Jay-Z | Image Credit: www.haustenstreet.com

Music impresario Sean Carter, also known as Jay-Z, said it best when he tweeted, “I make history for a living.” In an unprecedented display today, Jay-Z unveiled the cover art for his his highly anticipated ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ album installed next to one of the four original surviving 1215 Magna Carta documents at the Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, England. He also shook up the music industry with his new Samsung partnership that changed music industry certifications. Samsung purchased 1 million copies of Jay-Z’s upcoming album, “Magna Carta Holy Grail” (MCHG) for $5 each to allow Samsung Galaxy owners to download MCHG for free 72 hours before its official debut tomorrow, July 4^th. Now, a key question for the connected devices industry remains: What does this market disruption suggest about the future of tech marketing? The Samsung/Jay-Z partnership may reflect growing opportunities for foreign companies to enhance their brand appeal and compete with Apple.

Samsung leads the world in smartphone sales, controlling 28.8% of the global market, but remains second to iPhones in the United States. According to TechCrunch’s Catherine Shu, ongoing legal battles between Samsung and Apple have furthered a negative perception of the Korean company as a “copycat.” Shu adds, “An endorsement deal with one of the U.S.’s top rap artists may help Samsung gain more cred with consumers, especially younger ones.”

The Jay-Z Brand Affect

Jay-Z is not simply an extremely successful American artist – the kind who sells out Madison Square Garden concerts in minutes – he is an American institution. As owner of several businesses as well as deals that include licensing his image and intellectual property, Jay-Z makes it plain when he raps: “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man!” Just like a business, Jay-Z has core values associated with his brand. In MCHG songs including “Heaven,” “Oceans” and “Jay-Z Blue,” Jay-Z represent ideals of challenging dominant ways of thinking, strength through self-knowledge and internal reflection and growth.

Samsung’s partnership with Jay-Z allows the company to not only tap into Jay-Z’s huge fan base, but to shift their marketing focus, moving beyond features to a strategy akin to Apple’s highlighting of ideals. This is accomplished by tapping into Jay-Z’s brand values and “American-ness.” As an industry leader, Apple advertisements highlight iPhone’s “extra-technological” benefits of bringing more love, friendship and joy into your life. Not the U.S. industry leader, Samsung’s marketing strategy has largely focused on showcasing its smartphone features. The Samsung Galaxy S4 New York prominently showcased its motion-detecting technology that allows a user to start a video by simply looking at it and pause it by looking away, as well as the ability to scan songs and photos with the wave of a hand. Still, as Miyoung Kim notes in Reuters, it seems the $11.6 billion dollars Samsung spent on marketing ($1.3 billion more than spent on research and development), supports its goal of “[converting] more iPhone and iPad users loyal to arch rival Apple Inc.”

Jay-Z’s endorsement and the MCHG album bonus allows Samsung to align with his values and, in turn, shift marketing strategies from a focus on tangible features to an emphasis on emotional appeal. This new strategy alerts tech marketers to the potential of new and bolder risks in the intimately linked industries of connected devices and digital music. Another question this partnership raises is: If this marketing partnership works at the level of big brands and established artists, will similar opportunities emerge between rookie tech companies and emerging artists? As Jay-Z puts it, “[It’s] like the wild wild west…We need to write the new rules.”

Special thanks to my marketing friend Chenfa who inspired this article.