Samsung said its gains in the U.S. smartphone market are the result of a strategy shift begun in 2011, not because it “followed” Apple’s iPhone

Samsung Says Branding Drove Gains

Electronics Maker Insists Apple Had Nothing to Do With Its Smartphone Success

DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

Updated April 14, 2014 7:22 p.m. ET

A Samsung Electronics Co. executive said its gains in the U.S. smartphone market are the result of a strategy shift begun in 2011, not because it “followed” Apple Inc.AAPL +0.40% ‘s iPhone.

In the first courtroom appearance by a Samsung executive during the high-stakes patent case against Apple, former U.S. mobile division chief executive Dale Sohn said the Korean firm successfully changed its approach from marketing its products together with mobile carriers to promoting its own brand.

“We really made a remarkable turnaround,” said Mr. Sohn, noting that the company’s market share went from around 10% of the U.S. smartphone market in 2010 to more than 30% in 2012. He is now an executive adviser at Samsung’s headquarters in Korea.

Under questioning from Apple’s lawyers, Mr. Sohn played down Apple’s influence on Samsung’s strategy.

Apple challenged that notion and presented a message that Mr. Sohn wrote in an April 2012 internal presentation: “Beating Apple is no longer merely an objective. It is our survival strategy.”

Mr. Sohn’s testimony in San Jose, Calif., focuses on a core tenet of Samsung’s case. Samsung says its success in the U.S. smartphone market wasn’t the result of copying Apple’s software features—for which the iPhone maker is seeking $2.2 billion in damages—but its differentiated products and a successful, new marketing approach.

Apple wrapped up its case on Friday, arguing that Samsung copied its software features to make its products easier to use, and overcome a perceived weakness with consumers.

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Mr. Sohn considered it a “niche” product because it was expensive compared with existing feature phones and AT&T was the only carrier offering the phone. He said he thought the iPhone was an impressive product, but he saw potential for Samsung to compete.

In early 2011, however, Mr. Sohn said he noticed “worrying signs” in Samsung’s position in the smartphone market and decided to implement a “paradigm shift” over a two-year period. “We were quite behind,” he said.

Before its strategic shift, Samsung had been adopting a “wholesale” strategy—focusing on its relationship with major carriers—instead of targeting consumers directly with a brand-building campaign.

Mr. Sohn, a 31-year Samsung veteran, said consumers didn’t identify closely enough with the Samsung brand. So Samsung worked with retailers to create spaces allocated specifically for Samsung products and placed advertisements year round, instead of only around product launches.

By the end of 2012, Samsung was the best recognized and most preferred brand in the U.S., Mr. Sohn said.

To dispute Samsung’s claims about its marketing approach, Apple’s lawyers showed the jury internal emails from Samsung executives saying that the company needed to dispel the notion that it was a “fast follower” in smartphones and questions about “product quality” because of the plastic casing of its handsets.

Samsung also called three Google Inc., engineers to the stand to assert that Google had previously been working on the software features that Apple is accusing Samsung of copying, to integrate into Google’s Android operating system. Samsung uses Android on its smartphones.

Apple’s lawyers sought to emphasize that Google’s engineers weren’t aware of how Samsung’s software team may have modified Android for its smartphones.