Research On Optimization Of Marketing Strategy Of Samsung Mobile Phone In China

With the operators’ vigorous promotion of 3G mobile phones priced no more than 1000 yuan, domestic smart phone market began to explode from the middle of 2011, but after three years of rapid growth, the new market became weak. Under the influence of the national policy of promoting the 4G industrial upgrading and substantially reducing subsidy on operator terminals in 2014, the traditional market pattern that Apple and Samsung dominated the high-end domestic mobile phone market, while ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad and Lenovo occupied half of the market share is being changed rapidly.According to the Analysis Report of Domestic Mobile Phone Market Operation in December 2014 authoritatively issued by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the cumulative shipment of mobile phones in China was 452 million throughout the year of 2014, which had a year-on-year decline of 21.9%, and that of smart phones was 389 million, down by 8.2% on a year-on-year basis; 2080 new models of mobile phones and 1659 new models of smart phones came into the market in 2014, down by 27.3% and 27.5% respectively on a year-on-year basis. The research data of GFK, a data research institution in the communications industry matches up with the report of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that the sales volume of mobile phones in domestic market in 2014 continued the declining trend, showing an accelerated pace. In the meantime, the sales volume of e-commerce channels increased obviously. In 2014, the sales volume of e-commerce channels continued to maintain its growth, accounting for 17% of the total. The e-commerce channel has gradually become the first choice for most mobile phone manufacturers to release their new products. As a result, e-commerce channels surpassed physical channels in releasing new products. The sales volume of e-commerce channels reached 80 million in 2014, which made differentiation and integrated Internet communication ability plat a vital role.Similarly, Samsung, the largest smart phone manufacturer in the world, now faces challenges of the newly launched large-screen, iPhone 6 and impacts of Chinese smart phone manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo in the lower-end markets. This market trend leads to the poor performance of Samsung in 2014. The market share of all Samsung models dropped from 35.0% at the beginning of the year to 11.3% at the end of the year, while that of high-end models priced over 3500 yuan also dropped from 48.9% at the beginning of the year to 14.1% at the end of the year. The annual operating profit had hit the lowest record since 2011, showing no sign of improving operational indicators.This paper, based on the above-mentioned background, proposes to study the optimization of Samsung’s marketing strategy in the Chinese market and its supporting measures by organizing, summarizing, studying, and analyzing the literature related to marketing strategy according to the current situation of domestic mobile phone industry and Samsung. This research provides not only a theoretical support to Samsung to deal with the adverse marketing situation, but also practical reference to launch positive and effective market expansion activities in the future, and in the meantime, the thought of marketing strategy optimization will be conducive to guiding its widespread application in the entire domestic mobile phone industry.