What’s a company to do when it fears its own brand may be working against it? Maybe you’re the biggest smartphone manufacturer around, but you’re worried there’s a belief – real or perceived – that your mass-market, uber-popular phones are somehow undesirable. Trying to deny who you are won’t get you very far, but can you find success by just backing down a little in your branding efforts, maybe not hitting customers over the head quite so hard with an “I made this” every time they go to interact with your product? We saw Samsung venture down that road last year with the Galaxy S6 in Japan, selling the phone without big “Samsung” branding all over it. Now it looks like that strategy is being repeated for the Galaxy S7, only in a broadening assortment of markets.
Earlier this week we heard that Samsung looked to be bringing the GS7 to its native South Korea without the “Samsung” logo up top on the phone’s face that other markets would be getting. Now it appears that the logo-less handset will also be available in China, and we’ve got the photographic proof to back that up.
These images come from China’s TENAA regulatory agency, clearly showing us logo-free faces for both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.
It’s worth noting that these phones may not be devoid of Samsung branding entirely, and there’s been some evidence suggesting that in South Korea at least, the handsets could retain a Samsung logo on the phone’s back. Could that be the key to Samsung’s goal here: making its phones unambiguously Samsung, but –like we said– not being quite so in-your-face about it?