In this age, the role of advertising cannot be over emphasized. While in the past, it may be somewhat of a minimal value, however now it is a very important activity that can set a company above others especially when combined with innovative ideas, new breathtaking technology and services.
Advertising which is the act of publicly promoting a service of product has evolved prodigiously.
It is no more confined to TVs, Billboards, Newspapers and Radios. It has also encroached to the Internet, on mobile devices and even by mails.
Brands are evolving daily and competition becomes far acute than it used to be. Monopoly of a particular brand is constantly being broken due to this stiff competition. Consequently, to remain in business, one has to keep up not only appearances but innovation and competitiveness; the customer is the final target.
There is no room to sit still, get comfortable with the loyal customers one have acquired over time, there's always someone who needs more customers and would be voracious and aggressive to get it.
Few years back, some mobile companies were the market leaders. Examples are Nokia, BlackBerry, Motorola, and even Ericsson to name a few. However, now, they are struggling brands, not only because they weren't aggressive with marketing and advertising but because they failed to innovate and bring something new to the table. This you would notice when you take some time to go to electronic stores and observe the amount of crowd looking at certain devices and totally ignoring other devices.
Humans by nature don't like to be too familiar with something for so long; that's why change is the only constant thing on earth.
Failure for the aforementioned phone companies to provide something new, create innovative designs and get aggressive in advertising have landed them in the rear of the mobile phone market.
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| worldwide mobile device sales in 2012/2013 |
From the chart above, you would notice how Samsung is leading the market. This is in part a result of the chart titled "Advertising Expenses", where Samsung is seriously investing in advertising and outspending brands like Coca - Cola.
In contrast, companies like Apple, Samsung HTC, have become very relevant, successful, and in the forefront of mobile phone market.
The reason for this is in no small thanks to innovative designs, aggressive advertising, and competitiveness.
Talking about innovative designs, Apple is leading that area. Since the entry of Apple into the mobile scene, there had been a rapid change in smartphone industry, serious prodigious demand for their devices have been seen.
Although, Apple, which started from a man's garage has become a very successful company.
Samsung, a Korean company, which was not really a force in the mobile scene 5 years ago is now ranked No 1 in the mobile market industry.
Samsung have been able to follow trends, making variety of products to meet all sorts of customers.
These two companies, Apple and Samsung, didn't rely on their ability to create something new, innovate alone. They engaged in serious marketing and advertising strategies.
In fact, Samsung Electronics Advertising in 2012 exceeded the likes of Apple, Coca-Cola, HP, Dell etc as seen in the chart.
Samsung is making so much investment into advertising to make sure that its always in the news, create constant awareness coupled with it innovative electronic designs.
Motorola allegedly spent $500 million on the Moto X phone alone. The impact of this outlay is also felt and have resulted in considerable good market sales of the product.
All these huge advertising outlay might look outrageous to some companies but it is what is keeping others in the fore front of the game.
It would be a disaster to believe that advertising alone will propel an industry to start making money or to increase its odds of leading the market. As earlier said, advertising is just to creat awareness.
Look at Microsoft for example which spent a lot of cash in advertising it's product, the Microsoft Surface tablet, yet it's still struggling with sales. The iPad on the other hand isn't spending so much on advertising but taking in monies by the second.
Nokia had been in the phone business i n Africa long before new players like Samsung, Apple, HTC etc emerged, yet you would notice from the graph below that they are fast catching up.
This lagging by Nokia is not attributed to advertising problems but inability innovate and create fresh perspective in their devices. Getting comfortable too long in business has serious consequences.
Nokia had been in the phone business i n Africa long before new players like Samsung, Apple, HTC etc emerged, yet you would notice from the graph below that they are fast catching up.
The fact that Apple have pioneered, made dedicated research and possess innovative technologies in their devices followed by first hand advertising gives them an edge over other brands.
While a company may research daily and innovate and come out with lovely powerful products, the place of strong and aggressive advertising shouldn't be jettisoned
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