Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics

Mr. Y.K. Kim is president and Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Electronics America, and is responsible for overseeing the company’s operations in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Mr. Kim was most recently Senior Vice President, leading the Sales & Marketing Team of the Samsung Electronics Visual Display business.

Mr. Kim began his career at Samsung Electronics in 1986, in export sales. In 1989, he moved to France as a Senior Manager and ultimately became Vice President responsible for sales and marketing for the French market.

Following a leadership assignment as President of Samsung Electronics Philippines, Mr. Kim returned to France in 2002, as President of Samsung Electronics France. During his tenure, Samsung achieved the number one market share in the French TV market. He returned to Korea to head mobile phone Sales & Marketing Europe in 2007, before heading sales and marketing for the Visual Display business in 2009.

Mr. Kim graduated from Korea University with a B.A. degree in French Language and Literature in 1978. He holds a Master’s degree in Trade from I.A.E of Jean Moulin University of Lyon III.

As Chief Marketing Officer, Kim’s role is to build the Global Corporate Brand image for Samsung across 200 countries markets and SEC’s 17 product-focused business units. Also, he educates the respective divisional managers on the role of marketing and the value of developing and communicating superior solutions for the target customers. he built his influence by making all the people in the company understand the essence of the Samsung brand by the use of three words- WOW, SIMPLE & INCLUSIVE by three changes inside of the company:

1- Marketing Organization:

Kim headed the corporate Global Marketing Operations (GMO) which developed a corporate marketing for Samsung brand outside Korea. Three different parts of GMO were included; Marketing Strategy Team, Regional Strategy Team and Product Strategy Team each with different responsibilities.

2- Allocation of Marketing Resources:

GMO recommended to priorities and allocate funds by country and by product category.

GMO also developed a computer program M-Net to help determine where funds could reap the highest returns.

3- Market Driven Change (MDC):

MDC has put greater focus on customer insight into the new product development process.

MDC initiative revealed that the Samsung brand lacked structure.

With FBC’s help, a new umbrella campaign was launched in 2002_ “Digital All_Everyone’s Invited” which generated tremendous brand visibility for