Apple and 4P's of Marketing

 

Apple- not following 4Ps of Kotler?

Out of many thought provoking lines, I just started thinking about a tweet from one of my respected senior.

“Apple, a Failure of traditional 4P’s of Marketing and yet a success!

I analyzed the same, I began to run through 4P’s and yes, bang on, it seemed true! And I was convinced of greatness of apple brand who had challenged the traditional theory.

But there were some counter views when I discussed the same with one of another respected senior who was of the opinion that it was not true.

Two different people, same tweet, two opinions, I was confused! I wanted to get to depth!

View

Product- Apple has not done any innovation in products, portable music player was not launched by them, Apple may seem to be innovative company and brand but they have beautifully done innovations in product design and user experience, all perfect! If you compare features of apple phone with competitors, features are same or even less, so nothing great features wise! An Ok product!

Promotions: an apple has never promoted its products, only word of mouth has been the sole reason for its success (because of good product design and user experience), one may argue what is the need of promotion if your product is selling well on word of mouth ( highest form of marketing) but apple has never focused on promotions.

Pricing- Apple products are way to highly priced (one may argue its their pricing strategy) but why? what does the product/brand hold to deserve such high pricing? Great product, no? Great value, no? Great features, no? Why then he is charging so high pricing? 

Place- Apple has been purposefully denying its availability of products in India, a country who can give its sales a great spurt, a country with affordability? Why such demarcation?

Overall, a sidelined view of 4P’s, but apple brand /product is a success story in itself! It’s a league, it’s a community, and it’s the pride of owning apple products which is driving its sales.

Counter View

Product- it’s a brilliant product with such a great user experience, experience is driving people crazy and people are buying it, wanting it, waiting for it! What else a product can offer, experience only which is there in apple, one up for apple product!

Promotions: It’s a company strategy not to promote its products so extensively when their product is selling like hot cakes. Why promote? Word of mouth is enough.Who said a brand needs to promote?, it’s a calculated decision and in some ways of the other , it is creating required word of mouth promotions required to sell the brand., two up for apple.

Pricing: it’s the experience for which people are paying it, high or low doesn’t matter and they are ready to pay much more.

Place- it might be possible that there is enough demand outside and they are not able to match the production levels, they may be wanting to ramp up production levels to cater to that demand and then possibly make easily availability in india.

What a Magic , apple has created, I have not figured out yet, what made me spend on iphone , I don’t know, was it experience? Was it the features? Was it word of mouth created by others?

Yet lot to learn from apple, a masterpiece!

Vikas sachdeva

Telecaller

I am an Telecaller

T- Hello ,I am calling from XYZ bank, you are offered a free credit card sir!

Abhi kisi card ki zaroorat nahi hai, bang!!!

T- Hello, am I speaking to Mr Rahul , this call is regarding personal loan, abhi koi requirement hai sir?

Aap baad mein phone kariye, bang!

T-Hello, XYZ life insurance ne aapke liye ek nayi policy nikali hai , aap interested hain

Kitni baar kaha hai mujhe koi requirement nahi hai, bang!

These were few calls from a telecaller’s desk; imagine how many times he/she has to undergo the pain of insult, pain of not being spoken nicely, pain of not being heard.

Just imagine, you are being spoken to rudely most of the time in a day, how you will feel!

Telecaller’s have to wear plastic smile on their face daily for hours.

·         On phone for 10 hours- Its their job

Telecallers have to be on phone for 10 hours a day, will you hold a phone for over 1 hour daily? Speaking the same lines every time you call? They don’t have the option, its their job. All that we can do is speaking to them nicely.

·         After sometime it becomes emotionless

After the morning hours, you observe the tiredness in telecaller’s voice, you will realize that there is no emotion in the voice, it’s like robot speaking, a tired robot wanting somebody, somebody to talk to them, at least hear what they are saying.

·         A Polite no will make them happy

If you don’t want it, then say it politely, they have not done any crime by calling you, it was their misfortune that you didn’t want their product/service, don’t punish them for that. Say No, Politely.

Remember we need their products/services at some points in life, it’s the way we speak that matters.

Vikas Sachdeva

World of small things

First Scene – Me with empty trolley

Location- Food Bazaar, HUB Mall, Goregaon

Scene opens with wife having monthly grocery list and a pen, She said “Let’s start with kitchen items first “& the warrior was ready to put items in the trolley and move as per directions given by her.

Sugar 2 kg, Besan 500 g, Pulses 500 g, 10 Shampoo sachets, 50 g Face wash, 2 kg Surf Excel…..

I tried my best to put my point across “Why are you buying such a small qty of each and everything, but not large packs and we can survive for longer time”?

After repeated efforts, I got an answer “15 din ke baad phir aa jaayenge” and this happened months after months and I decided to understand this psyche and started observing a normal shopper behavior across modern as well as traditional retail.

Thought Came: When shopping, why we intend to buy smaller packs, less qty of items?

Possible reasons I could found:

Less Money Shell out at one go ( Less Risk)

As Indians, we are taught to save money (save, save, save) leading to point that money in hand is more important if required in contingency. Its life savior, due to this, we tend to hold money with us more than we can spend. So now

10 Sachet of shampoo of Rs 2 each, Money spent= Rs 20 vs Rs 35 bottle of more qty at one go.

So Risk is less, a Psychological savings.

Trial

Buying smaller packs gives a consumer opportunity to try that product, if it suits you, then you can buy bigger packet later. Largely it is there in personal care products.

A small 100 g Masala will convey its message whether it is good or bad, so no buying the same next time.

Unitization

This is very interesting Point, during my visit to Vapi with my Head of Marketing, Mr Alok Kapoor, he taught me one interesting concept.

Commodity--------Product……….Brand

Companies charge premium when a commodity moves to product and then to a brand.

He gave one example, Sugar is essentially a commodity, when one buys the same in its loose form from a grocery store, and he will get it at say Rs 40/kg.

When a company packs the sugar in good plastic bags and changes the form to sugar cubes, it can now be unitized, 1 packet- 2 cubes, 2 packets-40 cubes, company charges the premium from a customer as a price of changing the form (cubes) now same 1 kg sugar is now Rs 45 / kg,( Liquid drops to be more costly as Rs 60/kg)

When it moves from product to a brand (Company has created its imagery of quality, trust, endorsed through brand ambassadors), perceived benefit is very high , customer is ready to pay more premium of branded sugar Rs 80/ kg.

A customer will always pay premium to a brand if his perceived price that he needs to pay is lesser than product’s price (That is separate point, will write about it later)

So unitization (smaller packs) has made customer believe that they are paying for a unit than whole pack.

When asked about price, vegetable sellers always say price of lesser qty,

8 rupaiye pao ( 250 g) than Rs 32 per kg, if he says Rs 32 per kg, customer will say, Mehnga hai and will walk away, but with Rs 8 per 250 g, vegetable seller has made sure that customer can buy less also.

(Smart tactics but with logic to it)

No Brand loyalties

Gone are the days when people use to stick to one brand, with hundreds of options available in each and every category, people tend to switch brand loyalties, if they buy larger packs, they will have to stick to that product for a longer time binding him not to use other products.

Last scene- I was seen standing in long queue to pay the bill and I was getting ready to lift 4 heavy bags of grocery…..

Vikas Sachdeva