Motorola (GOOG) new phone, Moto-X, has as good a chance as any other on the market to succeed (or not). After having some time with the phone, I tell you, when a product has all that is necessary and no objections.
But building a very good device is not how you win in the Smartphone wars. For this, you need marketing and advertising. That is why Motorola as much as $500 million to the word on his latest phone is reportedly ready to spend . Now $500 million is a lot of money, but let us, in perspective.
In the year 2012, Apple (AAPL) for advertising spent $1 billion .
In the same year, Samsung (005930: KS) for advertising issued $4 billion .
According to Asymcos Horace Dediu, Samsung spent even $5.3 billion on "Promotion," which is French for commissions and in-store displays, training and other expenses. Roll together all Samsung is marketing, advertising and promotion costs and you're on a budget of $11 billion.
Advertising gets much attention, but are arguably more important marketing, sales and advertising. In most cases, the decision is carried out, a certain phone to buy in a shop. And this decision is based on the quality of the display, which know condition showroom mobile phones, and it and the enthusiasm for the sales staff recommendations. It's not like splashy Super Bowl Ad, but it is what makes mobile phones.
Not every dollar (euros or won) in Samsung's marketing budget devoted to smartphones, but many of them are. A: the Samsung display at every wireless retailer show. You will see that all the telephones are switched on, all of them work and have any demo mode to show what they can do. That is far away from some of the other devices you there - don't - those who have turned off or function at all, and that is no coincidence. Samsung spends money to ensure that its equipment in retail stores look chic.
Earlier this year, Samsung mobile marketing chief said DJ Lee me, that the company takes very seriously in-store sales. "We have teams monitoring branches in various countries", he said. "The best way for us to sell our equipment is in storage."
Motorola knows that it must pay the same attention to detail. Last week CEO Dennis Woodside explained how Moto-X would be prominently displayed at points of sale. Based on Samsungs Lee, he said that Motorola "has teams in-store employee on the phone functions, to train especially the new non-contact control functions." AT & T (T) stores appear the full range of colours and options so people can see how much you can customize your cell phone online. To personalize, for those who like to get their account number in a business up but still go home and their equipment also "X cards" containing a code with which a customer to add the account that you set up in the memory on the phone, the online build it, can have AT & T.
If Motorola ready, $500 million for advertising spend, then harass for them. The company itself got better prepare on an amount equal to large (or larger) on the harder work, that Verizon Wireless employees to drop the Moto-X instead of a Galaxy S4.
