I was browsing classmates’ blogs today and came across Jessica Tse’s blog. What caught my eye, particularly was her post titled “Social Media and Business Positioning“. Jessica highlighted how, when the iPhone 6 first came out, Samsung was immediately on the ball, “ridiculing Apple’s new iPhone 6 bending controversy”
She compared it to Pepsi’s old ad campaign, in which they ridiculed Coke. Was Samsung not simply doing that to Apple? Apple already had the competitive advantage, simply because it was “first”. It’s all about positioning, right? While Samsung is getting more and more technically advanced, Apple is still ahead in the many consumers’ minds simply because Apple became innovative “first”. I completely agree with Jessica in the fact that Samsung is trying to reposition the iPhone 6 in the eyes of the media.
Will it be successful? Was it? Personally, I don’t think so. It may have brought about some laughs but in the grand scheme of things, even if Samsung phones are just as good, if not better than iPhones, Apple still has that competitive advantage of being seen as a status symbol. I definitely wouldn’t say it hurt Samsung. Certainly got some attention. But in a way, I’d simply call it “real-time marketing” – Reacting to whatever comes up, as fast as possible.
Such marketing strategy was mentioned on Adweek as it discussed a parody of real-time marketing.
While I wouldn’t completely say that Samsung is catching up to Apple consumer-wise (I’m not one to judge on the actual quality of their phones), I agree with Jessica that their real-time marketing was a very clever way to reposition Apple in the eyes of consumers. On the other hand, it’s real-time marketing. It may be cute and funny at the time, but it will likely not have a lasting impact.