I absolutely love Samsung. They are tenacious, vicious, aggressive, feisty, full of gusto and are hungry to win.
Their main competitor is Apple who make the world famous iPhone. Apple is immensely profitable and is a market juggernaut but Samsung is fearless.
Tonight, in between the AMC show “Mad Men”, I saw this commercial.
Samsung is literally giving away an extra unit of it’s S5 phone to Verizon customers who sign up for service. This is crazy because the S5 is new and it’s their flagship phone!
It’s also going to get them a ton of customers and take the fight squarely to Apple as they also plan the release of the iPhone 6.
What can we learn from this? A lot.
Always think like a startup
Samsung is a massive company. Their market cap as of April 11th 2014 was $170 Billion. They are a large and very profitable business but they act like a startup. They are willing to sling dirt at their competitors and get down in the mud if they have to.
They want marketshare and Apple is standing in the way. Samsung’s advertising responses are more grassroots and outside the box than conventional and the effects are self evident – record sales numbers.
Be fearless
Samsung is extremely fearless. They are ready to compete at any level – in the courts, TV, pricing, PR etc. Even when they know they may lose money, they compete. An important lesson for every entrepreneur.
Never be afraid to challenge the industry leader
Samsung didn’t just innovate and attempt to compete. They studied the industry leader and went directly up against them. They are confident enough to believe that they have the best product on the market AND more importantly that Apple does not.
They aren’t afraid to remind people that they feel they are better than the industry leader.
Your product doesn’t have to be the best
Sometimes the good guys don’t win. I personally still love the iPhone because it’s simple, it works and the battery life is usually awesome. Based on experiences I and my friends have had with Android phones, I am comfortable saying that for us, it has been a less than stellar experience.
Having said that, I acknowledge that it doesn’t matter. Samsung continue to make large screens and beautiful looking phones and tablets. Consumers eat them up like candy and now market leadership is not clear anymore.
They simply are muscling their way into the top spot.
That leads to the final point
Keep grinding away
Your concept or idea may not work immediately. It may take a few months or even a few years. You just have to keep slugging away and be persistent.
Great things hardly ever happen overnight. There’s usually a person or group of people plugging away in the basement for years before something amazing happens.
Be patient but persistent.
What about you? Did you see Samsungs ad? What did you think?