Introduction to Marketing

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Explanation of Marketing and the ways by which 7P’s create customer value..............................4
Explanation of how business use marketing to remain competitive using SWOT analysis............5
Description of the Ansoff Growth Matrix and the effective usage of it to become successful.......5
Explain how business use digital marketing to improve performance and growth.........................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The report aims at the understanding of different concepts related to marketing undergone by
different recognized companies like Apple in the world. The report starts with the discussion of
the concept of marketing and its 7P’s by which a company ensures customer value. Then, the
importance of SWOT analysis for gaining competitive advantage and the explanation of the
Ansoff market for adopting an appropriate marketing strategy have been analyzed. Finally, the
new concept named digital marketing and the effective usage of digital marketing for growing
businesses has also been described.

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Explanation of Marketing and the ways by which 7P’s create
customer value
Marketing is regarded as an important function of the business which deals with the
identification of the needs and demands of the customers in a proper way so that the business can
provide value to the customers and in return, capture some value from the customers as well
(Keegan, 2017). A concept, named 7P in marketing helps Apple to create customer value in
various ways which are described below.
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Figure 1: 7P’s of Marketing (Kotabe and Helsen, 2020)

First of all, a business-like Apple has to adopt the best product or service strategy to improve
customer service and this strategy includes the key benefits and features it wants to offer and
such unique features are indicated in their latest model iPhone 11. Next, Apple should properly
use the distribution channels to ensure the availability of the product for the targeted audience
(Hollensen, 2019). The next step for Apple is to provide the necessary information related to the
product or service to the customers by engaging in promotional activities through advertisement,
direct sales service, societal marketing, etc. (Keegan, 2017). The marketing executives of Apple
has used moment marketing for their newly developed product The next step is determining the
price of the product which is a sensitive task for a company because the company has to consider

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different aspects before setting the price such as the amount the customers are willing to pay and
the production costs etc. After that, the company has to ensure that the products must be
provided efficiently through capable executives and also provide different after-sales -service to
sustain the customers.

Explanation of how business use marketing to remain competitive

using SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a strategic tool which is used for identifying a company’s strengths, weakness,
opportunities, and threats to determine whether the company can gain a competitive advantage
and if not, the company can make some strategies in this regard (Dess, 2013).

Identifying the strengths of a company is the first task as the strengths generally come from the
internal environment of the business which allows exploring the opportunities in a particular
industry (Bose, 2012). For example, a company has the capability like leadership in product
innovation or high efficiency in low-cost manufacturing can easily use those as an opportunity to
dominate in the market by gaining a large portion of market share which is done by Apple.
Again, the weaknesses of a company are regarded as threats but sometimes, a company can
neutralize these weaknesses into opportunity, rather than threats. For example, a company which
produces unique products but it due to lack of production capacity, cannot produce so many
products. Despite that, the demand for these products will not be decreased as the limited number
of products become familiar and sold quickly which indicates that weakness might turn into
opportunity and provide a competitive edge to the competitors.

Description of the Ansoff Growth Matrix and the effective usage of

it to become successful
Ansoff growth matrix is a strategic tool, also known as market or product expansion grid,
basically used for developing a marketing strategy in such a way so that the business can grow
strategically and gain a competitive advantage in the market (Armstrong et al., 2014). However,
there are four strategies involved in this matrix which are market penetration, product
development, market development, and diversification strategy.

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 Market Product Market
Penetration Development Development

Diversification

Figure 2: Ansoff Matrix (Armstrong et al., 2014)

Market penetration refers to such a strategy in which a company focuses on the existing market
with the existing products. For example, Apple has effectively used this strategy by selling more
iPhones and iPads in the existing market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). Product development
refers to the strategy by which a company takes action to introduce a new product in the existing
market. For example, Apple developed the iPod nano in the existing market for the existing
customers. Market development is the strategy where a company, with the existing products,
enters into a new market. A perfect example of market development is entering into the
international market by different footwear firms like Adidas and Nike (Kotabe and Helsen,
2020). Finally, diversification is the riskiest strategy where a company enters into a new market
with a new product (Wilson and Gilligan, 2012). For example, nowadays, different car
companies are involved in producing trucks in a new market.

Explain how business use digital marketing to improve performance

and growth
Nowadays, marketers of different reputed organizations use digital marketing as a via for
reaching the customers. Digital marketing is wide are for attracting customers using social
media, content marketing, search platforms, etc. (Kannan, 2017). The main objective of using
digital marketing to establish a two-way connection so that the customers can provide feedback
about the product.

A company engages in promotional and branding activities through digital marketing to reach
the customers in a broader sense. For example, Viral marketing is a way of digital marketing by
which a company spreads the information regarding the products from person to person using

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different attractive contents or emotional videos so that by the word-of-mouth, people can spread
out the information quickly or in other words, viral the product information in a few hours
because the general people become fascinated after seeing these contents in the social media (Ho
and Dempsey, 2010). Making community groups in social media is another way of digital
marketing and it is adopted by Apple Company. In this case, companies put emphasis on loyal
customers and create a community and put the information on any latest products and the
customers get the information easily. Many companies like Apple, are doing digital marketing
for growing their businesses.

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Conclusion
The report concludes with the importance of marketing activities by using different tools and
techniques for the company like Apple. By the 7P’s of marketing, a company can get different
ways of creating value for the customers. Again, the Ansoff matrix enables a company to adopt a
suitable strategy for growing the operational activities. SWOT analyses help to analyze the
internal and external environment of the business to identify the opportunities and threats and
finally, digital marketing also strengthens the ways of reaching the customers.

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Reference
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson
Australia.

Bose, D.C., 2012. Principles of management and administration. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Dess, G., 2013. Strategic management: Text and cases. McGraw-Hill Education.

Ho, J.Y. and Dempsey, M., 2010. Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online
content. Journal of Business research, 63(9-10), pp.1000-1006.

Hollensen, S., 2019. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.

Kannan, P.K., 2017. Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International
Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), pp.22-45.

Keegan, W.J., 2017. Global marketing management. Pearson India.

Kotabe, M.M. and Helsen, K., 2020. Global marketing management. John Wiley & Sons.

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G., 2010. Principles of marketing. Pearson education.

Wilson, R.M. and Gilligan, C., 2012. Strategic marketing management. Routledge.

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