Running Head: BRAND ADVERTISEMENT CAMPAIGNS Brand Advertising Strategies Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS Significance of Brand Advertisement Campaigns Introduction The progress of any company in operation depends on its marketing strategy. Advertisements are the most crucial component of marketing a particular brand as they determine the market dominance of a product. Brand marketers design ads to proliferate the overall demand for their goods and services. Marketers utilize various types of ads in their effort to capture consumers’ attention. They must however be cautious on the type of ads they use as they significantly influence the customers’ response. Ads must provide accurate information about the brand and advertisers ought to observe courtesy while generating them ensuring not to infringe on the cultural, social or political values of the consumers. Samsung and Apple are major companies that apply diverse advertising strategies in their operations to garner a strong customer base and hence enhance a higher competitive advantage in the phone marketing industry. Each companies approach is different as they try to outsmart each other to gain a higher niche in the market share. The paper explores the different brand ads campaigns employed by the two organizations and their significance to the companies’ output. Market Targeting Strategies The two giant smartphone manufacturing companies continue fighting for market relevancy through different approaches. Each company in its adverts targets a particular demographic group who possess the capacity to buy the special these smartphone brands. Samsung’s provides a wide array of smartphones with different designs and prices affordable by all people across the economic divide according to the consumer’s purchasing power and preference. The technique helps Samsung compete advantageously against Apple enabling it to establish a wide customer network. Apple’s promotional approach is different as it mainly targets BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS high ranking professionals and business persons. These are high income earners hence possess the acquisition capacity required for the brand (Seli,2018). Apple aims at providing high quality smartphones hence focuses on the innovative design of smartphones which appeal to customers’ needs influencing their demand for the product (Seli, 2018). Each company therefore eyes a particular customer base through their advertisement methods attracting customers according to their preferences and purchasing ability. Samsung employs prompting strategies such as reducing prices to make their products affordable to customers while Apple markets on innovation and design to lure more customers. Application of the Marketing 4Ps Samsung and Apple differ in their marketing 4 Ps as each firm has different visions and objectives in their dealings. The marketing 4 Ps are product, price, place and promotion. Organizations aspiring to increase their brand’s longevity in the market require proper management of their marketing policies (Twin, 2020). Companies therefore should actively reinforce the brand meaning and possibly consider revitalizing their brands to enhance their competitive advantage. According to Keller (1999), companies should focus on managing their brands dominance amid the existing market environmental challenges. He suggests that brands should maintain their consistency, protect their sources of brand equity and consider revitalizing their products while designing their ads to enhance their competitiveness. Samsung and apple in their ads campaigns delve their efforts towards strengthening their brand’s marketing 4 Ps. Both companies focus on improving the quality of their products, assigning prices according to the brands value and perception, conducting vigorous promotional campaigns to propose their products to potential customers, and identifying the best marketing destination for their merchandises (Twin, 2020). The approaches however differ as each company concentrates on BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS surpassing the other in the global market share. in terms of product apple depends mainly on IPhone smartphones for its market competitiveness while Samsung manufactures various varieties of smartphones in effort dominate the smartphone marketing (Sheli,2018). The pricing policies of the rival companies also oppose each other, for instance, Apple assigns their phone’s prices according to their perception analysis thus most of their products are highly priced matching their unique phone design. Samsung on the other hand has a wide range of smartphones with each type’s price determined by the specialties involved in their making. The target market destination for the companies exhibit some variances; Samsung targets accessing markets all over the world thus adjusts their phones specifications according to a particular country’s needs. Apple on the other hand concentrates their marketing efforts to the United States as they perceive the US population capable of buying their products and hence sustaining their market demand. The two competitors therefore utilize various advertisements strategies according to their marketing 4 Ps. The ads campaigns target potential customers and therefore should appeal to their cultural, social and economic values. The campaigns help the manufacturers maintain brand consistency, revitalize a particular brand whose reputation is fading, and aids them in managing the brand’s market supremacy. Brand Positioning through Ad campaigns The nature of ads campaigns utilized by a company is critical to its market position. Customer response to a product determines its brand love and loyalty. Ads must therefore attract customers and should be charismatic and responsive to the interests and desires of target audiences (Khamis, Ang & Welling, 2016). The kind of ads used by a corporation depend on their goal of advertisement. Most companies for example engage celebrity activism in effort to lure a large audience to their products. Celebrity activism involves hiring notable influential BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS celebrities and involving them in the ads campaigns making process (Davis, 2010). Most of these celebrities appear as role models to the target audience hence they play an integral role in communicating the details of a brand hence garnering the company a larger market share (Wright,2016). Samsung and Apple similarly use celebrities in bid to gain more clients of their products. Samsung Inc. engaged Nargis Fakhri, a Bollywood actress to advertise their Galaxy series in India (Sattar, 2015). The company further hired David Beckham to advertise Samsung Galaxy Note. Involving the celebrities helped Samsung grow its overall global market share Apple Inc. similarly incorporated prominent personalities in their advertisement strategy by featuring Dr. Dre in their adverts