Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix

Marketing has long been the subject of exhaustive research in the business world. Over the years valuable insights have contributed to and helped shape its definition. Many have proposed the constituents of marketing, which led to the development of the marketing mix (Kotler & Keller, 2012). The marketing mix is an essential part of an organization's marketing strategies, comprised of two interrelated ingredients: a target market and a marketing mix. Target markets are the customers for whom the firm focuses, appeals to, and strives to satisfy their wants, and needs. The four Ps, often refereed to as the marketing mix are the controllable variables that a firm uses to satisfy their target markets (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2011). The four Ps are product, price, promotion, and place, all these concepts are equally important and each contributes to one whole. This paper focuses on one of the best examples of a relationship between a marketing strategy and enormous success in the marketplace. The company to have achieved this unparalleled success is, of course, Apple.

Apple's Marketing Mix

There are companies that attempt for years to increase sales or to increase consumer following. Arguably, no company has been able to use the four elements of the marketing mix as successfully as Apple. For over a decade Apple has used its marketing strategies to increase not only sales but also created a technology revolution. The company's meteoric success would not have been possible without an exceptional innovative marketing strategy. A Fast Company article on Apple's spectacular rise:

The company's surge over the past few years has resembled a space-shuttle launch

-- a series of rapid, tightly choreographed explosions that leave everyone dumbfounded and smiling. The whole thing has happened so quickly, and seemed so natural, that there has been little opportunity to understand what we have been witnessing (Manjoo, 2010, para. 2).

Apple's marketing strategy was born from out of the box thinking by its late charismatic leader and marketing genius, Steve Jobs. It had all the ingredients of a sound marketing strategy, but there were also bold innovation and deviation from the status quo that differentiate Apple from its competitors in the technology industry.

Product

Product is the good or service for the target's need, by developing the "right" product for the target market (Perreault, el al, 2011). Apple focuses on limited product lines so it can make them extraordinarily well. To Jobs and many others, including myself--Apple products are perfection. Apple operates under the presumption that less is more, creating products with functionality, ergonomic, intuitive, and beautifully designed. When Apple decides on the products it will design and sell, not only does it take into consideration the current market demand, but it also looks into the future to capitalize on emerging trends. Jobs philosophy, "People don't know what they want until you show it to them" (Business Insider, 2011, para. 9). As a result Apple has benefited from first-mover advantage on numerous occasions. It was Apple's perceived convergence of the consumer and computer that led to the development of the first personal computer in 1976. Fast forward to 2001, the same strategy led to some of the most innovative products and services to enter the technology market--iPod and iTunes.

Although mp3 players had been around for a few years, Apple showed a strong commitment to its belief in the importance of the concept of portable music, an emerging trend that would not be effective given the clunky and overpriced mp3 players of the day. IPods were groundbreaking in bringing the simplicity to the portable music experience. Further proof of Apple's foresight was its music platform. The iTunes Store complimented the iPod and revolutionized the music industry. Meanwhile, for Apple's competitors an mp3 player was the chosen product to meet the portable music demands of the time. Apple was forward thinking and determined that an entire music experience was required to meet demand. It is clear that concerning consumer products Apple does not merely strive to meet existing demand, instead through innovation and creativity, it set out to shape future demand. Apple put as much emphasis on delivering value through intangibles, such as services as it does through its tangible products.