Category: Brand

Introduction

In general, brand management describes marketing, advertising, overall placement, distribution, and design of the companys products and services that substantively contribute to the development of the brands personality. However, this term is also related to the perception and perceived values created by a company and its relationship with consumers. This paper includes the evaluation of Nike, an outstanding sports apparel and footwear corporation, and its response to the customers behavior affected by a global trend of climate change.

Evaluation of Nike

Brand History

Since the companys foundation, Nike, Inc. has focused on discoveries and innovations in its sphere in order to provide products of high quality to athletes all over the world. It was founded in 1964 by Phil Knight, the track athlete of the University of Oregon, and Bill Bowerman, his coach (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016). Originally, the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports, and it operated as a distributor for Onitsuka Tiger, a Japanese shoemaker (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016). After the opening of its first retail store in California in 1966, Knight and Bowerman expanded their business in various regions across the United States (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016). In 1971, Blue Ribbon Sports became an independent company with a new name and its own logo, Swoosh, that imitated the goddesss wing, and released its own footwear line (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016). Eventually, Nike took the leading position in the countrys athletic market through multiple marketing communication ways that contributed to the customers awareness about products.

Current Positions

In the present day, Nike, Inc. is a multinational corporation with a wide arrangement of products that are available across the globe. Over the past several years, it has increased its revenue from 16$ billion to 24$ million, with 19% of the footwear market share (Forbes, n.d.). It is currently based in Beaverton, Oregon, and includes such brands as Nike, Jordan, and Converse (About Nike, n.d.). The company defines its principal business activity as the design, development and worldwide marketing and selling of athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services (NIKE, Inc., 2018, p. 55). Nike, Inc. distributes its products through corporation-owned retail stores, digital platforms, and a substantial number of independent licensees, sales representatives, and distributors in the majority of countries all over the world. Virtually all apparel, equipment, and footwear of Nike, Inc. are produced by independent contractors both in the territory and outside the United States.

There are six main categories of products  NIKE Basketball, Running, the Jordan Brand, Training, Football, and Sportswear (NIKE, Inc., 2018). The company additionally markets footwear and sports clothes that are designed for children.

Nike, Inc. releases multiple products for recreational and athletic uses such as baseball, cricket, American football, tennis, lacrosse, volleyball, wrestling, walking, skateboarding, and other outdoor activities. Moreover, it sells a specific line of accessories and equipment that includes sports balls, bags, bats, gloves, socks, eyewear, digital devices, protective equipment, and timepieces (NIKE, Inc., 2018). In general, the company aims to expand its positions in the market and the relevance of its brand through innovative development techniques. In addition, Nike has obtained a strong name or title in the market of running basketball and football categories in North America and central and Eastern Europe (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016, p. 3). Moreover, it works in cooperation with world-class partners in order to expand opportunities for children, adolescents, young adults, retired athletes, and their communities. The companys strategy implies constant development and market exploration for retail effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

Companys Mission and Heritage

The company defines its goal as the unconceivable motivation, passion for sport and innovations, and enthusiasm to do all possible things in order to expand the potential of every person. The official statement of Nikes mission sounds to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete (About Nike, n.d., para. 1). According to the companys statement, the world of athletes is united in the joy of movement, and the inspirational power of sport helps to overcome differences and breaks down barriers worldwide (Nike Careers, n.d., para. 1). Nike, Inc. believes that its team diversity serves every customer individually, accelerates innovation, and supports creativity. The company focuses on inclusion and diversity throughout its business and corporate culture to empower its employees to realize their full potential and create breakthrough innovations for athletes (Nike Careers, n.d., para. 4). In addition, Nike, Inc. embraces different perspectives of its high-performing team as every member may bring unique ideas and experiences.

Throughout its history, the company aimed to create groundbreaking sport innovations, increase the sustainability of its products, build a diverse and creative global team, and positively influence living and working communities all over the world. It pursues to continue its legacy of exceptional quality and innovative thinking to develop various products for athletes of every level of ability to reach their potential (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016, p. 4). Nike, Inc. aims to provide access to sport for every child and adult. In addition, the corporation creates business opportunities for Nike to avoid competition and provide the brands value for its shareholders.

Brand Perception by Consumers

Nike may be currently characterized by-products that are well-known all over the world, effective advertisement campaigns, and positive views shared between consumers, their families, and friends. After purchasing the brands footwear, equipment, apparel, or accessories, customers experience their quality and remain satisfied (Ahmed, Abbas, and Brohi, 2016). Moreover, the athletes commitment to the brand may be explained by the corporations focus on inclusive culture. This aspect implies equal opportunities for all adults and children, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and location. In addition, Nike attracts consumers who pay particular attention to the sustainability of manufacturing and products as the company uses innovative materials, such as recycled leather fiber, to avoid a negative impact on the ecology. That is why the majority of customers feel that they got comfortable, environmentally friendly, and good-looking products.

Climate Change as a Global Trend

Climate Challenging

In the present day, climate change may be regarded as one of the most essential global trends that will retain its relevance and significance in the foreseeable future. In general, climate reversal and global warming refer to the change of weather patterns due to the increase in average global temperatures. Not only natural events but human activities, such as the emission of greenhouse gases and fossil fuel use, substantively contribute to potentially catastrophic outcomes for the planets climate. People are highly responsible for water and soil contamination, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect that cause the melting of Arctic and Antarctic glaciers and the rise of sea levels.

Climate change dramatically influences ecological networks, ecosystems, wildlife, human populations, communities, and individuals all over the world as well. Extreme weather events cause floods, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires, sandstorms, and other natural disasters. The planets ecosystems suffer from freshwater scarcity, massive deforestation, desertification, the extinction of endangered animal species, and the decrease of genetic diversity. Climate change has a highly negative impact on peoples ability to produce physically necessary products and food. Floods and droughts are traditionally regarded as the main causes of havoc with crops that substantively affect food prices. In addition, due to climate change and erratic weather patterns, people may suffer from various infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, hepatitis, and bacteria diarrhea.

Impact of Climate Change on Companies and Customer Behavior

It goes without saying that global trends substantively influence peoples behavior, especially in the sphere of consumption and service. According to researchers, the consideration of indirect environmental problems  like climate change, or excess use of resources  leads to a sense of powerlessness and negative attitude towards authorities responsible for antipollution measures (Umpfenbach, 2014, p. 6). However, the motivation to improve or protect the environment is not defined as the key motivation for individual pro-environment behavior. The majority of people who consider particular issues related to climate change are frequently motivated by a sense of justice or their desire to avoid waste, promote health, save money, and perform appropriately in front of others (Umpfenbach, 2014). Sociologists explain the fundamental driving factors of behavioral changes by the peoples essential intentions or needs, such as protection, affection, subsistence, understanding, creation, participation, identity, leisure, and freedom.

Meanwhile, the belief that insufficient pro-environmental steps, such as turning out lights or the separation of waste, may have a highly positive impact on substantial pro-environmental behavior is empirically unsupported. According to recent studies, there are no correlations between a person undertaking a green behavior and undertaking another, or correlations were very weak (Umpfenbach, 2014, p. 6). However, costumers are crucially influenced by social norms and other people, and the impact of particular information may be increased by social pressure, for instance, by the sales assistants persuasion. In addition, the refusal to act like peers may be highly stressful for a prevalent number of consumers, and all forms of marketing, such as promotion, advertising, product placement, and packaging, have a substantial influence on peoples behavior and form social norms. In general, due to climate change caused by human activities, customers started to consider the products materials and the sustainability of manufacturing.

Nikes Response to Climate Change

The area of sport has experienced the negative impact of climate change as well. The negative consequences of erratic weather patterns include the increasing number of hydration stops during competitive races and the canceling of a substantial number of events due to wildfires and heat warnings (Kinder, n.d.). It goes without saying that Nike, Inc. understands the significance of the companys contribution to the planets preservation. According to Noel Kinder (n.d.), Chief Sustainability Officer, the corporation is determined to take climate actions the only way Nike knows how  with an athletes mindset of adaptability, persistence, relentlessness, and determination (para. 7). The companys concept that focuses on the sustainability of products and manufacturing to satisfy consumers and minimize climate change includes the following activities:

• By 2025, Nike has a mission to power its owned facilities with totally renewable energy;
• By 2030, the company aims to reduce carbon emissions across its global supply chain by 30% (Kinder, n.d.);
• Nike has elaborated the guide Circularity: Guiding the Future of Design, which implies workbook share principles of design and manufacturing in the industry of sports apparel and footwear;
• The company has launched several programs that were created for the conversion of waste into playgrounds, courts, running tracks, and new products (Kinder, n.d.);
• Nike diverts one million plastic bottles annually from landfills to recycle them and produce materials for the brands Flyknit shoes and jerseys (Kinder, n.d.);
• The company diverts from landfills almost 100% of its footwear manufacturing waste.

