B2B Communications
Under the slogan “Ready for the Next Big Thing,” Samsung Electronics declared to make inroads into the smartphone market for business purposes, which is expected to surpass 200 trillion won (US$174.75 billion) in 2017, in earnest in the U.S. market, the largest in the world.
According to industry sources on July 14, Samsung Electronics America (SEA) has recently started online and offline marketing focusing on large American cities such as New York and Los Angeles, with the slogan.
It is the first time for the company to begin large-scale marketing campaigns in order to tap into the enterprise smartphone market. It is thought to be a strategy to improve profitability in the B2B sector, which is considered to be Samsung’s future growth engine, and increase sales of its strategic smartphones, including the Galaxy S6.
Industry watchers believe that the global business smartphone market will rapidly grow and surpass US$181 billion (206.83 trillion won) in 2017.
The nature of the B2B business to buy a large amount of products over the long term is also attractive. Samsung’s competitors, Apple and BlackBerry, have already carried out B2B marketing campaigns from the second half of last year, with the slogans of “Change Everything” and “Work Wide,” respectively.
Currently, the enterprise smartphone market is dominated by Apple. According to a survey of its 6,200 clients in 190 countries conducted by B2B software product company Good Technology in the first quarter of this year, Apple accounts for 72 percent of the market share of business smart devices. Companies with Android OS, including Samsung Electronics, account for as low as 26 percent of market share.
With its own mobile security platform “KNOX,” Samsung Electronics is planning to open up the business smartphone market, in which security technology is the most important factor.
Moreover, the company plans to release “KNOX Enterprise Mobility Management” (EMM), which extends its functions as a total software solution that raises business efficiency and increases market dominating power. In cooperation with Microsoft (MS), Samsung decided to feature MS Office services in its smartphones and tablet PCs as a basic option in a bid to hold Apple in check.