BUMKT5902 Marketing Management and Marketing Strategies

1. Introduction

The following report discusses the changing customer preference by looking  at the

Marketing strategies that have been used by Samsung with the launch of its new brand Galaxy S8 series in order to compete favourably with Apple iPhone which is the biggest competitor for Samsung in the market. The report looks at first of all the target customer profile. Chapter three will analyze the competitor which is the iPhone brand. the fourth chapter will discuss the proposed marketing mix for Samsung and provide a justification for this mix in chapter six. The report will the conclude with views on customer preference and marketing.

• Background to the task

This report analyses consumer behavior and decision making process towards a preferred or nominated product iPhone 7 over a new competing product Samsung S8. This is because the smartphones have had a very profound effect on the lifestyles of people  as they change the way people work, live and learn. Most of these gadgets come with new and innovative designs tha include bigger screen size and touch screens among other applications. With the technological innocation, voice integration, gaming, video, texting and GPS have increased the capacity of smartphone use all over the world. in addition, customer prefer smartphones that are easy to use and provide for a lot of functionality that include seamless communication, information gathering, social networking, mobile commerce, multimedia entertainment and other personal or organisation productivity tools. Segmentation here is thus based on the measurement that customer give a particular brand. Previous report described an individual consumer and explained how decision making process has been helping that consumer to purchase different items over a period of one week.

• Purpose of the report

This report targets a consumer and comprises marketing strategies that will influence target consumer to alter his choice of preference.

• Format of the report

This a business report, it comprises of target consumer profile, competitors market mix analysis, proposed marketing mix or strategies for Samsung designed to influence target consumer and marketing mix justification stating why the strategies will change consumers’ choice of preference. It will be followed by a conclusion.

2. Target Customer Profile

The Customer lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Twenty three year old young and active lady who is eager to try new and innovative things. She is mostly engaged with her studies, friend’s family and part time job. The family support her financially despite having a part time job and she spent lot of time with her friends on social media such as snap chat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, twitter etc. according to ey, (2017, n.p), target customer for smartphone comprise of a population that is between 20-35 years of age. Most of them also live in the urban environment that calls for the need of smartphones to carry out daily social, professional and academic activities.  The young segment are also reported to use about  5 mobile internet services compared to about 3.6 in other consumer segments. In this manner, thus a target customer that falls in this age line will present the highest usage group. During this time, the product will concentrate more on the consistent value on the customer.

3.   Competitor Market Mix Analysis

  Apple iPhone 7 has been able to establish a mark as the leading smartphone producer in the mobile phone market. The constant innovation that has contributed to the development of iPhone 7  model is distinct in the manner that it has recognizable features which consumer can easily identify with. The models of the value  proposition has been able to see this produce enhance its markets over the years.  In fact, apple iPhones have continued to attract  a large market of consumers in the united states and other parts of the world. in this regard, the marketing models have been able to play a very important role in the global expansion of apple. This is because they understand that most customers in their market like fashion. In this regard, apple continues to ensure that they keep up with the trends. These types of demand have been a good regard for the company since it rolled out its iPhone 7 model in the market. The model has enabled the company to beat stiff competition of smartphones and locate new markets. In addition, apple as always taken advantage of new opportunities and the growing demand for innovative features of which the company utilizes to produce a consumer driven iPhone 7. The company has also been able to establish consumer preferences where more consumer are addicted to internet and mobile apps, a smartphone with features like the ones available at Samsung provides just that. With this in mind apple has been able to raise its profits over the years and maintain the top market position.

 Being the biggest competitor for Samsung S series, the innovative phone from apple is one of the first to use the multi touch functionality. And even though apple has for some time failed to obtain the patent for this, it was also caught up with the user’s fascination like the rest of the apple products.  In this manner, for a long-time people have been appreciating the iPhone market mix since the product has been driven with very fantastic technology (Park & Gil, 2015).

Value Proposition Table

3.1    Product

Apple has one of the unique operating system known as the IOS operating system. this is the first one with the best quality that has attracted a lot of customer to the product, this feature ensures that the product performance is at all time. With regard to style the product has  a  4.70 inch touch screen display that comes with 750 pixels by 1334 pixels’ resolution at a PPi of 326 per inch.  To ensure that speed is met, i7 model  as an  A10 fusion processor with a 2GB RAM. Its internal memory is 32GB, in this manner, users are able to download and store their private information without having to worry about space. The camera is also built in front and back allowing customers to take selfies and other  photos with clarity and style. (gadgets, 2017).  

