Ms Younghee Lee appears diminutive, but the moment she starts to speak you know you are talking to a bundle of energy. The marketing success of Samsung's smartphones worldwide — the company just this month became the largest seller of mobile phones globally — sits lightly on the shoulders of Ms Lee, as every one appears to call her with affection and a bit of awe.
Senior Vice-President for Global Marketing, Mobile Communications Business, Ms Lee is already pre-occupied with the next project — the international launch of Galaxy S III. Smartly turned out — she was the Managing Director of two business divisions of cosmetics company L'Oreal Korea — Ms Lee constantly emphasises the human aspect of gadgets, especially cell phones. Holding a Master of Science degree in Advertising from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Ms Lee looks beyond numbers to customer experience and brand building — the key to Samsung's success.
The consumer industry veteran, who spent over 19 years working in multinational FMCG companies before joining Samsung, recently spoke on a variety of marketing issues and emerging trends to some journalists from India the company had invited to Seoul.
Galaxy S III was launched in London earlier this month, when will it be available globally?
The worldwide launch will be almost simultaneous, beginning towards the last week of this month. Covering 150 countries, with different specs, in under a month is almost simultaneous global launch. The phone should be available in India in the first week of June. The selling point will be: “It is not a smartphone… It is not a Tablet… It is more”… It will be a rich offering.
What has been your marketing philosophy?
It is an ‘open strategy', that is, the customer has the right to choose. We have been very open with our partners to get a fix on what the customer wants. More than specs, the attempt has been to achieve a bonding with the customer. We want Brand Samsung to be recalled with affection.
What are the challenges in selling in a diverse market like India?
The market bandwidth is very wide in India. But considering the tech savvy people, we have tried to bring value for price. And, we have found traction at the middle and upper ends. For instance, ‘touch'. It was a differentiating point. The rapid development of smartphones helped us. More than reacting to the price offered by our competitors, we are trying to see what value we can bring to the user.
What of the apps?
Here again we are trying to emphasis the ‘usefulness' criterion rather than merely go for the numbers. Anyway, an average customer uses only eight apps! We are trying to build apps for each market. Our product team is specifically working on apps for India, China and Africa where we see business growing tremendously.
How different is it in a market like the US?
The entire set up is different in the US. It is the operators that drive the market, and phone companies tailor their handsets to operators' demands. But with Galaxy S II, we seem to have broken into the market. The customer experience factor of Galaxy S II has spread over the Internet, and American customers are seeking out the phone. We are also trying to make the customer pull in the brand rather than relying on operators.
What of the operating systems? How will this play out given that Microsoft has partnered Nokia while Google has bought out Motorola?
Regardless of Nokia-Microsoft relationship, our partnership is on. We are preparing for OS 8 products. I see no problem at all. Similarly, we have a close relationship with Google in different areas. This, again, is independent of Google's partnership with Nokia.
Will the smartphone replace other devices?
This has already happened to a large extent. It is used as a PC on-the-go as much as a phone. Yet, the other devices will not fade away because of the ‘experience factor'. On-the-go, people may use Galaxy S II or the Note as a computer but at home or office they will prefer the PC or the tablet for browsing, for the sheer user experience.
So, what beyond the smartphones?
More convergence, more sharing, better user experience, flexible/variable hardware, display…
Our cloud offering — S-Cloud — is almost ready and we may release it even within the first half of this year. More than numbers, it is a ‘better tomorrow' that matters.