Samsung's Rise, Why?

                                                              (photo credit: CNET.COM)



The fact of the matter is that Samsung gets it.  Instead of creating, primarily, one central product to define their company and drive alliegence, it continues to make more and more phones across all affordability levels.  They make low end phones, mid-range phones, and high end phones to appeal to the masses across all socio-economic levels.  Another aspect Samsung understands all too well is that marketing works.  In fact, it is key to driving sales.  Everyone wants that beautiful piece of tech that is being showcased on magazines, newspapers, billboards, subway stations, on the side of skyscrapers towering above major cities, T.V. commercials, not to mention the radio.

On the other hand, we have HTC having been (until recently), as they put it, "Quietly Brilliant", while having a limited number of devices with very little marketing behind their product, when compared to the South Korean tech giant.  You would think that stretching beyond a certain line of products: refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, dishwashers, clothes care products, dvd players, and mobile phones could distract a company.  However, Samsung's brilliance, pardon the pun, is evidenced in their solid place in the marketplace throughout the full gamma of product offerings they produce.  Add to that, the fact that they make parts for electronics, including technologies used by their competition, even in the mobile phone industry.  They really cover it all.

The design language Samsung uses in their latest phone line-up is such that you can buy a relatively inexpensive "starter smartphone" from any carrier and it looks quite like their ultra-high end devices.  Samsung devices, mobile phones especially, speak to what people like most from their devices:  Removable batteries with exceptional battery life and technological innovations one could only dream of just a few years ago.  As of lately, Samsung has really made a name for itself, which is another aspect of their strategy: brand recognition.  If only more companies sought after like strategies, perhaps we could get a plethora of choices to enjoy.  After all, it is not good for just one company to rise, smashing competition.  Consumers need more choice.  Too, competition is healthy because it keeps prices of products in check.  After all, what good is a great product if the majority of the consumers can't afford it?

by Danny Alvarez
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/maestroalvarez
@maestroalvarez


ABOUT SAMUSUNG (credits for below: Wikipedia.org)

Samsung Group (Hangul: 삼성그룹; Hanja: 三星그룹; Korean pronunciation: [sam.sʌŋ ɡɯ'ɾup̚]) is a South Korean multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous subsidiaries and affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol.


Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chull in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since the 1990s Samsung has increasingly globalised its activities, and electronics, particularly mobile phones and semiconductors, has become its most important source of income.

Notable Samsung industrial subsidiaries include Samsung Electronics (the world's largest information technology company measured by 2012 revenues),[2] Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's second-largest shipbuilder measured by 2010 revenues),[3] and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T (respectively the world's 35th- and 72nd-largest construction companies).[4] Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th-largest life insurance company),[5] Samsung Everland (operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South Korea),[6] Samsung Techwin (a surveillance, aeronautics, optoelectronics, automations and weapons technology company) and Cheil Worldwide (the world's 19th-largest advertising agency measured by 2010 revenues).[7][8]

Samsung has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture, and has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River".[9][10] Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total exports.[11]