samsung, which has a great impact on the company’s success.

Now, let’s start by discussing the brand identity of Samsung through revealing its personality

In order to do so, let’s look at the following post from their Instagram page

As it is noticeable, this is not a usual post/picture that could do multinational electronic company, as it neither contains phone or computers, nor TVs, and other electronic devices.

This post is done to show how caring and attentive the company is to the surrounding world.

After having a look at this post, the first thing that comes to one’s mind is that Samsung actively listens to its customers through various channels even if the situation is extremely difficult.

The post was made in 2020 when the world was still fighting against the virus, so reading motivating and encouraging words from a company like Samsung would positively impact society as a whole.

So, in that sense, it becomes clear that some of the company’s values include equality and affiliation.

The caption of the post is dedicated to fathers, who always do everything to keep their children safe, to give them the best childhood and the best life. It is about the fathers who are DJ for one day and a lawyer the other day.

While many brands always talk about mothers, as the parent who takes care of their child, Samsung believes that dads are real heroes as well. In that sense, the company appreciates equality.

So, by taking all of this into consideration, it becomes obvious that Samsung belongs The Everyman Brand Archetype. The motto of this archetype is “All men and women are created equal.”

Now, let’s find some facts about this Brand Archetype.

What does the Everyman brand archetype stand for?

Desire: to be connected with others

Aim: to belong and fit in

Strategy: to have ordinary virtues, to develop the common touch

Values: affiliation, democracy

Fear: being rejected

Moving further, let’s now get into the messaging levels of this brand archetype

Level one: a feeling of loneliness

Level two: feeling alone, seeking for having friends

Level three: learning to connect, accepting help from others, making friends

Level four: becoming humanitarian, believing that each person has natural dignity, regardless of their gender, skin color and many more.

The Everyone Brand Archetype can provide a good identity for those brands:

• Who strives to help people to feel that they fit and belong.
• That has a desire to be different from the companies that have a higher price
• Have a price from moderate to low
• Whose functions can be used in everyday life

Let’s continue by talking about Samsung’s brand story by presenting some changes that happened during the company’s history.

Let’s continue the journey of Samsung’s branding strategy by talking about some changes that happened during the company’s history.

The 1960s-1970s

As you already know, Samsung was founded in 1938. However, the company entered the electronic industry only in the late 1960s. Throughout the first years, Samsung Electronics was mainly producing home products.

In 1970, the company started selling Black-and-white TVs. In 1974, Samsung already began the production of washing machines and refrigerators.

Three years later, it started exporting color TVs. During 1979, the company started mass production of microwave ovens and produced four million black-and-white TVs.

The 1980s

Starting from the 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to focus on technology. It is important to note that due to having qualified products, the number of Samsung users was increasing.

So, the company decided to manufacture air conditioners. Three years later, Samsung started producing personal computers (PCs). In 1984 this electronic company changed its name to “Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.”

On the other hand, society was continuing to call it Samsung. In 1986 Samsung developed the smallest tape recorder in the world, and some years later, it was able to manufacture over 20million color TVs.

The 1900s.

The 1900s were highly successful years for this company because of the following reasons. Firstly, in the 1900s, this company started producing mobile phone handsets.

During those years, Samsung developed a mobile phone system, created over 10million industrial robots, and even began manufacturing in China. 1994 and 1996 are significant because the company grew the first 256M DRAM globally and 1G DRAM.

Samsung began producing its first smartphones and was already a Worldwide Olympic Partner in the wireless communications category. So, due to all of these, Samsung already gained worldwide fame.

2000-present.

2000-2004s stand out in the company’s history in a way that the company could become #1 globally in flash memory, began mass production of 512Mb flash memory devices, established TSST, SESK, and many more. Samsung developed the first speech-recognition phone in 2005, and their first Samsung Galaxy (GT-I7500) was released in 2009.

Two years later, the company already produced Galaxy S II, followed by the Galaxy S III, which is considered one of the world’s most popular smartphones. Some years later, Samsung became the largest mobile phone maker.

In 2014 the company started producing the virtual reality device Gear VRI, and three years later, the government permitted the company to test a self-driving car.

