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Samsung brand awareness rising

January 17, 2014
A display shows Samsung phone covers representing countries taking part in the 2014 Olympic Games, at the 2014 International CES, a trade show of consumer electronics, in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 8, 2014. (UPI / yonhap)

A display shows Samsung phone covers representing countries taking part in the 2014 Olympic Games, at the 2014 International CES, a trade show of consumer electronics, in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 8, 2014. (UPI / yonhap)

By Choi Kyong-ae

Korean brands have been undervalued in global markets but aggressive marketing and improved product quality are pushing up the brand value of certain Korean players such as Samsung and Hyundai Motor Group.

In its latest achievement, Samsung has made it to the top 10 in 12 major countries in a brand awareness survey of 15 countries, according to YouGov, an international market research consultancy. Samsung Group runs Samsung Electronics as its flagship unit.

Samsung topped the YouGov BrandIndex Buzz Rankings in Saudi Arabia for the year 2013, while taking second spot in China, Germany and France. It ranked the third in the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates, YouGov said on its web page.

The U.K.-based market survey company noted that Samsung’s strong performance was largely helped by its recent brand-awareness campaign in Europe to promote the Galaxy S4 smartphone and the mirror-less Galaxy NX camera.

“Samsung has a higher market share in the Middle East; faring better than its rivals there, this led to higher brand recognition of and preference for its smartphones and other products,” Boston Consulting Group partner Choi In-hyuk told The Korea Times by telephone.

The ranking outcome is decided using YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score which asks respondents, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

YouGov’s BrandIndex is a daily measure of brand perception among the public, tracking many brands across multiple sectors simultaneously. So the scores are representative of the general population and range from minus 100 points to 100 points.

Samsung earned the highest score of 62.2 points in Saudi Arabia, followed by 58.1 in the UAE, 57.9 in Brazil, 54.1 in Mexico and 46.9 in China, the results showed.

The company also made it to the top 10 improvers list in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, meaning its brand recognition among local customers in the Middle East is getting stronger, they said.

“A combination of corporate social responsibility, and sports and product marketing in global markets are paying off in the form of brand value improvement,” a Samsung Group official said without elaborating.

Samsung overwhelmed Google and Apple in the YouGov rankings as the two U.S. companies appeared on the top 10 list in seven and three countries, respectively, the results showed.

The company’s brand value jumped to $41.9 billion in 2012 from $32.2 billion in 2008, according to Interbrand, a New York-based global brand consulting group.