Smartphone Literature Review

Chapter 2 Literature Review

The literature review will provide insight on the 4Ps of marketing mix and brand theories on smartphones.

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix consists of four factors namely product, price, place and promotion. The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools a firm utilizes to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market (Borden, 1984 and Goi, 2005).

When a store markets its products, it needs to create a successful mix of the right product, sold at the right price, in the right place and using the most suitable promotion (Mohammad et al, 2012). Kotler and Armstrong (2006) are of the view that marketing mix is designed to influence consumer decision-making and lead to profitable exchanges

Chapter 2 Literature

Ferrell (2005) states that product is the core of the marketing mix strategy in which retailers can offer consumers symbolic and experiential attributes to differentiate products from competitors. On the other hand, it should be stressed how the consumer perceive the product.

Modis (1998) associated new product development with the smartphones by stating that product mutations grow at both the start and end of the product life cycle and that more mutations will bring more chances that some smartphones will survive and will become established products. As such, destabilization and chaos must be encouraged as part of the product development strategy. Nilson (1995) is of the view that the introduction of a completely new and innovated product is one of the ways to bring chaos into a market and according to the author, this will destabilize the market. In order for this strategy to be successful, a company must however not only plan for long term but must also make sure to take advantage of short term opportunities which might be unanticipated and unpredictable. This strategy includes product development systems which will help to improve late design changes to better satisfy customer demands. (Golden, Johnson and Smith, 1995, and Thomke and Reinertsen,

The generic product must provide the essential benefits and fulfil the basic need that the product is supposed to deliver. The expected product concept of a product is when consumers are not satisfied with the core benefit of the product. This concept provides consumers with additional benefits while including the basic benefits. It includes design, packaging, quality and features among others. The augmented product is a concept which forces manufacturer to offer more benefits from the product than expected especially because of competition. This concept might include benefits such as free delivery or after sales services or guarantee. Eventually the concept of potential product includes a company to do all that it can to attract and hold customers. This may include redesign of the product such as reduce its weight; improve its battery life or its