Sales and marketing

In a mature market, sales and marketing combinations are usually effective weapons, but all players can not have significant innovations in channels and promotions.

Actually, low-price strategy is not something new to Samsung. When the company entered the earphone market in China last May, low pricing was a core part of its strategy to shake the dominance of Japanese and American companies.

But it is also worthy of note that Samsung can not sacrifice its brand image as a premium product provider. While Nokia may get 40 percent of sales from low-end phones, its higher priced 6 and 7 Series bring bounty profits as well as defend brand awareness for its place as the No 1 in the market.

If Samsung does likewise in the lower-priced segment, while keeping its traditional advantages, it still has the chance to surpass Motorola to become the second largest player, rather than falling behind Sony Ericsson, as predicted by some analysts.

The author is a senior consultant at Beijing Pilot Marketing Management Consultant Co Ltd.

(China Daily 02/08/2007 page15) 

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