Feb 03 2011
Marketing Strategy behind iPhone 4
After coming across Mandy Chow’s blog, iPhone 4 Face Time, it got me thinking about the marketing strategy behind iPhone 4. When the product came out, there was plenty of hype surrounding it but I never actually thought about the strategies Apple used to market the product until now. As Mandy mentioned in her blog, the video that she posted does indeed accomplish Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
The video that Mandy posted prompted me to search up other iPhone 4 videos on Youtube and I came across this one which I thought was interesting. 
After watching it, I started thinking about iPhone 4’s marketing strategy. As I learned in my marketing class, a marketing strategy consists of a firm’s target market, a related marketing mix, and a sustainable competitive advantage.
I think the video shows that their target market is anybody of any age. They even branched out to the older generations by showing an older couple watch their granddaughter graduate with FaceTiming.
As for the product, they created value by promoting the FaceTiming service which allows people to see each other anywhere in the world. In return, they captured value through people’s purchases of the phone and hopefully happiness and loyalty to the company. For delivery of value, iPhone 4 can be easily bought at most phone stores in malls or be sent by mail. Lastly for promotion, iPhone 4 communicated its new FaceTiming Service through numerous videos and advertisements.
IPhone 4’s sustainable competitive advantage is through FaceTiming. No other phone company can bring people together by allowing them to talk face-to-face through their phone. Iphone 4 was smart to realize that they needed to diversify themselves in the market with something different from other smartphones and this was their solution.