Top 10 global brands
Don't globalize, localize
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- 2. Embrace paradox.
- 3. Robots Not so fast.
- 4. Put an engineer in the hot seat.
- 5. Focus on factory flexibility.
- 2. Consistent branding messages are another tactic employed by Apple.
- 3. Apple has sought to cultivate customer enthusiasm.
1. Don't globalize, localize.Unlike Toyota and most other multinationals in any industry, Honda is not a top-down company, controlled by headquarters. Instead, Honda manufacturing subsidiaries virtually everywhere around the world operate as autonomous companies, designing and producing vehicles based on local conditions and consumer behavior. In "The Machine That Changed the World," the landmark book about automobile lean manufacturing, the authors praised Honda's localization strategy for "its conviction about doing it all in one place" — in other words, combining engineering, design, and manufacturing functions in each of its large local facilities. By contrast, virtually all industrial companies keep R&D and other technical and design functions close to home, where they can be managed by executives who are miles removed from local preferences and circumstances. 2. Embrace paradox.Honda is a questioning, knowledge-rich organization, which demands that its workers at all levels continually poke holes in the status quo. They do that through daily, often spontaneous meetings known as "waigaya" during which decisions, large and small, are reevaluated and turned on their head in hopes of finding a better strategic or tactical choice. Throughout its relatively short history, Honda has welcomed paradox as a way to promote critical thinking and reassess the so-called common wisdom, shaping new responses to ingrained expectations. As one Honda executive put it: "Waigaya to me means perpetual dissatisfaction. At our company, self-satisfaction is the enemy." The value of this system to a multinational organization is immeasurable. Nothing is more important for global companies today than having the dexterity to be simultaneously local and international, to swiftly respond to regional preferences while scaling operating tactics and manufacturing improvements around the world. And as Honda's success in the international arena demonstrates, this capability is directly linked to unremittingly reexamining with every new automobile model — more broadly, with every new undertaking what is already believed to be true.
3. Robots? Not so fast.Even as most major industrial corporations view robots and other forms of automation as the best way to reduce costs and maintain productivity, Honda prefers a different path. Honda's factories are purposefully the most labor intensive in the auto industry, employing robots only in areas that are dangerous or otherwise obviously less fit for humans than machines. Honda believes that assemblers become disengaged and their enthusiasm for their jobs and, by extension, local innovation is muted by the presence of machines whose sole purpose is to build cars cheaper and faster than humans. As Honda sees it, that output and quality standards are too often set to the levels that the technology can achieve and rather than the boundless creativity of human imagination. Consequently, to enhance performance in a local facility, a new piece of equipment would have to be purchased, instead of a new potentially revolutionary process invented. "Once you automate, you're incapable of further improvement," said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research, paraphrasing Honda's perspective.
4. Put an engineer in the hot seat.Since Honda's founding in 1949 all of the company's CEOs (including the father of the company, Soichiro Honda) have been engineers, veterans of Honda's prized autonomous research and development unit. That's an extraordinary record: Conventional wisdom among multinationals holds that the most effective chief executives are specialists in marketing, sales, or perhaps accounting — anything but engineering. As a result, even CEOs in technologically based industries, like pharmaceuticals or computer hardware and software, tend to know little about designing or manufacturing the products that they sell or managing the global supply chain or factory footprint. That's often why CEOs favor centralization in which their most loyal lieutenants near headquarters oversee distributed operations, acting as both a trusted proxy and informant for the chief executive. Reared in R&D, Honda CEOs' strengths lie in product and process innovation, primarily in designing new vehicle models and features and in conceiving fresh techniques for building them faster and better. Consequently, their success as managers is measured not by quarter-to-quarter results but instead by how well they cultivate individual creativity throughout the organization and how well they disburse Honda's unique corporate culture to its decentralized localization strategy to produce continuous innovation.
