Public Relations Strategies and Brand Promotion for Samsung

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Samsung's public relations (PR) strategies and their impact on brand promotion. It examines how Samsung utilizes various online media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, to enhance its global presence and engage with consumers. The report highlights the importance of advertising and public relations as key promotional tools, comparing their effectiveness in the current business environment. It discusses Samsung's approach to building a strong brand image through social media campaigns, online marketing, and customer engagement. The report also explores the role of online media in reaching potential customers globally, emphasizing how Samsung leverages these channels to promote its products and maintain a competitive edge in the electronics market. The analysis covers the evolution of Samsung's PR strategies and the factors contributing to its brand visibility.

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this assignment is to understand the significance of public relation and PR
activities in order to promote the brand. The report will provide this understanding in respect
with the chosen organisation i.e. Samsung. The first part of the report will provide a brief
introduction of the company selected and the visibility of Samsung through the eyes of online
media. In present time there is vast use of online media which the report will explain in context
with Samsung and its growth. The next part of the report will highlight the promotional strategies
including public relations and advertising where it will also be informed that in what manner
Samsung promotes its brand by taking sue of public relation and advertising. The report will sum
up by providing that which promotional tool is more effective in present business scenario and
what are the reasons behind the effectiveness of the tool.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of Samsung......................................................................................................................3
Samsung’s visibility through online media.....................................................................................3
Advertising and Public Relations as promotional strategies...........................................................6
How Samsung promotes its brand?.................................................................................................7
Which one is more effective: Advertisements or Public Relation activities?...........................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
In present scenario, promotion of any brand is a must for achieving strong customer base and
adequate sales of the products. The companies are going global and having continuous
expansions in the foreign markets thus it is essential for the companies to have strong global
presence and brand recognition (Gupta and Singh, 2013). In this report, the key emphasis is on
the public relation (PR) activities and how Samsung take use of the PR activities to promote its
brand. Advertising and Public Relations are the two most important and key communication
activities for the company for conveying the messages and informing the customers for attaining
desired objectives and goals. While public relations comprise the maintenance and development
of a positive image of the company and advertising promotes the sales of the company. The
paper will provide an in-depth analysis of the ways Samsung promotes its brand and the
importance of Public relation in the promotion of the company.
Overview of Samsung
Samsung has one of the most renowned and largest electronic manufacturer organisations. It is a
South Korean organisation which specializes in the system integration, computer memory, semi-
conductors, media and the digital appliances. The company has gained and acquired a number of
milestones throughout its long journey comprising expansions, product lines, public relations,
marketing, global business operations and market share. Samsung was established in the year
1938 with the efforts of Lee Byung-chull who grounded the company in Korea named Samsung
Sanghoe as a trading company. Samsung had its establishment in the electronic industry in the
year 1969 and from there the company keeps on expanding itself in number of overseas countries
in various industries (Samsungsem, 2018).
Samsung’s visibility through online media
Samsung has always been one of those companies which have been recognized across the globe
with strong brand visibility due its huge advertising, promotions, marketing, campaigns and
other media appearances. There has been taken use of both the traditional as well as the online
media by the company. in earlier times, when there was less introduction of online media,

