TITLE: Samsung SDI Energy Storage System (ESS) – Strategic Marketing
Evaluation & Future Challenges

Introduction

In the recent years, the demand for electricity has increased tremendously. Therefore, the energy storage system or ESS used to match the demand capacity to meet the requirement for energy has also grown concurrently. Energy storage systems can boost the usability of solar and other substitute renewable resources (Globe News Wire, 2018). An energy storage system allows the user to store and manage the energy flow and reduce waste of energy.

The global advanced energy storage market was valued at about USD12.3 million in 2017 and has an expected growth rate of 9% between 2018 and 2024 (Zion Market Research, 2018), and by 2022, it is forecasted that the ESS market will reach USD264 million.

Samsung SDI Co Ltd owns an energy segment that manufactures and sells ‘high-voltage electrical energy storage’ with high energy conversion efficiency. With the company’s ESS slogan ‘Powering Tomorrow’ the company seeks to contribute to the future of the energy industry with its range of ESS products (Bloomberg, 2018).

Samsung SDI Co Ltd belongs to Samsung Electronic Group. The energy segment focused on battery manufacturing (Nikkei Asian Review, 2018) and is now aggressively targeting the EU market with the new ESS system and is currently also a major player attracting key global players in the ESS industry.

Source: Zion Market Research, Allied Market Research, Bloomberg, Samsung SDI Co Ltd, Nikkei Asian Review.

Task
Analysis of strategic marketing context and critical evaluation of Strategic Marketing challenges to the future success of Samsung SDI Energy Storage System Division in relation to B2B markets.

Drawing and building on your understanding of strategic marketing theory and undertaking secondary research into the company, market and sector, you are required to analyse Samsung SDI Energy Storage System marketing strategy, evaluate its success and examine the strategic marketing challenges the company faces in the future.

To underpin your analysis of the company’s strategic marketing you must APPLY selected elements of theory covered in this module – note you must determine which are critically important to the company’s success and focus on these.

You must:
• Apply appropriate strategic marketing theory and models to examine the sector, the market and the company using suitable academic articles and texts
• Apply appropriate strategic marketing theory and models to evaluate the challenges facing the company in the future using suitable academic articles and texts
• Undertake suitable secondary research into the sector and market using appropriate secondary sources (non-academic)
• Refer to theory and practice in order to support your strategic marketing assessment
• Submit as a written report; Word count is 4,000 words (+/- 10%)
• Further details will be provided in class and on the module VLE Assessment section

Guidance:

The first part of this report (60%) consists of a Situational Analysis focusing on in-depth examination of company, competition, customer, collaboration and context. You must undertake*:

• Critical company analysis of Samsung SDI Energy Storage System –
o Examining the company’s mission/vision, Directional and Growth strategies, competences and competitive advantages by applying the Resource Based View (All 4 areas, with a focus on intangible/ marketing assets)

• Critical Competitive Analysis –
o Examining 2 key competitors to provide competitor profiling, strategies, competences and competitive positioning

• Critical Customer Analysis –
o Key target customer segments, behaviours and value sought
o Customer behaviours and trends analysis

• Critical Strategic Collaboration & Contextual factors/issues from the market context (issues not covered above) – identify and evaluate 2-3 of the most salient factors (e.g. key market structure, trends, etc).

• Very important – Tables and Appendices MUST be used effectively to demonstrate your evidence and evaluation.
o You must refer to these in the body of your report

• It is suggested that this section is 2,500 words approximately

• Please note – this is NOT a Corporate/strategic management assignment, and as such should focus on strategic marketing theory, concepts and models rather than generic models (NOT PESTLE, 5 Forces, SWOT)

• The second part of this report (40%) must analyse Samsung SDI Energy Storage System’s strategic marketing options and planning in future and must include*:
• Examination of TWO of the module’s key topics:
o Innovation Strategies
o International Marketing Strategies
o Relationship Strategies
o Service Strategies
o Social & Ethical Strategies
o Note – Value is core concept to emphasise throughout the whole report

• Consideration of the challenges facing Samsung SDI Energy Storage System in future
o This must be integrated into the examination of the above

• It is suggested that this section is 1,500 words approximately

– You MUST:

• refer to suitable theoretical concepts, models and terms to underpin your discussion

• refer to appropriate academic articles and texts relating to strategic marketing and your chosen topics

• use tables and appendices to demonstrate your application of the key academic themes/theory to the (secondary) case evidence to support your evaluations

• Please note that the Marketing Mix is not suitable at this level or relevant to this work
*Please note that these are not suggested headings/sub-headings and you are advised to determine your own headings to include these points

The above MUST be underpinned by credible supporting evidence (non-academic secondary) AND application of appropriate strategic marketing theory, concepts and terms.