How each of the 4ps of marketing can add value to a product

Introduction

Marketing according to kotler (2008) simply refers to managing profitable customer relationship. Marketing also refers to what an organisation must do to create and exchange value with customers (Silk 2006). While authors such as Horner and Swarbrooke (2005) sees marketing as the relationship between buyer and seller and the transactions involved in bringing this to a satisfactory level. Kotler (2003) also defined marketing as a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others.

kotler (2008) said, many factors contributes to making a great strategy, dedicated employees, good information system, excellent implementation but however the success of an organisation despite having all the factors above, every successful organisation has one thing in common customer focused and commitment to marketing.

How each of the 4ps can add value to a product

Value- This is the difference between the perceived benefits a customer places on a product, and the actual cost of obtaining that product. Value is arguably the most important factor in today’s business world and as such every organisation craves to achieve it. The success of an organization depends on how much value it creates for its customers.

Customer value- this is the difference between the benefit the customer gains from owing and using a product and the cost of obtaining the product. For example, most of the students have chosen a ballarat degree because there is this perception that Australian degrees are better than the local ones and as such students are willing to pay more in other to get a more valued certificate.

Product description

This work is focusing on LG mobile in Malaysia, particularly LG Optimus 2x which was released on February 2011 as the first “Dual Core” mobile phone in the world. LG is a global company established in 1958 and since then, it has been known for its innovations in its industry.

LG 21^st century vision is to become a true global leader that can make customers happy throughout the world by means of its innovative digital products and services. It aimed at achieving a position as one of the top three electronics, information, and telecommunication firms in the world by 2010. As such, LG adopted the philosophy of “Great Company, Great People,” where only great people can create a great company, and pursuing two growth strategies involving “fast innovation” and “fast growth”. Likewise, LG seek to secure three core capabilities: product leadership, market leadership, and people-centered leadership. All these have guided LG to where they are presently in the world in its industry.

The researcher is a user of this LG mobile phone.  Hence, the rationale behind this research is to broaden non-users knowledge of this mobile technology and point out values they could derive from using it.

Product:

Normally, when the word ‘product’ is mentioned, people quickly think of it as tangible products i.e. goods, which is referred to as physical, tangible products that can be owned, traded, and distributed to different places at different times without having to change their identity.

However, according to William and Ferrell (2010) defined a product “as a good, service, or an idea received in an exchange. That is, it can be tangible or intangible and includes functional, social, and psychological utilities or benefits”.

The product under consideration in this work is “LG Optimus 2x or LGp990 star or LGp990 Optimus speed” which is the first “Dual Core” mobile phone in the world.

How the product deliver value

The following are ways which this product (LG Optimus 2X) deliver value to customers;

1.    This product provides value to customers through its “Dual Core” mobile technology feature. This feature provide value to customers as it makes Web page load time faster, lower consumption and higher performance per watt as task are shared among the two Core, higher quality game play experience for advanced console-style mobile games, highly responsive and smoother user interferences, and faster multitasking as a result of sharing load of work (applications) among the two processors.

2.    This product provides value to customers through its HDMI Mirroring feature. Meaning, users can watch recorded or downloaded videos or movies in their mobile phone on a compatible TV (e.g. LCD TVs) by connecting their mobile phone to any LCD TV through their phone USB cord.

3.    This product provides value to customers through its storage memory. With the phone internal memory of 8GB and supporting external memory up to 32GB, it means, users won’t bother themselves carrying pen-drive or external hard disk to store information in their offices, business meetings, school as students, etc. as the phone can comfortably store all their information.

4.      This product provides value to customers through its camera and video features. With the phone 8MP camera and 1.3MP video, it means, users won’t have to inconvenience themselves carrying cameras, camcorders to their exhibitions, occasions, tours, etc. as they are sure this feature will provide them with the quality and quantity of pictures and videos they would need at anytime.

5.    Also this product provides value to customers through its battery durability. With this phone battery meant to last up to 400h as stand-by, and 7h50min of talk time when fully charged. It means, users do not have to disturbed themselves carrying their battery charger to their offices or school as students as they would be sure the fully charged phone battery will serve them for the day.

Price

Price is the amount a buyer must give in exchange for a product or service. According to Richard (2008) “a product’s price helps position the product offering, communicate its tangible and intangible values, determine how and where it will be distributed, and even define its target markets. Price planning is invariably done in conjunction with product, place, and promotion planning”. Price suggests that a product is commonplace or that it is prestigious. It represents the product’s exchange value, i.e. its worth to the customer in terms of the money the customer is willing to pay for it.

The price of this product (LG Optimus 2X) in Malaysia defies with location.

How the price deliver value

The price provide value to customers because it is relatively cheap at a maximum price of RM1800 with its art of the world technology as outlined above, more especially when compared to other latest smart phones like iPhone, blackberry, Samsong Galaxy S2 etc. which cost higher.

