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Samsung is Hoping To Rekindle Note Brand Name Next Year (techcrunch.com)
Samsung is stepping up its brand damage limitation efforts in the wake of the flaming battery disaster of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone by offering owners of the recalled device in South Korea the ability to upgrade to a Galaxy S8 or Note 8 device next year if they trade in their Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 now. TechCrunch adds:The offer implies Samsung is not in fact intending to retire the Note brand name for good, despite it now being associated with smoldering batteries and exploding smartphones. A cause for the battery overheating problem, which affected some replacement Note 7 devices as well as a number of original devices, has yet to be conclusively identified by the company. Users in its home country who opt for the upgrade program will only need to pay half the price of a Galaxy S7 in order to exchange to an S8 or Note 8 next year -- so they're being offered next year's flagship Samsung phablet at around half price. The company is presumably hoping brand loyalty to the Note can begin at home, although it's possible it might extent the offer to other markets.
The name "Note" is strongly linked to the burning batteries, even more than "Samsung". So they're trying to make everyone forget about the battery disaster by using again the name "Note" on a new - hopefully not burning - phone? That's a big mistake. They should swallow the bad year 2016 and start with a complete new brand name next year.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Indeed. But, more to the point, it will take a Herculean effort to untarnish the Galaxy Notes name. I do not think Samsung will succeed.
Unfortunately for Samsung, the problem may have crossed the threshold of marketing disaster. While the typical hype might be forgotten quickly, this problem turned into a federal offense to carry these phones on a US carrier.
The fact that air travelers must now suddenly be aware of their phone's make and model, and explicitly be aware of the Galaxy Note brand as "the banned one", is a PR disaster.
Most people don't know or care about these details which is why most of these events blow over after a few months. But this time, you are inconveniencing *all* air travelers to check their phones and become aware of the Samsung Galaxy Note brand in a bad way. So it's not just Samsung owners who have to pay attention to this. And the threat of breaking US federal law by not paying attention to this forces people to actually pay attention and inconvenience themselves, which helps drill in the bad brand connotation in a longer term way.
Then Samsung setting up recall kiosks at airports, while the right thing to do, is also a negative reinforcement of the brand image.
Samsung's saving grace is that they seemed to try to handle the problem in an honest way, without any coverup. (YouTube takedowns notwithstanding.) This helps keep the trust with their customers. If it later comes out that that Sansumg did something questionable, then they will have another PR disaster and I bet they will ditch the brand for sure.