Samsung unveils biggest marketing effort

Samsung is preparing its biggest ever marketing push to promote the Galaxy S III smartphone, which it hopes will far outsell any of its other devices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilkiqYaM-4k

Its latest smartphone is to be marketed as being “designed for humans” as Samsung looks to pitch its phone at all segments of the market, not just early technology adopters.

A global TV campaign will use emotive messaging for the first time to help communicate some of the phone’s more intuitive features, such as the feature that uses the front-facing camera to detect whether a user is looking at the phone and goes on standby if not. This is demonstrated by a father reading an e-book bed time story to his child on the phone, which turns off as they slowly doze to sleep.

The activity will include Samsung’s first ever “Pins” – branded pop-up stores that will showcase all of its devices, demonstrated by a product team, in major towns and cities across the world.

The device is also being marketed as the “official phone of the Olympic Games” and will use NFC technology in partnership with Visa to allow contactless payment and other features such as ticketing at the event. More marketing around the Olympics is planned closer to the event.

Christine Cho, director of Samsung Mobile Communications’ global sales and marketing team, told Marketing Week the company believes the increased marketing effort will help the S III far outsell the 20 million units that have been sold of the Galaxy S II and help cement its position at the top of the mobile market.

She adds: “We are using the emotional connection [for the first time in our marketing] to truly demonstrate how this phone can help you get the best out of life. We want customers to see we are an aspirational brand and through this marketing campaign we hope they will want to experience all of our devices.”

Click here to read why Marketing Week reporter Lara O’Reilly feels the Galaxy S III launch is Samsung’s “iPhone moment”.

Last month Samsung overtook Nokia to become the world’s largest phone maker. On the same day (27 April) it reported a record £3.2bn quarterly profit, driven by sales of the Galaxy S II device.

Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, was less enthusiastic about the Samsung Galaxy S III’s potential success: “While the Galaxy S III will be highly desirable for enthusiastic and advanced users, Samsung will have to build on the already popular Galaxy brand and push it hard to various distribution channels before the iPhone 5 is launched.

“Samsung will find it hard to convince and educate the typical mobile phone user to adopt and use all the advanced experiences enabled by this phone. In this specific segment, Samsung Galaxy S III is unlikely to meet with great success, at least in the early stages after launch.”

The Samsung Galaxy S III is available in the UK from 30 May.

Samsung Galaxy SIII
Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung Galaxy S III product specifications

   
Display 4.8HD Super AMOLED
OS Android 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich)
Camera

Rear: 8 mega pixel auto focus camera with flash and zero shutter lag

Front: 1.9 mega pixel camera with HD recording at 30fps and zero shuter lag

Memory 16/32GB (64GB available soon)
Connectivity WiFi/GPS/GLONASS/NFC/Bluetooth 4.0
Dimensions 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133g
Battery 2,100mAH
Additional features

S Beam, Buddy photo share, Share slot

AllShare Play, AllShare Cast

Smart stay, Social tag, Group tag, Face zoom, Face slide show, Direct call, Smart alert, Tap to top, Camera quick access, Pop up play, S Voice, Burst shot, Best photo, Recording snapshot HDR

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