Impact of Kwon Oh-Hyun's Resignation on Samsung & Brand Revival

This report examines the impact of Kwon Oh-Hyun's resignation as CEO of Samsung on the company's brand image, equity, and customer loyalty. It identifies potential negative consequences, including loss of brand reputation, reduced sales, and employee disengagement. The report then analyzes Samsung's strategies to mitigate these negative impacts, such as using social media to communicate the reasons for the resignation and assuring customers of continued quality and innovation under new leadership. Finally, the report suggests further steps for revitalizing the Samsung brand, including customer involvement, market research, continuous brand nurturing, and developing an effective response strategy to address customer concerns and expectations. The report references credible sources like Financial Times and Bloomberg to support its analysis and recommendations.

KWON OH-HYUN’S RESIGNATION 1
Kwon Oh-Hyun’s Resignation
Student
Institution
Professor

KWON OH-HYUN’S RESIGNATION 2
Impact of crisis on Samsung brand.
The resignation of a CEO may expose an organization to some challenges; these
challenges may pertain to brand reputation or even operational challenges. In the case of
Samsung, the unexpected resignation of Mr Kwon as the CEO has exposed the company to
some adverse impacts. First, it has led to loss of brand reputation. This is evident as some
customers have now started to shift to other brands. Also, it has led to reduced sales. Some
customers have switched to other companies' brands, with a feeling that Samsung no longer
offers quality products as its CEO has resigned. Furthermore, the resignation of the CEO has
put it at risk of deviance from its junior employees and loss of public reputation. The
employees may no longer obey their leaders as they may view them as incompetent and
unable to lead creatively.
Strategy to minimise the negative impact on its brand
Indeed, the resignation of Mr Kwon as Samsung's CEO has made some clients who
had trust in his leadership to lose confidence in the company's brand and products at
substantial. However, the company has been designing several strategies to maintain its band
reputation (Martin, 2017). These include using social media policy, convincing its clients that
change is inevitable and promising its employees and clients a better leadership from a new
CEO.
Using social media policy as a way of maintaining its brand strength, Samsung has
devised a formal way of explaining to the public through its Facebook page, Instagram,
tweeter and WhatsApp that the resignation of Kwon was for personal reasons and not because
of any operational incompetence (White & Jung-a, 2017). They have also explained that Mr
Kwon felt the management should start afresh and with a young leadership and has nothing to
do with the company’s operations.

KWON OH-HYUN’S RESIGNATION 3
Furthermore, Samsung has made attempts to create a good customer mindset, by
using its social media pages to convince its customers that change is inevitable. They have
also explained that the new management that will be led by a new CEO will exceed their
expectations by adopting a creative approach to management (Reuters, 2017). By doing this,
the company has been able to maintain the position of its brand in the smartphone and
electronics industry as the customers develop hope for better future leadership.
Finally, as explained by Kim (2017), Samsung has tried to convince its esteemed
customers that the future leadership will be better than that of Mr Kwon. The company has
used its official website, social media pages and other professional blogs, to assure its
customers that the selection of the new CEO will be made using well-designed procedures.
This will ensure that a competent leader is recruited to enhance brand development, proper
management and better customer relationships
Suggestions for revitalising the "Samsung" brand
Building the success of a brand after a slake period might not be easy, however, there
are some mechanisms that Samsung could use to revitalise the brand. These may include
customer involvement, market research, and continuous brand nurturing and response
strategy.
Ideally, customer involvement simply entails searching for customers’ opinions about
a product so that appropriate changes can be made. Samsung can conduct surveys to
determine its customers’ views about its products and make the necessary adjustments to
make them more appealing.
Also, market research can enable the company to discover an untapped market for its
brand. Honestly, it may allow the company to modify its brand to suit the current market
preferences. Furthermore, the company can hire a more creative CEO to ensure a continuous
brand nurturing to fulfil customer expectations better.

KWON OH-HYUN’S RESIGNATION 4
Finally, the company should develop an accurate response strategy to address
customer complaints, needs and expectations. This can be done through surveys and maintain
a close link with the clients.

KWON OH-HYUN’S RESIGNATION 5
References
Kim, S., 2017. Here's the Shortlist of Contenders for Samsung's CEO Post. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-29/here-s-the-shortlist-of-
candidates-to-take-top-post-at-samsung
[Accessed 12 April 2018].
Martin, T. W., 2017. Samsung Expects Another Quarter of Record Profit; CEO to Resign:
Kwon Oh-Hyun, who has overseen the firm's lucrative components business, to resign and
relinquish his vice chairman post by March. [Online]
Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-expects-another-quarter-of-record-
profits-1507853202
[Accessed 12 April 2018].
Reuters, 2017. Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-Hyun Announces Shock Resignation as Profits
Surge. [Online]
Available at: http://fortune.com/2017/10/13/saumsung-ceo-kwon-surprise-resignation/
[Accessed 12 April 2018].
White, E. & Jung-a, S., 2017. Samsung Electronics CEO to depart. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/c1e6f25e-c53a-3d06-8df3-0ec3ebcec79c
[Accessed 12 April 2018].