Samsung named world's fastest growing brand

Posted on 25 Jul 2003 at 16:46

Samsung has been named the 'Fastest Growing Global Brand' by Interbrand, a global brand consultancy. For a second year in a row the South Korean electronics giant has taken this particular marketing garland.

Interbrand calculates that Samsung's brand value has more than doubled from $5.2 billion in 2001 to its current $10.8 billion, rising by 33 per cent since last year's results. In Interbrand's annual survey of the top 100 global brands Samsung came in at 25th, up from 34th place in 2002.

More familiar IT names at the top of the chart include Microsoft at number 2 (with a $65.17bn brand value, increasing 2 per cent), IBM at 3 ($51.77, up 1 per cent), Intel at 5 ($31.11, also up 1 per cent) and Nokia at number 6 ($29.44, down 2 per cent). Coca Cola was top of the heap.

Quite how Interbrand so accurately measures such matters is not exactly clear, but Samsung claims it is all just going to plan. Specifically, the strategy of a former chairman.

'Chairman Kun-Hee Lee identified and emphasized the great competitive value of building a premium brand in 1996. ' said TaeHo Kim, VP of Samsung's Corporate Communications, in an official company statement. 'Because of this, we have launched a coordinated global program to make Samsung a top international brand and have led the effort by establishing a unified corporate identity that extends to all of our marketing activities.'

Samsung's concentration on branding issues was apparently part of the company's 'global quality initiative' back in the early nineties. Chairman Lee declared that their brand needed to become synonymous with world-class products, employees and processes.

The company now claims to be number one for worldwide market share in semiconductor memory chips, flat-panel monitors and colour TVs, and number three for global market share for mobile-phone handsets.

'The continuously strong rise of Samsung's brand value reflects the company's commitment to invest in its brand on a global scale and make brand value a key corporate target throughout the organization from including the CEO and all employees,' said Jan Lindemann, Global Managing Director of Interbrand. 'Samsung has successfully made brand building the key focus of its marketing strategy including product development, selection of distribution channels, channel marketing as well as external and internal communications.'

A brand to be reckoned with? What are your thoughts on the rise of Samsung? Leave a comment via the link below.