We know that headline is what drew your attention, so we are going to jump straight to the number you want to read: $4.6 Billion dollars (4.89 trillion won). That's the astounding sum that Samsung spent on advertising and promotions throughout the globe last year for all of their products. Compare this to last year when they spent $2.2 billion, (2.37 trillion won), which was already a titanic sum, and you can see the massive marketing power Samsung is leveraging across our little planet.
There are some interesting figures hidden within these numbers. First, much of these numbers have been shifted around a bit. Samsung actually spent more money on sales promotions like rebates, coupons and other incentives, this time than it did on straight advertising. This shifts the savings directly to the consumer, which is something to be appreciative about. Here's a quote with more of the details,
For just the two first quarters of 2013, Samsung Electronics spent a whopping 934 billion won ($888 million) on sales promotions, up 38.7% from a year earlier, and another 1.71 trillion won ($661 million, down 60%) on advertising in its home country of South Korea alone.
These figures also offer up a stark vision of just how tough it is for any of Samsung's competition to get ahead against them. Just like the person with the most chips at the Poker table, Samsung can afford to drive the direction of the entire game. Even if you are a fan of Samsung, it's not hard to see that this isn't necessarily a good thing. Competition is ultimately important for the market to thrive. What do you think it will take for anyone else to gain market traction against this behemoth?
Source: PhoneArena