The product applications are also very exclusive to apple as compared to other product which share some of the applications. Up to this moment, the iTunes for example is one of the main attention provide for all (Arruda-Filho & Lennon, 2011). The store contains a lot of applications which are not in the google play store. This is a great complement for apple and can enable I develop networks that the iPhone uses, like the apple store and iTunes. 

3.2    Price

Apple enjoys what is referred to as the skimming price. In this manner, there is usually no explanation to the price of the apple iPhone. The company also works on a premium target and promotions of their product in the market. All these factors put together, makes the iPhone one of the most expensive smartphones in the world. However, the pricing strategy for apple has not affected consumer decision due to the value that they attach to iPhone product. In most cases, iPhone is associated with high end customer thus people who purchase or use the product feel that they are part of a special group who enjoy the unique features the product offers.

3.3    Place

The market for iPhone is not limited to one geographical region. The company has spread its products across the globe and it is known to provide one of the best services and backup in all the countries.  In this manner, the place was considered carefully before setting up the store. The place for the product will be in retail stores within the geographical area of the target customer so as to create a personal connection with the product.  Stores are also set within cities where the working class is concentrated and they have the buying power. Also, individual retailers are usually given the product through distributors and I store are usually given the product through the company itself.

3.4    Promotion

The promotion for iPhone is usually one of the strongest and is also known to be fantastic however, most of the iPhone marketing communication effort is not concentrated in advertising. The  company spends very little on advertising budget. however, most of its recent launches, the company has been doing it well using the social media platforms where it uses to identify the needs of customers and ensure each launch has met the need. iPhone provides the needs of the people on what they want in a smartphone, so that whenever they launch, they will immediately receive attention from smartphone users where they will share on social media the reason why customers need to buy the new product. In addition, the goodwill it has kept with customer automatically promotes them in the markets.

4. Proposed Marketing Mix for Samsung

The market for Samsung product consists of consumer and businesses users that are looking to conveniently communicate, store and exchange information on the move. Some of the most important segments that should be targeted with the release of the be Samsung Galaxy S8 series needs to include students, professionals, entrepreneurs, corporations and medical personnel.  In this manner, the purchaser of the S8 series will be given a chance to choose between models that are based on the three operating systems (telegraph, 2017). They would look at Apple iPhone 8, the Microsoft windows 10 and Samsung’s Google 7 Android 8. The biggest value proposition for Samsung s8 is the revolutionary design that the phone comes with. This is  a whole new experience for the user and outruns all the feature provided by Samsung. It is also very critical since it ensures the product competes with regard to cost, screen, battery and other unique features. In addition, the design is not easily  copied. In this manner, the new s8 will be a brand that the customer looks for due to quality and number of security, usability, application and performance features.

4.1    Product

Regarding the release of the new S8 series, it is evident that Samsung has come up with one of the most competitive smartphones in the mobile phone market. In fact, Samsung S8 series will continue to grow in popularity of Android phones since its launch early this year. One of the thing that has worked well for Samsung is that there is a growing loyalty to Samsung products and the S8 brand despite the shortfalls of the S7 series which was recalled. This is because the S8 series is has provided new features that continue to attract loyalty which was created long time when the S series was introduced back in 2010. (Turner, 2016) 

It is reported that the company sold over 24 million units worldwide of the first S series. Being a high end premium android smartphone, the first S series was packed with 512 MB of RAM and a 5-mega pixel camera, the reception for this product was positive and it was a great competition for the Iphone4 Series. With the release of the S8 Series, the company can use the new feature to outrun its competitors.

The new phone which was launched in March 2017, comes with new upgraded features. Since the target customer will be looking at a high performance product, the s8 outruns iPhone 7 as it comes with a power of 1.9 GHZ octa core Samsung Exynos 8895 process with a 4 GB RAM. The internal memory is 64GM which can also be expanded to 356GM through a MicroSD card (Aulakh, 2017).  Since the target customer loves taking pictures, the new series camera is  up to 12 mega pixels for the primary camera and 8 megapixels for the front camera. The product is also sleek, stylish and easy to move around with  as it measures 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.00 in height, width and thickness. Its weight is 155.00 grams. This makes Samsung s8 series the most fashionable smartphone in the current markets (telegraph, 2017).

