Investigative Portfolio Of Samsung Television Homework Answer

Answer :

Chosen Brand: Samsung Television

Step 2:

Samsung offers various quality and featured TVs. Samsung offers great quality with great features. The QLED and Smart TV in Samsung are very good so customers prefer these TVs. The high-end panels improve the quality with an effective 4K upscaling. It offers better anti-reflective panels along with better out-of-the-box colour accuracy (Gordon, 2019). The main demand of the customer is a better picture and sounds which can be satisfied with this TV. The actual or supplementary products of Samsung are QLED, Crystal UHD, 8K TVs, 4K TVs, Full HD or HD TVs, and Smart TV (Samsung, 2021a). Samsung mainly offers free installation and delivery of its products. Along with that, they offer sufficient warranties for their products. They offer free repair services under the warranties and after the warranty period, they charge some fixed price.

From the above evidence, it has been observed that Samsung offers various types of television that offer better sound and picture quality that draws the attention of customers. Week 8 lecture describe that core products refer to the core benefits that customers buy when they buy a product. The core product satisfies the basic need of customers (Byrd et al. 2016). It has been observed Samsung combines auto-depth enhancers with the curved screen that creates a greater sense of depth as well as contrast. Along with that, Samsung offers 4K UHD up calling and it comes with 4K UHD movies (Consumer Affairs, 2021c). Samsung allows customers in streamlining video and audio connection through de-cluttering connections. It also comes with the colour enhancer technology that improves video quality. Supplementary products are the actual products that customers buy. This product is a tangible product that a customer buys (Byrd et al. 2016). The above evidence has clearly shown that Samsung offers a greater range of television that draws the attention of customers. According to the budget of customers, they offer different quality and priced products. Every product is backed up by several supporting services. The augmented product is tangible products with all supporting services. Samsung offers better delivery and installation services. Along with that, they offer to buy now and pay later option with $0 down payment to the customers that help the customers who have a limited budget to buy television (Samsung Electronics America, 2021b).

Step 3:

From the website of Samsung, it has been observed that the product line of Samsung is crystal UHD, HD TV, QLED TV, 8K and 4K TV and smart TV. Samsung is known for the best quality sound and picture but their QLED 8K/4K is the best TV ever. The effective focus of the organisation towards research and development is the growth prospects. Moreover, their focus on colour enhancements and develop budget-friendly television is the growth prospects of Samsung. Among different TV, Samsung electronics have become the number one television manufacturer in the world (Samsung global. 2017a). Among this television, QLED TV has become premium TV. QLED TV use quantum dot technology, which has become popular in China. Samsung has become successful in Europe and the USA (Samsung global, 2017a). Thus, QLED has become a market leader. Samsung has introduced its television segment in 1977 and they have developed a broad product range so that it can be said that Samsung is in the maturity stage. 

According to Bertsimas and Mišić (2017), product line refers to the group of related products that are marketed under a particular brand name that is sold by the same company. From the evidence, it has been observed that Samsung mainly offers QLED 8K/4K TV, Lifestyle TVs and Crystal UHD. Product portfolio refers to the collection of the entire product or service range that is offered by an organisation (Tolonen et al. 2015). Product portfolio analysis can offer a nuanced view of the growth prospects, profit margin, and market leadership. The growth driver of Samsung television is a sleek design, large UHD screen along advanced smart television function (Samsung global. 2017b). In the second quarter of 2017, global TV manufacturers are working hard by displaying their premium TV. The most successful product among Samsung television is QLED. However, different budget-friendly television brands have captured the market that can create operational risk for Samsung television. The product life cycle is the length of time a product has been introduced to the customers (Stark, 2015). Four different stages of the product life cycle are introduction, maturity, growth as well as decline. Among these stages, Samsung is currently at a mature level.

Step 4: 

Samsung is a global brand and therefore using the global brand name, the company has most certainly made use of penetration pricing. () found out that in 2019, Samsung reduced the price of its and obtained around 45% of the market share. The company provided customers with TVs at wholesale price. Superior quality products were sold below $2000 even after giving a 30% margin to the retailers (Richards, 2019). In 2021, the company is selling its Neo QLED TV's at a price starting from $1600. It certainly shows that the company uses both penetration pricing to reach the mass market (Cohen, 2021). However, competitor pricing is also seen in many cases and can be utilised in future to gain a competitive advantage as in 2019 the company reduced prices of its products not only to reach the mass market but also to gain competitive edge where the company was successful by achieving 55% market share. However, price skimming may not be used for this brand. 

The evidence provided showed that Samsung always intends to set prices of its products in such a way that it can influence the buying behaviour of most of the customers. Price is referred to as a value equation where the customers perceive value by subtracting perceived costs from perceived benefits (Sammut‐Bonnici and Channon, 2015). The brand name of Samsung itself influences the perception of value for customers and therefore, when coming to judge the correct price of a product, customers generally do not have hesitation or confusion. Therefore, it means that there is no requirement for Samsung to utilise a price skimming method, as it already knows that customers will buy its product in the given price range. Penetration pricing, therefore, suits the best where the focus is to charge a relatively low price for the products initially (Kienzler and Kowalkowski, 2017). However, what is seen that even though Samsung reduced and started its QLED TV's from $2000 two years ago, it is currently being sold from $1600. It shows that they combined use competitor pricing and penetration pricing as a tool to increase their market share. Factors like the competition in the Australian TV market, high demands for the products and the relationship of price with quality influence the pricing strategy which is also seen in the case of Samsung's pricing strategy. 

