Consumers and Marketing

Introduction

The primary role of any business is to maximize profits for its shareholders or owners.
Businesses increase their profits through increasing their sales. Since marketing helps to increase
a company’s sales, it plays a vital role in the success of a business. This paper examines the
marketing of iPhone, one of the world’s most iconic products. It looks at the characteristics of its
consumers, how they make purchasing decisions of the phone, and the ethical principles that the
company applies when advertising to the consumers. The paper is written from the perspective of
a chief marketing officer. A chief marketing officer is responsible for development,
implementation, and monitoring of a company’s business strategy (Germann, Ebbes & Grewal,
2015). Some of their duties include conducting marketing research, pricing products, designing
communications for marketing, and performing public relations.

Product Selection and Its Typical Consumer

The selected product is the iPhone. The iPhone is a line of smartphones that is designed,
manufactured, and marketed by Apple, one of the biggest technology companies in the world.
The phone’s first version was released in 2007 (Dave, 2018). Since then, a new iPhone model
has been released each year. Each new model has features that are an improvement of the
previous year’s model. All of the models that have been released since 2007 have enjoyed great
financial success (Dave, 2018).
Earlier releases of the iPhone contained only standard smartphone features, such as
connection to Wi-Fi or cellular networks, sending and receiving text messages and emails,
browsing the web, playing music, and taking pictures and videos (Dave, 2018). Recent models of

the iPhone have been more complex with a large number of high-end features. These and other
features have made iPhone to develop a reputation for convenience, usefulness, and innovation
which has led to great sales. The great sales have in turn been responsible for making Apple one
of the most valuable and financially successful companies in the world (Dave, 2018).
The iPhone’s, and in general Apple’s success can be attributed to the large number of
consumers who flood Apple stores any time that a new iPhone is released. There are three types
of iPhone customers. The first group is composed of customers who are loyal to Apple as a
company. Thus, they buy any product made by Apple because of their love for the company and
what it represents. Since Apple has marketed itself as a designer and seller of high-end products,
its products are usually more expensive than similar products in the market. In the smartphone
market, the iPhone is more expensive than all of its competitors with similar features. Thus, this
first group of customers is overwhelmingly composed of people drawn from middle and upper
classes who can afford Apple’s expensive products (Schmidt, 2018).
The second type of consumers consists of technically-oriented people (Schmidt, 2018).
They include IT professionals, product engineers, and technology enthusiasts. For these people,
their greatest attraction to the iPhone and other Apple products is their design and features, such
as its security features. They buy the iPhone because they consider it an epitome of innovation
and great product engineering.
The third type of iPhone consumers is composed of individuals who are after higher
social status (Schmidt, 2018). Since Apple products are associated with wealthy members in
societies, some people buy iPhone in order to be associated with wealth and glamor. They buy
the phone in order to show it off to their friends or gain social acceptance.

In terms of gender, women are more likely to own an iPhone than men. The iPhone is
also more popular among younger people than older people (Schmidt, 2018). This could
probably be because younger people are more likely to make use of iPhones extensive high-end
features than older people.

Consumer Purchase Decision

The level of responsibility that manufacturers or sellers should take for their products or
services and the level of freedom that consumers have is a major component of business ethics.
There are five conceptions of a consumer based on the freedom of the consumer and the
responsibility of the supplier. With regards to consumers of iPhone and the responsibility of
Apple as the designer, marketer and seller of iPhone, the conceptions that apply are protected
consumer and capable consumer.
A protected consumer is one who is protected from dangerous goods and services
through government regulations and liability of manufacturers (Brusseau, 2012, p. 553). iPhone
consumers are protected consumers because they are allowed to return the iPhones within a
certain period of time of buying them if they find something wrong with the phone. Apple can
then give them another iPhone or it can refund them.
An iPhone consumer can also be considered to be a capable consumer. A capable
consumer is informed, free, and rational (Brusseau, 2012, p. 553). Their sufficient knowledge
about a given product category allows them to make good buying decisions. With regards to
iPhone, there many products in the smartphone market. Consumers of iPhone, particularly those
who buy the iPhones because of their design and functionalities, are knowledgeable about similar
products and their features. Their decision to buy iPhone is because of their belief that they have

superior design features. Another characteristic of a capable buyer is freedom. There are tens of
smartphone products in the market. Such a large number of products give consumers a lot of
freedom when choosing the make of smartphone that they want to buy. For instance, in addition
to iPhone, consumers can buy smartphones designed, manufactured, marketed, and sold by
companies such as Samsung and Nokia. The last quality of a capable consumer is rationality.
Granted, there are some iPhone consumers who buy the smartphone just because it is made by
Apple. However, there are many others who careful examine the design and features of the
phone and determine whether it is worth its price.

