Samsung carves a local identity for its brand

The Korean consumer electronics major wants to distance itself from challenger brands, build a single unified image across categories

Samsung is driving its brand full throttle in the country, be it television sets or mobile handsets, as it looks to clear the field of challengers and soften the blow to its image from the 2016 global Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. The electronics major is playing up its emotional connection with consumers in its latest campaign for its television sets and aggressively emphasising its make-in-India credentials for mobile phones. The objective is to focus consumer attention on the longstanding association with the country and separate itself from the new Chinese brands in the handsets market.  

The ongoing campaign for its QLED TV talks about the bond between a father and his daughter, previous campaigns were about its new service van facilities and focused on the brand’s reach into remote regions of the country. Both campaigns mark a shift away from the company’s past advertisements that were primarily about technological features and product superiority. “We wanted to take a different approach this time. Instead of showing the latest features of our TV in the ad, we briefed our agency to bring alive the emotions that surround our televisions,” said Piyush Kunnapallil, general manager, Samsung India. These campaigns also have a longer digital shelf life as such stories tend to be shared and viewed multiple times on social media.

Experts said that the brand communication for Samsung has been evolving. In a category where product differentiation is becoming tougher to communicate, the company has been trying to present a more connected and personalised image. This is also in keeping with a global trend where brands tend to move away from product specific communication as they  climb the premium ladder; Samsung’s new model adds to its premium portfolio (55 inch and above) in the country.

The company has around 30-34 per cent of the premium market and is targeting 41 per cent by end of December said Kunnapallil. It accounts for around 30 per cent of the overall TV market and has been market leader for the last 12 years, he added. The Indian television market has slowed down in the less than 32-inch segment in the past few years while sales of the large screen models have been growing at a steady pace. The premium segment contributes around 40-45 per cent of the total industry volume, up from 25-30 per cent two years ago, said industry analysts. It is important for Samsung to build a strong platform for its brand in this segment and the best way to do that, the company believes, is to sport local colours.

For the mobile handset market, the brand is going down a different path to establish its Indian lineage. The latest numbers from research firm IDC for the quarter ended September show that Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is now neck-and-neck with Samsung at the number one spot with 23.5 per cent share of the Indian smartphone market. While Samsung spokespersons shrug this off as an insignificant detail, they are quick to point out that their brand is more closely attuned to Indian needs having been around local consumers for far longer than the new labels. “Make for India is a very studied initiative on our part in India wherein we bring to leverage all our resources in India, whether it is our large foot print of five R&D centres and a design centre in India, or the fact that we have two manufacturing plants in India,” said Asim Warsi, who has been elevated from the position of head of Samsung India’s mobile division, to global vice president in November.

Samsung has been localising the brand by bringing in features meant to serve the unique needs of Indian customers, such as an ultra-data saving mode launched in 2015 and a bike mode for two-wheeler riders. It has also been open to reconfiguring the feature-to--price alignment to suit Indian needs. For instance, Samsung Pay that is a premium feature globally and was available in handsets above Rs 30,000 in India to begin with, has been installed even in the lower priced (Rs 11,500) models. Out of  37 models the company has in India, it is currently available in 26 models.

“Globally Samsung Pay supports credit card transactions. In the Indian market, the dominant use-case is the debit card. Mobile wallets and UPI are also prevalent. We launched Samsung Pay with all of these four services, which is not available in any other market. Whatever we launch in India is built for and around Indian consumer,” said Warsi.

The company is targeting millennials said Warsi. And hence there is an increasing emphasis on digital campaigns, flexible pricing and usability he added. The company has 1,50,000 outlets selling handsets in India and it claims, one of the largest service networks in the sector, with 3,000 service points. across India, into remote and hitherto unpenetrated regions. As the brand goes deeper into the heartland, the greater seems to be the need to craft a unique Indian identity for itself.