As the change of customer behaviors due to climate challenges is predominantly characterized by peoples particular attention to sustainability and recycling, Nike, Inc. has an appropriate response. For instance, the corporation has launched Nike Grind which implies a collection of recycled materials originating from Nike manufacturing scrap, unsellable products, and worn-out sneakers (25 years of Nike Grind, n.d., para. 9). Used materials are collected in order to be processed and used by Nike and its partners who share the companys vision concerning sustainability and zero waste. Leather, textile, scraps of rubber, plastic, and foam left after Nikes manufacturing are collected from all factories across the globe to be regenerated into innovative premium materials.

Conclusion

In the present day, Nike, Inc. is a multinational corporation with a wide arrangement of products, brand heritage, well-defined missions, effective advertisement campaigns, and positive views shared between consumers, their families, and friends. The company defines its goal as the unconceivable motivation, passion for sport and innovations, and enthusiasm to do all possible things in order to expand the potential of every person. It goes without saying that global trends substantively influence peoples behavior, especially in the sphere of consumption and service. In general, due to climate change caused by human activities, customers started to consider the products materials and the sustainability of manufacturing. As a response, Nike focuses on the sustainability of products and manufacturing to satisfy consumers and minimize the environmental crisis.

Reference List

25 years of Nike Grind (no date).

About Nike (no date).

Ahmed, R.R., Abbas Z. and Brohi, H. (2016) Strategic marketing plan of Nike, Technical Report, pp. 1-28. Web.

Forbes (no date) Forbes fab 40: the most valuable brands in sports. 1. Nike.

Kinder, N. (no date) Changing the conversation on climate change. Web.

Nike Careers (no date). Web.

NIKE, Inc. (2018) Annual report and notice of annual meeting. (Form 10-K). Washington D.C.: United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Umpfenbach, K. (2014) Influences on consumer behaviour: policy implications beyond nudging. Berlin: European Commission.

The LEGO Brand Touchpoints

There are several touchpoints that the LEGO brand implements to promote its brand and the first one is related to a strong brand design. A demonstrative example of why the touchpoint is important for the target audience is the case of China, where money was invested to open LEGO stores since there was an interest in their products. In addition, LEGO examined the new market and decided against developing any product lines specifically for Asia since Chinese customers already place a high value on the classic LEGO creative play experience. This touchpoint can be encountered during the awareness stage and it reinforces the brand purpose by assessing new distribution channels.

Licensing and Diversification

A key component of the LEGO marketing plan is diversification. In addition to conventional advertising methods, the company has expanded into a number of media to promote its brand. The LEGO Movie series and The LEGO Batman Movie increased awareness of its licensed properties while honoring the play-based design of LEGO. California, Dubai, Florida, Japan, Malaysia, Windsor, and Germany now all have LEGOLAND theme parks (Consonni, 2018). Additionally, the firm created video games based on its product line after recognizing the trend toward digitalization.

The companys emphasis on ongoing innovation is also reflected in LEGO playsets. According to the research, the majority of LEGOs customers have been boys; thus, the company created the LEGO Friends brand with a clear focus on connecting with girls (Nerantzi & James, 2018). Additionally, the business has collaborated with Disney, Marvel, and DC Comics to produce its well-known Star Wars and superhero playsets, which are essential marketing tools because they increase awareness and boost sales. LEGO Group got involved in official TV show contests like LEGO Masters to increase brand recognition since LEGO fans of all ages enjoy showcasing their abilities as master LEGO builders.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

LEGO is already a well-known brand, but its popularity on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube show how useful social media platforms are for connecting with customers. With well over 13 million fans, LEGOs Facebook page constantly posts images and videos of its latest products and creative ideas (Volkova et al., 2020). Similar content can be found on their Instagram profile, where posts frequently earn many likes and comments, indicating high user involvement. Additionally, with 10.04 billion views as of June 2020, LEGO is the most watched brand on YouTube (Roos & Victor, 2018). The companys brand is promoted by the how-to, instructional, and promotional films on their channel. Due to its success on social media, fans have been inspired to start their own LEGO fan channels.

Integrated Customer Experience

LEGO leverages its digital platform to deliver a seamless customer experience to every component of its consumer audience. Users of the social network app LEGO Life, which is targeted at children under 13, can upload pictures of the LEGO masterpieces theyve built and remark on others works of art. In fact, LEGO also has a sizable adult customer base that may participate in its creative process by joining the LEGO Ideas online community.

Users of this community can upload pictures of their LEGO creations and submit ideas for new LEGO Ideas sets that other members can vote on to have the business manufacture. Journalist Maia Weinstocks Women of NASA LEGO concept received the required 10,000 votes from supporters in 2017, was manufactured, and shot to the top of Amazons best-seller list (Jackson, 2021). Simply put, parents, teachers, and friends will all encourage children reared in developed nations to play with LEGO during the course of a typical day. Additionally, there is a substantial amount of user-generated content on LEGOs in its environment and on its social networks, which further validates the idea that this toy is, perhaps, one of its lifes healthiest, most helpful habits. Nobody elses brand has ever accomplished this. The levels of passive and natural customer involvement that LEGO has attained are astounding and undoubtedly serve as case studies for other brands across all sectors of the economy.

Partnerships with the Education Sector

The plastic bricks made by LEGO have traditionally been marketed as educational toys that encourage children to use their imaginations and become active learners. This brand encompasses the entire business, which has developed reliable relationships with the education sector. Since 1986, the independent education division of LEGO, known as LEGO Education, has provided instructional supplies to schools (Nerantzi & James, 2018). Many LEGO-based construction goods are presently available on the companys website, all of which are intended to help elementary and middle school kids develop their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) confidence. Resources for homeschooling and online study are provided in other areas for kids to use while learning throughout the pandemic. Teachers are far more likely to recognize the importance of these items and online tools because of how well-regarded LEGOs dedication to education is.

Targeting Parents

Although children continue to be a primary target market for LEGO, the firm is aware that parents must be attracted to the brand because they are the ones who make the final purchasing decisions. LEGO makes sure its goods are parent-approved by continuing to emphasize the educational benefits of their toys and selling them as a means to foster a childs interest in STEAM. This method encourages parents to make more purchases, which has been a crucial component of the LEGO marketing plan from the start. The touchpoint exemplifies strong and consistent brand design since the organization recognizes the role of parents in the final decision-making process of whether to make a purchase or reject.

References

Consonni, S. (2018). PLAY! Fun, facts, and the construction of engagement in the LEGOLAND theme parks website. Scripta Manent, 12(1), 63-85. Web.

Jackson, T. (2021). Co-creation leadership. Leader to Leader, 2021(102), 62-67. Web.

Nerantzi, C., & James, A. (2018). Discovering innovative applications of LEGO® in learning and teaching in higher education. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 5(4), 153-156. Web.

Roos, J., & Victor, B. (2018). How it all began: the origins of LEGO® serious Play®. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 5(4), 326-343. Web.

Volkova, D., Volkova, J., & ZnotiFa, D. (2020). Analysis OF LEGO Brand Communication for the Audience of Children in Social Media. Journal of Regional Economic and Social Development, 12, 192-202. Web.

Product performance and aesthetics are often compared in many discussions about which product qualities are more important to the overall success of a brand. Some experts say that buyers appreciate functionality and meaning first and foremost. Others point out that form is a continuation and addition of functionality and meaning. Wu et al. (2017) note that the design and aesthetics of products and services are often considered important predictors of marketing and sales success (p. 651). This paper aims to discuss why product aesthetics are more critical to a brands success.