At this price, both high and medium income earners, and even students can afford it and enjoy art of the world technological features of this phone.

In addition, the price of this product provide value to customers because consumers are becoming more informed, knowledgeable, and seeking superior value for their money. They are most interested in quality products at a lower price. A product of this quality with a low price as mentioned above will exceed customer’s expectations, as such; customers will be happy and willing to buy this product.

Place

This is concerned with making products or services available or accessible when and where customers want them. It is creating the means by which a product flows from producer to the customer. That is, deciding how many stores, specific wholesalers, retailers, and exact location in a particular geographic area where products will be displayed for customer easy accessibility.

Perry (2006) said “place in marketing means getting the right products into the right places at the right time”. The success of every product or service is highly determined by its strategic location.

This product (LG Optimus 2X) is strategically placed at every digital shopping malls within major cities of Malaysia. For example, it can be found in places like Sunway Pyramid, Mid-valley, Loyat, the Cove, KL sentral, KLCC.

 How the place deliver value

Value is provided via place because prospective users can easily walk into any major shopping mall within the cities to buy the phone. The availability of this phone at various shopping malls means, prospective users don’t need to walk or travel miles before buying it, as a result saves them stress and time.

It also provides value to existing users because they can easily get parts of the phone and contact service people if the need arises at the nearest shopping mall.

The strategic locations of this product as mentioned above also provide value to customers because customer sometimes associates location to quality and as such, expect a lower price.

For example, selling this phone at the Malaysian night market (pasa-malam) will often be seen as low quality phone even if it has the same quality as the ones sold in the chopping malls. This is because consumers have this perceived belief that goods sold at places like (pasa-malam) are of low quality, as such expect them to be cheaper.

Promotion

Promotion is the process of informing, persuading, influencing, and reminding the customer’s purchase decision. The objective of promotion in marketing is to support, enhance, and supplement the other marketing mix.

According to Gitman and Mcdaniel (2008), the goal of promotion is to create awareness, get consumers to try new product or non-users to try existing product, providing information, keeping loyal customers, increasing the amount and frequency of use and identifying target customers. 

How promotion delivers value

The sales promotion of Celcom Malaysia, provide value to customers because prospective users would want to use this golden opportunity to buy the latest mobile phone with art of the world technology at a price as low as mentioned above. That is, prospective users can buy this phone at a lower price contract via Celcom Malaysia.

 Also, the advert above provides value because mobile phone users sometimes get tired of waiting for their mobile webpage to load. Mobile users seeing an advert of a mobile phone without a lag switching applications will be happy to own one, more especially at a promotional price as stated above.

Furthermore, personal promotion provide value to customers because some customers who want to buy a smart-phone without having a specific brand in mind could be made to buy LG optimus 2X by sales person(s) meeting them one-on-one. Customers hearing sales person(s) tell them of the phone and seeing a sample of it, will easily convinced them to like and buy the phone.

In addition, promoting this phone online in strategic websites like social network, youtube and email will provide value to customers because customers will get more information on the phone, as a result, buy it.

CONCLUSION

In today’s business world, marketing plays a very essential role towards the success of every company. It educates the organisation on the latest market trends, helps boost a company’s sales and profit, and develops company reputation. Therefore marketers must be creative and wise enough to promote their products with the proper marketing tactics.

Creating and maintaining a successful organization now faces many challenges, and as such it is very important for an organization to carefully choose its marketing strategies and properly implement them. In doing this the organisation must understand the most important aspect of marketing which is creating value for customers.

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P. (2008). Marketing: An introduction (9^th ed.). Australia: Pearson prentice Hall

Gitman, L. J., McDaniel, C. (2008). The Future of Business: The Essentials (4^th ed.). USA: Cengage Learning

Horner, S., Swarbrooke, J. (2005). Leisure marketing: a global perspective. UK: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann

Madura, J. (2006). Introduction to business (4^th ed.). USA: Cengage Learning

Perry, B. (2006). CIMA Study Systems: Organizational Management and Information Systems. USA: Butterworth-Heinemann

 Sandhusen, R. L. (2008). Marketing (4^th ed.). USA: Barron's Educational Series

 Silk, A. J. (2006), what is marketing?  U.S.A: Harvard business press.

William, M. P., Ferrell, O. C (2010). Foundations of Marketing. USA: Cengage Learning

http://www.mobile88.com.my/cellphone/LG/LG-Optimus-2X/price.asp. Retrieved on 01/08/2011

 http://www.techgravy.net/2011/04/celcom-malaysia-sell-lg-optimus-2x-with-rm878-300-customers-only.html. Retrieved on 01/08/2011

http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/. Retrieved on 03/08/2011

http://www.talkandroid.com/28482-lg-optimus-2x-gets-reviewed-with-hands-on/lg-optimus-2x-2/. Retrieved 01/08/2011

http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_2x-3598.php. Retrieved on 04/08/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwLoHxeqNUk. Retrieved on 07/08/2011