Step 5: 

Samsung does not make use of its resources to directly call and sell its products. However, Samsung now makes use of the Internet and its official website to sell its products directly to the customers. However, retailer and distributors are its main distribution channel. The main retail channel members of the company are mainly Bing Lee, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Betta in Australia whereas the main distribution channel members are mainly Ava Distribution, Synnex and XiT Distribution among many distributors (Samsung. 2021e; Arnnet, 2021). The pricing is higher in its direct selling channel. For example, 65” Q950T QLED 8K Smart TV (2020) is priced at $9,999 one time or an EMI option of $277.75 for 36 months where customers have the option to pay online and get home delivery (Samsung. 2021d).  However, the same product with the same benefits is available at $7995 at JB Hi-Fi (JB Hi-Fi, 2021). 

The evidence directly relates with the theory covered 10 in terms that week 10 provides relative information on the different types of distribution channels namely direct channel, retail channel, distributor channel and agent channel. In the direct channel, there is no intermediatory between the company and the consumer and the company directly contacts the customers using emails, face-to-communication and product demonstration (Zhang et al. 2016). However, in the modern digital age, the concept of direct selling has been changed as the internet has provided options to companies to directly contact the customers. Samsung also does the same and directly sales its products using its website. In the retail channel, retailers work as intermediaries. This is also seen from the evidence that companies like JB Hi-Fi are the retail intermediaries who increase the sales of the company. In the wholesale channel, the wholesaler and then the retailer work as intermediaries (Mehta and Balakumar, 2021). Samsung seemed to follow this method as well though the agent channel is not used as it increases the number of intermediaries and the end consumers might find the products expensive. Therefore, it can be said that the evidence and theories on the distribution channel found a link with each other.

Step 6: 

Samsung conducts different types of sales promotion for its direct selling through its official website. For example, it used Black Friday Sales that was valid from 25^th November 2020 to 2^nd December 2020. Similarly, it provided limited period deals on Valentine’s Day on 14^th February 2021. It also conducted sale promotion for its retail channel under EOFY sale where the participant retailers were asked to give 15% off to customers (Long, 2018).  In terms of publicity and public relations, Samsung Smart TV's from 2016 onwards are having a sponsored tile within its Smart TV Hub (Samsung, 2021g). Samsung Electronics has unveiled its Onyx Screen in Australia at HOYTS Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park in Sydney. Moreover, the company also went into event sponsorship with AFL for three years (Samsung. 2021f). 

Week 11 lecture is about different types of promotional activities. One such promotional method shown is sales promotion which is used as a marketing communication tool for generating extra revenue for the company, the distributors or retailers and incentives for customers over a short period. The main sales promotion tactics used are generally coupons, offers and discounts (Ofosu-Boateng, 2020). As per the evidence collected, it is seen that Samsung makes use of sales promotion during festive seasons or on some occasions for a limited period like as given as part of Black Friday from 25^th November 2020 to 2^nd December 2020. Such sales promotion techniques allow the company to increase its sales performance. Publicity and public relations on the other hand are mostly about creating a good relationship with the different stakeholders of the company for which tools like press releases, event sponsorship, special events etc., are done. Samsung also seemed to follow this by sponsoring NFL events, regularly conducting press releases and sponsoring tiles with Smart TV Hub. This shows that the information collected on the sales promotion and publicity & public relations are directly linking and correlating with the theory.  

Step 7: 

Samsung uses both the traditional and online methods of advertising to reach its customers and create demand. For the traditional advertisement, the company makes use of Television advertisement, newspaper advertisement as well as billboards, posters and magazines for its products. The company mainly uses 15-30 seconds TV commercials to market its televisions and other electronic products (Im et al., 2019). For the online media, the company makes use of website marketing, search engine optimization and Social Media marketing. There are almost 4.9 million followers of Samsung on Facebook and Twitter, the number is 557.3k. It shows that the company uses both the marketing properly (Facebook, 2021; Twitter, 2021). 

Traditional advertising as per week 12 includes television advertising, newspaper advertising, magazine advertising, banners, hoardings, billboards and posters (De Vries et al. 2017). The same has also been seen used by Samsung Television while promoting its products. Samsung uses 15-30 seconds television advertisements as a part of its traditional advertising technique. The main aim here is to create a strong emotional impact on the target audience whereas the use of newspapers and magazines is to increase market coverage in the highly segmented target group. In general, the main reason is to create awareness and increase purchase intension of customers by showing them the benefits of using its products for which Samsung has been successful. The use of online advertisements is also quite similar (Liu-Thompkins, 2019). For example, social media advertising has been most prolific as it can reach a high number of customers within a limited time. The week 12 resource shows that social media has paved the way for organic dialogue and activity that can happen between individuals where the company can listen and participate authentically. It in turn helps the company to reach and provide authentic feedback to its customers. Samsung's huge participation in social media proved that the company is also using the same to reach its consumer base.