Getting on the Soul train

BARCELONA, Spain — They’ve got soul. Amid the frenzied networking and deal making at this year’s GSMA Mobile World Congress, which saw more than 55,000 visitors pass through its doors, leading mobile phone and telecom equipment provider Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. bared its Soul.

The buzz in Barcelona included the presence of actor/director Robert Redford. The Sundance Institute founder talked about cell phones as the “fourth screen” (after TV, cinema and computers) — the perfect platform to deliver independent films to over 2 billion mobile phone users worldwide. With five Sundance shorts already in the pipeline, shot exclusively for mobile distribution, who knows, we’ll soon be able to say we discovered the next great indie director through our cell phones.

Also on everyone’s lips was Mobile WiMAX, the next-generation of WiFi. Mobile WiMAX puts full mobility and open broadband Internet access in the hands of millions across the globe. However, it requires Access Service Network systems and WiMAX-enabled devices. While that may still be years in the Philippines’ future, Samsung unveiled its WiMAX solutions for the European market. It also unveiled possibly the most comprehensive array of phones to meet every conceivable lifestyle want.

“Samsung has developed its mobile brand to offer consumers the best in design and quality,” says Geesung Choi, president of Samsung’s telecommunication business. “Now we are ready to add wider choices of mobile phones to match every individual consumer’s need — a mobile for every lifestyle.”

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC), where 1,500 stands were spread out over 29,000 square meters of exhibition space, the Samsung booth was notable for being packed every minute of the four days, with trend watchers vying to lay hands on what are sure to become the hottest mobile phones this year. Name a trend at the fair and for sure Samsung had a handset that featured it — from 5-megapixel cameras and built-in GPS to touch screens and mobile blogging.

But one particular phone embodied nearly all the current trends and more: the Soul, Samsung’s flagship product for 2008. Soul, which stands for the “Spirit Of Ultra,” is touted as the ultimate Ultra Edition handset, created to appeal to style-conscious consumers who want both sleek design and high-tech features. Want a quad-band mobile with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a 5MP camera with face detection and image stabilizer, touch-navigation keypad, Google Mail, an FM radio, music library with 15 hours’ worth of play, and audio enhanced by sound experts Bang & Olufsen? The Samsung Soul is the phone to aspire to.

“Soul is the ultimate essence of mobile: a slim, lightweight and stylish product that still boasts all the essential functions in one single device,” says Choi. “Soul is set to continue the success of past Ultra Edition handsets, such as the D900 and U600, and will further enhance Samsung’s leadership in the premium phone category.”

Last year, Samsung raced past the competition to become the world’s No. 2 mobile phone brand, a feat greeted with little fanfare within the company itself. “We didn’t even talk about it,” recalls Dr. Youngcho Chi, senior vice president of Samsung Mobile Communications’ Marketing Group. “Nobody got a pat on the back.”

In 2007 Samsung sold a staggering 160 million units, 20 million of which was the best-selling E250, a slim metallic slider with camera and radio. Though the E250 was a mid-range phone, the company grew rapidly in the design and high-end markets. They saw over 40 percent growth, three times faster than the global market growth rate. “We also grew an average 50 percent in emerging markets, with increased sales of 3G devices,” says Chi.

Samsung’s G600 was voted Best Smartphone of the Year by CNET for its imaging features. The company also collaborated with fashion maestro Giorgio Armani and manufacturer of luxe audiovisual products Bang & Olufsen for its premium designer phones.

The strategy for 2008 is a natural progression: sell over 200 million units, aim for the top spot, and become the world’s No. 1 within the next two years.

To help achieve this, Samsung embarked on a major study of consumer needs in 25 countries among 20,000 consumers. They also paid attention to customer feedback. Potential clients were intimidated by expensive-looking phones, so the company created a “Basic” category, with “penny-pinching” models like the B100 Aim with its long-lasting battery for heavy voice traffic.

Another complaint was that there were so many products it was getting confusing and hard to choose, so the company divided its range into six categories: style, multimedia, business, infotainment, basic, and co-branded.

Are you a business honcho looking for efficiency and productivity? Try the “business and pleasure” model, the i780 Mirage, the ultimate business tool with its GPS navigation and high-speed Windows Mobile operating system.