Its hard to argue that many consumers are guided by common sense and choose a product because of its functionality and performance. However, this does not mean that products with the same performance but different aesthetic qualities will have the same success. The vision of product form as an annoying addition to its content has long been outdated. Today, the design reflects the content and helps the buyer to better understand the product and have more enjoyment in use (Montague, 2017). In other words, modern brands, especially manufacturers of technology and electronics, work hard to ensure that the functional characteristics of a product are inextricably linked to its design, as it facilitates ease of use and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.

On the other hand, some scientists note that too aesthetic products of daily or one-time use can cause stress for consumers, associated with the destruction of the products beauty during its use (Wu et al., 2017). Therefore, manufacturers should consider these natural consumers emotions and develop designs that remain beautiful and smart without causing stress. Crolic et al. (2019) note that some designs can mislead buyers about the products quality, which is undesirable.

Thus, it was discussed why product aesthetics are more critical to a brands success. The aesthetics and high-quality design of the product help the consumer better understand the product and visually demonstrate its qualities and functions. Good design also allows consumers to enjoy the product more, which increases satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, high brand loyalty, which depends on user experience, can only be achieved with aesthetic and thoughtful design.

References

Crolic, C., Zheng, Y., Hoegg, J., & Alba, J. W. (2019). The influence of product aesthetics on consumer inference making. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 4(4), 398-408.

Wu, F., Samper, A., Morales, A. C., & Fitzsimons, G. J. (2017). Its too pretty to use! When and how enhanced product aesthetics discourage usage and lower consumption enjoyment. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(3), 651-672.

Montague, M. (2017). The amazing role of aesthetics in product design. Web.

The brand extension (also called brand stretching) refers to a marketing strategy used by firms with strong existing brands to extend to other products, leveraging on the strong brand name to capture the market. When customers feel satisfied with the quality of a certain brand and have sufficient loyalty towards the brand name, marketing experts believe that the name can be spread to other products and lead to successful sales. Globally, many companies have used the strategy to find ways of implementing diversification of product range hence achieve business growth. Yamaha was a Japanese maker of motorbikes but was able to successfully extend the Yamaha brand name into sports equipment, pianos, and hi-fis. Also, Lucozade was a renowned world maker of childrens energy drinks but was able to extend to manufacturing adult energy and sports drink in the same brand name (Brands  brand extension and stretching, 2010, Par2).

According to analysts over 81percent of new products developed in the year 1991 depending on brand extensions. This means that the power of a known brand name can be utilized as an asset in terms of the established royalty among customers. The advantages are always great as compared to the brands being introduced.

First, the firm can introduce the new product with ease. Financially less spending is expected in positioning the brand rightfully in the market. The fact that the brand name is known reduces budgets on promotional campaigns and advertising on the new products. Most of the doubts about the quality of the products are cleared by the fact that the existing products have known quality levels. As such, trust levels are much higher. This increases the chances of customers being willing to try out the new products (Understanding Brand Extension, 2010, Par3).

Secondly, the entire distribution network already established feels more at ease with the new product carrying the familiar brand name. They have a perception that the new products chances of success are high thus it may be less risky as compared to introducing new products. This factor enhances the process of penetration in the market creating adequate channels of exposure of the product to the customer. This makes the process of entrenching the product into the market much easier (Understanding Brand Extension, 2010, Par5).

Combining all these factors, it is clear that marketing strategists are right in the application of brand extension strategies to drive growth. However, there are some strong sentiments from a different class of marketing experts who oppose the strategy of brand extension as a marketing strategy. They argue that brand extensions can result in the damage or dilution of the existing image of the brand. There are possibilities of causing damage to the existing brand equity due to poor brand extension. They argue that most marketers focus on evaluating how strong the existing brand is and using that information as the strength of the brand and its ability to overwhelm other factors. They argue that despite the strength of the existing brand, introducing a new product under the same brand dilutes it and depending on the communication strategies applied may even harm the entire brand family (Brand extensions, 2010, Par3).

Despite the negative views, statistics show that the highest success in introducing products in the market is mainly recorded in situations of brand extensions. All that is required is that the choices of brand extension are well made and other factors such as quality taken to full consideration before introducing the brand.

Reference

Brand extensions, 2010. Mud Valley. [Online] Web.

Brands  brand extension and stretching, 2010. Tutor2u. [Online] Web.

Understanding Brand Extension, 2010. Brand Extension Research: The Innovator of Brand Extension. [Online]. Web.

INTRODUCTION

Samsung group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Lee Byung-Chul in 1938. During the beginnings the group was already very diversified with areas like food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail. In the late 1960s they integrated to the group the electronics area which increased the group’s growth a lot. After the founder’s death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups: Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Today Samsung Group employs less than 500.000 people (2014) and has a revenue of $305 billion (2014) with a net income of $22.1 billion (2014).

Within Samsung Group, there is Samsung Electronics (1969) which is a subsidiary where Samsung phones are developed. Samsung Electronics is also the most important source of income and the world’s 2nd largest information technology company measured by 2015 revenues. It employs about 300.000 people (2016) with $180 billion revenue and $25 billion net income (2016)

In October 2016, Samsung, the South Korean giant electronic giant has known a huge worldwide scandal. After the release of its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in mid-August 2016, the brand stopped selling it because several reports told that some devices caught fire and even exploded. The scandal spread on the social media with pictures and photos of damaged phones and mostly the case of a phone which started to catch fire mid-air on a Jet Airways Delhi-Indore Flight.

Samsung really struggled from the Note 7 scandal and back then many thought this was the end of the Samsung Galaxy Note phones. But this helped the company to focus on reinforce their security and improve the way they communicate with their customers. Samsung have learned from its situation and they demonstrate it with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 which are two great success for the brand. They still had good financial results which a gradually increase of phone sales. The brand was able to compensate this scandal with their other phones. They get back the customers trust.

BRAND STRATEGY, PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY AND TARGET CUSTOMERS, AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

As a multinational company, Samsung needs to build up a strong, durable and reliable strategy to sustain in a very competitive market.

BRAND STRATEGY

Samsung adopt a special strategy, they observe its competitors and their new products, to launch lately with eventually new features. This makes Samsung’s products in maturity phase while the others became dead weights. It is known that Samsung never the first to launch a new kind of product.

In Telecommunication sector it is true that Samsung takes a little their competitor’s idea for their phones, and mainly Apple ideas. However, their choice of creating their own OS and keep reasonable costs allow a new vision for the brand. This renewal of image allowed Samsung to overcome many competitors since the beginning and still today. It is not certain that it stays like that, considering the multiplication of competitors and new technologies concerning telephony and networks. (Analyse stratégique de Samsung, 2011)

With the recent failures, Samsung had to polish its image. They made some choices to improve safety with new productions policies and deeper control with their partners, especially suppliers.

This safety process would ensure a new quality security which had not obviously existed before. This process is also way more complete than the industry standard safety check. Samsung has thus acquired the means to control its product safety and develop it as a force. “It also used the opportunity to find a bigger brand purpose for itself and creating an internal culture of change that encourages and prides itself on taking risks.” (Businessinsider.fr, 2017)

The Galaxy Note 7 recall influenced Samsung to put safety in the heart of their promotion. To get the customers faith back, they had to speak publicly about this issue and to show that they solved it. With social medias and classic medias such as TV, they could spread a new message of transparency toward their solutions. In a Youtube video from their official channel, Tim Baxter Samsung’s COO, speaks directly with the customers with this message: ‘At Samsung our highest priority is our customers, their aspirations, their needs, their safety. And with battery cell defects in some of our note 7 phones, we did not meet the standard of excellence that you expect and deserve. For that we apologize. Especially to those of you who are personally affected by this to those of you who love the note, the most loyal customers in our Samsung family. We appreciate your passion and your patience, and we take seriously our responsibility to address your concerns about safety.’(Youtube.com)

With this message, Samsung grapple the scandal and by apologizing and assuring that they will do everything they can to get back their customers trust.

