Play It Again Samsung

Recently IDC's Worldwide Phone Tracker research found that "Samsung closed 2011 as the year's top smartphone manufacturer with 94 million units shipped and a market share of 19.1 per cent". This fact took me back to 1986-87 when I was part of a team that launched Samsung into Canada. Samsung was just a new brand from Korea that was trying to get in the face of Japanese power house brands Sony and Panasonic. Their native domestic competitor Lucky Goldstar (now LG) was also starting out in the Canadian market making TV sets, VCR players and other low cost consumer electronics for Canadian consumers who felt they were paying too much for Japanese and, still at that time, US product.

Samsung's success is a great story and tribute to the power of branding perseverance. Samsung went through a few CMOs and logos (as you can see from one of the Canadian launch ads I was part of back in the mid 1980s), however they never lost faith that they would build a brand of quality and eventual world leading relevance.

Samsung Canada launch ad in 1987 by Toronto based Enterprise Advertising.

I look at what Hyundai and KIA have been doing in the car market in the last 10 years, and I see the same strategy unfolding for them. I hope they have walked down the street in Seoul and thanked their friend at Samsung for showing them they way.