Are you a creative — a music lover, photographer or artist who desires multi-functionality above all else? The F400 Opus boasts superior sound quality (care of Bang & Olufsen), a headset jack, navigation wheel and extended memory, while the F490 Nerva has a touch-based user interface (like the Apple iPhone), with a 16x9 optimized LCD for Internet browsing, a video companion, and 5MP camera, not to mention a trendy design to reflect hip individual tastes.

Perhaps you’re a fashionista who wants a cool accessory to match your stylish persona. You can choose to go basic (the Lime 2), stylish and beyond (the L320 Avide) or state-of-the-art (the U200 Lucid and, of course, the Soul).

“There’s a population still out there who’ve never experienced mobile phones, so getting connected with the first-time buyer is very important,” says Sang-Jin Park, regional president and CEO of Samsung Asia. “Once they start using our mobile phones, they tend to upgrade when they buy their next phone.”

Under Park’s stewardship, Samsung Asia achieved US$9.9 billion in sales revenue in 2006, an 80-percent increase since his appointment in February 2004. To accomplish this, Park focused on the middle and high tiers of the market. “The low-income bracket might not have had the opportunity to experience Samsung phones, so we expanded product coverage into low-cost phones to provide them with more opportunities to try Samsung phones,” he says.

In the meantime, Samsung kept boosting its brand image, generating aspirations in consumers to own and use a Samsung cell phone. In the Philippines, if you didn’t hear about the Ultra Edition series through an ad or an event, you were hiding under a rock. In Barcelona, hot-pink billboards for the Samsung Soul grabbed attention as soon as you stepped off the plane, covering buildings like Christo installations from the airport to Plaza Espanya, where the MWC was held. Samsung has sponsored the summer and winter Olympic games since 1998 and is now going into sports like soccer and the Africa Cup of Nations. The result of such “diligent” marketing is that you see the Samsung brand name almost everywhere. Combine that with continuously updated technology in multimedia phones, with maximum style conveyed through minimal design, and you have a winning formula. “Our philosophy is we’re going to go for excitement and fun, and some contribution to lifestyle,” says Park. “Such an effort was well accepted by our customers.”

The irony is that Samsung only entered the mobile-phone arena around 2000, extremely late in the game. They needed to fast track to catch up with their numerous competitors, and they did so first by focusing on high-end, high-tech phones. But they soon found out there was a vast, untapped spectrum of middle- and low-end customers, so they started spreading out their models to the middle, then the lower ends of the market. At the low end, one hurdle the company faced is that even their most basic models are in color: the company doesn’t have — and doesn’t plan to have — black-and-white phones.

“Nowadays the economy of the world market has been improved, so we believe that very soon, even very, very low-end customers won’t look for black-and-white phones anymore, but color phones,” says Spencer Shim, CEO and president of Samsung Electronics Philippines. “So our company decided we won’t bother to penetrate that humble place. We are very generous,” he chuckles. “Those markets are for our competitors — let them enjoy. We focus on the middle and high ends with style, with design and more of the best technology. That is the successful engine of how Samsung Electronics became No. 2 in the world as of now.”

Even gadgets of the moment, like the Apple iPhone, don’t faze Samsung execs. “We have plans to launch the F480, the Roxy, middle of this year, which is even better than the iPhone,” adds Charles Choi, Samsung Electronics Philippines’ VP of marketing for mobile phones. “It has a full-touch screen and will be more friendly for mobile phone users. Apple is very famous for its music devices, but honestly they’ve never been in the mobile phone industry before, so when it come to mobile technology, we’re much superior to them in terms of user interface and operators.”

More specialized phones are also in the offing, like mobiles for ladies, teenagers, and rugged models for outdoor workers.

When Samsung first launched its GSM business it had a clear strategy that the company didn’t really aspire to be big, they just wanted to become the industry’s innovator. Now that they’ve introduced firsts like mobile TVs and MP3 phones, now that they’ve become huge despite themselves, the only clear goal remaining is to become No. 1. “Despite the global outlook, we are optimistic that we can grow the business much faster,” declares president GS Choi. With this “Korean company that could,” it’s only a matter of time.