How do you keep a brand in motion when you’ve got a constant deluge of new products? At Samsung Europe, questions like these are the province of Hadrian Baumann, Director of European marketing at the Samsung Electronics European Headquarters in London. Baumann, a German native, made his way to Samsung after winning a scholarship to attend Nanjing University (China), where he fell in love with the Far East and its people—his wife is Korean. Now 40, Baumann says he has realized that, as a French customer put it to him last year, “coming to Korea made me rediscover my soul.” “Working for Samsung,” he says “has more than fulfilled all my dreams in a professional and personal sense.” —Craig Bromberg

A few years ago, Samsung’s brand was summed up as “Simple, Inclusive, Wow.” What would you say is the core of Samsung’s brand today?
It’s very clearly the concept of “Sensational Technology.” You can see it manifested in all our latest products from the hugely successful R7 LCD TV to our Ultra mobile phones. It’s fair to say we have moved on from being a “Simple, Inclusive, Wow” brand to being a premium brand that responds uniquely to customers’ needs.

Samsung has had extraordinary brand growth. What are the most effective tools in your arsenal?
Our highly desirable products are at the heart of our brand growth and without them all our communication efforts would be nothing more than a smokescreen. Most of our branding efforts are focused on a clearly selected target audience, the Digital Generation, the people who are open to innovation and challengers as well as having a strong influence on their parents and peers. It goes without saying that we constantly adjust our communication vehicles to be in line with the media consumption of this key target audience. The Internet is one communication channel where we’ve seen a lot of positive buzz and subsequent sales. But it’s our focus on retail marketing with our key partners in Europe that has made a huge difference to the perception of Samsung and helped us to become the most highly recommended LCD TV brand in less than two years. Finally, we have been able to add another dimension to our brand communications by aligning ourselves successfully with leading “cool” brands such as Xbox 360, Adidas, and Audi.

What plans or steps can we expect to see in Samsung’s product lines in the next year or two to tactically achieve these goals?
Right now, we’re making major efforts to develop products which are capable of creating and driving truly new markets. This program is sponsored by our Vice-Chairman Yun and requests the local offices to apply a rigorous planning process in order to come up with potential hit products. Initial results are encouraging but there is still major room for improvement.

Is the idea of a truly global brand (or company) truly practical?
When comparing Samsung’s brand image in Europe to that in China, there is undoubtedly some difference but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t portray one single brand identity to our target audience. With more people (especially in the High Life Seeker segment) moving from country to country for work or personal reasons and the Internet blurring traditional cultural boundaries, we are more likely to find similarities between 15-year-olds in Tokyo, Seoul, New York, or London than between them and their parents—even though they share the same nationality and mother tongue. Truly successful global brands respect these mega-trends, align their messages to their global audiences, and do not stick to old and outdated paradigms.

How do you brand in the context of Amazon, Google, and social media sites where consumer opinion is increasingly more powerful than advertising?
Consumers were always skeptical of big brands but still stick to them rather than buy something unknown—the market share of the major brands for LCD TV and mobile phones in Europe is between 80 and 90 percent. What’s changed is that they finally have a way of expressing their thoughts freely on a global platform. We don’t see this as a threat but as a fantastic opportunity to engage with our customers in real-time, harness their feedback, and improve our end-to-end offerings. In addition, we are looking to position Samsung as a company in touch with its customers’ concerns and continue to develop environmentally sound and socially responsible propositions.