Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Marketing has various meaning to various people. Market segmentation means that businesses divide their markets into a few sections with similar features, so that they can target different groups of consumers and produce merchandise or service for them. It consist of geographic, demographic, psychographic, benefit and usage rate segmentation. Samsung geographic segmentation is world wide due to their phones being sold in 61 different countries. Slight variations in languages and applications are needed but the physical appearance of their phones is still the same. Samsung's demographic segmentation which is broken down into age, gender, income, ethic background, and family life cycle. The age factor is not really involved in Samsung segmentation but most of their users are young adults and enthusiastic people. Samsung products are beneficial to both male and female. Samsung products are offered with various features to different people based upon their income level. Samsung markets their merchandise to everyone so they don't have a specific ethic segmentation. Lastly, family life cycle is not an specific segmentation in Samsung since the target market hasn't changed. Samsung's psychographic segmentation includes individuals from teens to mid 30's who have a high interest  new technology, tech savvy and can afford to buy it. Samsung's benefit segmentation is what the customers expect when they purchase their products which is unique appearance, new and updated features and reasonably priced. Finally, usage rate segmentation shows that Samsung is keen to the user status of its target consumer in order to better offer its product and therefore they are divided into former users, potential users, first time users, light/regular users, medium users and heavy users. Samsung mostly focuses on the heavy users since they are accountable for a sizable portion of product sales. 

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

Samsung's research and development department is the heart of everything they do. Their ongoing investment in their collaborative global research network plays a critical role in their ability to innovate products today that will enrich people’s lives tomorrow. The Samsung Galaxy is part of the product life cycle which traces the stages of a product's acceptance from it's introduction to it's decline. The introduction stage of Samsung i7500, also known as the Samsung Galaxy, was released in June 2009. It marked Samsung’s entry into the Android smartphone market. The growth stage of the Galaxy is how unique the features of the phone are offered at a reasonable price, The maturity stage shows how the smartphone market is being heavily populated and majority of the people in the world own one. Lastly, the decline stage of the Galaxy is that it will eventually get replaced by newer and innovated cellular technology in the near future. 

Ch. 12 - Services and Nonprofit Organization Marketing

Samsung strives to improve the quality of people's lives and contribute to a better society. Their efforts prove that they can make a difference by helping to create a greener environment and encouraging people to be better citizens by giving back to their communities. As the world’s largest electronics company, Samsung applies the same innovation, technology and resources that have driven their commercial success to advancing the education and health of children around the world through their global citizenship program, Samsung Hope for Children. Through Samsung Hope for Children, more than 79 subsidiaries and 236,000 employees worldwide partner with leading nonprofit organizations to affect positive change. By supplying Samsung products, lending expertise and providing financial support, they're able to give thousands of children in communities around the world access to education, mentor ship, leadership skills and life saving medical treatment.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

Samsung Electronics offers a variety of products from televisions to tablets which would be consider part of their product mix. Samsung's cellphones especially the Galaxy are a large part of their product mix. Each galaxy comes with different and has different features from each other. They never come too distinct from each other since each year a new series is released. Samsung believes that the satisfaction of their customers is the most important factor in the success of their business. The company spends a lot of money to in the design and high quality of their products. The product concept proposes that consumers will prefer products that have better quality, performance and features as opposed to a normal product. 

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

Samsung Electronics uses advertising of the features, design and price as a way of sales promotion.

They practice traditional personal selling which are the techniques that are used to persuade a buyer to purchase a product or service. For example, Samsung uses this technique with their Galaxy when they launch a new version of it every year, so they are effectively persuading customers to buy their latest product. Samsung is all about making their products affordable so the same goes for the retailers that sell. They offer discounts and plans along with majority of Samsung products. Therefore, Samsung is providing a series of incentives to buyers to achieve the short-term goal raising sales figures amid increased competition with local and foreign rivals. 

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

Samsung Electronic's advertising activities are designed to provide the public with accurate information on who they are and what they produce through fair and high quality advertisements which  helps customers with their buying decisions. Samsung recognizes that creating a good image through mass media is as important as innovative products. They also are highly aware of the fact that delivering overall company and product information accurately to shareholders is significant for their investment decisions. Samsung Electronics’ advertisement is centered on the empowerment of corporate brand identity and product. The same principle lies at overseas subsidiaries and branches in accordance with Samsung Electronics’ ethical guidelines and global marketing strategies. This also explains how Samsung communicates to the public. Their goal is to provide people everywhere with an abundance of information pertaining to their products allowing them to make the best choices in the end. Samsung Electronics holds different promotional events for current customers and to gain future customers. 

Ch. 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

Hennes & Mauritz  (H&M) is a Swedish multinational retail clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. The full company name Hennes & Mauritz was re-branded to H&M to simplify worldwide perception of the brand. The company owns the two-letter domain hm.com. The domain was registered in the early 1990s, but data on the first registration is lost. In 1998 Hennes & Mauritz was able to buy the domain hm.com from a company called A1 in a non-published domain transaction.

My experience visiting H&M was quite interesting since it was located in the area that I worked. H&M creates sustainable fashion for all, always at the best price. The collections include everything from dazzling party collections to essential basics and functional sportswear for women, men, teenagers and children, and for every season or occasion. In addition to clothes, shoes, bags, jewelry, make up and underwear there is also H&M Home. Customers will always find their clothing needs in h&m.  H&M is divided into 2 sections of male and female. The inside of the store is very much clean and modern looking. The purpose of this is to create the image that by wearing H&M clothes you have a very clean but unique look. H and M does a good Job in that they market equally to males and females. I have been to many different h&ms around the city and they all have the same essence as soon as you walk in. They make sure their products are top shelf and  they even give big promotions throughout the seasons. The prices are definitely affordable and their presentation is something truly unique and modern.