Ethical Principles

The ethical principles that should apply to the marketing of iPhone are honesty and
integrity. The reason Apple charges a premium for the iPhone is because it has been marketed as
the smartphone with the most attractive design, the most innovative specifications, the most
revolutionary products, and one that offers the most futuristic user experience. Honesty as an
ethical principle will ensure that the iPhone actually meets all the design and functionality
features that it claims to have.
By being truthful about the quality of its product, Apple removes the responsibility of
checking the quality of its products from the consumer to itself. In other words, it acts against the
doctrine of caveat emptor. Under the doctrine of caveat emptor, consumers are solely responsible
for the quality of the products that they buy. If a person buys a product whose quality is below
expected standards, it is the buyer and not the seller or manufacturer of the product that is to
blame.

By adhering to the principle of truthfulness and honesty, Apple ensures that buyers will
always get an iPhone whose design and advertised features are actually the ones that they will
experience or enjoy once they buy the phone. Through its return policy, buyers can return an
iPhone to Apple if they feel that it is not of the quality that they expected. Thus, by being
truthful, Apple ensures that the doctrine of caveat emptor does not apply to its iPhone
consumers.
Responsibility of iPhone Marketer in Relation to Ethics
The marketer has a responsibility of upholding the dignity of consumers of its products
by not reducing them as mere instruments of making money. This can be achieved through
upholding the right of consumers to know what they are buying. Any form of deceitful marketing
denies consumers this right to know what they are buying. Thus, even though marketers are
required to help companies make profits by increasing their sales, they have an even bigger
obligation of telling consumers the truth about the quality of their products. Due to this
obligation, iPhone marketers should completely be truthful when crafting messages of their
advertisements.
There should be no ambiguous claims, concealment of facts, or exaggerations in the
marketing message of iPhone. The iPhone should have every feature and functionality that the
marketer claims it has. In doing so, the marketer will be upholding their responsibility of letting
consumers know exactly what they are buying.

Privacy Policies

Technology companies such as Apple collect large amounts of personal data from users.
They then use this data to advertise their products or sell it to third parties who use the data for

advertisement as well. Consumers are increasingly weary of this practice and have become more
sensitive about how companies collect and use their personal data (Britz, 2010).
With many technology consumers worried about the privacy of their data, Apple can
advertise its iPhone as a smartphone that respects the privacy of its consumers. For instance, the
company may assure buyers of its iPhone that the company’s advertising does not use the data
that they give the company to track them. It should also be explicit that it does not share the data
of buyers with third parties. Apple should let consumers know the type of personal data that they
collect, why they collect the specified personal data, and how they use the personal data. The
company should also explain the legal basis on which it processes personal data of its consumers
and the privacy rights that consumers have.

Conclusion

Even though the role of a marketer is to help companies increase their profits, this paper
has shown that marketers have a responsibility to both their companies and the consumers of the
products of the companies that they represent. Of these two roles, their responsibility to
consumers is superior to their responsibility to their companies. Thus, it is important that they
maintain high ethical standards when promoting products of their companies. In the case of
iPhone, Apple’s chief marketing officer has a responsibility of developing and implementing the
phone’s advertisement in a manner that is ethical and which treats the phone’s consumers as
dignified human beings who need to know the truth about what they are buying and not as mere
instruments to help the company make profits.

References

Brusseau, J. (2012). The Business Ethics Workshop. Saylor Foundation
Britz, J. J. (2010). Technology as a threat to privacy: ethical challenges to the information
profession. Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
http://web. simmons. edu/~ chen/nit/NIT, 2796, 96-025.
Dave, J. G. (2018). A Case Study on Marketing Strategy: Apple iPhone. IJRAR- International
Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR), 5(4), 106-114.
Germann, F., Ebbes, P., & Grewal, R. (2015). The chief marketing officer matters!. Journal of
Marketing, 79 (3), 1-22.
Schmidt, O. (2018). Apple’s iPhone in the customers’ eyes: Which features are the most
important and what will the future bring? Modul Vienna University