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Samsung maintained its global presence through the traditional media sources and with the
continuous technological innovations and advancements, Samsung had also gained enormous
global presence through its presence on online media. The electronic market has flooded with
latest and innovative technological products. There are a number of companies who are offering
technologically advanced electronic products at somewhat reasonable prices but still there are
customer base which have their reliable association with Samsung as their most preferred brand
(Mangold and Faulds, 2009). In the case of Samsung, there is a major role of experience as well
as the brand value and reputation. Samsung holds a long history in the electronic industry and is
much aware of the increasing and diversifying needs of the consumers. Thus, with all the
launches Samsung comes up with strong presence on the online media channels and robust
marketing. Online media is considered as one of the most vital and significant part of the
marketing strategy of Samsung. The company has huge presence on various online and social
media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and various other platforms (Manorek,
2016).
Samsung on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Samsung has taken use of Facebook as one of the strongest online media as no other online
media can match the current momentum of Facebook as well as the extensive global customer
base of the media. Facebook support the global visibility of Samsung through its extensive range
of social applications and being the marker leader in the various online Medias. Facebook holds
the rank of largest social networking site which have billions of users across the globe. Samsung
took use of Facebook as the online media tool for its strong advertisements, marketing and
developing robust public relations with the individuals and the potential customers (Sadat
Hosseini and Mehrara, 2015).
With more than one billion users on Facebook, there has been a great opportunity for Samsung to
become one of the highly globalized brands on Facebook. Presently, Samsung has around 70
million of followers on it Facebook page and this shows the brand recognition and visibility of
Facebook through Facebook as an online media. Facebook had offered an opportunity to the
company for reaching its potential customers from across the globe. Samsung had realized the
value of brand marketing and promotion through online media and particularly Facebook. The
company had marked its footprints in the global electronic market with the help of the online

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media channels and on a continuous basis there are several marketing campaigns carried out by
Samsung by taking use of the innovative features of Facebook and other online media sources.
The strong and effective sue of online media help Samsung in building a robust engagement with
the present and the potential customers across the world (Pandowo and Makalew, n.d.).
Facebook is considered as a platform for Samsung which satisfy the needs of the company in
having a conversation and strong association with the customers. It offers a transparent as well as
an open circumstance where there is sound flow of information among the company and the
customers with no kind of barriers in between. Samsung has been benefitted in number of ways
by taking sue of Facebook as one of the online media channels. Facebook have offered an
excellent environment to Samsung for building its brand in various overseas nations and as a
result of this Samsung had strong marketing capabilities. The company had also developed a
platform for building interactions with the existing and the potential customers and receiving
valuable customer views. Through the use of online media, the search engine ranking of
Samsung had become higher and now it is on the top of the list of the search engines in respect
with the electronic industry (Jose, 2014).
Samsung had not only gained higher brand visibility as an electronic supplier but it had also
made the company visible in terms of a global recruiter. The Facebook page of Samsung is also a
recruitment tool for the organisation as the company posts the vacancy positions on it so that
higher number of potential candidates can apply for it. Samsung builds its association with its
customers through getting feedbacks from its customers on its Facebook page and become the
voice of its customers which not only help the company in publicizing itself but also recognizing
its global recognition from time to time (Manoa, 2014). In respect with employee
communication facilitation, knowledge sharing and interaction, Facebook had supported
Samsung and had become a central hub for it. With the help of the online media, Samsung can
effectively market its products as well as build its brand image in the online market. It had
become possible for the company to reach huge number of customers in particularly one region,
even across the globe. By subscribing the page of Facebook, the company remains successful in
offering the latest info regarding the products and the organisation to its customers which also
help Samsung in enhancing its sales as well as brand visibility. Whenever Samsung released its
products in the market, there are launched several promotional activities, campaigns and other
various things to attract the customers. With the help of the Facebook page, the customers get to