Pio Schunker, SVP of integrated marketing communications at Samsung Mobile Communication, speaking for the Association of National Advertisers’ Masters of Marketing Conference said: ‘We knew we couldn’t afford the luxury of a fetal position and just lie there, so the first thing that we did to make things right was to take accountability,’ he said. ‘For Samsung, it wasn’t just the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do.’ They did a video advertisement on TV and YouTube where the viewer could see the different tests they did on the new Galaxy range phone. They spoke about the Galaxy Note 7 with honesty by saying that they figured out the problems but now they ensure that they do all the tests needed and even farther. As Russel Feldman said: “In anticipation of the Galaxy S8’s arrival, Samsung’s January global TV advertising campaign focused on quality and the thorough nature of its testing process comprising a new 8-point battery check in an attempt to reassure consumers that it has taken extensive measures to ensure there isn’t a repeat performance.” (thedrum.com, 2017)

Samsun has also a strong CSR policy with a dedicated Youtube Channel about their CSR actions and also a section on their website where the brand explains their approach in the different subjects.

From the beginning, Samsung had to fight hard to change customers’ perceptions of it as a manufacturer of cheap electronic goods. Starting in 1993, Samsung has adopted an aggressive branding and advertising strategy. (https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/marketing/samsung-global-asian-brand/)

Samsung’s branding philosophy is built on five main pillars: innovation, cutting-edge Samsung was known as a thigh-lipped nature for answering questions and giving interviews, which was perceived as arrogant by the press. Their communication is now clearly more open because this Galaxy Note had definitely impacted their profits but especially the image and marketing for their products. The brand wanted to build “brand love”, Pio Schunker said “We needed to reclaim our leadership”. Indeed, the brand identity was “immensely fragmented which lacked warmth and humanity” and that is why they create the tagline “Do What You Can’t”. (Business Insider, 2017)

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY AND TARGET

Samsung has used all possible communication channels to convey its brand’s positioning and personality. Mass media advertising, public relations, event sponsorship, sports sponsorships, product placements, the Samsung experience gallery and Samsung experience retail stores have been its major brand communication channels. (Martin Roll)

The brand communication had two main objectives. Firstly, to reposition Samsung as a premium, world-class brand offering quality, credibility and design and, secondly, initially to be seen and accepted on a par with the likes of Sony and more recently to be the top consumer electronics brand globally. After Sony’s decline and Samsung’s aggressive entry in the premium smartphone’s category, Apple is now Samsung’s biggest competitor in the high growth categories of smartphones, tablets and smart wearables. (Le Monde, 2017)

SAMSUNG’S TARGET

Samsung’s targets is very large. Indeed, they provide a large range of phones that fit with all generations. Their retail prices are also large from 149 to 1,100 pounds (shop.samsung.com). This means that they don’t target a specific and unique target but several. Samsun phones are suitable for a teenager, business man, elder and so on.

PORTER FIVE FORCES

Porter’s Five Forces analysis model helps to see if a company is able to sustain on a specific market/industry. These five forces are:

• Threat of new entry
• Buyer Power
• Threat of substitution
• Supplier Power
• Competitive Rivalry

For Samsung this model allows to understand if the place of the brand in the smartphone industry is a threat or an opportunity.

As the Porter’s Five Forces analysis shows every aspect are fragile except for Supplier Power which could be the only aspect which is quite strong.

New competitors are gaining market shares (Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi) which affect Samsung because they propose similar phones like Samsung’s. Buyers have also the capacity to choose a brand whenever they want. In fact, the price of a phone is an important part of the buyer’s budget so it is an important choice for them.

Buyers want a reliable product for the best price possible and a lot of brands propose good phones such as Samsung’s phones for a decent price. The threat of substitution is thus high for Samsung. Supplier Power is quite low because lots of them are willing to work for Samsung and they do not really have bargaining power.

However, if issues such as the battery of the Samsung Galaxy note 7 could affect the image of these suppliers an Samsung has a lot of suppliers. Concerning the rivalry, its high because of the well-established companies on the phone industry such as Apple, the main competitor of Samsung and also Sony, LG, Motorola. The strong rivalry with Apple affects the brand image of Samsung because both brands have a strong community which spreads lots of messages denigrating the “enemy” devices.

Local and international competition

Samsung has four critical areas in its branding strategy that it needs to address to remain competitive in the future:

• Strengthen its value brands in the categories they compete in
• Maintain the differentiated image of its premium brands, which have been built up over the years through sizeable financial and manpower commitment
• Define and maintain an image of the corporate brand, which encompasses the company’s offerings across the value and premium ends of the categories it plays in
• Put in place a brand architecture in the organization, which emphasizes the relationships between the corporate brand and the product brands and how the identity and image of each can help strengthen the others

Samsung has invested heavily in R&D to churn out new technologies. In 2016, the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard ranked Samsung as the top technology spender and second highest global spender with USD 13 billion in R&D spends. In 2013, the company also announced an additional R&D spend of USD 4.5 billion with five new R&D centers in its home country. Today, the company has over 50,000 people working in R&D globally, spreading out across its 42 global research facilities, including R&D centers and design centers. The company is committed to invest at least 9% of its sales revenue into R&D activities.

CONCLUSION

In today’s fast changing consumer culture, huge companies like Samsung has to develop a strong and reliable strategy. Even though it is a big company, consumer from the phone market are very versatile. This versatile consumption is known by Samsung because of the Galaxy Note 7 which had a profound effect on everything. They faced a big loss economically, consumer faith and image.

As they faced a scandal, it is interesting to see how they react and how it affected the whole market. Now, Samsung reinstated to their before scandal level and even higher cause they improved a lot in several domain such as safety and communication.

REFERENCES

1. Martin Roll, 2017: Samsung – The Global Asian Brand https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/marketing/samsung-global-asian-brand/
2. Samsung, CSR Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SamsungCSR/videos
3. C.Boyles, 2015: Samsung Mobile Brand Guideline https://fr.slideshare.net/chrisboyles/samsung-mobile-brand-guideline
4. R.Dissanayake, T. Amarasuriya, 2015: Role of brand identity in developing global brands: a literature based review on case comparison between Apple Iphone vs Samsung smartphone brands https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282323997_Role_of_brand_identity_in_developing_global_brands_a_literature_based_review_on_case_comparison_between_Apple_Iphone_vs_Samsung_smartphone_brands
5. P.Juneja, No date: PESTLE Analysis of Samsung https://www.managementstudyguide.com/pestle-analysis-of-samsung.htm
6. N.Mortimer, 2017: Can Samsung’s Galaxy S8 marketing strategy help repair its Note 7 wounds? https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/03/30/can-samsung-s-galaxy-s8-marketing-strategy-help-repair-its-note-7-wounds
7. Business Insider, 2017 https://www.businessinsider.com/sites/maribellopez/2017/01/22/samsung-reveals-cause-of-note-7-issue-turns-crisis-into-opportunity/
8. Samsung Website, No date: The values that define Samsung’s spirit https://www.samsung.com/latin_en/aboutsamsung/vision/philosophy/samsung-spirit/
9. Burton.J (2016) Samsung’s communication stratgy koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2016/10/197_216407.html
10. L’express, (2016) : L’affaire du Samsung Galaxy Note 7 et ses batteries explosives expansion.lexpress.fr/high-tech/l-affaire-du-samsung-galaxy-note-7-et-ses-batteries-explosives_1838245.html
11. Burton.J (2016) Samsung’s communication strategy koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2016/10/197_216407.html
12. Androidpirdpit France (2016) Galaxy Note 7 : Samsung peut-il survivre au scandale ? youtube.com/watch?v=ZbllbavW1_8

The break-out of coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted the whole world. People stayed at home during lockdown, or wearing masks all day during their work after the slightly alleviation. Not only the daily life has been changed dramatically, but also the business world. The most impacted business should be those who rely highly on world trade. The world trade in 2020 is expected to plummet by between 13% and 32% due to the disruption of the normal cross-border economic activities. The transportation and travel restriction rendered the sectors with global and complex supply chain more vulnerable compared to local business. This essay will highlight the impact of coronavirus on the luxury industry which both relies largely on the world trade with its complex supply chain and which turned out to be one of the industries most damaged during the pandemic.

Financial survival

As the dramatic decrease in sales, luxury brand had to take some financial measures to make sure the survival of brands. One essential way is to manage the cash by cutting cost of unnecessary market activities such as postponed fashion shows. Cash could help mitigate the high risk derived from debt leverage. Companies with low free cash flow, which relied highly on revenue to pay interest would have inflated leverage risk during pandemic. For example, Fauchon, a luxury dessert companies with 134 years history went bankruptcy during the pandemic due to the interest problem.

