Competition in the modern-day market is very stiff as companies and industries try to outdo each other in order to remain relevant in the market. Sir Winston Churchill once said ‘to improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often’ and this statement becomes a reality when businesses come up with new products and strategies in order to improve their competitive edge. A competitive advantage allows a firm to outdo its competitors by producing cheaper commodities yet of desirable quality. This essay will discuss how the Samsung company focuses on value creation in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Samsung means ‘three stars’ in Korean and it was originally founded in 1938. It was originally a food company selling dried fish, fruits and vegetables but over the years started focusing on the production of electronics (Kleindl, 2006). The company manufactures mobile phones particularly smartphones, television sets among other electronic products. The company markets its products through advertising to maintain its global brand image, for instance, it used product placement in the movie The Fantastic Four (Kleindl, 2006).
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The company achieves its competitive advantage through differentiation. Samsung products are unique and stand out in the electronic market. The company always comes up with new brands which take the market by storm for example in the year 2013 they launched the new Galaxy S series. The phone has unique properties and security features which make customers crave for it and in addition to this, it was one of the pioneer phones to use a corning gorilla glass which is hard to crack. Samsung company also uses a cost leadership strategy to achieve a competitive advantage. This is seen by the manufacture of cheaper smartphones for the African and Asian markets and this had led to increased sales and by 2005, Samsung was rated as one of the twentieth top brands in the world ahead of their fierce rivals, Sony (Kleindl, 2006).
Value creation is of importance to any business in order to improve the quality of their products and Samsung company puts a lot of focus on it. Samsung's corporate governance or Samsungism is based on three major principles: business for national interests, support for talented people first and the pursuit of rationalism (Kim, 2016). By treating its employees as the best, the company gets the best out of them and even their loyalty so that they may not defer to their competitors. In my opinion, the company is able to maintain its value since from its third principle (Pursuit of rationalism to maximize profits), it has been able to focus on long-term profits. For example, one of its initial founders, Lee Byung-Chul decided that Samsung would strengthen its semiconductors business in the early 1980s and currently, Samsung is one of the top three semiconductor firms in the world (Kim, 2016).
Conclusion
Achieving a competitive advantage is the holy-grail of any modern business today and companies spend a lot of resources in finding the best possible way to achieve this. Samsung company is one such company that has been able to attain a competitive advantage over its competitors through its policies, cost reduction, and differentiation. It is now one of the most profitable brands in the world due to this success and will undoubtedly retain its value in the many years to come.
References
Kim, C. (2016). Samsung, media empire and family (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
Kleindl, B. (2007). International marketing (1st ed.). Australia: Thomson Southwestern.
