7 ms·

The title is a bit misleading -- the story is not that Samsung used devious marketing methods, the story is that they were caught. Any number of companies hire

by lutusp 14y ago

The title is a bit misleading -- the story is not that Samsung used devious marketing methods, the story is that they were caught. Any number of companies hire shills to post phony endorsements, the trick is not to get caught. In fairness to companies like Samsung, if everyone is doing it, to stand on principle is to risk being trounced by those who don't.

homosaur 14y ago
We are talking about Samsung here, this is the company that has pretty much ripped off every successful design in its history. I'm fairly certain they've never stood on principle for anything but a hearty office chuckle.
- andrewljohnson 14y ago
  This is just xenophobia, unsubstantiated, and unfair to all the hard working employees.
  - mikestew 14y ago
    It may be hyperbole (probably not every design is a clone of something else), but a strong argument can be made that a number of designs, from the Blackjack to recent devices, are pretty good copies of something made by another company. Err, wait, I didn't get the subtle astroturfing joke, did I?
  - guptaneil 14y ago
    What does xenophobia have to do with it? We don't know where homosaur is from. Even in the US, there are many beloved foreign corporations, such as Nintendo. I don't think anybody discounts Samsung for being Korean, or even cares. Likewise, I doubt many people support Apple just because its American. Regarding unsubstantiated, they have been openly accused and even found guilty in multiple courts across different countries. It's an ongoing case and you may disagree with the rulings, in which case "unsubstantiated" is not the word you're looking for. As for being unfair to hard working employees, that is definitely true. Unfortunately for those employees, their executives' actions have brought their hard work into question. Any comments regarding a company are generally a reflection on the company's leadership, not any individual employee.
    - homosaur 14y ago
      I'm from Murica, and yeah, I do not care about it being Korean and I don't particularly have positive feelings for Apple. I would assume in general Americans have a neutral to positive view of Korea in general so I don't know why that would matter. I do use Mac computers and have been forced by my employer to use their crap phones but I have no great affinity for them or their company. But yeah, Samsung ripped them off hard. It really isn't even about Apple. Sure the hipsters got upset when someone had a phone that looked like their iPhones but Samsung as a company has a long history of completely ripping off all their designs. Apple was just the hottest at the time so they are who got copied. I can come up with dozens upon dozens more examples throughout history of Samsung blatantly copying designs but I won't because who cares? Do a search of "samsung copies x" and you will find thousands of pages showing examples. The only time Samsung doesn't copy well is when they're implementing the "and paste" variety on their phones. As a consumer I don't care but as a designer I do vaguely resent their lack of design innovation. Or even treading water. (someone will now please link to the blog that shows the dozens of Samsung ripoffs over the years as I cannot find it in my bookmarks)
at-fates-hands 14y ago
To be fair, it didn't seem like they were admitting anything. They basically said the marketing company they hired did and they regret it happened. More common for big businesses who pay big bucks to get some exposure and then some marketing company pitches them unreal stats to get a sale, then commences to bending the rules and committing outright fraud to keep the paychecks coming in.
- Steko 14y ago
  That's not being fair, that's regurgitating corporate pablum. Similarly to how every scandal in congress is blamed on a low ranking staffers whenever possible, corporate scandals are blamed on subcontracters whenever possible. Don't think for a second a company as profitable as Samsung doesn't know what it's marketers are doing.
  - smsm42 14y ago
    I can easily believe in companies as big as Samsung and as profitable as Samsung a lot of people don't know what their suppliers/sub-contractors are doing. Bigger organization is, more chance somebody sleeps at the wheel, somebody takes shortcut, somebody is lazy, somebody just doesn't care. And if the money is abundant, there's less control over how exactly every cent is spent, so it could very well be that somebody hired this sleazy company to get good numbers for his annual review and his superiors were distracted by something else and didn't know a thing. I'm not saying that's what happened, but the size of the company makes it more, not less, likely. Sometimes big corps and big bureaucracies are evil, but many times they are also stupid.
MartinCron 14y ago
Samsung's customer base is more than large enough to let positive reviews emerge from real customers. There is no excuse for this. None. Full stop.
- kostya-kow 14y ago
  Doing this is wrong for a company of any size, no matter if it's big or small.
chris11 14y ago
I think this is good that they are getting called out, but I'm not surprised. I'm sure a decent number of big companies do this. My brother bought a new truck awhile ago, and the dealership ended up filling the gas tank for him for free. They just asked to fill out a comment card for him.

