Samsung as a brand has mostly been associated for its technical and
manufacturing competence until recent times, when they successfully
leveraged this to their advantage and started to focus more on quality
and design. This ultimately made them a consumer electronics leader in
the 21st Century. But they lacked a compelling and distinctive brand
identity in their Digital Imaging Product Category, which made it tough
to compete against competitors like Sony, Canon & Nikon. Thus
Samsung put vital focus on its Digital Imaging Division and made crucial
changes to meet its objective of becoming a leader in this category.
Samsung achieved this goal by establishing and transforming the culture from a product oriented
to a consumer oriented one. First, they had to change the mindset of their employees to make
more consumer centric. Definite focus was put on quality and creativity to ensure products were
innovative and unique. Products like the Samsung ST550 2View Camera met the needs of
customers and created an innovative brand identity for Samsung, ultimately helping them reach
their goal.
In the end, Samsung was able to transform its camera business into
a consumer focused brand, by creating innovative experiences for
its consumers. But recent rise in competition from smartphone
cameras meant that maintaining its position as market leader would
be difficult. Samsung need to come up with even more innovative
ways to defend their position. They need to assess whether digital
Imaging would even be a vibrant market in the long run and how
they should tackle their competitors to keep their position as the
consumer electronics leader.
The main problem statement for this case is,
Viability of the Samsung Digital Imaging Division to tackle competition and disruptive
technologies through their current consumer centric skills and capabilities
Justification: From the case, we have already seen that, Samsung was able to create a consumer
centric brand image for its digital imaging division, through innovative and consumer driven
products, which made them a market leader in the category. But the advent of smartphones sort
of disrupts this whole market, since it allows smartphone users the option to take similar quality
images as the digital cameras. Along with it, competitors are also coming up with smart and
innovative ways to take market share away from Samsung either through smart technologies, or
marketing campaigns.
Thus the question arises, whether digital camera market even be vital in the future due to the rise
of smartphone capabilities. And even if it does, whether the consumer driven innovative approach
that Samsung is taking will be enough to tackle competition. Thus the viability of this whole division
comes as a concern in the long run.
Samsung should focus on consumer centric innovative products, which the customers would be
willing to pay for. Samsung must drive global innovation in the digital imaging industry. The
existent problems will be solved by people and companies working together—so Samsung must
invite visionary entrepreneurs and innovators to partner with them and give them access to their
open ecosystem and unsurpassed resources. By reliable, innovative goods, bright minds and
collaboration with partners and customers, Samsung can take the world in modernist, imaginative
directions. Below are some of our proposed strategies Samsung could implement to keep up with
the erratic tech industry to hold their top spot
Introduce Modular Cameras: Modular cameras can be an excellent
alternative for digital cameras in general. Firstly, most people have
access to smartphones with underwhelming cameras, compared to
digital cameras. Modular, attachable cameras would completely blow
smartphone camera out of proportions with their superior image
processing capabilities. More importantly, modular cameras would
require no screens. The phone display itself can be used as a screen.
On top of that, since the camera would be portable and attachable to
smartphones, the requirement for having a front and a back screen
separately is also redundant. Hence, we believe modular cameras, with a dedicated app on
smartphones is the future of photography.
Action and 360 degree Cameras: The way that people capture images is also
evolving, just like the industry. Action cameras are small, compact cameras
designed for recording action while being immersed in it. Action cameras are
therefore rugged, and waterproof at surface-level. The rugged nature of these
cameras can appeal to the adventure seeking demographic. Similarly, 360 degree
cameras can also be introduced. They allow 360 degree view of the scene when
the camera starts recording, giving images and videos a panoramic view of the
action.
Focus on Niche Markets: The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying
specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the
demographics that it is intended to target. It is also a small market segment.
The digital camera space is slowly, but surely on the decline. Samsung could
introduce superior quality digital cameras, low in volume and charge a
premium price for the products and capture the niche market to make
supernormal profits, despite selling less cameras.
Utilize the Galaxy Brand Image: Samsung has created quite a revolution in the industry with the
Galaxy brand image. Although people associate the Galaxy line with smartphones, we believe
Samsung can utilize this name recognition to produce innovative, fresh, new and convenient
products for the consumer. Integration of the camera lines with this Galaxy brand image can
enable the end-users to relish the best of both worlds. Since social media is becoming popular by
the second, people love sharing their photos with the world. Wi-Fi and NFC technologies can open
up a world of possibilities. An auto share feature could automatically send every photo instantly
to the smartphone or tablet through Wi-Fi, powered by NFC technology. NFC, which stands for
Near Field Communication, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology
that enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 cm distance. The significant
advantage of NFC over Bluetooth is the shorter set-up time. Hence, the convenience of wireless
transferring from the camera to the smartphone would a no brainer for the users.
Merging with Smartphones Division: The rise of smartphones with highly capable cameras can
potentially decimated the low-end compact camera market soon. Ironically, Samsung’s Digital
Imaging Division might lose consumers due to Market Cannibalisation from Samsung Smartphones
in the near future. Thus, they might opt to merge with the smartphone and electronics division
and create innovative products under the same “Galaxy” Brand. Smartphones and cameras are
merging at an incredible rate as we can see from the example of Apple, so a merger of the cameras
and smartphone divisions will create a unified network with technological competency and proper
channel of innovation.
Collaboration with Competitors: In light of where technology is going in upcoming years, the usage
of digital cameras might reduce a lot in the future. So, Samsung might partner with Cannon or
Nikon with regards to tech and rights of digital imaging. This will reduce the risk of a market failure
in the future through creating more premium and niche products.
Goal:
Transforming Samsung into a leader in innovative product development by ensuring innovation,
marketing and cost revolution
Contingency Plan
The benefit of this strategy is that it will utilize the “Consumer First” mindset that helped create
this unique brand identity for the company. But it heavily depends on where the future
technologies and trends are going. The continued innovative products will help solidify its position
as the consumer electronics leader. But if the innovation focused strategy don’t work out as
prepared, and digital camera loses market due to smartphones, it would be better to integrate the
two divisions together and function them as one unit. This will help to produce further
technological advancements, which will benefit the company as a whole into securing its position
as the Consumer Electronics Leader.
