Marketing the Note 7 as awesome, when it subsequently proved to be dangerous is a massive step back for Samsung in the race to keep up with Apple. Rushing to market a product that wasn’t ready, exposed a massive flaw in Samsung’s operations. Production suspended, product banned from flights, reputation in tatters and billions of dollars up in smoke since the mass recall of the Note 7…
The recall came back in September after the new phone caught fire … now it seems the replacement phones sent following the recall are also faulty. It beggars belief and seems an impossible place for Samsung to recover from.
What exactly went wrong is open for speculation but it appears that with competition between Samsung and Apple heating up, the organisation pushed ahead with a product that wasn’t ready – wasting billions, not only in product sales, but marketing spend and brand value too.
Samsung is not only subject to criticism across both mainstream and social media, they’re also being satirised! Serious gamers are hacking Grand Theft Auto to use the Galaxy Note 7 as a replacement for hand grenades! We’d show you a video, but they keep getting taken offline ‘due to trademark infringements’ – Samsung’s PR and legal teams are obviously clocking up the overtime.
Production of the Note 7 has apparently ceased, and Samsung have had some hard lessons that we can all learn from; if operationally you can’t deliver what your marketing promises you’ll find yourself in a very difficult place, and if goods or services don’t match up to the customer’s expectation of your brand, you’ll lose credibility and loyalty. Samsung have taught us – there are no shortcuts to becoming a market leader … and rarely is there a second bite of the Apple!