Samsung Galaxy S6 marketing blitz fails to win over consumers as profit falls
Samsung’s global marketing campaign for its high-end Galaxy S6 series has failed to spark an immediate surge in demand for the smartphone after its sales fell short of expectations.
The South Korean companied bet big to promote the new handset off the back of a 2014 that saw Apple dominate the high end of the smartphone market and startups such as Chinese company Xiaomi create Android phones with comparative performance but at half the price.
For the Galaxy S6 launch Samsung took a humorous, tongue-in-cheek approach to its marketing and drafted in James Cordon in the UK to push the handset’s design and quality but in an entertaining way.
But its markrting gamble on its new flagship phone isn't paying off as well as the company had hoped. Samsung reported its fifth straight quarterly profit drop, worsened by poor Galaxy S6 sales coupled with a dramatic loss of the Chinese market share. The company warned of “mounting challenges” as operating profit at Samsung's mobile division slid 38 per cent to $2.4bn.
To counter the loss, Samsung will now “flexibly adjust” the price of the S6 and launch new mid to low-end products in a bid to halt the reverse in the smartphone market.
Market research firm IDC was quoted in the Guardian saying that Samsung, still the world’s largest maker of smartphones, was the only top five smartphone vendor that lost its market share during the second quarter, falling to 22 per cent, from 25 per cent a year earlier.