Phones are usually never sold directly from the phone manufacturers company. The only phone that is sold directly (that I can think of at the moment) is the Iphone and Google's Nexus 1 Phone. In the American Market, Phone Service providers buy exclusive contracts to certain phones. Samsung would use the sales records and successes in other markets to try and sell their phones to the American service providers (such as Verizon Wireless). Then the service providers would advertise the phone for them and try to use the "name" of the phone to try and bring in new customers(although it rarely works).
In the Korean market, it's a different story. Because Samsung knows that they will make more profit if they don't sign exclusive contracts with a service provider, everyone in Korea could buy the same phone. The phones are still sold at the stores of the Service providers but the advertising and promoting is done mostly by Samsung. The Anycall Haptic phones usually have a celebrity endorsement that is paid for by Samsung. The most famous of the endorsers, Yuna Kim.
Unfortunately, distribution of cellphones are handled by the carriers so instead I went to a clothing retail store. The Store that I went to was Foot Locker at 34th Street and Herald Square.
I recieved a lot of "customer service" mainly due to the fact that I can't get the shoe myself by going downstairs to their stock room and picking it up. I am forced to interact with a sales associate. The reason why Footlocker has done this is because it forces customers to listen to what a sales associate has to say, so they can pitch the customer different products. Just like when you buy a car, the car dealer will try to convince you to buy the more expensive one or the one with more features. That's just the way it is.
In terms of how can they do better i think if the sales associates did less of trying to make me add socks and more of giving me advice on what different sneakers will feel like etc, it will be a better experience.
Samsung has realeased over 50 Haptic phones since the phone line came out. Each phone was designed for a specific market. Samsung's practice of demographic segmentation and more specific, age segmentation shows us that every phone is meant for a different person.
The most popular Haptic phone was the "Yu-na Haptic", which was named after Gold medal figure skater Kim Yuna. Selling over 1 million units, this phone was targeted more towards young adults and teens (30 and under). Regardless of income or gender or other factors, everyone in that age range wanted a "Yu-na Haptic". Due to her godess like status in Korea, every person in Korea loved Kim Yuna(the countries princess). That plus the fact that it was a touch screen phone made everyone under the age of 30 want it.
The Haptic phoneline in general is mainly geared towards Generation X, Y and younger. Many older consumers seemed to find the phone too complicated for them and they would much rather buy a flip or slider phone. So Samsung gets celebrities popular to that market to endorse their products. They also add more applications geared towards that market, making the phone more popular within that market.
The Haptic phone in a popular korean teens show.
I can't seem to find anything that hurt Samsung Haptic. Some phones were very market segmented, to an extreme that the phone hold very few units but the more they segment it, the more 1 person is willing to buy it. A trade off if you will.
Samsung Haptic phones were the must buy item in Korea for most of 2009. The item was so popular that if another business would give Haptic phones away as part of a promotion, sales would almost triple for their business. Many small businesses, shopping malls and internet shopping malls would buy bulks of the Haptic phone and have raffles/promotions to increase traffic in their store.
Only the most popular phones would be used in these promotions and that was the Haptic phone.
As for b2b, Samsung would do business with entertainment companies to advertise their phone. Product placement in t.v. shows as well as models to pose with the phone. Samsung also sells their Haptic technology to other companies. Haptic means touch screen, and Samsung would sell their touchscreen technology to other companies to use in their products.
In Korea, Samsung Haptic is the leading phone line beating out it's competitors such as LG (which goes by the name Cyon) and Motorola. The Samsung phone division a.k.a. Anycall set itself off from the other phones because of the image it created for itself. Using beliefs and learning, the image it had was the best quality phone that doesn't break easily. They made their phones well in the past, just like how Toyota built cars that lasted and now everyone sees and thinks that Toyota builds cars that last a long time even though their new cars may not last. The Haptic was just like any other Anycall phone. It had the image of a phone that doesn't break while offering the best quality in touch screen phones.
Samsung is also the world's largest electronics company. Using this fact, consumers believe that they will offer a better quality product then it's competitors.
Another way Samsung effects decision making is by the design on their phones as well as the price. Asian consumers care a lot about products that symbolize status. This gave birth to "Luxury" phones. In 2007, LG teamed up with Prada and released the "Prada" phone. It blew away Samsung's 1st Haptic phone even though the Haptic was far superior. Then Samsung started to change the design of their phone, and market to the younger crowd. With a sleek and sexy design, a stiff price tag and celebrity endorsements, the younger crowds ate it up. The next best phone. Samsung made it so that if you didn't have the new Haptic, you were unpopular/lame. It wasn't the older market that set the standards, but the young-middle aged market.
Samsung's efforts can be improved on the global market. The culture is different in the global market and social status isn't as important as in the Asian market. Also the Samsung Haptic isn't well known by consumers, thus they will go with the more popular