Division leader Gustavo talks regarding his career at Samsung and the arrival of the new Galaxy S23 5G line to the market
Gustavo Assunção, Vice President of Mobile Experience at Samsung Brazil
The Samsung Newsroom Interview starts the month of March with the participation of Gustavo Assunção, Vice President of Mobile Experience at Samsung Brazil. With the company for 14 years, and with a career spanning more than 20 years in the technology sector, Gustavo has worked in several sectors at Samsung, including vice-presidency of Consumer Electronics in Brazil, an experience he now uses to reinforce Samsung’s leadership position. Company in the mobile market. Focusing on strategic pillars such as democratization of the portfolio, 5G, innovation and investments in the premium segment, the executive talks regarding the company’s strategies to boost the segment, highlighting the new line of Galaxy S23 5G smartphones, which was made available for the first time for sale in Brazil simultaneously with the global announcement.
Newsroom: Your career at Samsung Brazil is quite diversified, with passages both in the mobile devices sector and in electronics and home appliances. What did these sectors add to your journey and how do they contribute to this new challenge ahead of the Mobile Experience area?
Gustavo: I started at Samsung Brasil in the Mobile sector fourteen years ago, and I stayed in this area for three years, when I was invited to lead the TV business. This movement showed me what I believe to be Samsung’s biggest differential and which will even make all the difference in 2023: its ecosystem of devices, which is very complete, with smartphones, tablets, notebooks and PCs, TVs, white goods , monitors, among other products. So, I would say that, having gone through so many areas, my mission is to develop this ecosystem with our partners and consumers, adding the best that each one brings.
The TV business, for example, is more mature. It has a longer life cycle than smartphones, in addition to having gained an important survival due to streaming platforms. In the past there was something that we called “the war of the screens”, but what has been proven is that the screens are coexisting and complementing each other. It is very common to watch TV with your cell phone in your hand, to look for something you watched on TV, or for TV to focus on social networks a lot. Reality shows, for example, are very popular on social networks, as well as other popular programs on TV.
What I see here are complementary worlds, especially when we talk regarding work and entertainment. Therefore, a strong ecosystem, made by people who know the segments, makes a lot of difference.
Newsroom: And what can people expect differently when they opt for the Galaxy Ecosystem? Why is Samsung Brazil increasingly betting on this model?
Gustavo: Within Samsung, there are two ecosystems: the mobile ecosystem, which is the Galaxy Ecosystem, encompassing smartphones, weareables, tablets and notebooks; and Smartthings1which includes Consumer Electronics products – including the theme we took to CES in January.
The Galaxy Ecosystem has less friction, it is already a reality for people. The challenge we have here is to go one step further, that is, to work on the Smarthings strategy, which is one of the Company’s most important bets. This is work that we have been doing together with our channel partners and it is a very important experience at the point of sale.
We have already carried out initiatives with some retailers, but now we are going to work to make them happen in a really broad way.
Newsroom: Is it possible to give an example of how this broader ecosystem might work in practice?
Gustavo: A feature we have today for TVs is Samsung TV Plus2, a Samsung streaming channel. People have access to free content and there is a team working on it. Today, this is a platform still limited to TVs, but it will naturally permeate all Samsung products.
That’s why we work hard on the fluid experience between screens, image resolution on smartphones and tablets, as they will, at some point, be greatly impacted by this content ecosystem, mainly via the Samsung content application present on our mobile devices.
Newsroom: And how would the Brazilian market receive this type of initiative? Does Samsung being one of the biggest smartphone brands globally help in the mission of chasing an even bigger market share, especially in the premium products sector? What would be the main challenges?
Gustavo: We belong to a challenging segment, especially at this moment when we are talking regarding consumption, in all businesses. What we are doing here in Brazil, year following year, is reaffirming our long-term commitment to the country. We have two factories here, in Manaus and Campinas, as well as research and development centers in the same cities, and our role as a relevant brand in the Brazilian market is to democratize access to technology. We are not going to give up this protagonism that we already have.
Naturally, this mission goes through the work we do with our business partners. We all want to deliver increasingly innovative solutions for people’s daily lives, sell more, and we are going to work to meet this goal.
My arrival here, in Mobile Experience, in addition to continuing the work of excellence that was already being done, is now implementing new challenges and continuing to evolve. And our experience in TVs, which is a saturated but resilient sector, helps a lot in this regard.
To achieve this goal, we always focus on encouraging market development, delivering the best products to consumers, showing that Brazil is an important market for Samsung’s global operation. And, for that reason, we were able to implement policies such as Trade In, affodability programs – such as Semper de Samsung and Samsung Semper Novo – and the sale of launches here simultaneously with the global launch, as happened in the last Unpacked and was a milestone in our relationship with Brazilians.
Newsroom: And how important is 5G in this strategy?
Gustavo: I understand that this 5G territory still deserves more attention from manufacturers, retailers and operators. We have made some advances in Brazilian coverage, but this is still unexplored territory. Samsung Brazil has already done an exemplary job in making the technology widely and democratically available in the country: we already have 30 5G smartphones, for all audiences, in addition to having the largest market share in this market segment. We’re already paving that road – and anyone who can benefit from 5G understands how important it is to have that compatibility available.
Finally, for Samsung, 5G is a growth engine because it motivates people to switch smartphones, and in this context, this broader and more affordable product offering allows us to work with partners and operators on a broader basis to communicate regarding the benefits of 5G. This is one of Samsung’s bets to stimulate the market in 2023.
Newsroom: Innovation is also a component that is highly valued by the Brazilian public. What can Samsung’s launches in 2023, mainly in the Galaxy S23 5G line, bring to the country in this regard?
Gustavo: There is always a lot of talk regarding innovation when talking regarding new apps and features; but, thinking mainly regarding the Brazilian market, I think it is very important to highlight how the new Galaxy S23 5G line translates our commitment to sustainability. It is Samsung’s effort to bring technology and innovation together with sustainability, and this in all product lines and connected initiatives.
In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S23 5G, we have increased the use of recycled materials compared to the previous line – we have twice as many recycled components compared to the Galaxy S22. The Galaxy S23 5G line also features the widest variety of this type of material among all the Company’s lines and holds the UL ECOLOGO® seal. Some examples of recycled components used in the devices are aluminum and glass (pre-consumer), as well as plastic from discarded fishing nets, gallons of water and PET bottles (post-consumer); while the packaging is made with 100% recycled paper. Finally, the premium experience of the Galaxy S23 5G line includes the guarantee of four generations of operating system updates and five years of security updates, extending the life cycle of the devices.
Newsroom: With so much news, how does Samsung Brazil intend to inspire people, especially now that the Galaxy S23 5G line is already available?
Gustavo: We have improved the marketing actions carried out last year, with a diversified presence in reality shows, music festivals, and the Galaxy Experience itself, for example, which was open to the public throughout February at Shopping Eldorado (SP) to promote experiences immersive experiences focused on S23 5G and our ecosystem. These platforms in particular are points of contact with the public that help us meet the great challenge of delivering a brand message and, at the same time, encouraging conversion into sales.
We understand that this is also part of our role as protagonists in the mobile devices segment. The market, in general, is the one who ends up winning with this, following all, we will have more people talking regarding smartphones and technological advances, in addition to collaborating in the growth of people’s confidence in our products.
Newsroom: And what are your expectations for 2023 in general?
Gustavo: I’m very excited and confident! Taking over the company’s largest division is a very cool challenge and we have an extremely competent team to build this trajectory focused on what really matters to people.
