MKT103 Marketing- Positioning of Competing Companies

This outline will address the following three organizations and their products within the mobile phone industry.

• Apple – iphone
• Samsung
• Google – Nexus

The products to be addressed are smart phones. This industry for smart phones is hyper competitive market. The demands for such products are high and customers are very brand loyal to their product or service that they select (Pourdeghan- 2005). Therefore it can be assumed that such loyalty requires organization to understand the needs of their customers base (Elliot and Bradley 2005)

In preparation for full written report the following areas of a marketing plan for each product/service will be identified.

Answer

Introduction

Marketing has been considered as an actor philosophy whose prime focus is to provide the best level of customer satisfaction. It is the activity which is concerned with the set of institutions and processes which have been adopted for designing, best outcome or possess value for the consumers, clients and the society (Doyle, 2009). These activities are also considered as the backbone for any of the industries as they are utilized in the attainment of the goals and target market effectively and efficiently. The best or the ultimate outcome is when a successful exchange occurs. A sum or value which is expected by the marketers to be given against the offering, The below presented report has been analyzed on the marketing plan of Apple, Samsung and Google. Nexus, these all three industries are multinational technology and telecommunication services provider (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). These entities are into designing, developing and selling and dealing in consumer electronics, computer software and online services. Moreover the further report will be focusing on many of the objectives of report such as SWOT analysis and the critical issues associated with the company, marketing strategies for the entities.

Report Overview

The below presented report has been made focus on the marketing plan of the three multinational corporations that are Apple, Samsung and Google. The below described report has analyzed some of the significant points which has been considered as very much vital while developing a marketing plan of the above mentioned business organizations. SWOT analysis, marketing gaps, marketing strategies followed by the corporation, marketing metrics adopted are the key points which has been analyzed for the development of the marketing plan.

SWOT analysis

Strengths: The Company uses cutting-edge fiber-optics technology and also the company can make use of high-performing cable equipment’s in the manufacturing process which will aid in enhancement in the quality of the products and the services, a respected brand name is also very much significant for a distinct identity of the firm (Ottman, 2011). Moreover an excellent set of customer service which should keep the customers queries on priority and a strong sales team are the components of strengths of the telecommunication industries which boost the capabilities of the companies. Also these strengths form the attributes which aids in the developing and building the company's competitive advantage.

Weaknesses: There are mainly three weaknesses which can be problematic for the telecommunication businesses and that are the corroded cable lines, slow customer service and lackluster sales. And these weaknesses can be built as the competitive deficiencies which will make the company in a negative position or create disadvantage in the marketplace. And if the company doesn’t stop making use of corroded cable lines and slow service continues, then the unsatisfied customers can switch to a rival brand that offers better services.

Opportunities: Adaptation of new technologies and mechanisms, an increase in the consumer interest and a decrease in competition are some of the external opportunities which can be proven beneficial for the business corporations for the long run. Opportunities can be proven beneficial; by making use of the outside events and campaigns the company can give a rapid push to its existing strengths (Fleischmann and Srikantaiah. 2002). Due to modernization and globalization it is must for a telecommunication company to keen on updating new technologies.

Threats: A heavy economy, intensification in competition and an increase in the norms and regulations by the governing bodies against the telecommunications industry can be considered as some of the main external threats that can limit a telecommunications company's future success.

Marketing Gaps

The concept is concerned with assessing the differences in the performances of the business information systems or software applications for determination of the requirements and the expectations of the business corporations which are met or not and if not then what will be the essential and effective strategies and plans for attainment of these plans successfully. Gap is the term which has been referred as a space between "where we are" (the present state) and "where we want to be" (the target state) (Doole and Lowe, 2008). The best strategy to be adopted for this concept is the gap analysis. The below mentioned are the different types of gaps in the telecommunication industry:

Service quality gaps: The service quality is one of the most prominent and significant component in the growth and the success of any of the business organization. The marketers also agree that the above mentioned concept is capable in influencing the customers for distinguishing the competitors and also provides contribution in the customer satisfaction. The following are some of the examples of gaps due to the service quality such as difference between the consumers’ expectations and managements perceptions regarding the expectations of the consumers i.e. they are unaware about the needs of the consumers, improper quality standards, also there is a difference between the service quality specifications and the actual quality delivered .i.e. the performance gap.

Gender gaps: The mobile companies are into launching a number of handsets or mobile phones on daily basis with different colors sizes models and specifications etc. (Farris and et al, 2010). And these variations are required to be done by the companies due to expectations of the customers. For example there are some specific colors and models which are chosen by female customers. And if the company fails to fulfill these requirements then this becomes a reason in the development of a gap.

