Samsung Discovers their True
Competition to Improve Sales
A case from the 2011 holiday season Client Background
Big screen TVs were the gift to give during the holiday season of 2011. Samsung hired Argus Insights
to investigate consumer reactions to this hot product (60” and larger TVs) during this time. Prevailing
wisdom was that Sony was the competitor to beat. However, Argus made the decision to also include
Sharp in the study, because we saw them as a threat that Samsung was not aware of. To provide a
complete picture of the big screen TV market and Samsungʼs biggest competitors, we tracked both
social media and consumer review data over the course of several months about Samsung, Sony, and
Sharp televisions. Argus gains insights by observing the consumer reactions across the entire market,
to discover how customers feel about both specific products and brands in general. Argus supplied
Samsung with monthly reports tracking and analyzing consumer conversation about television related
topics in social media and in reviews. Through these reports, we identified Sharp as Samsungʼs stiffest
competition, which allowed them to tailor their marketing and sales strategies in a more productive way.
Observing and comparing what consumers say in blogs, Facebook, and twitter, in addition to product
reviews, creates an all-inclusive view of consumer needs. In this case, Samsung discovered that the
most dangerous questions were the ones they did not know to ask!
The Line-up
Big screen TVs were set to lead the consumer electronics market during the holiday season of 2011.
These television models were the heroes of three of the top TV brands and the basis of this study.
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Innovation Intelligence Outcomes
This case study will guide you through the results of both our social and review data, and how it
ultimately led Samsung to improve their sales. We sought to understand the mindset of television
consumers and harness that knowledge to positively impact Samsungʼs revenue. The end result proves
not only the predictive consumer adoption qualities of Argus Insights review data, but most importantly,
how understanding your competition can drive sales.
Methods
Social Media Results:
Figure 1: Volume of Social Media by Brand
The story painted by social media confirmed the common opinion that Sony was leading the big screen
TV market. The massive buzz volume surrounding Sonyʼs brand, and the high amount of positivity in
those conversations showed Sony as a clear winner. Based on this social analysis alone, Sony should
have crushed its competition, Samsung and Sharp, during the holiday season.
Review v. Social Data:
As it turned out, Sony was not Samsungʼs biggest competition. Despite the impression generated by
social media analysis, Sonyʼs social media mentions were not converted into televisions sold. The
nature of review data is inherently different from social. People who have used the product typically
write reviews, so they carry less potential for bias and inflation. Ad campaigns or ecommerce sites
trying to entice consumers to buy their products, among other things, can inflate social data. Both social
and review data are important to paint a complete picture of the market landscape, but they tell different
stories.
A large social media presence here meant that the Sony brand had the most consumer mindshare. So,
more people were talking about Sony in general than about Samsung. On the other hand, review data
© 2011 Argus Insights, Inc. | Patents Pending | Confidential | www.argusinsights.com | sales@argusinsights.com 2
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Innovation Intelligence demonstrates consumer advocacy, and is more closely related to consumption of specific products.
Therefore, results from review data are not based on the marketing promise, but on the consumer
reality.
Review Data Results:
Figure 2: Social data v. Review data by Brand
When analyzing review data, Argus uses the delight metric, which determines how satisfied customers
are by analyzing their product ratings. With this method, Sharp and Samsung proved to be leagues
ahead of Sony. Sonyʼs larger social media buzz did not match their low Buzz and Delight determined
from review data. This information knocked Sony off the top of Samsungʼs threat list and replaced them
with Sharp.
Analyzing general review data portrayed the overall happenings in the television market, but to gain a
more thorough understanding of the consumer reviews and what they mean for business, Argus
Insights examined what specific features, attributes, and uses consumers were discussing. Since
Sharpʼs big screen TVs were delighting more customers than Samsung or Sony, we drilled to figure out
why.
The funnel charts below demonstrate how Argus delved into review data to make sense of the bigger
picture. This information provided Samsung with a list of what Sharp was doing right and allowed them
to compare themselves, and keep up with their competition. The chart on the left lists the most
discussed attributes with regard to Sharpʼs Aquos Quattron LC-60LE632U model, and the chart on the
right displays the same information filtered specifically for the Samsungʼs UN60D7000 model. By
ranking the topics consumers are most passionate about and their corresponding sentiment, Argus
gave Samsung a roadmap to their customers, and potential customerʼs, minds. This broke down why
reviews for Sharp were positive, and allowed Samsung to evolve to accommodate consumer concerns
in those targeted areas. These charts can be interpreted as a product face-off, illustrating where
Samsung needed to improve to successfully compete with Sharp.
© 2011 Argus Insights, Inc. | Patents Pending | Confidential | www.argusinsights.com | sales@argusinsights.com 3
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Innovation Intelligence Figure 3: (left) Sharp TV Attribute Sentiment Funnel, (right) Samsung TV Attribute Sentiment Funnel
By examining what consumers are focusing on in their reviews, and measuring the sentiment of those
comments, Argus gained insight into what consumers care about, and showed Samsung how they
compared to their completion in those specific areas.
Results
Rankings according to Social Data
Rankings according to Reviews & Sales
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Innovation Intelligence Samsung & Sharp beat Sony in Sales
Just as our Review Data predicted, Sharp and Samsung beat out Sony in sales of large screen
televisions during the 2011 holiday season. Argus gave Samsung early warning that Sharp was leading
the market, allowing them to prepare accordingly. This article, entitled “Sharp Sees Strong Sales Of 60”
+ Big Screen TVs In USA,” from December 14, 2011, states that “Sharp now accounts for almost 80
percent of the American 60″ and larger television market in terms of sales volume.” Another article
entitled “Strong TV sales for Samsung, Sharp as Sony Struggles,” from December 8, 2011, reported:
“Samsung announced today that the company enjoyed record sales of 5.7 million units [overall] in the
month of November” and “Sharp has said it expects to sell more than 1 million [large screen] units.”
“Both” Sharp and Samsung “fared notably better than Sony.” There you have it, Argus Insights sorted
through the chaos to identify Sharp as Samsungʼs main competitor and find that the review data for 60”
and larger televisions in 2011 was indeed an accurate predictor of future sales.
*When the sales numbers came in after the holiday season, Samsung checked the math and found that Argus
Insightʼs projections closely matched the actual figures!
Lessons Learned by Samsung
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Leveraging the information consumers provide about their preferences in reviews can help update
to a more customer friendly marketing plan and result in improved sales
Social data is interesting, but provides a limited view of brand popularity, not necessarily
consumer product preference
Your competitors are not always who you think they are, so ask Argus Insights for help!
Better Intelligence - Better Decisions - Better Performance
Argus looks where others do not to discover hidden threats and opportunities.
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