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know about all these information regarding the promotional activities and helped the company
gained strong presence of the potential users and customers which ultimately also help in
enhancing then overall sales and revenues of the company along with the brand visibility
(Yektan, Nayebzadeh and Rabbani, 2014).
Samsung had taken vast sue of the other online media such as Twitter and YouTube such as
with every new launch or the product of the company, there are videos posted on YouTube in
order to make the customer informed of the products and have a detailed view of those products.
There are video recommendation which the customers can see and analyze the products where a
comparison is also made with its various competitive products. Thus, YouTube offers that
platform to the company where the customers can analyze and decide whether they have to make
a purchase or not. Similarly on Twitter, the customers post their reviews and also had a
discussion over the products of the company which offers a sense of brand visibility to the
company and also promote Samsung in number of ways (Greer and Ferguson, 2011).
Advertising and Public Relations as promotional strategies
Advertising as a promotional strategy is a paid form of promotion which comprises of promotion
of the products and ideas and the impersonal presentation of the goods and services. The
objectives of advertising are categorized on the basis of few factors such as what is to be
informed and to whom it is to be informed. Advertising helps in creating an image for the
company and the product for the purpose of boosting the sales (Davis, 2013). Advertising can
also be introduced as a communication tool to have communication with the individuals in order
to persuade them and demonstrates the strengths of the product and enhance the sales for it. In
terms of the capital requirements, there is a need of huge capital and budget for effective
television advertisements whereas there is other advertisement modes also which are
comparatively cheaper and require low budget. The advertisement as a promotional strategy
comprises of tools such as audio-visual materials, posters, display of logos, billboards, leaflets,
brochures, films and advertisements broadcast or printed on radio or television (Smith, 2013).
Public relations can be understand as building of good relations and association with the public
through managing events and news, reducing rumors, imposing a favorable image and obtaining
favorable publicity. Public relations can also be introduced as a communication tool to have

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communication with the individuals and the company as it supports the organisational managers
to get knowledge of the attitudes of the individuals and help in making decisions as well as it
also help the individuals in understanding the organisations and developing a sense of reliability
for them (Kitchen and Burgmann, 2010). There is a huge impact of public relations because of a
number of afctors such as public relations holds a high degree of credibility as in comparison
with the various advertisements displayed, the reports and the news offered in public relation is
more credible (Manzur, et al., 2011). The second major factor which impacts the visibility of the
organisations is lack of public reticence as in public relations the messages are in the form of
news when they are reached to the potential audiences as like advertisements the PR activities
are not strictly interested in the communications for the purpose of sales of the product. Presently
the companies are taking use of public relations in almost in all its activities, events, campaigns,
political and social moments and in various other actions (Terpstra, Foley and Sarathy, 2012).
Public relations is usually a tough and complex area of marketing which requires high level of
expertise as there is a need to respond adequately to the desires of individuals and maintaining
sound association with the public as a company (Ashworth and Kavaratzis, 2010). The key task
of the PR department of an organisation is to have an effective internal as well as the external
communications. The external communication comprises of a diverse set of public events of the
company that may include the exhibitions, association with the media, videos, photos, audio-
visuals, public opinion campaigns, promotion, direct communication, films, DVDs, public
affairs, fundraising, crisis management, openings, cocktail parties, organizing event launches,
press reviews and service reviews. On the other hand, the internal communication comprises of
addressing to the internal audiences, members of the company, shareholders and employees with
the help of the welcome program, closed network news and publication (Heath, 2013).
How Samsung promotes its brand?
Samsung being one of the most recognized and a historical brand has taken use of both the
advertising and PR for promoting the brand. In earlier phase of establishment and growth,
Samsung take extensive and robust use of the advertising. Samsung had taken use of various
advertising channels and method for promoting the brand such as follows:
Online advertising

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Samsung had taken much use of online advertising as its promotional strategy for having global
promotion of the brand. The company had taken use of various social media sites and online
platforms for selling the product, offering information to the potential buyers and also for
making the people aware of the brand and its continuous activities. The online advertisements
are one of the strongest promotional tools of Samsung which the company utilizes and keep the
customers updated. For example the online advertising includes videos on YouTube which
contains the information regarding any new product launch, its reviews and various other related
thongs (Wambui, 2013).
Samsung Mobile and Cellphone advertising
To promote the brand globally Samsung also take great use of the mobile advertising such as the
company has launched a number of applications which can be used through mobile as they are
mobile applications based upon diverse things. For example there are mobile applications of
Samsung such as Samsung Internet Browser, Samsung Health, Samsung Smart Switch Mobile,
Samsung connect, etc. All these and other various mobile applications not only enhance the
customer base of the company but also effectively promote the brand on various grounds. With
the help of these mobile applications, Samsung also upsurge its revenues and gained an extensive
market share (Yektan, Nayebzadeh and Rabbani, 2014).
Print Advertising
Samsung has also taken use of the print media advertising in an extensive manner which
comprises of periodical advertising, direct mail advertising and advertising through handouts,
newspaper, brochures, etc. Samsung had taken use of all such print media advertising in a great
manner. There are several magazines which comprises of advertisements of the several products
of Amazon. In the newspaper, the company gives advertisements of the products fir increasing
the sales. Even the company also takes use of direct mail advertising by sending the information
to the potential customers through direct mails. Thus, it can be said that the company had use the
print advertising effectively (Manoa, 2014).
Guerilla Advertising

