Weekly recommended reads from Techarc - 62nd Edition
What Samsung needs is to carve out a constellation for the masses within its galaxy of devices
Customer is the king, is an old saying for marketing world. Samsung is taking a little longer to accept this reality. Well against all odds, I am not of the opinion that something really bad is happening with Samsung at the moment. I have been maintaining these are transitionary periods where brands take an orbital shift and is bound to take a dip from market performance standpoint. I held similar views for Xiaomi and we have seen it now getting back on track. I see Samsung from a similar prism.
For me Samsung is the only brand after Apple which has positioned itself successfully as a value brand than volume brand. This means a shift in many ways. Firstly, it means taking an exit from the mass market, or substantially reducing exposure to the mass market. Obviously, when such a strategic decision is taken, the company does expect there will be reduction in market share by volume. But then, there might be a counter argument, as to why is Samsung also taking a pinch revenue wise? Despite them having better ASPs compared to others? Well despite this, Samsung is still growing 18-20% by revenue if we compare it with last year. However, it has been growing 22-25% otherwise. This revenue eat up is by Apple which is seeing unparallel growth in the Indian market. Now the market gets a third dimension – Google Pixel. Google seems this year to be a bit aggressive as they have at least expanded their touch points. But on product discovery, I still feel they are a bit shy. Though this year again, they are doing much more by Google standards.
Chart of the week
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