The four Ps marketing model and its applications

Ps of Marketing

Of the four dimensions of the marketing mix, product is often the most customized and tailored to a specific country and region's requirements. The depth of insight and intelligence required to customize a product successfully for a given market can be daunting if the requisite systems and processes are not in place to support the localization process (Badri, Davis, Davis, 1995). Conversely best practices have been defined in a variety of industries including high technology that have taken an agile development approach to continually fine-tuning products to market needs over time (Gabrielsson, Gabrielsson, Darling, Luostarinen, 2006). The customization of laptops, Apple iPads and iPods to localization requirements, which in the latter cases is accomplished through the use of firmware and electronics, varies markedly across regions and nations. This paper analyzes how products are modified to align with the needs of local markets, in turn changing the entire marketing mix.

Analysis of Product Customization

The customization of laptops, netbooks and consumer electronics for local markets is critically important for their success. An example of this is how successfully Toshiba took Kanji-based keyboards built into their best-selling notebooks and translated the keyboard and operating system itself to support American and UK-based English (Gabrielsson, Gabrielsson, Darling, Luostarinen, 2006). Toshiba eventually was able to deliver 1 million units across North America alone and has a 200,000 square foot distribution center in Irvine, California strategically located near the port of Long beach and Los Angeles International Airport to handle inbound air freight. This build-out of their logistics and supply chain in the U.S. also set the foundation for a highly profitable services and aftermarket products business as well.

A unique Japanese approach of evaluating a foreign market and understanding its nuances also is critically important to new product success. While Kodak and other American manufacturers relied on their market-maker status to dictate which products their dealers would sell in the U.S. And throughout Europe, Panasonic painstakingly interviewed each American photography store dealer and distributor they could. This resulted in the SLR series of cameras they pioneered and eventually dominated the market with (Johansson, Nonaka, 1987). Panasonic had transformed their customer listening systems into a new product development platform with the ability to transform an entire market. They successfully penetrated the U.S. market and took huge amounts of sales from Kodak as a result (Johansson, Nonaka, 1987).