This document provides an overview of Apple Inc., including its history, products, marketing mix strategies, target customers, and positioning approach. It notes that Apple was founded in 1976 and designs, develops and sells consumer electronics. It discusses Apple's product line, places of distribution, premium pricing, promotional activities, value creation for customers, segmentation of customers, targeting of key groups like teenagers and students, and differentiation strategy focused on innovative product design.
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Apple
1. 1)APPLE
Introduction:
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered
in Cupertino, Calafornia, that design develops and sells consumer
electronics, consumer software, and online services. It is considered as one
of the big 4 technology companies along with Amazon, Google and
Facebook. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Woznaik, and Ronald
Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell Wozniak’s Apple I personal
computer, though Wayne sold his share back within 12 days . It was
incorporated as Apple computer, Inc., In January 1977, and sales of its
computers, including Apple II, grew quickly. Within a few years, Jobs and
Woznaik has hired a staff of computer designers and had a production line.
Apple went public in 1980 to instant financial success.
2. Marketing Mix of Apple:
Product: APPLE
MAC SOFTWA
RE
IPHONE IPOD
IMAC
MACBO
OK PRO
MACKPR
O
IPOD
SHUFFL
E
MACKB
OOK AIR
ITUNE
IPHONE
4 SERIES
IPHONE
3 SERIES
ICLOUD
IMOVIE
IWORK
IPOD
NANO
IPHONE
X SERIES
IPHONE
8 SERIES
IPHONE
7 SERIES
IPHONE
6 SERIES
IPHONE
5 SERIES
PRODUCT WIDTH
PRODUCTLINE
3. Place:
This detail of the advertising blend entails the selection of suitable locations or
venues thru which the employer distributes its merchandise. Apple Inc.’s
business case includes enterprise-owned locations, as well as different parties
that the agency authorizes to distribute its products. Thefollowing places are
blanketed in Apple’s distribution method:
1. Apple Store places
2. Company-owned website and online shops for computer and mobile
3. Authorized sellers
4. Telecommunications corporations
Apple Store is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. That operates bodily or brick-and-
mortar shops that sell the employer’s merchandise, along side associated
4. merchandise from other producers. Forexample, these stores sell MacBook
gadgets, in addition to peripheral gadgets from other businesses. In addition,
customers should purchase merchandise thru Apple’s internet site and on-line
stores for computing device and cellular. Customers can buy client electronics
thru the enterprise’s website. Apps, tune, films, and other virtual content
material are to be had through on-line stores for desktop and cellular, together
with the App Store and the iTunes Store.
Price:
Premium Pricing Approach : Apple is one such brand which tries to be the product
quality leader in the market . They price their products just high enough not to be out of
consumers reach and have positioned them as quality leaders in their category combining
quality and luxury as well . A premium is an amount that is applied in addition to the
typical or common price. In this regard, Apple’s premium pricing strategy sets high price
for its products. Forexample, in general, iPhones are more expensive than Samsung
smartphones.
Promotions:
This element of the marketing mix determines the communications tactics that
the company uses to reach its target customers. Apple Inc. promotes its products
in various ways, involving different communications channels and parties. In
addressing this 4P element, the company emphasizes the premium brand image
and premium quality of its products. Thefollowing communications tactics are
in Apple’s promotional mix:
1. Advertising
2. Personal Selling
3. Online/Offline Sales Promotion
4. Public Relations
5. Value creationby Apple:
Apple is all about the customer experience. It has a huge fan base nearly 45% of smartphones in
USA are of Apple (Ref 0.1) which shows it’s market dominance . Its consumer knows that apple
is all about best quality and satisfaction in terms for hardware and software that they are buying.
They display their value in the market using the below extract:
“Buyers are buying experiences. They are buying safety, comfort, convenience, simplicity,
productivity. They are buying modules to combine with other modules that help to do something.
Something better. They are buying hope, satisfaction, escape or vanity. In other words, they don’t
know what they want but know when they have it. They trust products unseen which have a
reputation of delivering that which they think they might like, without knowing what that is. “
Segmentation:
Demographic, psychographic, geographic, socio-cultural, use-related, use-situational, benefit and
hybrid are the normally used ways to segment. In this report, we will focus on three segmentation.
1. Demographic segmentation:
Based on variables such as gender, age, family size, education, occupation, religion, race and
nationality, customers can be divided into different groups. In case of iphone 4s, income, age and
gender have some impacts when consumers are making the purchasing decision. In the launch of
iPhone 4s, the purpose is more to give people who own ipod the priority to get access to iPhone.
Thereby, the launching price is lowered compared with other generations in this series. Apple
gives out some of its premium to reach more customers. In this case, the target consumers are
middle class users who have the ability and are willing to pay for it.
Furthermore, the numerous simplified applications give people over 30 the chance to use these
applications easily. This gives people who are not so familiar with latest fashion in high tech
smart phone the chance to use it.