Positioning of competing companies

Sony has become one of the biggest competitor business corporations for all of the three above mentioned brands. The company has launched a number of strategies for positioning the newly launched products in the market. The entity has planned to launch a major promotional campaign for the advertisement of its new brand positioning .i.e. ‘we enable you to make your everyday extraordinary (Fleischmann and Srikantaiah, 2002). At the launch of the campaign Catherine Cherry, who is the marketing director of UK & Ireland, said that: ‘Products are not enough anymore, it’s about how you bring it to life for the consumer. The companies should help the service users in getting their most of the devices. And due to which the communication strategies will be focused more on customer experience. Also the business corporation has developed new global brand positioning .i.e. “We enable you make your everyday extraordinary” which means that the business operations will be focused in making an ordinary day into special one. This has been considered as a long term brand positioning strategy for the business organization. The main features of the campaign are the real Sony Mobile users who are the significant part of the campaign, as it has been stated by the marketing director to Mobile: ‘The campaign is totally based on the real people and the whole information comes from a real source. The entity has made use of social media for influencing the customers through online medium. In total the company has used 7 influencers from across the globe.

Marketing strategies

Apple

Keeping marketing and products simple: The business corporation understands that technology consumers most of the times affected. This is true in case of niches and industries. Confusion in the marketing mixes can be created because of the overwhelming of the consumers. And this confusion has been reduced by the simplification of the web and sales copy.

Know their audience and talk to them in their language (Purkis. 2015): The Company should be well aware about the consumers, their needs and their expectations from the company. Apple has a very good knowledge base of its customers and they has also developed loyalty in their market share. The company also uses proper communication methods and mechanisms to interact with the consumers in their language that makes them feel comfortable not overwhelmed and confused.

Samsung

Skimming price: Samsung is the telecommunication corporation which has been leading the market with Apple’s iPhone and the corporation uses skimming pricing strategy for gaining the upper hand over their rivals (White. 2015). For instance, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are the latest products launched by the company carrying the slogan “Next is now”. The company claims that these phones are the most beautiful smartphones ever created. 

Competitive pricing: The business entity has difficulties in gaining an edge over its competitors with other products. The company makes use of the competitive pricing strategy and it is vital for the entity.

Google

It is free for all: Google adopted the marketing strategies as similar a ninja does Kung Fu, stealth-like. This marketing strategy has the biggest open extent and therefore it has been considered as the most successful marketing (Oberstein. 2016).

A culture of conversation: Let's give them something to talk about to a whole new level, this is the phrase which has been given or presented by Googl(Newlands. 2017,)e . A culture of conversation has been created by the search engines brilliantly.

Marketing Metrics

For gaining the competitive advantage the business corporations are enhancing and developing new and better methods and processes and quality of the products (Arikan, 2011). An improvement in the quality of the services can also be brought by the company by effectively adapting these business metrics. For example, regular mistakes and errors with low performance in providing services to the customer can be improved through measurements that can be proven beneficial in solving the problems (Sterne, 2010). Price-to-earnings ratio, revenue per customer, revenue per employee and market share growth are such areas on which assess is provided by financial report metrics within an industry. Identification of the proportion of the various expenses of company that go to waste that produces no value for the customer can also be done by the business metrics. Balanced scorecard method, Six Sigma and return on investment evaluations are the formal business analysis approaches have been made dependent on the business metrics.

Report Analysis

In the limelight of the above analyzed report it has been inferred that telecommunication industry is one of the fastest growing in the sector. Moreover in the further report identification of the gaps in the mobile industry has been done and also positioning strategies used has been also discussed. The report has been focused on Apple-I phone, Samsung and Google Nexus which are the top leading brands of this industry and marketing strategies of all the three has been presented.

References

Oberstein, m, 2016, Google's Success: 3 Winning Brand Marketing Strategies You Can Emulate, Assessed on 17^th May 2017, https://www.rankranger.com/blog/google-marketing-strategy.

White, W, 2015, Samsung Marketing Strategy: The Master Brand, Assessed on 17^th May 2017, https://inevitablesteps.com/marketing/samsung-marketing-strategy/.

Purkis, Z, 2015, New brand position for Sony mobile, Assessed on 17^th May 2017, https://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/news/industry/33585/new-brand-position-for-sony-mobile.aspx.

Fleischmann, K and Srikantaiah, T, 2002, SWOT Analysis of Mobile Phones in Four Countries: Comparing India, Ethiopia, Kuwait, and the United States, Assessed on 17^th May 2017, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/meet.2011.14504801310/pdf.

Newlands, M, 2017, 15 Marketing Strategies That Inspire Strategic Thinkers, Assessed on 17^th May 2017, https://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/15-marketing-strategies-that-inspire-strategic-thinkers.html

Doyle, P., 2009. Value-based marketing: marketing strategies for corporate growth and shareholder value. John Wiley & Sons.

Ottman, J., 2011. The new rules of green marketing: Strategies, tools, and inspiration for sustainable branding. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Doole, I. and Lowe, R., 2008. International marketing strategy: analysis, development and implementation. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Farris, P.W., Bendle, N., Pfeifer, P. and Reibstein, D., 2010. Marketing metrics: The definitive guide to measuring marketing performance. Pearson Education.

Arikan, A., 2011. Multichannel marketing: metrics and methods for on and offline success. John Wiley & Sons.

Sterne, J., 2010. Social media metrics: How to measure and optimize your marketing investment. John Wiley & Sons.

Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.