Besides, brands need to reconsider all the necessary marketing expense so that to adapt to the pandemic situation. Advertising expenses should privilege mobile and TV. Reallocation would make expenses more suitable and realistic.

Moreover, many companies expected to survive through M&A strategy. Crises created new avenues for luxury brands to develop. The vertical M&A helped brands with the suppliers issue and helped manufacturers with distribution issue may reshape the ecosystem and provide survival and developing opportunities for existing companies.

Last but not least, brands need to pay attention to the investors’ point of view. It is reported that investors foresee a significant Covid impact with Cars, Hotels, Restaurants, Cruises, and Retailing as most negatively affected sectors. Apparel, Watches Yacht and Private jets may remain stable. And Costmetics & Fragrances and Furniture are expected to experience an slightly growth while digital luxury would benefit greatly from this pandemic. For the geological segment, Asian and Middle Eastern markets are expected to recover soon from the pandemic while Europe and Latin America may suffer for longer period during the next several years. From the perspective of investors, brands could adjust suitable fund raising strategy for both its survival and potential growth opportunities.

Customer and employee protection

When the pandemic first break out, the priority of every company would be to protect the health and safety of all people involved in their business, for example, their employees, their customers and their business partners. Before the lockdown, several brands began to communicate with employees on infection risk concerns and provided work from home options. During the lockdown period, almost all the physical business stopped and companies’ technical department need to quickly deal with the online working platform problems so that to ensure that the working communication between all employees continue smoothly. However, there are millions of people who rely on the luxury industries to make a living and their work are almost in-place work, for example, factory worker, retail-store employees and artisans and craftsmen. The luxury industry need to develop a long-term strategy to ensure its social responsibilities on these stakeholders, even if the cost of this responsibility would worsen its operating condition under low demand period. Therefore, to keep facilities operating, and to maintain its ability to afford workforce, with the chemical production line of perfume and manufacturing line of clothes, many companies transferred its products to hand sanitizer and masks. For example, by repurposing its production facilities, LVMH not only mitigated the risk from coronavirus but also generated rewarding revenues. This action also improved the brand reputation for customer centric and high social responsibility.

When the Covid-19 condition alleviated and business restarted, the highly demand for social distance urged the companies pay as much attention as they could to the in-store sanitation condition during purchases by in-store social distance indicators, posters, sanitizer in front of stores and compulsory limitation for in-store people number. With these actions, although business recovery slowed down, the stakeholders’ safety is protected.

However, all these strategical measures above require high resilience and adaptability of luxury brands. The coronavirus breakout began a Darwinism competition condition for all luxury brands. Those companies with lower risk, economies of scale, or vertical integration could regain its vitality after this pandemic while others may run out of business.

Supply chain

A) Suppliers

More than 40 percent of global luxury-goods come from Italy. Although there’s a trend of vertical integration in the luxury industry. The Italian suppliers still played an important role at the beginning part of the supply chain. The Italian factories or craftsmen-based small studios have temporarily shut down. Considering the lack of stable supply due to the pandemic, luxury companies had to reallocate the existing inventories across regions and channel, giving priority to markets that are less affected, quickly recovered and fulfilling online channel first.

For those companies with internal factories, producing luxury personal protection goods would be a possible measure to cover the loss and maintain revenue.

B) Merchandizing

Luxury brands need to not only adjust merchandise during the pandemic, but also make long-term plans to deal with the coming “revenge spending” after the lockdown period. “Revenge spending” is the term used to describe the floating demand after several months of indoor and mostly low-consumption life. According to the report, in terms of price, high-end and low-end luxury items are more attractive during “revenge spending” compared with other products of the middle price. Besides, it is reported that handbags and small leather goods sold better than ready-to-wear apparel during the crisis. The reason behind it could include the size-difference between brands and the less developed virtual showroom. Although the analysis of profitability condition and the shifts of segments highlighted would increase non-operating cost, these shifts could turn out to be increasingly profitable during the “revenge spending” period and might cover part of the loss incurred during the lockdown.

C) Distribution: online

The e-commerce of luxury industry has never been crucial before. In the luxury industry, the products represent only part of value while the rest rely on the meticulous service in-store. Before coronavirus, in-store services can never be over-emphasized by luxury brands themselves. Therefore, the online shopping is viewed as a lack of significant value for customers. However, during the pandemic, the priority of luxury companies is to improve its online pages and to cooperate with e-commerce platforms to increase the available distribution channel. Through these channel, luxury brands still need to provide high-quality service and shopping experience for customers, maintaining the service value, so as to attract customers.

D) Logistics: alternative and supplemental delivery options

Due to the lack of workforce during pandemic, goods delivery became an urgent problem for all the business world. For luxury industry, the primary concern would be the safety and punctuality of delivery. Luxury goods need to be protected carefully because the delivery service is a determinant issue of the service value. Not only should the products be undamaged but also aesthetical (even for the delivery box), so that to guarantee the superior quality and customer impression on items. Although the quality-demanding delivery would result in high operating expenses, the low-quality delivery would be the last choice of brands since it would hurt long-term brand image which determine the value and the survival of brands in the future.

Digital shows of haute-couture luxury brands

The spring and fall fashion weeks as the most important marketing activities of the haute-couture luxury brands, remains an essential way to maintain vibrant relationship with customers and business partners. As the pandemic swept across western Europe in February and March, the Spring 2020 fashion shows were either cancelled or moved entirely online thanks to the digital livestream platforms. For example, as a significant market which contributed almost two third of global growth in luxury spending, Chinese market of luxury has been benefit from fast growing APPs like Tiktok. Despite these possible solutions as a result of highly developed technology, the change from physical fashion shows to online ones has both decreased the influential ability of the fashion shows and denied the collateral influence of celebrities. Celebrities attending a fashion week usually has collateral effect on the fashion show itself and also on the all the luxury brands. The absent of one important influential factor will result in the potential loss of customers’ attention and the loss of revenue.

There has been a lively discussion about what would the future of the fashion show be like. On one side, people are arguing that during the coronavirus pandemic, the digital fashion show on live stream platform give this industry the opportunity to make a change, from the costly show which presenting a collection outdated, because of the fast developing fashion trend and long preparation period for a stage show, to an immediate information through social media. According to them, the fashion week, as an once-needed intermediaries of the fashion press is now losing its important role with the developed technology. On the other side, people still regard fashion week as an tradition in this industry. For example, according to the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM), the governing body of French fashion, the Paris Fashion Week women’s shows will take place as usual in real life from Sep. 28 to Oct. 6. They expect that there would have at least some audience, if not a full room. Whether physical fashion show will continue to exist will still remain a question.

Customer loss

The worldwide outbreak is particularly harmful for luxury industry, one of the most globalized industries overall. It has shut down several growth engine that had supported luxury brands over the last two decades, especially Chinese consumption (both in China and at tourist destinations throughout the world). The outbreak of coronavirus and the strict lockdown regulation in China harmed the one of the biggest market for all luxury brands. However, luxury shopping would likely restart first in China if the virus remains under control. And the travelling restriction would make luxury goods need in tourist destination move to local luxury stores. Luxury brands need to reallocated the supply to capture the coming opportunities.

Customer behavior change

During this pandemic, customers made purchases through online channel. If the online shopping experience could reach the expectation of customers, the convenient e-commerce channel might be an important distribution channel from now on, even after the influence of coronavirus.

Besides, consumers’ behavior may change because of this pandemic. As we know, this virus came from animals driven out of forest for the deforestation. People may put more attention on the environmental sustainability. Customer central luxury brands need to pay attention to the behavior change and make adaptive plans.

Conclusion

The pandemic has swept over all segments of luxury industry. For the survival and for the potential future growth, luxury brands need to pay attention to stakeholders, analyze all the activities it included and make adaptive plan for the future change.

