By Kim Tae-gyu
For those of you who want to fit in with the majority of CEOs in Korea, just get yourself a Samsung Galaxy S smartphone, move to a Samsung Raemian apartment and wear a suit made by Samsung’s affiliate Cheil Industries.
According to a survey by New Management on 168 chief executives of the nation’s 500 biggest firms in terms of annual sales, many of them are big fans of anything Samsung.
On top of the Galaxy S, Raemian and Cheil, included among their favorite brands are Samsung Medical Center, Samsung Securities, Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance and Samsung Life Insurance.
Out of the 31 categories, a total of seven, or 22.6 percent, mentioned Samsung, Korea’s foremost business conglomerate.
In comparison, no other group topped the list with more than two segments — Shinhan Financial Group and Lotte Group managed to score pole positions in a pair of segments, respectively.
“This is not a new-fangled trend. Since we initiated this annual survey in 2002, CEOs have consistently shown loyalty to Samsung brands,” an official of New Management said.
“In particular, Samsung is distinguished in garnering the highest slot in such areas as handsets, apartments, as a brokerage house, insurance provider and respected hospital over the past decade.”
Hyundai Motor’s premium sedan Equus and Korean Air, the country’s foremost flag carrier, also continually remain ahead of the curve.
The result is notable because the Equus is not the prohibitively expensive model at typically less than 100 million won in comparison to upscale imported vehicles with price tags easily topping the 100 million won mark.
“A host of big companies choose the Equus as official vehicles for CEOs. In my view, that’s why our top executives love the sedan rather than ultra-expensive imported ones,” the official said.
The two most hard-fought fields were banks and department stores.
Shinhan Bank finished a six-year reign of Kookmin Bank, which plunged to third place to trail runner-up Woori Bank. Shinhan got up to 35 votes to edge Woori with 34. Kookmin got just 28.
Lotte Department Store with 59 votes also dethroned the two-year defending champion and its cross-city rival Shinsegae Department Store as it scored only 51.
Asked about which items they most loved when purchasing premium brands, 34 picked watches followed by suits at 32, sedans with 16, shoes with 15 and fountain pens with 14 votes.
Among the hotels, the Grand Intercontinental Seoul was victor with 38 votes to win against runner-up Shilla Hotel, another Samsung subsidiary with 36 votes.