Two leading Samsung officials talk to KI Woo about the company's transformation in Thailand.

One of the most successful corporate branding stories in the last decade has been the transformation of South Korean conglomerate Samsung from a low-end electronics manufacturer into one of today's premium global brands.

Park Kwang-kee, Thai Samsung Electronics Ltd's managing director since February, has seen the company's transformation first-hand since the early 1990s.

"My first Samsung overseas assignment was to Thailand in 1991," he said.

Park said that when he first came to Bangkok in the early 1990s, Samsung was still primarily an original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) for local television brands like Distar, Singer and Thanin. "At that time, about 90 per cent of our business was OEM, and the Samsung brand was far behind the local brands," he said.

In 1995, Park returned to South Korea and moved up the corporate ladder. He became vice president of Samsung's Global Human Resources Group before being appointed head of Thai Samsung. "Now, 11 years later, Samsung is one of Thailand's top three brands," he said.

During his initial early-1990s stay in Thailand, he attended Chulalongkorn University's Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, earning a Master of Management (MM) degree in international business and marketing. "I really began applying some of the tools we learned at Sasin during my current stay in Thailand," he said.

Park said many experts had attributed much of Samsung's rebranding success to the unprecedented 1997 economic crisis, which ended up forcing the company to restructure and refocus its operations.

"We laid off more than 30,000 people worldwide," he said.

Park said the crisis compelled Samsung's senior management to abandon its previous strategy of being a "copycat" that competed with other companies in producing low-price consumer items. "Our chairman said that if we continued competing that way, we would never establish a leadership position that would endure," he said.

Marco Vocale, general manager for corporate marketing, is an Italian who was a senior marketing manager for Samsung in South Korea for nine years before being sent to Thailand in January. He said that soon after he joined Samsung in 1997, the company executed a comprehensive overall plan to transform itself. "In the past 10 years, we have emphasised brand identity in everything we do," he said.

To assure the company maintains its premium brand identity, Vocale said all Samsung products emphasised technological innovation and design. "We always stress these key attributes when we talk about our mobile phones, colour televisions or other products," he said.

Behind this emphasis on technological innovation, Vocale, a graduate of Insead's graduate business school near Paris and an electrical engineer, said Samsung had embarked on impressive efforts to make known its capabilities, in terms of both quality staff and money invested. "We have six design centres round the world, including one in Italy," he said.

Park said the Samsung brand now also represented products that enhanced lifestyles. "A key element of our high-end televisions and home appliances, including washing machines, dryers and refrigerators, is that their prestige premium design element gives purchasers added psychic income by enhancing their home's decor. Our challenge is in establishing some emotional bonding with our end consumers," he said.

From a relatively small OEM manufacturer in Thailand, Thai Samsung has been riding the company's global rebranding wave and is now one of Thailand's largest companies, with sales in excess of Bt40 billion. Thailand is one of Samsung's strategic global manufacturing areas. "Fifty per cent of our products are sold overseas," he said.

Earlier this year, Samsung spent more than Bt100 million to enlarge its factory in Sri Racha and has moved some of its production base for huge 400- and 440-litre refrigerators from South Korea to Thailand. "These refrigerators are shipped throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East," said Kwang.

To reinforce its new premium-brand image, Park said the company wanted its products to be recognised as high-quality premium products that incorporate advanced technology. Park said the company's cutting-edge products enabled everyone to explore, create and pursue their dreams to the fullest. "At Samsung, we push the limits of technology so you can push the limits of your life," he said.