4.2    Price

Even with the launch of the new product, it is important that Samsung considers selling this product at a price that is worth. This should be in comparison with the functional benefits and the use of technology.  This will be important as it will help the company built an image of being stylish, with high quality brand that has a command in premium prices. Samsung’s new S8 series goes for approximately 1200AUD which is considered by many to be the price for high end users.  In the same manner, while compared to the iPhone 8, which is set to debut at a price increase of 150% of the current prices for iPhone 7 (Aulakh, 2017). For any new product in the market, pricing is very important as it will provide the company with either a positive or negative psychological impact. There are price points that customer loyal to Samsung brand may be willing to buy the new S8 series.

In order to convince the customer to purchase the Samsung brand, the pricing strategy is decided in a manner that it can be able to compete with apply iPhone 7. In this manner, the company uses skimming price for new products to promote them as the  best in the market. Pricing is very important for the new product as it will ensure the company has communicated to the consumer on the value that is attached to the s8 series. This is because, in most cases, consumers uses prices to judge  and make a decision on the value the product holds.

For example, the company may decide to use psychological pricing where the product price is not so different from the retail, for example if the product price will be 1200AUD the company may opt for selling it at 1199AUD. This is because in the mind of the consumer, 1199AUD is less than 1200AUD which makes it a better offer. The minor difference in prices will be able to make a huge difference in the sales of the new S8 Series.  In this regard, the company will be able to succeed in the finding a good psychological price point that can see it sales improve and maximize in revenue collection above iPhone product (Turner, 2016).

4.3    Place

 When it comes to place, the company should not only look at the high-end customer regions, it needs to include the entire process of management of the product until it has reached the customer. (telegraph, 2017). As it has been with the other products the new product will utilize  the online selling platform. This will include posting details about the s8 series and launching the product in Samsung shops within the reach of the customer. Other places will be the retail stores and malls which are located near to target customer to ensure that they are able to get information and make decisions to purchase the product.

4.4    Promotion

Promotion has been one of the most important factors in most of the Samsung operations. this should continue with the new product. One of the areas that the company can concentrate is invest in sponsorship programs, which will include events and other famous sports. The company can also promote the product by use of different advertising channels. So far, the company has been successful in most of its social media campaigns through their website, Facebook and twitter pages (Aulakh, 2017). During the promotion, customers will be informed about the new features of the product and why this is different from the previous s8 series. During promotion customer will be allowed to ask questions regarding the new product through social media platforms and physically on all Samsung stores. There will also be clarification on the security features of the smartphone given the previous disappointment of the s7 series.  

5.  Marketing Mix Justification

Marketing of the new Samsung product is a high priority for the biggest mobile phone maker in the world. It will ensure that customers remain loyal to the product even after the fallout of the s7 series. The marketing mix identified above is meant to ensure that customer understand the value attached to the s8 series as compared to samsungs competitor iPhone 7. The marketing mix also informs the customers on the improvement of the brand by showcasing new innovative features of the s8 series. It is hoped that through this marketing mix, Samsung will also improve its brand image of their phone through creation of awareness and informing customers on the key features of the product (Aulakh, 2017).  When customer evaluate a product, they will also look at the other options and decide on one.  

However, due to the loyalty the company had with customers, most of them did not shift to a new brand. it is thus important that Samsung implements the marketing mix to reach existing and new markets that Apple with regard to the number of units sold. With the proper marketing mix strategy, Samsung will be able to regain these markets and even go ahead to be a leader of the smartphone business. in addition, through marketing Samsung will able to tell what customers are looking for and enable it to improve in the future S series phones.  To add on the above, the company needs to protect itself from intellectual property right (Choi & Park, 2016). It need to protect its technology from being copied by the new and upcoming brand names such as ZTE, Oppo, Huawei etc., which does well in both the low end and high end markets.

Conclusion

It is important for the S8 series to be marketed since it is barely a quarter of the financial year since 2017 March. This means that if the process is not done well, it is possible that iPhone will continue to be one of Samsung’s biggest competitors, knowing that apple is a great innovator that has a strong customer based. However, with the launching of S8 series, there will be a remarkable turnover in sales for Samsung company. Lastly, marketer should know the position of their products in the minds of customers to attain positive marketing goals. This marketing strategies can help other phone companies identify their marketing goal and help them realize their optimum success.

References

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