Galaxy S5 Marketing Plan

Galaxy S5

Marketing Plan  

Executive summary:

        Samsung as a whole is looking to inspire the world while creating the future with their most recent flagship phone, the Galaxy S5. Samsung is a company based on innovation that aims to be ahead of its competitors. The S5 is a technologically advanced product that offers innovative approaches to current technological markets. With their flagship phone, Samsung is looking to increase their market share and become the leader in smart phones for this generation. We recommend that Samsung focuses on marketing the features that will be used the most. They will create the future by applying functional innovation that will not be over the top. Samsung’s main goals for the marketing of the Galaxy S5 is to appeal to two different target markets into niche markets. Samsung should focus on the technologically savvy group and then the first time smartphone users. The marketing objective for the Samsung Galaxy S5 is to sell 75 million units in the first year. The Galaxy S5 is expected to outsell the previous model, the Galaxy S4, by 10% and be able to break even by July of 2014 after its release in April of 2014.

Current marketing:

Current Marketing Situation:

Samsung was founded in 1938, and have since then taken part in various business segments like building skyscraper and plant to petrochemicals and medicine, even fashion, and many more.  Their strongest segment that is making them a household name is Samsung Electronics, which is a leader in the industry.  Samsung Electronics best-selling product is the smart phones, which the company holds 31.2% of the global market share.  The revenues received from the smartphone market account for 70% of the companies operating profit . Samsung’s latest released smartphone, the Galaxy S5, is the most innovate phone Samsung has produced to date.  Galaxy S5 is completely water-resistant inside and out and the only phone on the market with a sealable charging port. The S5 also hosts a heart monitor, an extremely fast auto focus camera, and a fingerprint scanner.  Samsung Electronics plans for future growth in new markets such as wearable wrist phones and enterprise mobility by offering mobile devices and software to corporate clients.

Competition is tough in the smartphone market, Samsung lost -1.2% of its global market share which the company has been steadily growing for the last four years. Also, Apple, a top U.S competitor, has also lost -2.2% of the smartphone market share in the last year. Due to the strong competition from Lenovo Group Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co, these competitors have the strong market share outside of the U.S.  To recapture Samsung Electronics’ lost global market share they have started selling to India and Russia early this month and are preparing to offer smart phones to Africa.

Market Description:

The smartphone market contains many phones companies that work hard to produce a product line that can cover the smartphone market with their brand.  Customers may perceive all smart phones as the same like a sea of rectangular screens, which is why phone company spend so much to differentiate themselves from the competition.  

               What makes smartphones similar is that they are running the same operating system; as of 2013 79% of smart phones are using an Android operating system, this makes the majority of the phone’s interface synonymous with each other and difficult to differentiate for the uneducated consumer. Smartphone manufactures try distinguishing themselves by price, screen size, resolution, camera mega-pixels, weight, thickness, battery life, and many other niche features they might offer to separate themselves from the competition.  

               Samsung’s market consists of mid to low end and premium products they offer.  Their consumers are people who want an everyday reliable phone on the low end and industry leading phones on the premium end.  Specific segments that Samsung is targeting are the middle and upper class phone users; their premium product is applicable to all walks of life and will meet or exceed their expectation.  Samsung has established a brand of smartphone markets as customizable phone that you can make your own.

Product Review:

Samsung Electronics offer the most technologically advanced phone they have produced thus far, the Galaxy S5 which features:

·       Camera- 16MP AF with Flash and Zero Shutter Lag

·       Video- 2MP Full HD Recording

·       5.1” Full HD Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 Touch Screen Display, 1920x1080 pixel.

·       Dimensions- 5.59” (H) x 2.85” (W) x 0.31” (D) inches

·       Operating System- Android 4.4

·       Memory / Processor- 16GB on board memory + 2GB RAM/Supports up to 128GB micro SD Card (sold separately)

·       Battery- Standard 2800 mAh Lithium Ion Battery-Usage Time: Up to 27 hours/Standby Time: Up to 20 days

·       Heart rate monitor

·       Finger print scanner

The Galaxy S5 is priced at $249.99 with 2 year contract and $599.99 without contract and cost Samsung $ 251.52 to manufacture.  Apple’s 5S cost $207.00, the reason why the Galaxy S5 is the most costly phone on the market is due the 10 sensors that come included.  Samsung has record high sales of any phone to date with the Galaxy S5, with over 10 million sales in 25 days, which beat the predecessor the S4’s sales which only sold 10 million in 27 days.  Selling at $599.99 Samsung has a gross margin of 41% with the Galaxy S5 accounting for 4.3% of incoming smartphone for the Unites States, the S5 is a gigantic success.

Competitor Analysis:

Various large companies exist within the market of smartphones. Samsung has several competitors in the market, and Samsung seeks to use achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, in which competitors cannot provide the same value of products to customers that Samsung does.  Samsung has improved its product qualities which have attracted its competitor’s customers.  Apple Co is Samsung’s first major competitor, and HTC comes next on the Korean company competitor list.

• Apple Co: Apple Co has the strongest market position, and it is the largest electronic cooperation. Apple’s marketing strategies are focusing on making its products designed beautifully.  Apple’s product are so pricey, but it worth the amount of money that they charge their customers because of the quality and the design of the products.

• HTC Co: HTC’s market share is smaller than Apple and Samsung’s market shares.  HTC is a much smaller brand than Samsung, and it makes only smartphones; not even tablets.  HTC decided lately to focus less on features, and focus more on improving the designs of its products. HTC often has higher priced smartphones compared to Apple and Samsung, so they need to introduce more mid-end smartphones to cater more to middle class customers.

Distribution plays an important role in the competition between these companies.  In comparison to HTC, Apple is more of a global corporation as it has a vast number of their own stores worldwide compared to a lesser amount of HTC stores. Here Apple seems to be the biggest competition to Samsung.  Samsung on the other hand has an almost equal number of stores worldwide and it is based in South Korea.