by lutusp 14y ago

homosaur 14y ago

We are talking about Samsung here, this is the company that has pretty much ripped off every successful design in its history. I'm fairly certain they've never stood on principle for anything but a hearty office chuckle.

andrewljohnson 14y ago
This is just xenophobia, unsubstantiated, and unfair to all the hard working employees.
- mikestew 14y ago
  It may be hyperbole (probably not every design is a clone of something else), but a strong argument can be made that a number of designs, from the Blackjack to recent devices, are pretty good copies of something made by another company. Err, wait, I didn't get the subtle astroturfing joke, did I?
- guptaneil 14y ago
  What does xenophobia have to do with it? We don't know where homosaur is from. Even in the US, there are many beloved foreign corporations, such as Nintendo. I don't think anybody discounts Samsung for being Korean, or even cares. Likewise, I doubt many people support Apple just because its American. Regarding unsubstantiated, they have been openly accused and even found guilty in multiple courts across different countries. It's an ongoing case and you may disagree with the rulings, in which case "unsubstantiated" is not the word you're looking for. As for being unfair to hard working employees, that is definitely true. Unfortunately for those employees, their executives' actions have brought their hard work into question. Any comments regarding a company are generally a reflection on the company's leadership, not any individual employee.
  - homosaur 14y ago
    I'm from Murica, and yeah, I do not care about it being Korean and I don't particularly have positive feelings for Apple. I would assume in general Americans have a neutral to positive view of Korea in general so I don't know why that would matter. I do use Mac computers and have been forced by my employer to use their crap phones but I have no great affinity for them or their company. But yeah, Samsung ripped them off hard. It really isn't even about Apple. Sure the hipsters got upset when someone had a phone that looked like their iPhones but Samsung as a company has a long history of completely ripping off all their designs. Apple was just the hottest at the time so they are who got copied. I can come up with dozens upon dozens more examples throughout history of Samsung blatantly copying designs but I won't because who cares? Do a search of "samsung copies x" and you will find thousands of pages showing examples. The only time Samsung doesn't copy well is when they're implementing the "and paste" variety on their phones. As a consumer I don't care but as a designer I do vaguely resent their lack of design innovation. Or even treading water. (someone will now please link to the blog that shows the dozens of Samsung ripoffs over the years as I cannot find it in my bookmarks)

at-fates-hands 14y ago

To be fair, it didn't seem like they were admitting anything. They basically said the marketing company they hired did and they regret it happened. More common for big businesses who pay big bucks to get some exposure and then some marketing company pitches them unreal stats to get a sale, then commences to bending the rules and committing outright fraud to keep the paychecks coming in.

Steko 14y ago
That's not being fair, that's regurgitating corporate pablum. Similarly to how every scandal in congress is blamed on a low ranking staffers whenever possible, corporate scandals are blamed on subcontracters whenever possible. Don't think for a second a company as profitable as Samsung doesn't know what it's marketers are doing.
- smsm42 14y ago
  I can easily believe in companies as big as Samsung and as profitable as Samsung a lot of people don't know what their suppliers/sub-contractors are doing. Bigger organization is, more chance somebody sleeps at the wheel, somebody takes shortcut, somebody is lazy, somebody just doesn't care. And if the money is abundant, there's less control over how exactly every cent is spent, so it could very well be that somebody hired this sleazy company to get good numbers for his annual review and his superiors were distracted by something else and didn't know a thing. I'm not saying that's what happened, but the size of the company makes it more, not less, likely. Sometimes big corps and big bureaucracies are evil, but many times they are also stupid.

MartinCron 14y ago

Samsung's customer base is more than large enough to let positive reviews emerge from real customers. There is no excuse for this. None. Full stop.

kostya-kow 14y ago
Doing this is wrong for a company of any size, no matter if it's big or small.

chris11 14y ago

I think this is good that they are getting called out, but I'm not surprised. I'm sure a decent number of big companies do this. My brother bought a new truck awhile ago, and the dealership ended up filling the gas tank for him for free. They just asked to fill out a comment card for him.