University Marketing Report: Samsung and Apple's Branding Strategies

This report provides a comparative analysis of the marketing and branding strategies employed by Samsung and Apple. It explores the impact of market segmentation on pricing strategies, highlighting how Samsung targets the middle class and business professionals with competitively priced pro...Read More

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Contents
Impact of market segmentation on the pricing strategy of the Samsung and Apple.......................2
Branding strategy followed by Samsung and Apple.......................................................................2
Differences between the branding strategy of Samsung and Apple................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Impact of market segmentation on the pricing strategy of the Samsung and Apple
Price plays an important role in the success of any company. The segmentation strategy
by Samsung has put an augmented focus on the different characteristic of the customers in a
particular region. The main targeted group of Samsung is the middle class people, business
professionals and the teenagers. Moreover, product development is one of the most important
growth strategies which is followed by Samsung. As the main customers segments of Samsung
are the middle aged customers, so the company has set the price of Samsung galaxy S8 in such a
way so that the consumers can purchase it and they will also get all the facilities at a cheaper cost
compared to iphone. The Galaxy S8 of Samsung is especially made for the IT departments and
the businessmen and they can do all their work and thus make their life easier. Samsung galaxy
S8 has tried to blend the consumer and the business feature in one device (Dissanayake &
Amarasuriya, 2015). On the other hand, Apple’s iphone 8 is targeting the higher end of the
market. Apple is targeting the premium customer segments and the price of iphone8 is higher
compared to Samsung S8. Apple’s strategy is that its old phones are also sold at a much higher
price. This is not true in case of Samsung and other brands. This was an important reason for the
high pricing strategy of Apple. Moreover, iphone has two growth opportunities i.e. the price
sensitive customers and the unsubsidized market and this has helped the company to set the price
accordingly (Truong et al., 2017). Thus, it can be said that market segmentation lays an
important impact on the pricing strategy of the company.
Branding strategy followed by Samsung and Apple
Apple Inc. has used the Apple brand to compete in the highly competitive market. Apple
has expanded its products range and services. iPhone has used the augmented reality feature and

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this has helped to revolutionize the customer experience. This technology used in iPhone 8 has
pretended to present objects like real situations. Moreover, the augmented reality is also
presented by iPhone in different ways and it depends on the need of the people (Blenko, et al.,
2016). Although iPhone has invested in augmented reality and it is attracting the customers but
the process is costly and time consuming. The consumers are also excited about augmented
reality and they were eagerly waiting to go above and beyond and experience things which are
not provided in any other phone. The use of augmented reality of Apple iPhone 8 has also
changed the way in which the marketers interact with the customers. On the other hand,
Samsung is trying to establish itself as the iconic brand since the past two years. The new series
of advertisement of Samsung are better than the one-off campaign. Samsung has changed the
brand marketing strategy and thus has impacted every aspect of the company. Samsung has also
published various advertisements in the journals and newspaper after the case of Samsung Note
7. This has increased the sales and profitability of the company. Moreover, it has also increased
the market share of Samsung and it has won the heart of the customers and thus created a strong
customer base for the company (Babayi & Rahmani, 2015).
Differences between the branding strategy of Samsung and Apple
Samsung has suffered severe effects of the Galaxy Note 7 and it has tried hard to capture
the market after the introduction of Galaxy S8. Samsung and Apple are powerful brands.
Samsung has made major effort to compete with iPhone. Samsung has also published different
headlines in the newspaper and the marketing cost incurred by Samsung was higher than Apple.
As Apple has targeted only the premium customers, it has published advertisements which would
attract the affluent class (Teimouri et al., 2016). Samsung has presented galaxy S8 as a cool
brand and this has trickled down to the youngsters. It has tried to resonate the young people in

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the same way which iPhone has done by making people realize that the brand is good for all.
Alhough the brand do not have a strong strategy of connecting with the youth, but it should pay
more attention to the young customers who are trying to explore new device in a reasonable
price. Moreover, the display of Galaxy S8 is comparatively larger than iPhone 8 but the edge-to-
edge design is better in case of Apple. Moreover, Samsung is dominating the US market and
Samsung is trying to capture the global market (Chen & Ann, 2016). There is stark difference
between the two brands because Apple is one of the competent brad and it is accomplished in its
endeavor. Whereas Samsung is trying to prove its relevance in the tech culture presently. Thus, it
can be said that the company must try tio improve its marketing and branding strategy and
expand more globally.

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References
Babayi, M., & Rahmani, Z. (2015). The role of localization strategy in development of brand
equity: A case study of Samsumg firm. Management Science Letters, 5(5), 443-446.
Blenko, D., Waldron, K., Cornelius, J., Nespoli, G., & Lee, D. (2016). ORGANIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS: APPLE RETAIL STORES.
Chen, C. M., & Ann, B. Y. (2016). Efficiencies vs. importance-performance analysis for the
leading smartphone brands of Apple, Samsung and HTC. Total Quality Management &
Business Excellence, 27(3-4), 227-249.
Dissanayake, D. M. R., & Amarasuriya, T. (2015). Role of brand identity in developing global
brands: A literature based review on case comparison between Apple iPhone vs Samsung
smartphone brands.
Teimouri, H., Fanae, N., Jenab, K., Khoury, S., & Moslehpour, S. (2016). Studying the
relationship between brand personality and customer loyalty: A case study of Samsung
mobile phone. International Journal of Business and Management, 11(2), 1.
Truong, Y., Klink, R. R., Simmons, G., Grinstein, A., & Palmer, M. (2017). Branding strategies
for high-technology products: The effects of consumer and product
innovativeness. Journal of Business Research, 70, 85-91.