The New York Times, Slate, and now Bloomberg Businessweek have all written big profiles of the company.
It went from being another Asian manufacturer to a premier brand in the U.S. in the last few years.
In the latest story on Samsung, Sam Grobart at Bloomberg BusinessWeek lays out three events that led to Samsung's success:
- In 1995, the chairman burned a pile of crappy Samsung phones to send a message to employees that bad work would not be tolerated.
- In 2009, it decided to go all-in on Android.
- In 2010, it started the Galaxy line, which had big screens.
The combination of those events led to Samsung becoming the biggest smartphone maker in the world, and a premier U.S. brand, according to Grobart.
While those are important, there's another piece of the puzzle that Grobart completely ignores in his giant profile of Samsung — marketing.
Marketing is one of the key reasons for Samsung's success. It's odd Grobart didn't mention it once.
Samsung spends multiple billions on advertising, sales promotions, and marketing around the world.
If you have a crappy product, all the marketing in the world won't make a difference. But, if you have a product that's equal to what your rivals are making and you promote the heck out it, then it can make a big difference.