A Call for Progress free essay sample

A Call for Progress describes the need and importance of telecommunication in todays world. It helps many people in exploring different opportunities. Unfortunately, this industry is in the hands of state-run monopolies who are inefficient in this sector with a staff which is poorly motivated. However, the introduction of cell phone has enabled the consumers to avoid the bane of landline service. As there has been an increase in the means to communicate, the economic growth has boosted due to a number of reasons such as lowering prices, reducing waste etc. The case provides a couple of examples of the Indian farmers and fisherman about how cell phone has changed their way of pricing and products. Cell phone manufacturers are also looking up opportunities for more production and how to gain more consumers using different techniques and cheaper offers. The goal of the industry is to cell more of their units. We will write a custom essay sample on A Call for Progress or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the western countries, it is not an attractive market since there are already more cell phone accounts than there are people. There is a difference in the markets if USA and China are compared where only 1. million new accounts are created in the USA in contrast to 6. 8 million per month in China. Some companies such as Millicom adapted their marketing and pricing strategies according to where they were present. In African and Latin American countries, they had to use low pricing strategies so that they could encourage more people to buy their offers. The pricing was set according to the seconds called by the customers and not by the minute. Also, some balance or minutes could be transferred amongst relatives and friends. There has been an emergence in the innovation sector because there is a need for cutting cost. The towers alone costs alot to a company. In India, towers need AC and backup generators due to power outages. Some companies are trying to make their equipments much smaller to control their costs. Even though, young generation in those areas demands the new, hi-tech phones. Identify the roles of product policy, pricing, promotion, and distribution in the cell market in developed countries. The roles of product, pricing, promotion and distribution play a vital role in the marketing of a product. In this case, there is the actual product, i. e. the cell phones, and the service, i. e. the cell phone service providers. First, analyzing the product policy, cell phones need to be much more than an apparel used for communication. The markets in the developed countries demand hi-tech phones with which they can do more than just communication. Most of the new phones have internet access which means that the product needs to have bigger screens, touch options, better memory so that the consumers can use the phone with convenience and at a faster speed. Therefore, the phone companies need to produce products which are demanded by the consumers having their specified characteristics. If we take into account the service providers, the services in the developed markets such as USA or Western countries require the speed and the quality of the service. The service providers must take into account the ease of use, the clientele service and the general quality of their services. In developed countries, they should take into consideration whether the service they offer be customized or standardized. As because the customers in the developed countries have the budget to meet their own requirements, the customization of the service or the product should be their primary target. Price is one of the most vital components of the marketing mix. The Cell phones in this case has very low price and is trying very hard to reduce their costs in order to bring more customers and cover as less costs as possible. The phone industry has cut costs so much because there are so many options the customers can choose from and it is also made available for them. In this case, pricing is difficult because of the degree of competition and they also face different demands related to each other. The price policy, however, could be standardized in a developed country because people are willing to pay for the product or the service providers in order to get the service they want. Place is another marketing mix tool that can also be referred to as distribution of the product or service. the distribution of the cell phones depends upon where the consumers are. The cell phone companies are likely to distribute the hi-tech phones with wifi and 3G connection in the developed countries because these countries have the capacity of offering these services to the consumers and the consumers also have the know-how of how to use these products in a more efficient way. Same goes with the services where the consumers have the access of such services because they have the education and are well trained for such services. The promotion policy in the developed countries differs than the developing countries by a large scale. There are many advertisements for different cell phones and service providers everywhere but the consumers in the developed countries tend to find out information for themselves. These consumers have the sufficient amount of information through the internet where they find out about the quality and the different characteristics for themselves. The point of promoting the product is not so that the customers know about the product, but to convince the consumers that there product is the positive thing. Identify the roles of product policy, pricing, promotion, and distribution in the cell market in emerging markets. The marketing mix for emerging markets is different from the developed countries. The product must be produced according to the customers demands in the emerging markets. The design and characteristics should be formed according to the trend in those markets. That is why there must be marketing directors present in those countries who can help tailor the products in those markets in order to fulfill their demands. The degree of standardization depends on the markets because through standardization, the cell phone industry can achieve economies of scale but by doing so, they do not have the customers satisfaction because the customers might have different demands. Phone companies thought that customers wanted plain simple phone but, for example, in China the consumers want the latest phones with the latest features installed on it. The pricing policy for emerging markets is different than for the developed countries because in some countries such as Latin America, average people spend less money on cell phones. By looking at that, the cell service providers used different methods to attract the customers such as production of SIM cards at a low price and transferring of credit and minutes amongst relatives or friends, etc. These allowed the customers to communicate with each other and helped them in the usage of the cell phones. The distribution is a challenge for the cell companies in emerging markets. The companies must look at the cultural difference and the language barrier because these consumers must be aware of different brands of cell phone companies and providers. Product awareness is the key concept in this area because the consumers must be aware of the origin of these companies so that they can make their choice. The policy of promotion is a little related to the pricing policy where the cell companies advertise the promotion making the product or service temporarily available at lower prices. Increasing sales temporarily is another aspect of the promotion of products in the emerging markets. The only difference is that these companies cannot use advert standardization because of the heavy cultural difference in different regions of these emerging markets. What are the relative opportunities for standardization and customization in the cell phone industry? Standardization and customization have their pros and cons depending upon different relations to the marketing mix. In relations to product, in countries where cell phones and services is considered to be of high importance, standardization is very much possible. However, the different laws in different regions makes it necessary for the cell phones to adapt to customization of the features and the services. As for promotion, there are always different interpretations of the themes of the advertisements and the perception differs in different regions of the world. Therefore, standardization in relations to promotion might hurt the cell phone industry. However, standardization could be used in regions with similar cultures and lower language barriers. This could also result in economies of scales for the cell phones and services. Price related issues can provide opportunities for customization because the differences inside the market with the price elasticity of demand require high modifications in the price strategy. Thus, the customization plays a big role in the marketing strategy for cell phone industry. Markets that have similar infrastructure, availability of resources, and distributive systems have a high degree of standardization which could result in low cost for transporting the product or service to the end consumers. In general, the main benefit of standardization is economies of scale. What are the roles of legal forces and cultural influences in the cell phone industry? There is a huge impact of legal forces and cultural influences in the cell phone industry. An example of laws and regulation imposed on a market is china which banned facebook in the country resulting in people not being able to reach facebook app on their phones. This lowered the usage of cell phone internet accessibility and cell services suffered a loss in their sector. It is always beneficial to specify the appliance of laws beforehand when a company intends to do business with another country. In this case, the cell phone industries must be aware of different laws which protect the industries in the host country and enter accordingly. The cultural difference is an external influence which has an impact on the industry as well as the consumers. Culture is one of the most difficult attributes to comprehend, therefore the marketers of cell phone and service industry must pay close attention to the culture of the host country. It is very easy to violate the norms and cultural values of a country without even knowing about it. The promotion of cell phones and the service providers must keep in mind the cultural issue when presenting their product or service as not to offend the cultural values of the market. Conclusion In a nutshell, the cell phone companies and the service providers are going through a great deal of customization aspects in order to attract the customers in developing countries because the amount of people convinced to use the services is much more high in emerging markets such as India or China in comparison to the developed countries such as USA or western countries. An example of this can be deduced by a company called Micromax, a cell phone company in India, which produces innovative products at low costs because of the presence of its plants in China and uses effective promotional campaigns.