5. Focus on factory flexibility.Unlike other manufacturers, Honda can seamlessly produce multiple autos on a single assembly line, one after another, and switch a line over to a newly designed vehicle within hours. By contrast, it can take months for Honda's rivals to retool a factory for a new vehicle. One way Honda achieves this is through in-house engineering co-located at each major production facility, serving as an independent operation that is focused solely on local needs. Any problems that arise in the flexible factory can be addressed immediately by this team — which at most companies resides near headquarters and reports to corporate top executives — ensuring that the steady stream of automobiles going through the line is not impeded. Such an efficient and nimble factory is the Holy Grail for all manufacturers and Honda has earned high marks from auto analysts for its ability to deftly navigate this challenge. In globalization terms, the advantage Honda gains is in being able to alter production and capacity of individual models at a moment's notice, depending on local sales trends and the success of competitive brands. Honda invented the flexible factory through an innovation known as synchronized engineering: all of the vehicles coming into a factory's assembly zones share common designs, such as similar locations and installation techniques for functions like brakes or transmission. As a result, assemblers are agnostic about which car they are building because in the factory only small variations differentiate, say, an Odyssey from an Accord V6. PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING THE GLOBAL BRAND Honda has seen a strengthening in the value of its brand for the third year in a row. International consultancy Interbrand have recently published the 2015 edition of its Best Global Brands ranking, placing Honda as the 19th most valuable global brand. Honda’s brand was valued in excess of $22 billion, an increase of six per cent compared to 2014. This valuation improved Honda’s position in the all industry ranking by one place. This result is the latest positive news for the brand following a year of extensive product introductions, particularly in the European region. In the last 12 months Honda has renewed its entire car range with all-new versions of its Jazz hatchback, HR-V compact crossover, and heavily refreshed versions of the Civic hatchback and CR-V four-wheel drive compact SUV. Meanwhile Honda’s motorcycle range has seen no fewer than seven new product introductions, including the Moto GP inspired RC213V-S superbike. Other product introductions across the corporation include a revised version of the unique robotic mower, Miimo, and the first flights of the HondaJet aircraft. 2016 is set to be another positive year for the Honda brand as it launches its next generation FCV hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and an icon returns to showrooms in the shape of the NSX supercar. SAMSUNG
Samsung is one of the world's largest technology providers. It started out as trading company exporting various products from South Korea to Beijing, China. Founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938, Samsung gradually developed into the multinational corporation that it is today. The word Samsung means "three stars" in Korean. It became the name associated with different types of business establishments in South Korea and in various parts of the world. Internationally, people associate the name with electronics, information technology and development. In 1969, Samsung Electronics was born. From there, the company started acquiring and creating different business establishments including a hospital, paper manufacturing plant, life insurance company, department stores and many others. The company was destined to become a household name starting in its mother country and spanning its reach to many other cities internationally. Samsung Electronics started catering to the international market in the seventies kicking off with the corporation's acquisition of half of Korea Semiconductor which made it the leading electronics manufacturer in the country. The success of Samsung as a technology provider continues to grow through the eighties as Samsung Electronics was merged with Samsung Semiconductors and Telecommunications. This paved the way towards a stronger hold on the international market with high-tech products that will become a staple in every home. This development continued on through the next decade as Samsung kept on going beyond its boundaries and restructuring its business plan to accommodate the global scene. Adopting a new form of management proved to be a wise move for the company as its products made their way on the list of top must-haves in their various fields. TV-LCD's, picture tubes, Samsung printers and other high-tech products became popular acquisitions due to their high quality. When Samsung ventured into the LCD industry in 1993, it became the world's best. The company's excellent method of quality control is what makes it successful in providing only the best products to the whole world. It applies a "Line Stop" system wherein anybody can stop the process of production in the event that substandard products are discovered. To date, Samsung continues to maintain its status as the "world's best" technology provider. Its highly qualified workforce is still striving for excellence in their respective fields making the whole company a huge success in the making. The secret to the company's continuous success is in the constant improvement of its management structure and the application of its philosophies: "We will devote our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society." STRENGTHS Samsung is the world’s most successful electronics manufacturer. