As of late, everyone knows the 2.5 million phone recall for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. It was supposed to be Samsung’s newest renovated smartphone and unfortunately things did not go as planned. There have been over 100 reported incidents of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone catching on fire and has led to the phone’s recall. This has caused Samsung to lose over 5 billion dollars in profit. Samsung believes that there was a fault with the lithium-ion batteries that were supplied for the new phone, however they are not entirely sure and have begun investigations. This past Tuesday Samsung has stopped production and sales of the Galaxy Note 7 device, 2 months after its first release. For Samsung to gain the public’s trust once again it will cost them a lot, not just the money to recall all the phones and the forgone production and sales costs as well. Plus, Samsung will lose business for all its other products as well because consumers question Samsung’s quality as well.
Samsung has a battle on its hands to rebuild its reputation. They are at a risk to lose profit, its loyal consumers, and brand equity. For other large corporations like Samsung, brand equity is one of the most valuable assets to a company. In my opinion, the only thing that will boost Samsung’s reputation is by building other new smartphones that are reliable and have revolutionary new features, just like the virtual reality headsets that Samsung has made for its phones. However, yes at first Samsung’s phones may not have as great sales as its prior phones, overtime if they are consistent and true to their brand then sales may rise once again.
Yes, for now Samsung’s profits and consumer levels have gone down but as time goes on profits and consumers will come back to them eventually. Samsung needs to have a sense of urgency to find the problem behind its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones and make it known to the public. We currently do not officially know the problems with the phones other then there supposedly being something wrong with their batteries. We need an official statement from Samsung making known the issues with the smartphone. Samsung should also compensate its consumers that bought the phones and apologize to them too. If Samsung wants to keep its loyal customers that bought these devices they should also think of sending vouchers for a new product that they are preparing to bring to the public or a new free phone as well.
Samsung as a company needs to also grow as well. They need to grow by regaining their market share and to do so they need to gain more customers’ confidence in their company. Hopefully, overtime customers will gain more faith in Samsung and they can fully recover as a technology giant.