Samsung Electronics is shifting to a new brand paradigm geared toward becoming a global top five company by 2020. 

The Korean electronics giant has so far followed fragmentary strategies to enhance the company and each product’s brand. From now on, Samsung Electronics has decided to set its brand goals and continuously conducting technology development, design, sales, marketing, and social contribution activities in accordance with brand goals the company plans to establish. The enhancement of brand image is not a marketing tool, but takes center stage in its management activities. This move may be construed as its determination to reposition its brand power fitting to a global IT maker with the world’s highest sales, departing from the conventional outward growth-oriented paradigm focusing on sales growth, industrial analysts said. 

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun said in his speech at a ceremony to mark the 43rd anniversary of its founding, “Samsung Electronics strives to become an aspirational brand with the goal of making people experience new opportunities and greater dreams through the brand Samsung.”

Kwon urged his executives and staff members to internalize their aspirations and innovation toward the brand and make it part of their daily life so as to further upgrade products and services.

On Nov. 1, Samsung Electronics distributed to its executives and staff members the “Brand Playbook” containing the direction of brand strategies they share and roles they should carry out. It is the first time Samsung Electronics has doled out such a booklet. The booklet contains guidelines for putting into practice brand strategies tailored to achieve the goal of becoming a global top five brand. It specifies approach methods according to each job classification, including designers, salespeople, and technicians.

The book maintains that innovation takes place where there are aspirations for discovering something. In the same vein, Samsung Electronics placed a large-size placard that reads “Discovery Start Here” at the fa?ade of the plant in Suwon, south of Seoul.

The ultimate goal for Samsung Electronics’ brand is summed up in the words “Brand Ideal.” According to Jim Stengel, an American businessman and an adjunct professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a brand ideal is a shared intent by everyone in a business to improve people’s lives. 

Jim gave a lecture to about 400 Samsung Electronics executives and staff members at the Suwon plant on June 26. 

Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy, recently released a list of the best global brands in which Samsung Electronics became the first Korean company to rank among the top 10 global companies. Coca-Cola topped the list followed by Apple, IBM, Google, and Microsoft. Intel ranked eighth while Samsung Electronics placed ninth.

A Samsung Electronics official said the move is Samsung Electronics’ pledge to play the role of a leader, departing from the conventional image of the company as a “fast follower.” Attention is being paid on whether Samsung Electronics will be able to reestablish its corporate image as an innovative company like Apple.