Principles of Marketing
Marketing is a crucial aspect of the development and success of a product in the market. Marketing allows for the promotion of products and services by firms and allows them to attract more customers. This study aims to examine the different principles of marketing adopted by several companies. The main focus on the marketing strategies adopted by Chic-fil-A, Virgin America, Apple Pay, and Alibaba to ensure they attract more customers on the services they offer.
CHICK-FIL-A
The need for Chick-fil-A customers is food and drinks, which is mainly chicken and burger. Also, customers want is to buy food from Chick-fil-A restaurants. The customers’ demand is mainly on the quality, cleanliness, and efficiency in the delivery of service. Therefore a firm that can provide what the customer needs, wants, and demands will be able to attract more and more consumers in the market.
Chick-fil-A aims at ensuring customer satisfaction and has one of the best customer services in the business. Customers are always given priority since the company values its customers through the way they communicate and engage with them. Food is delivered to customer tables with cut flowers (Do 1). The firm also offers parent valet services that allow customers to order food in the drive-through before getting into the restaurant. By getting to the tables, meals are already prepared, and tables arranged for them to take. Also, this service shows how efficient the company can deliver orders to consumers as fast as possible.
Chick-fil-A performs extremely excellent to ensure the needs and wants of customers are met. The experience of one of the customers is how the staffs are friendly and take little time to make delivery to them (Do). Therefore this shows how excellent the firm is to meet consumer expectations and provide better services to them. A compassionate environment is created as consumers can make conversations with staff making it easier to serve them.
Chick-fil-A has adopted a customer-first approach as service is centered on the demand, wants, and needs of the customer, making it possible to supply fast and on time (Rahimi et al. 1). Customers form a fundamental part of an organization, and they are reasons why businesses exist. Therefore, if customers are ignored, the company may fail to achieve its objectives.
The firm can stabilize its growth strategy by continuing to provide excellent customer service by ensuring customers receive better service and are welcomed in the best way and manner. Most firms can grow since their core values are centered on providing better and quality services to their customers. Therefore, in this case, Chick-fil-A can face the market and advance its growth strategy even though it is at a slow rate compared to other competitors in the industry like McDonald’s and KFC. Furthermore, their core values will enable them to open more stores and attract as many customers as possible. Chick-fil-A mainly uses a slow growth strategy as compared to its competitors it has about 2000 stores in the United Sates while MacDonald’s has over 4000 (Sugar 1). The company opens 100 stores yearly which allow them to adopt their culture in new stores they open.
VIRGIN AMERICA
The company is mainly segmented towards attracting younger generations who are willing to pay more to get better services. The company also offers its services across all parts of the world. The company believes in the customer-first approach, which makes it earn high revenues and generate high profits for its investors. Furthermore, Virgin America has focused on quality services in order to brace competition and become a global airline competitor (Hunter and Lambert 35). Some of the services provided in the airline carrier are aimed at attracting customers from other airline companies. Also, the firm intends to improve the quality of service on local flights. Eventually, the firm can attract young people and business people who would like to have comfortable flights across the United States.
The firm has based its services on an overall positioning strategy. The strategy is directly aligned with the services provided by Virgin America. Comfort and safety, as some of the add-ons, while offering airline services, is key to its growth. More customers always aim at an airline service provider. The airline industry is extremely competitive, and a brand positioning strategy is critical. Virgin America adopting a more for more positioning strategy means that even though a consumer pays more, he or she can receive value for money on the services aboard.
The position statement of Virgin America is, “Travel around the U.S with Virgin America, offering the newest aircraft and entertainment for your long flight”. The position statement aims at customers who demand quality flights depending on the prices they pay. Sometimes it is not reasonable to pay more for certain flights but rather to pay more to receive better services. In this case, the carrier will continue to attract more customers, making it easier for them to grow.
The issues between Alaska Airlines and Virgin Airlines relate to the takeover, but the main concern is that Virgin Airlines is less profitable and has unstable revenues. The firm only made profit six years after its establishment. However, despite this, the firm will be able to increase the number of flights daily if Virgin America is acquired despite all the challenges involved Alaska Airlines mainly aims at attracting consumers as a result of better services offered (Manuela et al. 90). The critical issue is the brand position, and if Virgin air will remain solely to maintain its brand, it is likely to attract more consumers to Alaska Airlines. Also, the brand can influence Alaska Airlines or operate independently to avoid the risk of losing its core values.