Bibliography

1. LUXUS+ , “France: Affected by Strikes And the Covid-19 Crisis, Fauchon Files for Bankruptcy in Paris”, June 24, 2020. https://luxus-plus.com/en/affected-by-strikes-and-the-covid-19-crisis-fauchon-files-for-bankruptcy-in-paris/
2. Deloitte, “Fashion & Luxury Private Equity and Investors Survey 2020”. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pt/Documents/consumer-business/deloitte-ch-en-2020-global-fashion-luxury-private-equity-survey.pdf
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6. Claudia D’Arpizio, Federica Levato, Stefano Fenili, Fabio Colacchio, Filippo Prete, “Luxury after Covid-19: Changed for (the) Good?”, Bain, March 26, 2020, https://www.bain.com/insights/luxury-after-coronavirus/
7. Antonio Achillie, Daniel Zipser, “A perspective for the luxury goods industry during—and after—coronavirus”, April 1, 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/a-perspective-for-the-luxury-goods-industry-during-and-after-coronavirus#

Costa Rica, a country situated in central America with its main source of income through tourism. The country is one of the most visited destinations and has no army from a long time. Costa Rica is also an enticing investment country and provides tremendous opportunities for the establishment of major multinational corporations, due to the high academic level of its workforce as well as the high quality of modern facilities and social and political stability. Many misconceptions that people have about Costa Rica has affected its image as a country. Whether it might be about official language or confusion about the culture. Tourist visiting misunderstand about the country as only a tourist place and an agricultural nation.

Anholt coined the word ‘Country Brand’ as the summary of a nation’s perceptions in the six realms of national authority: exports, government, tourism, investment and immigration, culture and the heritage and human beings. The strengths and weaknesses of a country depend on every point of the ‘hexagon’ (consisted of the six respective angles named after the key-components of the nation brand notion). Tourism may play an important role in the research arena of nation branding among the six components (Giannopoulos, Avlonitisa and Piha, 3).

The usage and marketing of a country’s logo is an example of a nation branding technique. A country’s picture is the people’s opinion and beliefs about a nation, and it can be shaped by a number of factors, including its geography, culture, proclamations, art and music, prominent residents, and other features (Kotler and Gertner 2004, 42). People were able to say there are Costa Rican only after the nation became its own country. Nationality, however, is not the same as national identity. Costa Rica’s rich class has shaped the country’s identity (Sebel 2020, 20). They presented an impression (perhaps more imaginary than real) of colonial Costa Rica as being without a caste system, class distinctions, almost no slaves, no nobility, and democratic and with standardized customs. Costa Ricans consider their country peaceful, as well. Not only has the army been disbanded, but Costa Rica sought to prevent confrontation and war since independence, which other countries in Central America witnessed (Sandoval-García 2004, 68). The images of Ticos, who would usually want to avoid confrontation, represent this too. But independence is perhaps the highest characteristic of the Costa Ricans’ national identity. Once again, they are proud that they have taken another direction than their Central American neighbors, who all have been dealing with military dictatorships.

In just 0.035 percent of the world’s land, the nation contains up to 6% of the world’s biodiversity. It is home to wildlife, volcanoes, beaches, and rain forests despite being one of Central America’s smallest nations. Nature did not necessarily take precedence in Costa Rica. At the end of the last century, almost 80% of Costa Rica’s forests had been cleared for a wide range of reasons. The number of tourists visiting the nation also increased in Costa Rica (Miller 2012, 59-60). Costa Rica tried to develop its infrastructure and transport during this period. The country has constructed railways, widened the Pan-American Highway and developed an international airport in the area of San Jose. However, by the end of the 1980s Costa Rica had cleared nearly 80% of its initial forest cover. Forests were useless in Costa Ricans’ eyes, and only land clearance demonstrated a person’s reputation for hard labor (Miller 2012, 61).

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), also known as the Costa Rican Tourism Board, is the leading force behind the branding and communication efforts of Costa Rica. Created in 1955, the Institute has the responsibility to regulate tourism activities in Costa Rica and to promote tourism attractions and destinations in Costa Rica both at the national and international levels. The institution is the independent State (government) institution. 342 grants the tourist declaration to hotels, travel agents, charters and other Costa Rican tourism agencies and service providers and establishes tourism standards, rules, incentives.

A separate state governments committee, responsible for managing the Essential Costa Rica Country Brand, has been set up to work with public, private partners as well as the people themselves in cooperation and participation. This organization is independent from the executive governments which replace one another to rule the country which, while it works with the administrations in the office in a natural way, guarantees it a non-party status and is excluded from political outcomes.

The environmental engagement of tourism policy has made a good contribution to Costa Rica’s perception along with other key policies: education promotion (a 96% literacy rates), culture, peace (the head office of the United Nations Peace University), access to healthcare (free nation-wide service) and industry growth (export of technology and food products to 157 countries).

In 1996 it launched its global non-artificial ingredient tourism branding campaign, which aims to promote the country as an exotic destination closer and cheaper than other similarly marketable destinations like Thailand and other Asian countries. The global marketing agency McCann Erickson has created a campaign to make Costa Rica a successful ecotourism destination by sending messages such as ‘Take the largest volcano in Central America, add to national parks, blend into miles of pristine beaches’ (Jain and De Moya 2011, 342).

Costa Rica’s country brand’s success was increasing, providing evidence of how well designed and applied nation-branded systems function effectively. In November 2019, the Essential Costa Rica Country Brand won the ‘Place Brand of the Year Award’ for its ‘commitment for a sustainable, comprehensive strategy and its belief in the potential of the brand to unite a whole nation’ at the City Nation Place Global, event in London. For other country brands it is a very critical acknowledgement of the ideals of preservation, sustainability and citizens’ inclusion.

Introduction

Once a fruit is purchased, it is delicious and easy to consume. But over time, the delightful fruit becomes rotten. When rotten, it tends to be discarded. Throughout the engrossing history of social media, numerous apps have died down or been removed. But one app has transformed millions all over the world. TikTok is simply a fruit that cannot be repudiated. The concept of the famous social media app is derived from Zhang Yiming, who created the app for local Chinese citizens to show off their quirky lip-singing videos. Sooner than later, the app bounced like a bouncy ball to every country around the world, including the United States. With short and silly videos to binge-watch all night, TikTok has definitely stolen the attention of millions of people. But a recent controversy has sprouted over whether the famous social media app should be banned in the United States. TikTok should remain in the United States of America because it spreads and promotes brands, reduces stress, and allows people to have a voice in their community to speak up.

One aspect that illustrates this is TikTok makes promoting brands easier. When opening the app, tons of advertisements appear on the home page. This allows viewers to become more attracted to the item being endorsed. As reported by CNN Wire, “TikTok is attracting attention from brands, too. It recently teamed up with fashion brand Guess on a denim campaign to target Millennials and Generation Z on the platform in September” (Yurieff, 2018). Because the app is such a substantial part of users’ lives, people tend to become more attracted to items their favorite app promotes. Not to mention, bigger creators with a fanbase take part in advancing the brand’s business. That further pushes viewers to buy the item. Undoubtedly, while a person is scrolling on the app, they are presented with a creative promotional video. Due to this, they will be gravitated towards the product, making millions of dollars.

In addition, Tik Tok helps to release stress. Because the app is enormous, there is something for everyone. Users find comfort in various things and TikTok has a wide range of videos that can release tension. According to the article, Experts say TikTok Videos are Helping People Stay Happy in the Lockdown, “Oddly enough, the social media video-sharing platform, TikTok, which has been always in the news for the multitude of challenges users participated in was considered to be one of the best ways to engage users and promote good mental health”(Times of India, 2020). With this in mind, Tiktok provides videos that help users mentally. As mentioned, the app has been in the news for its engrossing challenges which permit users to engage. Because of the challenges of TikTok, users find it absorbing and diverting from their everyday lives. In other words, the app provides a broad spectrum of videos that can lift the weight off shoulders.

Furthermore, TikTok allows people to speak up in their community. On popular social media software, people can interrelate with others that share the same beliefs as them. By teaming up with someone that has similar thoughts, an impact can be made. Since TikTok’s main purpose is to create short videos, users can speak their thoughts and convey them to other people. As stated in the Detroit Writing Room, “An abundance of creators, more popularly known as “influencers,” has emerged from this internet forum. Many of these influencers have strayed from their typical content of shaking their hips to the latest hip-hop remix, or step-by-step recipe for their grandma’s vodka penne pasta and have made a conscious decision to promote important current events that permeate the news cycle, especially the Black Lives Matter movement” (Kiefer, 2020). Users on the app not only make silly videos that others can laugh at but also spread awareness for things they believe in. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement stimulated millions to make short videos on the topic. If there is an event or idea that a user wants to see being brought to light, then many creators have already posted a short video talking about it. Or they can make their own video. Ultimately realizing, how many voices have come together because of the ability to speak about any topic on the app.

