With new smart phones being released almost every day, producing a high quality product is no longer enough to ensure success in the mobile industry. Vendors in the smart phone maker recognize this, and are spending more and more money in bringing compelling ad campaigns to the public—because, it works.
Just this spring, Samsung trumpeted its record sales of over 10 million Galaxy S4 smart phones in less than a month after the devices release. There’s no doubt that the S4’s success was largely thanks to the company’s $401 million promotional campaign, featuring hilarious commercials and ads poking fun at Apple’s iPhone.
Upfront, $401 million seems like a lot of money, but when you consider that the entire Global Smartphones Market is valued at over $200 billion and set to reach US$319 billion by 2016, a few hundred million dollars’ worth of advertising spending seems trivial in comparison to the magnitude of the profit potential at stake.
So are high budgets and good commercials really the only key to success in this cutthroat market?
Well there’s obviously more to it than that.
If a company’s smart phone doesn’t meet all or most of the average customer’s buying criteria, then its’ sales are probably doomed no matter how great the commercials for it are. First and foremost, end-users look for price, performance, battery standby, user-friendliness, screen size, and memory when it comes to phone shopping.
The fact is however, that almost all smart phone vendors these days, including Samsung, Apple, HTC, RIM, and LG have produced devices that more-than-meet these customer standards. This leaves one make it or break it product component: brand image. As much as the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” stands true, the truth is, consumers do judge electronic devices by their advertisements.
Seeing how other vendors will use this fact to capitalize in the Global Smartphones Market will be a matter of time—what we can guarantee however, is that those 3 minute commercial breaks between your favourite TV show are about to get a lot flashier.
For more information, view our 2012-2016 report on the Global Smartphones Market.