APPLE PAY
Figure 1: Value delivery network of Apple Pay
According to figure 1 above, Apple Pay contracts Program developers who manufacture the software and program which is eventually transferred to Apple Pay, who are responsible for providing the service. The service entails money transfers and other mobile banking services. Apple Pay then uses Apple Inc., which acts as the marketing distributor or channel. In this case, Apple may provide the program to consumers through the Apple Store where apple products users can download and use it
Apple is an intermediary between Apple Pay and its final consumers. In this case, once the program has been developed, it is the responsibility of the service provider to ensure it is on the apple store. Apple has the responsibility to link both the final consumers and Apple Pay, who are the service providers. They are likely to be involved in the promotion as well as to authenticate customers to use Apple Pay.
The partnership between Apple Pay and Apple Inc. will ensure that Apple Pay is accepted in the market. Therefore, this firm will be able to create a platform through which Apple Pay will be received and used among other apple phone users. Apple Inc. has also created strong brand loyalty and resonance with its clients, which makes it more attractive to its consumers. It will mainly be used on Apple products such as mobile phones, making it easier for apple product users to shift quickly (Tkacz 264). Therefore, this partnership is likely to create a substantial market for Apple Pay to ensure it has wholly entered the market and used by its consumers.
Apple Pay is likely to face some threats such as security concerns, competition from Samsung, and other mobile apps developers. The use of Credit and debit cards by most consumers. Security issues arise where mobile transactions are used on the internet, and this is likely to bring out cybersecurity issues (Huh et al. 3). Samsung, a major competitor of the iPhone, has developed several e-wallets that have already taken up the market, and this means Apple needs to influence more consumers to use the iPhone. Also, banks are dominating the market through mobile and internet banking, which is likely to affect the progress of Apple Pay.
ALIBABA
The e-commerce market in China is unique and different as compared to the one in the United States. Alibaba adopted the traditional Chinese market system where it exists as a company, then Alibaba links different e-commerce markets in the Chinese markets to ensure products can reach its consumers (Wu and Gary 327). The firm has been able to link different traders in China with its customers across different parts of the world.
The success of Alibaba is connected to different factors that the firm has used to attract more consumers. First, Alibaba has developed and acquired many e-commerce websites. These websites are based on the division of products dealt with by the firm. Secondly, Alibaba has integrated digital marketing as a critical aspect of reaching out to the consumer. Digital marketing also involves online advertisements that are made by the firm to attract more consumers (Kim 240). Moreover, the company relies on social media marketing through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which are the primary sources of consumers to the firm. The firm also uses email marketing by sending blogs, videos as well as podcasts on customer experience and different products that are offered.
The business model used by Alibaba is unique and different from that of Amazon and eBay. Alibaba is not an e-commerce marketer but acts as a link between different e-commerce markets. Buyers and sellers are to meet through Alibaba and buy a wide range of products. Consequently, since Alibaba exists as a company, it means it has more funds provided by its investors to invest in more e-commerce markets for its consumers.
Alibaba has been very successful in setting up its market for Chinese consumers. The Chinese people are very many, and other online markets had highly neglected these markets. Jack Ma identified the niche and quickly developed a solution that saw Chinese people receiving goods online through Alibaba. In succeeding the outside market, the company has been able to enter the African market, but penetrating the United Kingdom and the United States, it faces heavy competition from Amazon. Consequently, competition in the international market will be based on the type of services and products dealt with. If the firm provides products, it will penetrate the market.
CONCLUSION
Firms which adopt proper marketing and customer acquisition strategies are able to attract more consumers. Review of strategies adopted by Chick-fil-A, Virgin America, Apple Pay and Alibaba demonstrate some of the best marketing strategies. Chick-fil-A uses customers –first approach, while Virgin America adopts payment for services, Apple Pay are using brand position of Apple Inc. and Alibaba is interconnecting e-commerce traders with final consumers. These strategies have been effective in ensuring these firms expand and attract more consumers in the market.
Works Cited
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Sugar, Rachel. “Chick-Fil-A’s Controversial Politics Haven’t Stopped It from Becoming One of the Biggest Fast-Food Chains in America.” Vox, Vox, 20 Dec. 2018
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Wu, Xinyi, and Gary Gereffi. “Amazon and Alibaba: Internet governance, business models, and internationalization strategies.” International business in the information and digital age (2018): 327-356.
