Samsung Beat 450 – A look at the launch pad

Samsung launched Beat 450, 3D surround music phone developed in partnership with Bang and Olufsen. Aamir Khan is the brand ambassador and though I am not a marketing guy, I understand that this is a phone aimed at youth and in that more of Urban.

The package of features, brand ambassador, mention of partners in crime is well packaged to elicit interest in the funky urban youth with spiked hair, goggles and fancy shoes. The next common thing one would do is to go the website to get a better idea of the phone.

As a general product enthusiast I just tried to check out the phone and realized that Samsung’s website is not updated with the product details and that there is no single Samsung link that points to the product when you Google.

How bad can it get? With increasing internet penetration, ‘aware’ urban youth being the target segment and ever increasing crowd at the mobile store, one feels very compelled to use the internet to find information about the product. And here you find that there is no update on the website at all, even months after launch.

Even when I researched through Google Trends, I found that information search peaks whenever there is a product launch or major refinement (See Image showing the trends for ‘Samsung Beat 450′ you can see sharp peak followed by decline). This combined with the nature of the product and its target audience reinforces the importance of having information available across multiple mediums. Unfortunate that someone in Samsung didn’t realize this.

Again, a search term can make an entry into Google Suggest, only if it has respectable traffic. Samsung beat 450i is an entry in Google Suggest. Yet!

This can cost quite a lot in terms of prospects, I personally feel. What could be the reason for this? It could probably be the absence of a business process and leaving these critical matters to the efficiency of marketing and IT team. That’s the beauty of a process I feel, reducing the chance on people yet giving them enough space to bring in their creativity and genius to the table.

We always find contrasting extremes in any aspect of our lives and this is no exception. Try this:

Steve Jobs is keynoting at WWDC as the climax reaches he launches iPhone 3G and simultaneously the Apple site is updated with the product details and booking form. Talk about simultaneous launch across all mediums. Impressive!