Samsung Galaxy Skin Smart Phone with Flexible Display Charbel Elias

Presented to: Dr. Edgar BARAKAT Fall 2012

Contents

Introduction 3 Marketing Strategy 3 Product Strategy 6 Price Strategies 8 Place 8 Promotional Mix 9

Normal, Glass smart phones displays face an important issue while it is the most important part of the device. This problem is that the display breaks easily when the smart phone drops. The quality and rigidity of the material used to produce the display differs from a device to another but that does not solve the issue.
The Normal, glass display represents an important limitation too. In fact, the form of the mobile devices hasn’t changed since the first cell phone ever announced (Motorola DynaTac 8000x), because of the flat form of the screen that could not be changes or modified, and that’s becoming boring for some peoples.
As a result, and after a survey conducted stating that: ‘the Global Flexible Display Market is expected to reach $3,298 million by 2017, at an estimated CAGR of 45.1% from 2012 to 2017 and the shipment of flexible display in various applications is expected to reach 223.40 million units by 2017.’ the full success of the Samsung galaxy S III smart phone (overtaken the iPhone
4S for the best-selling smart phone in Q3 with 18 million units) Samsung decided to introduce an all new device packing exceptional features even better than the Galaxy S III.
For the first time, we’re introducing a smart phone that features a flexible display: The Samsung
Galaxy Skin. It’s the world’s first smart phone with flexible display.
In this term paper we will talk about the procedures to introduce this product to the Lebanese market. Marketing Strategy
First of all, a SWOT analysis helped us to see the strength and the weakness of the company in order to introduce it in the exact way. In fact, the strengths are that the company has been in the smart phone industry for more than 5 years and has an official retailer (Samsung CTC Lebanon).
On the other side, the weaknesses are that the product is a first of its kind and the Galaxy Skin could decrease the selling of top notch smart phones that we already have such as the Galaxy S
III and the Galaxy Note II.
The opportunities in introducing such device are many, but one of the most important is that the
Samsung Galaxy Skin is the first device to pack a flexible display. And the main advantages of flexible screens are as follow :
-The display is unbreakable (The main issue for most of the people was the breakable glass display on their mobiles)
-The display is thinner and lighter than normal screens (Giving us the opportunity to increase the battery juice and by that, the battery life)
-The display is malleable (Changing the phone design and making it curved to better handle it and to change the boring shape of the old mobiles)
The threats or the obstacles that the company would face are that the consumers do not know yet about flexible displays technology, and it should result in a bigger campaign to let people know what’s the important of such technology). In addition, all the researches made have not yet been demonstrated. All statistics are just numbers and numbers.
What lets the company take the risk of entering the sector of flexible displays is the absence of competition with other companies (Apple, Sony, Blackberry, Motorola, Nokia…). As mentioned before it is the first phone ever to use a flexible display. Other companies such as Nokia and
Sony are still testing their own displays.
The variables used to segment the market are:
-Usage rate: Flexible displays are thinner and lighter than normal ones. It unables the company to add more juice to the battery and increase the battery life without making the phone thicker and heavier -Income: It’s a high end smart phone with new and exceptional technology used to create it. It’s made of excellent material that last long such as hyperglaze plastic used on the Galaxy S III improving both the feel and the handling of the device (Hyperglaze basically means that there's another, see-through layer of plastic on top of the back panel. This layer helps mask some of the fingerprints and is actually grippy.) and flexible display making it light rigid at the same time. -Lifestyle: The device is unique. The software used, is the same one as on the Galaxy Note II
(android jelly bean 4.2) giving users full customization and access to the android app store (play store) where they can find hundreds of thousands of applications that fits their tastes. For example a businessman could customize it by adding yahoo finance widget into the home screen and check the prices of the stocks and others and download applications such as Bloomberg,
Google Finance …
After dividing the market into segment we are going to target:
-Heavy usage rate: As mentioned above, the company will be able to add more juice to the battery without the need to make the phone thick or heavy (flexible displays are thin and light).
Battery life, was an important problem in the smart phone industry. In fact, with heavy use a smart phone could not last more than 12 hours without the need to charge it after the passage of that time. Adding more juice to the battery, will increase it life for at least 2 hours more than today’s smart phone (with glass screens)
-High level income: With its sleek and unique design adding to the device more value (it is distinguish). In addition to the new technology used which add more prestige, holding the world first device ever with flexible technology, rare curved design and hyperglaze plastic, we are targeting consumer with high income.
-It suits various lifestyle: As mentioned before, the device is highly customizable, various applications are available in the app store and we gave the example of a businessman adding a yahoo finance widget and downloading a Bloomberg application from the google play store, the device suits various lifestyle, you could use it to follow the financial news or to have access to social networks such as facebook, twitter and other integrated applications.
Afterward, Samsung should differentiate the product from the other smart phones available in the market. When talking about differentiation, the costumers should know how to differentiate between our new device (The Galaxy Skin) and any other device available in the market at this moment. Meanwhile, our company should concentrate on a value proposition, it should add more value to the product by differentiating it from even the most advanced smart phone in the
Lebanese market.
The main points that Samsung will focus on to differentiate the product are:
