The principle of innovative marketing requires that the company continuously seek real product and marketing improvements. The company that overlooks new and better ways to do things will eventually lose customers to another company that has found a better way. An excellent example of an innovative marketer is Samsung:

Less than a decade ago, Samsung was a copycat consumer electronics brand you bought off a shipping pallet at Costco if you couldn’t afford a Sony. But today, the brand holds a high-end, cutting-edge aura. In 1996, Samsung Electronics made an inspired decision. It turned its back on cheap knock-offs and set out to overtake rival Sony. The company hired a crop of fresh, young designers, who unleashed a torrent of new products — not humdrum, me-too products, but innovative and stylish products, targeted to high-end users. Samsung called them “lifestyle works of art” — from brightly colored cell phones and elegantly thin DVD players to flat-panel TV monitors that hung on walls like paintings. Every new product had to pass the “Wow!” test: if it didn’t get a “Wow!” reaction during market testing, it went straight back to the design studio. 

Samsung supported the innovative new products with a $400 million marketing campaign, headed by ads proclaiming that Samsung is “DigitAll” and that “everyone’s invited.” Samsung also changed its distribution to match its new caché. It abandoned low-end distributors such as Wal-Mart and Kmart, instead building strong relationships with specialty retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City. Samsung is now the world’s fastest growing brand. It’s No. 1 worldwide in ultra-thin computer and television screens, No. 2 in DVD players, and No. 3 in mobile phones. The Samsung brand is valued at an estimated $11 billion, almost tripled its value just 4 years ago.

“Samsung’s performance continues to astound brand watchers,” says one analyst. The company has become a model for others that “want to shift from being a cheap supplier to a global brand.” Says a Samsung designer, “We’re not el cheapo anymore.”

Innovative marketing: In less than a decade, Samsung has given its brand a cutting-edge image by unleashing a torrent of new products — not humdrum, me-too products, but innovative and stylish products, targeted to high-end users.