However, they say privacy can be put at risk when using the app. Since TikTok is free to join and is familiar to millions of people, anyone can hop onto the app. There is also no restriction on who can and who cannot join. The social media app does not have extremely strict guidelines for being on the app. Not to mention, hacking is extremely common these days. Nevertheless, the settings on TikTok make it safer than other social media apps. Pocket-lint points out that,“ TikTok is giving parents new options to control how their kids use the app. Thanks to ‘Family Pairing’, parents and guardians can link their kids’ accounts to their own and then they’ll be free to disable direct messages, turn on restricted content mode, and set screen time limits” (Tillman, 2020). Anyone is open to direct texting on the app. But a feature on TikTok allows a limit on who can dm users. The app itself is building on parents being more in charge of their children’s accounts. With the “Family Pairing” option, numerous features are disabled which assists users to be more comfortable. Overall, by disabling distinctive features on TikTok, privacy can be more secure and not as jeopardizing.

Conclusion

The prominent social media app, TikTok should carry on being an app in the USA because it endorses brand merchandising, lifts the weight of shoulders, and permits users to raise one’s voices in society. The app assists brands in further enlarging their business. It also reduces the tension or pressure that a user is feeling. TikTok authorizes a platform that enables users to raise their voices in their district. The app is an engrossing social media platform.

Identity can be defined as, the characteristics that defines someone, for example a person’s name is a form of identity. Identity can refer to one’s personal identity as an individual, or one’s social identity as a member of a group (Marwick 2013, p. 355). Identity changes for each individual, as people present themselves differently based on context and audience. For example, one’s identity may be different to when they are around family, compared to when they are around friends.

Personal branding can be defined as “the process by which an individual actively tries to manage others’ impressions of their skills, abilities and experiences… the practice of marketing oneself to society” (Johnson, 2017, pp. 20-21). The concept of personal branding can also be identified as “storying the self”, (Potter 2012, p.39). An example of effective personal branding is Oprah Winfrey. Nowadays there is substantial value in the name Oprah, and she has managed this by being consistent and staying true to her intentions. In contrast, there are also times when personal branding goes completely wrong. Bill Cosby is an example of a personal brand that tarnished. Bill Cosby’s brand was one that was seen as being family-orientated, but when rumours that Cosby had assaulted women came to light, and when numerous women made certain accusations, Cosby’s personal brand was destroyed. Resulting in the loss of TV contracts, public honours, and his entire future as an entertainer.

Identity through social media sites is frequently communicated through customization. Online profiles can be expressed through “a variety of digital tokens, such as pictures, avatars, nicknames to represent themselves”, (Marwick 2013, p. 358). Social media sites have enabled the social construction of identity to become more visual and self-established. Because of social media sites, people are able to be selective as to what characteristics of themselves they want to display online. Your online identity is determined by what you post, who you follow, what you tweet, what you love-heart react etc.

Context Collapse is defined as a term that relates to the lack of context on social media. A performance that is collectively shameful “becomes a permanent and public record”, when it takes place on social media platforms, (Athique 2013, p.104).

It is always of great importance to remind yourself that everything posted is public, know your privacy settings, know your audience and know your boundaries. From the examples used throughout this learning journal, it is exceedingly easy for one’s online persona to become troublesome, due to the unclear distinction of online and offline identities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Athique, A., 2013, Digital Media and Society: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity, Cambridge.
2. Black Enterprise 2019, Oprah Winfrey has the 2020 Vision for your Best Life, viewed 31 October, https://www.blackenterprise.com/oprah-2020-vision-tour/
3. James, G 2018, Top 9 Personal Branding Disasters of 2014, viewed 31 October, https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/top-9-personal-branding-disasters-of-2014.html
4. Influencer Marketing Hub 2018, 12 Incredible Personal Branding Examples that will Inspire you to Build your Own, viewed 31 October, https://influencermarketinghub.com/12-incredible-personal-branding-examples/
5. Johnson, K.M., 2017, ‘The Importance of Personal Branding in Social Media: Educating Students to Create and Manage their Personal Brand, International Journal of Education and Social Science, Vol. 4 (1), pp. 21-27.
6. Marwick, A., 2013, ‘Online Identity’, in J. Hartley, J. Burgess & A. Bruns (Eds.), A Companion to New Media Dynamics, Wiley- Blackwell, West Sussex, pp. 15-32.
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8. Oxford English Dictionary 2019, Oxford English Dictionary, viewed 31 October, https://www.oed.com
9. Parade 2014, 7 Things you never knew about Bill Cosby, viewed 31 October, https://parade.com/336806/viannguyen/7-things-you-never-knew-about-bill-cosby/
10. Potter, L., 2012, Digital Media and Learner Identity, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Samsung sells a greater number of smartphones than any other individual company in the world. Despite this fact, in terms of technological advancement and sleepless design to the iPhone, retails at a more unquestionable expense. Both Samsung and Apple’s iPhones can be seen as grounded brands. “Samsung started as Samsung General Stores in 1938 in the Northern Province of Kyungsang in South Korea as an exporter of dried fish and flour (Kovach, 2013).” In the 1970s the brand became revitalized with a new angle as it was locked in with associations going from products, wool, and assurance to compost gathering and broadcasting. Samsung was better known for conveying unassuming copies of Japanese electronic products. The current director Lee Kun-Hee established the frameworks for the present Samsung when he took over administration in 1993. His decla­ration of new administration standards stressed scholarly capital, hierarchical inventiveness, mechanical development, and worker strengthening. Samsung Electronics is one such key specialty unit that produces a-list versatile handsets, wide-screen plasma TV screens, advanced camcorders and other family appli­ances. “Set up in 1969, it was producing a working pro?t of USD 27.2 billion by 2012 (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017).”

This has been the lead division inside the Samsung Group. Bloomberg Businessweek positioned Samsung Electronics first in the data innovation worldwide positioning in 2002.” In 2003, Samsung Electronics was positioned fifth in Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Electronics Company list. With USD 216.7 billion deals incomes in 2013, Samsung Electronics is the world’s biggest gadgets organization by income (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017).” Samsung’s prosperity is to a great extent dependent on the image the board measures. From its beginning of repositioning the brand from a modest maker to a brand of class and quality, Samsung has had a reliable arrangement of basing all exercises in accordance with its image system. The organization has set a model for the entire business in brand stewardship, with the executive himself continually overseeing and sustaining the brand. Samsung as an organization had to restructure it’s brand going from a business that mainly focused on exporting goods and textiles to a more innovative business that focuses more on technological advancements to help improve society. “Every company would like to have a strong workplace culture supported by inspiring values. With great brands, however, the culture and the values don’t play supporting roles in business operations—culture and values are the brands, and they’re used to inform business decisions and employee actions (Yohn, Denise Lee p. 30).”

Samsung Brand Philosophy:

In the beginning of Samsung’s career, they had to fight hard to adjust to consumer perceptions because at the time Samsung was known as a “cheap” manufacturer of electronic goods. In 1993 Samsung fostered aggressive branding and advertising strategies. Samsung has built its brand philosophy on five targeted pillars: innovation, cutting-edge technology, world-class designs, recruiting the world’s best talents, and internal branding. Samsung Electronics is expected to put its development into building new features and making new machine classes and use. Samsung under­stood early that gainful and beneficial development should be indefatigably kept up by unmatched unforeseen development and the best plans.

Samsung is the top investor when it comes to research and development. The levels of assessment and progression utilization at Samsung Electronics placed in the scope of 2009 and 2020 has been growing. The position figures were disseminated in South Korean won. The sums in U.S. dollars have only been given to help in the appreciation of the estimation and are not position figures from the Samsung venture. “In 2020, hard and fast spending on imaginative work at Samsung Electronics amounted to generally 21.2 trillion South Korean won (Vailshery, 2021).” These figures epitomize Samsung’s complete obligation to create bleeding-edge innovation to guarantee an upper hand (taking note of that it is rivaling Apple in numerous classes). Another obligation to innovation was that Samsung had the second most noteworthy number of licenses in 2014 (4936) granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a position reliably kept up since 2006.