In 2018 Samsung launched QLED 8K, the world’s first modular TV, “The Wall.” Throughout the same year, the company released Galaxy S9/S9+, Galaxy Note9.

2018 is also remarkable because the company established seven Global Al Centers in several countries: Korea, the U.S., Russia, and the U.K.

2019 was the 50th anniversary of Samsung. During that year, the company managed to be marked as a global industry leader in digital signage and many more.

Now we look at the company, and Samsung has already released Samsung Galaxy S20/S20 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S20/S21, and many more.

And after learning Samsung’s history, it becomes clear that it is undoubtedly one of the best and most successful IT Service companies globally.  

In order to understand the company’s identity better, let’s learn about Brand Elements.

Name: As you already know, Samsung is a Korean company, and so is its name. In Korean, the word Samsung means “three stars.”

The founder of the company Lee Byung-Chull wanted to become a powerful, everlasting star, so he thought that “Samsung” is the best word for his company.

While the logo of the company varied over time, the name of the brand has always been the same.

Logo: The logo of the company has drastically changed over time and has become simpler. While during the 1930s, Samsung’s logo featured three stars, stripes, and wheat plants inside a circle shape, nowadays the logo does not contain stars on it.

The first and original logo of the company drastically differs from the current logo. It contained more symbols and did not have the name of the company in English.

So, as it is noticeable, the change between the first and the second logo is enormous; however, the stars were still present.

In comparison with the previous logo, this logo has a unique and interesting shape, and the name of the company is also clear not only for Koreans but also foreigners. Besides, the emblem is less cluttered.

In 1979 Samsung decided to remove the name of the brand, which, however, did not turn out to be their best decision, so they fixed that mistake one year later.

Although the stars remain in this logo, this version does not include circles and squares.

1993 is the year when the current logo of this brand was made. You can also notice that in comparison to the 1980’s logo, this logo has a unique “A” letter. Besides, it does not contain either black or red colors.

While in 2005, the designers of Samsung decided to remove the ellipse; nowadays, both logos are used.

Slogan: “Inspire the World, Create the Future”

The company’s slogan clarifies that Samsung recognizes itself as a leader in the industry and puts its efforts into offering new values in the industry, making the world a better place. The company seeks to create a future that is inspiring, promising.

Character: Brand Character is the set of human characteristics that can be associated with the brand and give it a unique personality and recognition in the market, in the minds of the consumers.

The character of Samsung shows the company’s dedication to its customers and brand community. Also, it describes that Samsung always seeks to be in the leading position of innovation and design.

Moving on, let’s discuss the brand equity and positioning of Samsung

Brand equity is a marketing term that seeks to describe the value of the brand. The brand value is decided by the perception that the consumers hold.

So, if people think highly of a brand, it means that the brand equity is positive. If the brand continually under-delivers and disappoints to the point where people recommend that others avoid it, it has negative brand equity.

Samsung knows how to stand out from the crowd, which is critical when building its brand equity. It is not a secret that developing a good reputation for a brand is pretty difficult, especially in the electronic industry.

However, Samsung succeeds in establishing itself as the first choice of customers in Android smartphone handsets and the electronic industry. Statistics show that more than 90% of users of this brand are satisfied with the company’s products.

Through having various advertisement strategies, such as Surveys, Digital Marketing, Billboards, Samsung has gained popularity over time. The brand creates its philosophy on some factors, such as innovation, internal building, advanced technology.

Nowadays, Samsung is considered to be that one Android brand which comes to people’s mind when they think of a reliable, innovative, beautifully designed brand.

So, one can undoubtedly say that Samsung has a positive brand equity and position in this sphere.

Summing up, Samsung is indeed one of the most famous and influential names in the IT and electronic industry. By having prices from moderate to low, the company strives to produce high-qualified products that satisfy their customers.

As you have already understood, branding strategy, including the company’s brand elements, brand equity, positioning, and brand identity, are the key elements that help every company succeed. That’s all for this brand.

You may also find additional information about the brand’s segmentation, positioning, marketing strategies, and target markets in our blog. To find those articles, please go to the main page and search “Samsung.”