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of television sets, liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, mobile phones and smartphones. Samsung is the world’s number one marketer of mobile phones with 21.4% of the world’s largest market share in the second quarter of 2015. Apple is number two with 13.9%[2] Samsung has impressive research and design capabilities. It was able to create and roll out Samsung Pay, a payment app with similar capabilities to Apple Pay, in less than a year. Samsung has been able to replicate many of the capabilities of both Apple Inc.’s phones and Google Inc.’s Android operating system for mobile devices. Samsung has strong manufacturing and marketing capabilities. Samsung has long-standing relationships with retailers in the United States and Europe that provide a steady sales channel for its products WEAKNESSES Samsung has not been able to match Apple Inc.’s marketing capabilities for smartphones. Its share of the U.S. smartphone market fell by 2.3% between 2014 and 2015. In contrast, Apple’s share price grew by 34.9%. Some Chinese competitors are catching up to Samsung in the smartphone market. Between 2014 and 2015 Huawei’s share grew by 48.1%, and Xiaomi’s share grew by 29.4%. Samsung is heavily dependent upon consumer electronics sales in markets with limited potential for growth, such as the United States and Europe, for much of its revenue. Samsung’s devices use the Google Android open source operating system. Many consumers seem to view Android as an inferior product to Apple’s iOS. The public has not been as accepting of Android as the tech community has. Some consumers view Apple products as more advanced and dependable than Samsung products. Samsung’s marketing efforts are not as sophisticated as Apple’s. STRATEGIES BEING EMPLOYED As TFT monitors are primarily aimed at corporate customers, the marketing strategy adopted by Samsung necessitates a completely different approach. Samsung has identified a potential market amongst business users, whose employees might spend long periods of time in front of a computer screen and need a larger display with better definition. The financial centres in the City have likewise proved an important market. A further group of customers are high street shops, in particular fashion outlets such as Jigsaw, who have installed Samsung TFTs at their point of sale terminals. As the customer steps up to the counter, the sales assistant records the sale, whilst images and details of complementary products are displayed on the screen. To encourage business users to buy Samsung monitors, a radical marketing strategy has been developed. With support from Head Office in Korea, a number of initiatives have been introduced to raise brand awareness and instil good perceptions of the product. An open day and seminar for corporate customers, along with a high profile press launch were organised. Advertising was carefully targeted at business users, particularly in the City and in product specific magazines and papers. One-to-one marketing has also been used, mailing promotional material directly to the customer. The cost of this technology means that TFT LCD monitors are still more expensive than conventional CRT monitors, although the price is falling steadily as manufacturing
Samsung was ranked by Interbrand as the seventh best global brand in 2015, with Samsung Electronics coming in first in Saudi Arabia in 2015 and first in Russia for its fifth year in a row last year. Samsung was the second most valuable global brand according to Brand Finance in 2015 with a brand value of $81.7 billion in sales. APPLE HISTORY Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs had been friends in high school. They had both been interested in electronics, and both had been perceived as outsiders. They kept in touch after graduation, and both ended up dropping out of school and getting jobs working for companies in Silicon Valley. (Woz for Hewlett-Packard, Jobs for Atari) Wozniak had been dabbling in computer-design for some time when, in 1976, he designed what would become the Apple I. Jobs, who had an eye for the future, insisted that he and Wozniak try to sell the machine, and on April 1, 1976, Apple Computer was born. Hobbyists did not take the Apple I very seriously, and Apple did not begin to take off until 1977, when the Apple II debuted at a local computer trade show. The first personal computer to come in a plastic case and include color graphics, the Apple II was an impressive machine. Orders for Apple machines were multiplied by several times after its introduction. And with the introduction in early '78 of the Apple Disk II, the most inexpensive, easy to use floppy drive ever (at the time), Apple sales further increased. With the increase in sales, however, came an increase in company size, and by 1980, when the Apple III was released, Apple had several thousand employees, and was beginning to sell computers abroad. Apple had taken on a number of more experienced mid-level managers and, more importantly, several new investors, who opted to take seats on the board of directors. Older, more conservative men, the new directors made sure that Apple became a "real company," much to the dismay of many of its original employees. In 1981, things got a bit more difficult. A saturated market made it more difficult to sell computers, and in February. Apple was forced to lay off 40 employees. Wozniak was injured in a plane crash. He took a leave of absence and returned only briefly. Jobs became chairman of Apple computer in March. STRENGTHS This aspect of Apple’s SWOT analysis identifies the biggest strengths that enable the company to withstand threats in its business environment. These threats can reduce business performance. In Apple’s case, the following are the most notable organizational strengths:
Apple is one of the most valuable and strongest brands in the world. This part of the SWOT analysis shows that the company is capable of introducing profitable new products by virtue of its strong brand image. In addition, Apple maintains its premium pricing strategy, which comes with high profit margins. This is a major strength because it creates flexibility for the firm to adjust prices while ensuring significant profits. Also, Apple is known for rapid innovation based on the company’s intensive growth strategies. Rapid innovation enables the firm to keep abreast with the latest technologies to ensure competitive advantage. Based on this dimension of Apple’s SWOT analysis, the company’s strengths are difficult to compete with, thereby supporting the firm’s continued leadership in the industry. WEAKNESSES In this aspect of Apple’s SWOT analysis, the emphasis is on the weaknesses or inadequacies of the company. Weaknesses can serve as obstacles to business growth. In Apple’s case, the following organizational weaknesses are the most notable:
Apple has a limited distribution network because of the company’s policy of exclusivity. For instance, the company carefully selects authorized sellers of its products. This part of Apple’s SWOT analysis shows that such an exclusive strategy supports control over the distribution of products, but limits the company’s market reach. In addition, because of the premium pricing strategy, Apple has the weakness of having most of its sales revenues from the high-end market. This market is composed of customers from the middle and upper classes. Customers from the lower class, which represents the majority of buyers in the global market, are unable to purchase Apple products because of the relatively high prices. Thus, based on this dimension of Apple’s SWOT analysis, the company’s pricing and distribution strategies impose limitations or weaknesses in the business. STRATEGIES BEING EMPLOYED There is no doubt that Apple has been one of the most successful businesses of the entire century. In addition to its millions of fans, one other testament to its popularity is the sheer number of copycat products that have been developed over the years. In fact, some would say that based upon history, Microsoft itself owes its famous operating system to Apple. However, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Apple. During the 1990s, the company was in a steady decline. This was partly due to the fact that Mac owners did not have a tech or sales support team available. Because of this, the Windows era took over almost exclusively. By 2001, Apple was determined to satisfy existing customers and gain new ones by focusing upon marketing efforts in traditional retail stores. Below are some of the basic strategies that eventually took Apple beyond the $300 billion mark. 1. Quality is the most important aspect of any marketing campaign, since it all begins with the product or service being offered.Without quality, no company can build the sort of stable momentum it needs to survive and grow. No matter what marketing brilliance Apple had employed, ultimately sub-par products would have done the company in eventually. Above all, some level of sophistication is key. This is essential in order to consistently beat the competition. For example, there is an unmistakable luxury that exists inside of Apple Stores. The products are interactively displayed so that users can touch and experience them, unlike in so many other stores. The beauty of it is that even the most simple products and services can give off an air of refinement. The staff is plentiful and accessible. Also, most of the stores offer free in-depth classes on how to use their products, adding to their allure. Doing this makes all of their products accessible even to novice users. 2. Consistent branding messages are another tactic employed by Apple.Regardless of where an Apple product is purchased, it has the same level of quality. This puts forth a branding message of excellence that has attracted legions of loyal customers. Much like the dime store giant of days gone by, F.W. Woolworth, Apple set out to make their stores browse worthy. Each store is uniquely designed so that there is no doubt that people are in an Apple store. While there is nothing gratuitous about the design of Apple’s products, the company has managed to make customers feel as though they are treating themselves to an elite product line that epitomizes a level of luxury like no other. They are packaged to be simplistically appealing, yet always do more than similar products. As a result, Apple customers feel special just for using their products. This is perhaps the most ingenious public relations strategy in retail marketing history. 3. Apple has sought to cultivate customer enthusiasm.The basis for loyalty is enthusiasm. In order for customers to become loyal, they must be connected to the products and services they are using. Every savvy business marketer knows that it is the repeat customer who will sustain a business. Therefore, rather than spend so much time chasing after new customers, ensure that the existing ones are happy. Not only does this make the road to repeat business shorter, but the word of mouth advertising from satisfied customers is invaluable. When a company has fans camped out overnight in the rain for days just to be the first people to get new products, they have reached rock star level. By creating fans rather than just customers, a company is pretty much guaranteed a strong and loyal base. In today’s competitive marketplace, this is essential for any business to survive. PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING THE GLOBAL BRAND Apple has appeared on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands ranking since 2000, when the ranking debuted. In 2000, Apple ranked number 36 and had a brand value of $6.6 billion. Today, Apple’s brand value is $98.3 billion – almost 15 times the amount of its brand value in 2000. Apple’s meteoric rise in brand value can be attributed to the way it has created a seamless omnichannel experience for customers. By keeping consumers at the center of everything it does, Apple is able to anticipate what they want next and break new ground in terms of both design and performance. With 72 million Macs in use and record-breaking sales of both the iPhone and iPad, Apple has made history by unseating Coca-Cola and becoming Interbrand’s most valuable global brand of 2013. Download 0.5 Mb. Share with your friends:
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