Samsung persistently grasped a handle on trying to become the best in product design. Upheld by movement and forefront progression, the most recent, trendiest and coolest plans have particularly organized Samsung in both the market and consumer’s psyches. With merciless conflict, the visual treat of Samsung’s brand has been a ventured differentiator from its competitors. Samsung created an Innovative Design Lab academy to teach employees how to teach and design new products for upcoming lines. Samsung began to put their employees at the forefront with complete instructional classes to get comfortable with the latest examples in architecture, and close-by workshops on ergonomics and mechanical planning. experiences. “Great brands use culture building to educate—to help employees understand what a brand is and why it’s important (Yohn, Denise Lee p. 31).” By seeing the craftsmanship, culture and figures of various countries, the engineers taught their designers how to become the best of the best. IDS transcended into Samsung’s presence of global design centers.

In 2013, Samsung focused on a newer slogan as the 3.0 design was introduced highlighting “Make it Meaningful”. This can be referred to as a shift in Samsung’s culture to aim at creating a new and meaningful product-service experiential value and lifestyles for users that go beyond exterior styling and convenient use. Samsung was drawn more to a global focus than a local focus being that their global design centers were placed in seven major cities across the globe. This shift introduced a new body of talent for Samsung as they focused on recruiting from top-tier global business schools across the country. “This was evident when Hak Soo, former COO and vice president of Samsung once said: “People are Samsung’s biggest challenge, we need to hire and train the best global talents because we are a global company, not just a Korean company (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017). ” With the use of the five brand pillared strategy, it has allowed for Samsung to position itself on a global aspect. Samsung items like the Galaxy cell phone arrangement and the Smart and Curved TVs are seen to be mechanically modern and creative. Despite the fact that the repositioning procedure has been fruitful, it moved to concentrate away from making an unmistakable character. The organization’s greatest rival presently is Apple, whose corporate and item marks appreciate the compelling enthusiastic association with its purchasers, other than being creative and innovatively progressed.

Samsung Brand Communication:

To communicate effectively Samsung has used a diversified approach of communication channels to convey its message about its brand positioning and brand personality. Modes of mass communication such as advertisements, public relations, sports sponsorships, product placement and “Samsung Experience” have been the brand’s major communication channels.

The focal point of Samsung’s objective has been to reinstall the image of the brand as a world-class premium brand that offers quality products, credibility, and a unique design. The second focal point of Samsung’s objective was to gain acceptance from other top-tier brands such as Sony and the top electronics brands across the world. With Sony’s decline in the market, it allowed a great entry point for Samsung’s aggressive entry into the smartphone market, with Apple being Samsung’s top competitor.

Samsung used its technology, design, and innovation to stay ahead of its competitors by grabbing the consumer’s attention. Samsung has power in being the “first” to release things such as having the first wristwatch, rotating camera, largest of LCD TVs, and curved smartphones. “The brand’s “value proposition” is the unique value it provides customers over competing brands (Johansson, Johny K. Kjell, Carlson, Kurt A.( p. 51).” its System telephone arrangement attempted to push plan limits and client experience. They additionally gave Samsung a great deal of media inclusion in worldwide busi­ness magazines like Bloomberg Businessweek, Money Road Diary, The Monetary Occasions, Forbes, Fortune, and Showcasing Week to innovation magazines and sites like CNET.com and others. These, alongside various honors Samsung won for its plan and utilization of innovation to make better items, went about as believable outsider support. Samsung needed to exploit the innovative forward leaps of the 1990s, primarily computerized assembly. With its driving innovation in the fields of remote correspondence, memory chips, and plasma screens, Samsung needed to situate itself as a pioneer in advanced combination-making items that consolidated remote commu­nication with photography, music and video.

Campaigns:

Samsung’s first genuine, worldwide push to enter the cell phone market and challenge Apple occurred in 2009 when the Samsung i7500 was dispatched as the Samsung System. This was the start of the long arrangement of Cosmic system telephones, which has as of late tested the Apple iPhone’s ubiquity. “The advertising and promotional strategies used to create the now-established brand identity and image need to be continued— although not necessarily at the level used in the introductory campaign (Johansson, Johny K. Kjell Carlson, Kurt A. (p. 110). “

For its whole Galaxy range, Samsung has effectively used advanced and customary directs in the correspondence programs. In the 2012 US dispatch of the Cosmic system SIII, it purportedly spent more than USD 300 million through utilizing creative media stations like 3D games in cinemas, short 3D movies, free substance download from booths, and banners joined with conventional stations. This has proceeded in resulting in System arrangement dispatches. For Universe S4, it utilized imaginative strategies like publicly supporting, online media commitment, and substance partaking in the mix with television promotions to drive mindfulness. These missions connote Samsung’s craving to stay in the bleeding edge of accepting new channels, mediums and stages for correspondence and promotion. It has ceaselessly embraced and really made notable intelligent and vivid consumer encounters. It has likewise not minimized the significance and the range given by conventional media channels, seen by its amazingly undeniable degrees of promoting spending committed to television, print, film, and outside.

Product Placement:

Samsung is undeniably a genius when it comes to building relationships with its partners that strategically use its products to reach a global audience. Samsung has successfully managed to have its products placed in the “Matrix Movie” where it has a strong cult providing the opportunity to gain a strong following. Samsung has conveyed it’s messaging to a potential customer base through a product placement deal during the hit show X Factor in 2012. “Finally, the company can grow by getting into new products and new markets completely, a diversification strategy (Johansson, Johny K. (Kjell); Carlson, Kurt A. (p. 110).” Samsung has managed to gain sponsors in two realms of one being technology and the other being sports such as the Olympic games. With such commitment and focus on brand interchanges, Samsung in the end surpassed Sony as the world’s biggest TV brand. “In September 2014, Sony reported a deficiency of USD 2.1 billion in the current monetary year and cutbacks of 1000 specialists out of the 7100 utilized in its cell phone division (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017). ” Despite the fact that Samsung has been doing the appropriate things, it will be a test to look after consistency.

Samsung Brand Positioning Map:

Samsung encapsulates style and innovation for the youthful expert, with its forefront plan and predominant availability highlights. Samsung’s situating articulation is one that attests its separation from other cell phone suppliers. In the nearby market where horde decisions proliferate, Samsung’s smooth outside plan, joined by its determination of delicate and hard highlights, renders it an ideal buy for the youthful, innovatively refreshed proficient.

Samsung attempts to cover the entire versatile cell phone market and is presently one of the main portable organizations of the world. Today the organization’s item arrangement incorporates practically any conceivable cell phone or portable. In this way, the current situation of Samsung Mobile is to be a market chief in the entire portable and cell phone market. Samsung thought of groundbreaking plans to be more client engaged and imaginative to build up a solid brand picture in the worldwide market. “Their main focus is to make handsets with the most amazing and unique designs in order to meet their customers’ expectations (Brand positioning of Samsung Mobile 2015).”

References

1. Johansson, Johny K. (Kjell); Carlson, Kurt A.. Contemporary Brand Management (p. 51). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
2. Johansson, Johny K. (Kjell); Carlson, Kurt A.. Contemporary Brand Management (p. 110). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
3. Kovach, S. (2013, February 09). How Samsung went from a dried FISH exporter to one of the top names in tech. Retrieved April 26, 2021, from https:www.businessinsider.comhistory-of-Samsung-2013-2#samsung-was-founded-by-Byung-chull-lee-in-1938-in-taegu-korea-the-company-started-as-a-food-exporter-in-korea-and-shipped-items-like-dried-fish-and-flour-to-china-1
4. Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND. (2017, November 21). Retrieved April 26, 2021, from https: martin roll. comresourcesarticlesmarketingsamsung-global-Asian-brand
5. Unknown. (2015, June 12). Brand positioning of Samsung Mobile. Retrieved April 27, 2021, from http:sumaiyamahmud.blogspot.com
6. Vailshery, L. (2021, March 31). Samsung electronics: Research