The mobile phone market is unique in a variety of ways, which can be a major asset or liability to a marketer, depending on the marketer’s strategic plan. For a start, in spite of their relatively high cost, mobile phones have a relatively short useful life. Most users replace their mobile phones within 24 months, some within a year. Secondly, most mobile phone users have a close relationship with their handsets (Fan & Yang, 2016). This relationship makes users highly selective when purchasing their handsets. Further, the mobile phone market is highly varied in terms of expectations and pending intentions. Some customers are willing to or capable of paying as much as ten times more than other users, yet all customers aspire for high-quality service. According to Pourdehghan (2015), successful marketing in the mobile phone industry depends on brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and brand trust. Due to the constant need for repeat business, brand loyalty is essential. To attain brand loyalty, the marketer needs to meet the needs of the customer to create brand loyalty, without seeming to fail the customer, in order to maintain brand trust. To attain the balance of the factor above, a mobile phone marketer needs a carefully orchestrated market mix that combines innovative product development, a varied pricing strategy, and a promotion strategy that includes a large presence in the market place, as engendered in my market mix as outlined below.
Market Mix
Product
Regarding market mix, I would focus on the varied nature of the mobile phone market in order to attain customer loyalty or as wide a market as possible. Currently, a smartphone is an indispensable personal asset for amenities such as communication and access to the internet. Most people need smartphones, but their needs and purchasing powers respectively vary exponentially. For example, some people wish to make a statement, and they will want the most advanced mobile phone in the market in spite of its cost. Others are not adept at using mobile phones and will need a gadget that is easy to use, yet highly useful (Fan & Yang, 2016). Yet others are flashy and want a phone that apes the best models in the market but at an affordable price. Each of the market niches including the ones outlined above has millions of customers, which a marketer cannot afford to ignore.
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For a start, I would combine invention and innovation to ensure that the phones under the brand have something unique and useful that no other phone in the market has. The phone camera and battery life are among the areas of focus in modern smartphones (Fan & Yang, 2016). I would ensure that the camera has a special patented feature, and the battery is longer than the standard rate in the market without it being inordinately large. The two special components seek to secure brand loyalty by ensuring that users would not want to lose the two special features by switching to another brand. Secondly, to secure brand trust, I would invest heavily in quality assessment and evaluation to ensure that each type of phone under the brand works flawlessly.
Finally, I would divide the phones under the brand into three main categories, in a bid to capture as large a segment of the target market as possible. The first group would be the premium quality phones. These phones would apply the best available technological inventions and innovations. The key to the first unit would be to surpass the best phones in the market in terms of quality. The second group would be targeted in the younger generation such as students and young adults who aspire for the premium look but cannot afford the premium price (Chen, Chen & Lin, 2016). These phones would ape the premium phones in looks and some of the simpler features. However, through cost leadership, they would be worth only a fraction of the phones in the first group. Finally, there would be the amenity-based group that would seek to provide the basic services needed in a smartphone, in a simplified fashion. The phones in the last group would also be relatively inexpensive.
Price
The price strategy would depend almost entirely on the product strategy outlined above. From a general perspective, all the products would adopt the premium pricing strategy. Each of the three groups of the product falls within categories that already exist in the market. The phones would have a cost that is slightly higher than the most expensive phone in the market. According to Pourdehghan (2015), customers use cost to assess the quality of the product. Generally, customers assume that cheap phones are of low quality and expensive ones are of high quality. However, Pourdehghan (2015) cautions that it is important for the value of the product to match its price in order to generate customer satisfaction. The fact that the product aspect of the phones aims for optimum quality will make premium pricing a feasible option.
Promotion
Promotion is one of the most important components of the market mix regarding mobile phones according to Pourdehghan (2015). Indeed, according to the case study, the main drivers of customer loyalty and satisfaction are a combination of product and promotion. Smartphone users consider themselves quite smart. Hence, a promotion strategy that sounds like a form of education may be repulsive. The most suitable way to promote the product is to have customers see individuals they respect and look up to using the product. Celebrity endorsements can be expensive, but innovation can lower the cost exponentially (Ferrell & Hartline, 2019).
Specific Promotion Recommendation
The recommended form of promotion involves collaborating with other promoters who are not competitors, then using the partnership to limit costs. For example, Dwayne Johnson is one of the leading celebrities in America and would be expensive to hire for a celebrity endorsement. However, Dwayne also has his products to promote such as his new movie Jumanji: The Next Level. I would collaborate with Dwayne and his team so that in marketing the phone, they would also market the phones. For example, Dwayne the dominant figure would us the premium product, while two of his associates would use the other two based on suitability. To limit costs further, I would publish the ad through social media, as the presence of leading celebrities would enable the ad to go viral. The ad would also include a little non-scandalous controversy to enable it to feature in news shows, resulting in more free publicity. The low cost of the campaign would guarantee a high reward on investment for the ad.
Place
Every smartphone marketer already has a powerful presence on the internet. Hence, I would focus on physical presence, using the strategy employed by Apple (Lee, 2018). However, to save on costs and management constraints, I would rely on a franchising approach. I would have franchise shops that focus on sales, repairs and customer service for the products of the company only. A prerequisite of the franchises would be colorful, unique, and similar branding to increase visibility for active and potential customers. The shops would also operate on a 24-hour basis, to create the impression that someone from the company is always available for customers. Most mundane repairs and software upgrades would be availed to the customers without any charges. Over and above the physical presence, the product would also be available on an innovative online shop that focuses on giving the customer an interpersonal experience. Social media would also be an important place for the company to interact with its customers by providing necessary assistance. Any question posed on social media would get a prompt response from a representative of the company with an offer for further information is necessary. This strategy aims at making customers feel that the company is always there for them (Lee, 2018).
References
Chen, Y. S., Chen, T. J., & Lin, C. C. (2016). The analyses of purchasing decisions and brand loyalty for Smartphone consumers. Open Journal of Social Sciences , 4 (7), 108-116.
Fan, Y., & Yang, C. (2016). Competition, product proliferation and welfare: a study of the US smartphone market. Available at SSRN 2506423 .
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2019). Marketing Strategy: Text and Cases . Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning
Lee, Y. I. (2018). How Customer Service Experience Deters Customer Switching Behaviour and Results in Brand Loyalty in a Collectivist, Developing Market. In 2018 Global Marketing Conference .
Pourdehghan, A. (2015). The impact of marketing mix elements on brand loyalty: A case study of mobile phone industry. Marketing and Branding Research , 2 (1), 44.
