Marketing Comparing and Contrasting the

Marketing Comparing and Contrasting the Ps of Marketing vs. The Value Approach The traditional marketing mix is defined as the 4 Ps, including product, price, promotion and place or distribution. These elements of the marketing mix have widely been considered the foundation of marketing strategies, yet lacking in defining how value is delivered is to customers. The value approach that includes the cycle of creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging value is in use with many companies to overcome the limitations of the 4Ps.

The intent of this analysis is to compare and contrast the 4 Ps approach to marketing vs. The value approach. The Marketing of a New Tablet PC Using the example of tablet PCs, it is clear how different these approaches to marketing can be. Apple chose a value approach in launching their initial iPad product family and continually reinforce this messaging today, concentrating on the customer experience over product and price alone.

Many Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) require marketing to deliver on the goals of increasing the customer satisfaction levels of a new product, including the improvement of customer loyalty, all centered on the creating, communicating and delivering of value (Kotler, 2004). Value is what galvanizes the Apple iPad marketing strategy together. While Apple selectively uses each aspect of the 4 Ps to support its value messaging, the 4 Ps are not necessarily the foundational elements of its marketing strategy.

They are supporting factors to the main marketing message of delivering and exceptional customer experience, one that is highly valued by the customer. In contrast, the launch of a tablet PC by Hewlett-Packard and its eventual cancellation as a product shows what happens when a marketer chooses to focus first just on the 4Ps and heavily skews marketing messaging to just features. HP is a very engineering-centric company and prides itself on its analytics expertise. This pervades how they use the 4 Ps to communicate product features and benefits.

Rarely will HP break out of the 4Ps and show the customer experience above all, as the product mindset is so strong they concentrate on that. Apple and HP both rely on the 4 Ps of marketing to get their message across and must rely on these components to successfully launch and sell products. The difference is that Apple has created a more effective value-based message based on a clearer view of what matters most to customers.

Their focus is more on transcending the 4Ps to create a uniquely personal value of the customer experience. This approach to marketing shows that the 4Ps may not be enough to fully explain the dynamics of.