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CCIMS McCombs Case Challenge • Sponsored by Samsung | October 2022
#AllYou Strategy for Samsung Mobile
MBA Marketing Fellows and MS Marketing students compete annually in a case competition hosted by McCombs. My team placed third overall and placed first within our program. I also received an award for Best Presenter.
Gen Z has non-traditional media habits. For example, many usually use Google or other search engines to find information. In contrast, Gen Z's first stop is TikTok or dependent on their algorithm to find what they want. Secondly, there is the disappearance of mainstream culture in Gen Z. According to Horizon Media, 91% of Gen Z agrees there is no mainstream pop culture anymore, so as a result segmentation may be the best strategy.
We then did clear segmentation, which can bring higher ROI to the business. Based on their psychographics, we chose one subculture to target and convey messages that resonate with them.
Based on the segments identified through Horizon Media's study, we identified 12 subcultures within Gen Z. We then narrowed those down into 5 buckets of segments based on interest: Gaming, Entertainment, Education, Fashion and Beauty. By matching key strengths of the Galaxy portfolio with the key values of each segment, we were able to get an estimated numerical value of product fit; with the Gaming segment showing the highest product fit of 38.6%.
Through qualitative interviews with those who self identify into the Girl Gamer segment and deeper research through secondary sources, we were able to compile a target persona for Girl Gamers.
Out of our deep focus interviews with Gen Z Girl Gamers, it became evident that true wireless audio is the most suitable portfolio to target our Girl Gamers. Exploring deeper, true wireless audio was the most preferred portfolio, which has 87.5% of key features that Girl Gamers resonate with. What we found the most interesting was that although smartphones had 83.3% product fit our qualitative interviews showed that they aren't in the consideration set because of its high switching cost.
We researched Samsung's portfolio and its adoption rates and plotted them onto the product adoption curve. Profitability wise, the earbuds market in general is highly promising because it is an emerging market that is substantial enough in size, but still has room to grow more.
Girl Gamers like our Abby from our persona consider exclusively headsets because of their exceeding sound and mic quality. However, at the same time, she thinks it’s heavy and uncomfortable and doesn’t like how it takes up all of her face when she wears it, What Abby doesn’t know is that there is a better option with lighter and more comfortable fit that also reveals her entire face. The reason she is not even considering is because she thinks it’s lagging in sound quality.
Its evident there is a peception problem. Gen Z Girl Gamers perceive earbuds as bad quality which in reality isn’t true, especially for Galaxy buds. They don’t underperform in quality and even win in comfort. Ultimately, their problem lies with perception and the only way to solve this is through a successful branding strategy.
Since it was a problem that needed to be solve with branding, we took a look at Samsung's Buds 2 Pro positioning to its competitors. Taking a look at Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Raycon’s Gaming Earbuds, there is opportunity to position Galaxy buds as the premium gaming earbuds for its outstanding sound quality and wearability.
We then took a look at all gaming audio devices in the market. Comparing the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Sony Gaming Headset, Galaxy Buds are not too far behind in quality. On the contrary, it’s comfort for long hours of gaming perfectly matches the needs of Gen Z Girl Gamers.
Through a brand map, we can see a vast blue ocean on the right for Samsung Galaxy buds to position as a premium and the most comfortable gaming earbud in the market, rather than for casual use. So this blue ocean strategy can help Samsung take advantage in a profitable emerging market and build Gen Z Girls’ brand loyalty at an early stage.
We’ll measure our campaign’s success through each stage of the purchase funnel. In the awareness stage, we’ll look at video views and campaign page views. In the interest phase we’ll take a look at link clicks to the earbud specifications and see if there is an uptick in keyword searches on Google. Then we’ll continue to recycle our interview content on social to further increase frequency needed to drive consideration.
We estimate there will be a 10% engagement rate leading, and KPI of increase in consideration will be the number of earbuds added to the cart and even the number of abandoned cart so that we can continue to explore how effective our messaging is and adjust as needed.
Furthermore, this is just the short term. At the end of the funnel, we want to drive purchase and loyalty. In the long term, we hope to capitalize on the emerging market of gaming earbuds which will help us build brand equity to increase the sales of other products in the Galaxy portfolio.
It is not the end! It is just the beginning of a blueprint we call “break into niche and conquer”. Earbuds themselves are gateway products, and we’re gonna conquer our next market; the smartphone. This is feasible by: 1) rise of mobile gaming market, 2) relieved social switching cost through our #AllYou campaign, and 3) by capitalizing on Samsung exclusive features of our products.
The smartphone market will be our stepping stone for cross selling of other Samsung products, even embracing Samsung display’s current efforts for gaming market, and ultimately, s Samsung Ecosystem for Gamers.
For the market beyond the Girl Gamers, we will reach out to other segments based on common grounds of Gen Z as a whole, which are their key values of empowerment and social inclusion.
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