At CES in Las Vegas last week, Samsung confirmed the launch of the Bespoke cooking range into the Australian market, starting with the Bespoke induction cooktop, microwave and AI oven.
Samsung Electronics Australia vice president of consumer electronics, Jeremy Senior explained to Appliance Retailer how the brand will differentiate itself in such a competitive category.
“With our Bespoke cooking range, we will be able to bring symmetry to consumers who want to drive customisation and different colour palettes across their kitchen appliances. The interchangeable fridge panels are key but only one way to customise appliances. Not all of our Bespoke products will have interchangeable panels,” Senior said.
“We understand that cooking is a hands-on experience and people want to be involved in the process. The AI functionality in our products helps alleviate the stress and anxiety when cooking by recommending recipe ideas and connecting to other devices like the oven or fridge, or even the wine cellar in our Infinite range to pair food and nutrition needs with optimum cooking conditions.
“We’re certainly not an entry level brand and if you look across our products as a whole, we sit in the mid to premium space. We understand that cooking is a cluttered market with a lot of brands but our point of difference is our connectivity story. We will position the products for consumers who want to buy into the Bespoke line-up and are looking for colour and design differentiation who believe that connectivity is useful to their everyday life.
“When you look at the strength of the Samsung brand across many categories, we’re seeing consumers turn away from historical references of what makes products premium. We now have a generational change where consumers are looking for different outcomes such as connectivity and design. What was previously considered premium is not necessarily the only answer to premium moving forward.
“The cooking market is highly competitive, and we want to bring products that have clear points of difference around connectivity and design that will appeal to the consumers we’re targeting. Breaking down the barriers to connectivity is critical to further enhancements of the smart home and tapping into key pain points such as the energy crisis. For example, with SmartThings Energy, households can monitor and control the energy consumption of devices and can elevate how consumers see smart devices and to enhance their experience.
“Cooking is a category with complexity – and we don’t underestimate that – but we have seen connected home appliances do exceptionally well in the Australian market – much better than non-smart refrigerators globally.
“I believe there is a tailwind of home renovations in the first half of 2023 because consumers have been waiting for builder availability and material availability. We will be successful if we bring products that are meaningful to consumers and positioned in the right way.”
Commenting on the release of Samsung’s first ultra-premium built-in refrigerator for the Australian market, the Samsung Infinite refrigerator, he said: “In the US, Samsung acquired premium appliance brand, Dacor which is distributed in North America and Korea. As a brand, we’ve been leveraging some of the high-end learnings and building them into another product line-up called Samsung Infinite.
“The configuration is a single door fridge, freezer and wine cabinet. There are two textured finishes available for added customisation. As an ultra-premium product, there will be limited distribution in Australia.”