Marketing Management: The Big Picture

chapter three

MARKETING OBJECTIVE

Customer Focus

“One Thing owned is better than two things promised…”

—Cervants, Don Quixote, page 614

After studying this chapter you should be able to:

1. Explain the value of a customer orientation
2. Contrast different definitions of a customer
3. Identify three types of customer loyalty
4. Explain the strategic implications of customer acquisition and retention
5. Integrate the marketing objectives within the Big Picture

Using a New Product to Bring Customers to the Franchise: Apple iPhone

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In January 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone, its entry in the smartphone market. The iPhone was immediately hailed as revolutionary, not because it offered many new features—other devices at the time offered similar voice and email communications as well as entertainment and productivity options—but rather because of its differentiated design and ease of use. As it had done before with the Mac and iPod, Apple had again capitalized on its core competence in interface design, instead of simply reacting to competition by launching a feature-driven incremental innovation.

The success of the iPhone prompted millions of consumers to switch wireless carriers, since initially ATT was the only wireless company in the United States to support the device. It also drove software developers to release small software programs called applications ...