The Korea Herald

소아쌤

Anycall brand evolving

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Published : March 30, 2010 - 12:47

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Samsung Electronics` Anycall, which was launched 15 years ago, remains the most recognized handset brand in Korea, thanks to the company`s constant endeavors to keep and grow its brand value.
The Korean company has in recent years reinforced the brand image of Anycall by combining advertisement with entertainment content such as dramas under a marketing strategy called "branded entertainment."
Samsung introduced brand entertainment for the first time in Korea in 2005, launching a music drama called "AnyMotion," which featured music, dance, top stars, and a Samsung handset. Its music drama was aired on TV in the form of a music video or a TV commercial, and was spread on the internet via micro sites, portals, blogs and communities.
Samsung subsequently introduced three more music dramas, which created great buzz.
AnyMotion received 1.1 million hits in the three weeks after its introduction, while the second series AnyClub recorded 1.3 million hits and third series AnyStar and fourth series AnyBand got 6.3 million hits and 8.6 million hits, respectively. The music inserted into the dramas also gained huge popularity.
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Samsung`s latest brand entertainment product, Haptic Mission, adopted a different format -- a real variety show, which starred popular singer Son Dam-bi and four stars of the hit drama "Boys Over Flowers."
Haptic Mission was unveiled on its website and cable channel Mnet. After six days of its introduction, the content received 1 million hits, and recorded a viewing rate of 2.14 percent, which is very high for a cable channel.
Its clever brand marketing strategy has helped raise the value of the Anycall brand.
The brand value of Anycall jumped by 10-fold for the past 10 years from 524.4 billion won in 1998 to 5.7 trillion won in 2008, according to a study by Park Chan-soo, a business professor of Korea University.
Anycall catapulted Samsung into the top position in the local market -- long dominated by U.S. firm Motorola -- in 1995.
In 1994, Samsung launched the Anycall brand in 1993 with the rollout of the SH-700 phone, which weighed in at only 100 grams.
Since 1995, Samsung has retained its top position in the local handset market, holding an around 50 percent share for over 15 years.
"Anycall`s brand power has greatly contributed to Samsung`s assuming a dominant position in the local market," Park said.
Anycall cemented its reputation as a premium brand thanks to the popularity of touchscreen phone Haptic series that was first rolled out in 2008.
(hjjin@heraldcorp.com)