-The display: First smart phone to feature a high resolution (1280x720) flexible display, for easier holding, reading and even typing
-The design: It is a curved smart phone that shape in your hand (comfortable), thin even with bigger battery (Same thickness as the Galaxy S III)
-Battery life: Flexible display allowed us to add more juice to the battery which led to a longer battery life than any other battery available on any smart phone
-Unbreakable Device: As you know, screens are the most important thing on the smart phone, and as mentioned above, glass screens crack easily once we drop our smart phones and cost us hundreds of dollars. Now, the problem has gone, flexible displays are totally unbreakable as demonstrated and tested for hundreds and thousands of times.
Differentiating is an important task, but marketing these days is also dependent on positioning the product in the mind of the consumers. In fact, we have decided to position the Galaxy Skin by offering much more than any other smart phone on the market but with a higher price to add some prestige. Concentrating on prestige is a key element when it comes to selling a high end device. Consumers should refer to this device when talking about quality, design and technology. The Galaxy S III is inspired by nature while the Galaxy Skin is inspired by technology after years of researches and tests about flexible displays.
Furthermore, the device is curved which means that it’s much more easy and comfortable to hold in addition to the hyperglaze plastic which add more grip when holding it.
All of these specs led us to create the positioning statement: ‘Feel technology as it is’. Product Strategy
The new Samsung Galaxy Skin is a consumer product, it is for personal use (phone call, taking pictures, Checking your e-mails)
The product attributes, specially the quality of the device are exceptional and some of them are revealed for the first time. In fact, the Galaxy Skin is a high end device and uses High quality material. In addition to the hyperglaze plastic, curved edges and slightly curved design, the flexible display (which uses plastic as a substrate, rigid plastic) makes the phone lighter but stylish at the same time.
The features offered in this unique device are:
-An 8 megapixels camera with LED flash (HDR and panoramic modes) capable of recording
1080p, full HD videos. In addition, to an excellent performance in low light conditions
-1.5 Ghz quad core exynos 5 octa processors (the new generation of Samsung processors. It brings 8 processor cores, which distribute the work load among each other. Four Cortex-A15 cores ensure incredible performance while the other four are low-power Cortex-A7s that kick in for the less demanding tasks and save battery power)
-4.5’ High Definition, flexible display (1280x720p).
-Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Operating System (the same android operating system used on the
Galaxy Note II which brings hundreds of thousands of applications and games)
-8.6mm thin: Same as the Galaxy S III. We figured out that making it thinner do not mean making it better. We also, decreased the width of the device, and we kept the same length in comparison to the galaxy S III, in order to ensure that all Galaxy Skin owners could use the phone in one hand operation.
-4G LTE (ultra-fast mobile network)
-All the new features available on the Galaxy S III and Note II (smart stay, S voice, image editor,
NFC enabled and many other new features)
In addition to all these stunning features, Samsung decided to give this slight curved look and feeling which made the phone feels better when holding and can fits your pocket easily and will shape with it.
When the consumer buys the Galaxy Skin he will receive as a package a box containing a:
-USB charger and USB cable
-Samsung’s amazing earphones (soft and clear sounding)
-Documentations and a 1 year original Samsung warranty
The company gave the name of Galaxy Skin to the new flexible smart phone as a result of the huge success of the Galaxy S series and the word skin begins with an S(the highest end devices
Samsung’s carrying) and as a result of its sleek and unique curved design. Price strategies
The product will be a value-based pricing: it is a whole new product and it is a most need for the priority of the tech users (value-added). It means that the price will be more based on the value rather than the costs of producing it. It will be also in a limited quantity and we will enable consumers to pre-order the product via our official page on facebook and our official web site.
The type of market is : Monopolistic competition : thus there is no competition at the moment on the flexible display smart phones, many companies will be launching their devices as soon as possible to enter this field. But even though, many competitors in the smart phone industry are still testing their own flexible technology. By that time, we should focus in our campaigns on the flexible display as a key to sell more and to justify the high pricing.
Place
Distribution Channel Decision : selective (to avoid random manipulation of such important and high end device). The company will be distributing it to qualified stores such as virgin mega store, Class shops, Samsung showroom and other few. In fact, this step will add more prestige to the buyer and should maintain the high price for a longer period than distributing it randomly and with high quantity
Type of distribution Channel : Vertical marketing system (wholesalers, retailers act as a unified system) Promotional Mix
Samsung will create an official website for the new Galaxy Skin. That website should contain all the information needed, and should have for the first time a direct support team, ready 24/7 to assist the website visitors and stay in touch with the new buyers, by direct chat (easier than other complicated mobiles websites). The company should also open a new forum for the product in order to build a new ‘Galaxy Skin’ community and should let developers to assist the members of the forum.
Next, Samsung should advertise on TVs, radio stations, magazines, newspapers… by displaying the beauty of the phone and talk at the same time about the things it is capable of.
Finally, Samsung should organize some contests with prices like winning a free Galaxy Skin by making peoples describe what would they do if they won the smart phone.

References http://www.gsmarena.com/ http://www.prweb.com/releases/flexible-display/market/prweb10169280.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_iii-review-757p2.php