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Samsung had taken significant sue of Guerilla advertising as one of its prominent advertising
tool where the company invites its customers to have their participation in the various activities
so that there can be increased level of interaction. There are two major factors in it i.e. location
and the timing. For example, there are number of times when Samsung perform such activities
where there are chances with the individuals to win a mobile or notepad, etc. The key aim of the
company for taking use of Guerilla advertising is to have word of mouth publicity through the
social media (Jose, 2014).
Broadcast Advertising
This is one of the advertising which Samsung had used to achieve maximum growth and global
visibility. The company takes use of television advertisements to have broadcast of the
advertisements of various products of it as it is one of the most significant ways to reach the
highest number of potential customer and masses (Hanafizadeh, 2012). Whenever any product is
launched, the television broadcast advertising is the most dominant way to advertise and make
the people aware of the product. Samsung had a creative marketing team which helps the
company in developing ideas and innovative advertisements to fetch the attention of the potential
customers and enhance the sales.
From last few decades, there has been gained huge significance and importance by the PR
activities as the promotional tool for the big companies (Manorek, Pangemanan and Rumokoy,
2016). In case of Samsung, the company had gained enormous success and brand promotions
through its robust PR activities. Following are the PR activities undertaken by Samsung in order
to promote its brand across the globe:
Corporate Sponsorships
in the PR activities of Samsung, the corporate sponsorships are the key media or advertising
form which offers immense level of global recognition and brand visibility to the company.
Samsung is offering huge support to a number of events or a cause which can support the
development of the societies across the world in order to gain an opportunity to increase the
sales, brand and product image and goodwill of the company (Taylor, 2014). There are several
PR activities done by Samsung under the head of corporate sponsorship which are still continued
to be performed by the company. The one of the PR activities to promote the brand of Samsung

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is the Samsung Sports which is a multi-sport club of Samsung established in South Korea. With
the support of this club, the company enhances its global recognition as there are own sports
team created by Samsung where there are a number of games comprising the professional as well
as amateur sports. Samsung Electronic Australia had a corporate sponsorship with Sydney Opera
House where the company offers its support for ensuring that there can be an innovative and
technologically advanced environment for the visitors (Samsung, 2018). Another corporate
sponsorship through which the company perform its PR activities includes the Samsung
Foundation as it is the one which offers high-end support to the communities, masses and the
events so that there can be gained strong brand value and recognition across the world (Keller,
Parameswaran and Jacob, 2011).
External communications
The external communication is another major factor of the PR activities of Samsung where the
company promotes its brand through a number of things such as posters, newsletters, brochures,
emails and the uncontrolled messages in the mass media. With the help of the external
communication Samsung portrays its brand image on several platforms and try to gather
attention of the masses (Pandowo and Makalew, n.d.) For example, there are newsletters
published by the company which have a short description of various activities performed by
Samsung across the globe. The key aim behind the publishing of such newsletter is to make the
people aware of the various initiatives taken by the company in order to benefit the society. All
such external communication activities help the company in fetching the attention of the masses
as well as also influence them to get associated with the brand and its products.

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(Source: Pinterest, 2018)
the external communication also help in gaining publicity and promoting sales of the company,
announcing events, support branding and generating sponsorships (Van Scheers and Prinsloo,
2014).
Internal Communications
The internal communication is another strong way of Samsung for the promotion of the brand
and gain publicity at global regions. Through the internal communications, Samsung forward or
disseminated planned messages to its employees and other shareholders and partners through