but they appeared to be copying Samsung Inc. and thus never reflected ultimate results. Through celebrities, the companies invoke the customer’s cultural and social desires to influence their yearning for the company’s products. The companies thus acquire a wide customer base across the world positioning themselves highly in the global market competitiveness. Companies indulge in comparative advertisements to challenge their similar competitors in the industry. The approach is however dangerous to organizations considering it as customers may misinterpret the message under conveyance by the advert. Some companies are however tactical in their approach hence successfully utilizing this technique to win more brand support. Samsung vs Apple competition best illustrates the use of comparative advertisements in marketing. According to Sheli (2018), Samsung is a leader in this strategy and launches continuous assaults towards Apple, for instance, it perpetrates the unfavorable comparison of its Galaxy S3 series against Apple’s IPhone 5. Samsung use the Slogan ‘It does not take a genius’ directly referring to Apple Store’s genius experts. Samsung generated an add dubbed ‘Growing up’ alluding that their brand is superior to apple’s IPhone in terms of attributes and innovations BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS involved. According to Neogy (2020), the Samsung ad effectively illustrate IPhone’s shortcomings such as storage defects, lack of water resistance, absent headphone jack, and the notch design of IPhone X. Illustrating IPhone’s shortcomings places Samsung a niche higher in their market supremacy battles. The ad demonstrates a young man’s who has purchased Apple devices for a period of ten years but opts to switch to Samsung after queuing for a long period just in the eve of IPhone X’s launch (Neogy, 2020). Samsung therefore successfully dethrone Apple in the global market control by incorporating comparative advertisements as one of their tactics, successfully managing its pros and cons ensuring that the advertisements do not negatively impact the company’s reputation. Organizations should therefore critically analyze the advantages and implications of utilizing comparative advertisements in their ad campaigns as they may detriment the customer’s interest in the company’s products. Impacts of Ad Campaigns to Cultural, Social and Political Behavior Different companies employ diverse methods in their advertisements to access and lure more customers towards their goods and services. However, these techniques may influence or affect the social, cultural and political heritage of communities. Marketers should therefore develop advertisements transcending the divisions emerging among the current society and address ultimate family values and practices. Families are the central core of business activities hence their values should be regarded highly and treated with contempt as they inform the market trends, conflicts, and innovations involved in the market (Oswald, 2003). Large firms such as Samsung and Apple involve celebrities as an element of ad making process. The celebrities’ involvement may affect the cultural and social conducts of the society. The personalities may deliver the ads in a manner contrary to the social and cultural values of a particular group thereby diverting their interest in the brand. Other notable figures portray and BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS promote moral uprightness of a society thus attracting more consumers and hence accelerating the sales and enhancing market leadership of the brand. Conclusion Brand advertisements play a significant role in the success of a particular company. The organization’s marketing aggressiveness impacts on its overall performance in the market scenario. The companies organize their advertisement campaigns according to the needs of their target audience. Various types of ad campaigns are deployed by firms aiming at creating and sustaining market dominance. The organizations deploy marketing advertisements aiming at enhancing their marketing 4 Ps. Samsung and Apple corporations’ supremacy battles exhibit the various brand ads strategies used by companies to enhance their competitive advantage. Samsung employs the comparative advertisement strategy successfully and criticize Apple’s shortcomings efficaciously influencing their dominance over Apple in the smartphone marketing industry. The advertisements utilized by companies influence and impact the social, cultural and political values of the society. Some ads may deteriorate the cultural and social practices of the society yielding lower customer attraction and hence lower market positioning. Organizations should therefore delve their efforts towards promoting cultural diversity of communities for them to win a large market fraction over other competitors. They must refrain from invading the cultural and social attributes of a community via their ads. Managers of various companies must therefore play an integral role in structuring adverts according to the company’s goals and objectives and ensuring that they maintain good customer reputation. BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS Appendix https://dsim.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/beats-by-dre-jimmy-iovine-dr-dre.jpg (https://dsim.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/selfie-samsung.jpg References Davis, H. L. (2010). Feeding the world a line?: Celebrity activism and ethical consumer practices from Live Aid to Product Red. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 9(3), 89-118. Keller, K. L. (1999). Managing brands for the long run: brand reinforcement and revitalization strategies. California management review, 41(3), 102-124. Khamis, S., Ang, L., & Welling, R. (2017). Self-branding,‘micro-celebrity’and the rise of Social Media Influencers. Celebrity studies, 8(2), 191-208. Neogy, S. (2020). Samsung v/s Apple campaigns that have entertained over the years - Social Samosa. Social Samosa. Retrieved 11 August 2020, from http://www.socialsamosa.com/2017/11/samsung-vs-apple-campaigns/. Oswald, L. (2003). Branding the American family: A strategic study of the culture, composition, and consumer behavior of families in the new millennium. The Journal of Popular Culture, 37(2), 309-335. Sattar, S. (2020). Advertising Strategy of Samsung. The Strategy Watch. Retrieved 11 August 2020, from https://www.thestrategywatch.com/advertising-strategy-of-samsung/. Twin, A. (2020). The 4 Ps of Marketing. Investopedia. Retrieved 5 August 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-ps.asp. Wright, J. (2016). Be Like Mike?: The Black Athlete's Dilemma. Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 4(2), 1-19. BRAND ADVERTISEMENTS Sheli, A. (2020). Marketing Strategy: Apple vs. Samsung. Medium. Retrieved 11 August 2020, from https://medium.com/@anshulseli/marketing-strategy-apple-vs-samsung3d4a710e139c.
