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The Unbearable Pain of Competing with Apple: Samsung’s Sad Christmas Tale
Yesterday, I tried to not buy an iPod.
Specifically, I tried to buy a Samsung “P2″ - 4gb, touchscreen, bluetooth, video, music. I looks sweet, has a great UI, is tiny and slim, and hits an awesome price point at $149 - perfect for Christmas gift giving.
Sadly, Samsung is not Apple. Let us count the ways in which Samsung fucked screwed up and put an iPod in my wife’s stocking…
- STOCK: Christmas is the make-or-break retail season for consumer electronics. Yesterday, I went to five retail stores: two Futureshops, one Best Buy, one London Drugs, and even Zellers. Each store (except Zellers, which apparently doesn’t carry MP3 players over $50) had a full array of iPods in their full spectrum of prices and capacities. They were flying off the shelves, and the staff kept on carrying out more from the back. Samsung? Not one. Anywhere. In the ENTIRE CITY. Someone at a Futureshop told me they were on backorder from the manufacturer. How do you let your retail distribution network run out of stock two weeks before Christmas??! Are you kidding? Nope. The Futureshop that told me about the backorder didn’t expect any until January.
- PRICING: Every staff member at every store new the iPod product line inside and out, and knew exactly how each was priced. Each store had identical pricing for each item - my expectations were consistently met. For the Samsung P2, I saw $149, $169, $179, and $219. That’s almost a 50% spread on price. Talk about sowing confusion and alienating customers…
- POSITIONING: Obviously, every store had the iPod’s front and center. OK, makes sense. But the Samsung’s weren’t just out of the way - they were generally dirty, unplugged and battery drained, mislabeled, and generally disheveled. Does Samsung not have a freaking Retail Merchandiser in Winnipeg? The city draws a shopping population of over 1,000,000 people, the majority of who probably get their consumer electronics from under 30 retail locations. Why doesn’t Samsung have someone out there doing the rounds every day to ensure product condition, correct information, pricing, etc.? I know PEPSI does it on a weekly basis, sending reps around to 7-11’s and other retail channels. Why can’t Samsung?
- EDUCATION: That same merchandiser should be educating holiday staff at the retail outlets as to the product names and features. Most staff that I spoke too seemed surprised that the product existed, and when I pointed to the demo model reacted as if they’d never seen one before. Insanity.
The moral of the story? Apple has it together. Total value chain management. Prescient inventory loading of their retail partners. Flawless execution. Samsung doesn’t even appear to be making an effort. Is it any wonder Apple dominates?
The other moral: Samsung needs to get a clue.
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9 Responses to “The Unbearable Pain of Competing with Apple: Samsung’s Sad Christmas Tale”
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sounds like a lack of retail 101 to me.
you have to hand it to apple though, flawless products, flawless industrial designs, flawless entry into their own retail stores and flawless presentation of product in third party stores.
when these guys decide to do something, they do it right.
samsung has a good brand…. but its the last mile thats killing them.
incidentally, how did the zunes look?
Interesting. I’ve never been tempted by any MP3 player but the iPod partially because of the poor display environments of the retail stores.
Also, please leave off the “F” word. It’s not professional and doesn’t add to the information you’re trying to disseminate.
Any luck finding Wiis?
@steve - didn’t even notice the zunes; what does that say about MS’s last mile? Basically what I saw was a wall of Creative DAPS that looked like they were three years old (even though I think they’re all the present product cycle), with a smattering of similarly aged looking Sansa’s, and some Samsungs of various vintages. Basically, Apple is the ONLY brand with any presence whatsoever.
@wollie - cheers, and noted. I’ve been reading too many Nick Carr posts/comments, and the language was meant to underscore the frustrating 6 hours I spent negotiating traffic in my quest for a Samsung. At any rate - noted.
@partners - no idea! Not a gamer. I think availability here is OK though - I know a number of people with them, and I don’t recall their possession being the product of a prolonged search.
You were probably lucky… I suspect your wife will be much happier with the iPod (sic). The total experience is what matters, not the list of “specs”.
Language is important, “new” is not “knew,” and “fucked” is a shock word of value when used appropriately.
Fair enough, grammar police - but who are you to say when its appropriate for me? If you’d spent the day fighting through traffic in search of a particular product to be foiled by extremely poor execution, you might think it was appropriate too.
New/knew - yeah, fair enough. I’m not much for being my own editor. I’ll have to catch that later.
@jsm - also fair enough. I was nervous about stepping out of the itunes/ipod ecosystem; but to be honest, I found some value (and think my wife would have too) in the non-conformity of having something other than an ipod. They are a commoditized brand now - to me, their ubiquity is starting to detract from their cool.
Anyway - back to early christmas dinner! So fullllll….
man, what you are describing about samsung is exactly the way apple macs were before s.jobs return; it started to correct with the store within a store and went from there; so ironic that they have turned that retail experience and presence around;
[…] job Samsung - you’re getting some press! Now get your act together in the retail channel. retail, samsung timeShare This Sphere: Related ContentIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you […]