Ten years ago, Samsung Electronics was best known for low-end TVs. Today, the world's third-largest electronics maker has become one of the globe's most revered brands, ranked ahead of Asian icon Sony in Interbrand's 2005 global report.
Despite the heady acclaim, Samsung Southeast Asia regional director of marketing and planning Edwin Koh is not about to get too carried away. Appositely, he points to Sony's woes as a cautionary tale. "Every day we remind ourselves of learning through what others have done," says Koh. "We must make sure we don't fall into the same trap. We should always stay humble but, at the same time, challenge ourselves to improve. The challenge is to stay focused, but keep expanding and grow our market share."
For Koh, the future promises much at Samsung. A veteran of the Singapore marketing scene, he believes that his current role offers the potential of true convergence. After previous positions at SingTel and Asia Pacific Breweries, he believes that Samsung is ideally placed to take advantage of the critical importance of content. "My background has helped a lot, in terms of knowledge and experience from the media and product side. Samsung gives me a perspective of going beyond just mobile," notes Koh. "It's a truly integrated convergence company. I don't think Nokia has the products that Samsung does."
This latter reference to Nokia points to the market realities that Samsung faces. Fierce competition characterises all of its key product categories, in all of the Southeast Asian markets that fall under Koh's overview. Koh believes that as consumers become more sophisticated, brand battles will only intensify. "We believe competition will heat up," he explains. "Turnaround time is key. Consumers are more informed of what's happening in the market, so how do you deliver the service? We believe in service marketing, to let them a have a good experience of what Samsung is really like."
With this in mind, Samsung is aggressively targeting the youth market, where Koh sees particular opportunities for MP3 players and mobiles. "If you look at the fragmented market, it is a real key challenge," points out Koh. "I feel the youth market is something we will be addressing. They are the highest spenders, but they lack brand loyalty, which is a challenge. We feel we can grow them to premium customers."
Recent activities to better position Samsung as a youth brand include the successful MP3 player design contest, along with the company's sponsorship of AXN's Sports World programme. Indeed, design has become a central plank of Samsung's brand strategy, across all of its target markets. "We look into future trends and look at market research -- it's months and months ahead," notes Koh, of Samsung's design strategy. "After that, we will try to develop designs that are catered to the different segments. We call it segment marketing."
Making the sale, of course, cannot be overlooked, with recent research demonstrating the high proportion of consumers who make purchase decisions at the store itself. Koh has moved to address this by setting up a regional retail marketing operation. "It's to promote awareness in the shop and provide sales training, and to get our retail partners involved in the marketing."
Valued retail partners are offered an additional perk, trips to Chelsea matches, which build on Samsung's shirt sponsorship of the successful premiership side. Koh is a committed football fan and, for him, the link between Samsung and Chelsea is more than just commercial. "We see parallels between ourselves and Chelsea," explains Koh. "The way that Samsung goes about its communications, and the way that Chelsea communicates as a team. We must constantly be on the alert."