Normally, young people are in the first row of fashion as they can easily accept and learn new
things. In terms of gender, men can adapt to new changes faster than women, especially in high
tech ones. According to the research, over 70% of the users are male.
2. Psychographic segmentation:
6. In this category, social class is the basis of the segmentation. The market is segmented based on
the different interests, opinion, self-images, values, personalities, attitude and activities of the
consumers. People who are interested in iPhone 4s will at least have some interests in high tech
products. The fast system, special voice recognition “Siri”, and enormous applications must have
some attractions to them. Moreover, people in different lifestyle with different personality will
also impact their choice. The targets of iPhone are people who live in a fashionable life and who
are curious about innovations.
3. User related segmentation:
There are three types of people including no loyalty to brand, some loyalty and strong loyalty
fans. People who have strong loyalty normally have more possibilities to use the product from the
specific brand.
In apple’s case, there are a group of people who are in love with products from this firm and
willing to buy different versions of product from this firm. This is also how a brand get premium
over other ones. A lot of people choose iPhone because they have used other products such as
iPod, or iPad. Moreover, these products can be used together easily, which increases the chance
for loyalty customers to continue their consumptions in the firm.
The target of iPhone also includes these loyalty customers. They know a lot about products in this
company. They are heavy users and enthusiastic about the new products. In addition, they are
willing to pay for extra money to get new versions.
Targeting:
Teenagers:Teenagers are considered one in every of Apple Inc.'s target markets.
Teenagers use iPods for plenty motives. Some of those reasons are to socialize with
friends, listen to track and cross on Facee book, MSN, twitter and so forth. There also
are many gaming apps that enchantment to them. IPod have becomepretty a trend with
young adults.
College and university college students:College and university college students are
also centered via Apple Inc. These students use Apple Inc. Merchandise which include
iPads, MacBook’s, iPhones etc to speedyreport notes. These
7. notes are saved prepared in their gadgets. Also, those merchandise are mild which
makes carrying devices to and from college an awful lot easier.
Business/Corporate Users:These users are very intrigued by means of Apple
products. All Apple gadgets (iPhone's, iPad's, MacBook's etc.) have a commercial
enterprise nice that is very beneficial. These devices are used to finish work effectively
and to communicate with clients without problems. In addition, sending documents is
easy and organized.
Positioning:
Differentiation:
Since the 1980s, Apple Inc. has successfully used productdifferentiation to
separate its products from those of other electronics manufacturers. From its
MacIntosh home computers to the iPod music players and iPhone and iPad
Innovative Premium
Modern best design
RTB:R&D Latest tech
Support Security
POP: Product types, locally
involved, retail distribution
POD:Design,Quality,tech
Brand
Mantra:
Think
Different
8. mobile devices, Apple has employed a differentiation strategy to target a section
of the consumer market and send a powerful message that its products stand out
from the crowd.
In this competitive era and rapid modernization companies are spending huge amount on
growing and retaining their customer base. With the improved technology and increasing players
in the market customers now have various options to look up to.
Point of Parity:
Communication tool
e-book content
Online and Retail Distribution
Point of Differentiation:
Product Design
A major aspect of a productdifferentiation strategy comes from productdesign.
Products that display a different visual style, include different features or handle
different tasks stand out from those offered by the competition. Apple has made
productdesign a hallmark of its differentiation strategy since the company's
origins. When Apple introduced the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, there were no
similar consumer electronics products that included so many features in one
distinctive, iconic package.
Pricing Strategy
Another factor in productdifferentiation plans stems from the company's
pricing strategies. Apple Computers co-founder Steve Jobs sought to create a
top-notchproductwith a price proportionate to its level of quality while
maintaining high profit margins. The lowest-priced Apple products consistently
fall in the mid-range, but customers are willing to pay that price for the high
quality of the user experience. This pricing strategy runs counter to makers of
9. commodity laptops, tablets and mobile phones, which sell lower-cost devices
and rely on high volumes to counter their slim profit margins. The relatively
higher costof the Apple versions gives consumers a sense of high value and
exclusivity for their products.
RetailOutlets
Apple's pricing strategy extends to its differentiation in the retail electronics
marketplace. While users can purchase computers, tablets and mobile phones
from nearly any electronics outlet, Apple differentiates itself by providing
limited quantities to big boxretailers and focusing its retail efforts on its Apple
Stores. For its third-party retailers, Apple imposes a minimum advertised price
10. policy to prevent outlets like Walmart and Best Buy
from undercutting the prices found at the Apple Stores.
Brand Loyalty
Apple has been among the most successfultechnology
companies in the development of loyalty to a brand. Loyal
Apple customers will wait in line to purchase the latest iPhone,
download music through iTunes, watch their favorite
television shows on Apple TV and play games on their iPads.
The company's efforts toward building brand loyalty have
allowed Apple to differentiate itself from Microsoft, Samsung
and other competitors in its various arenas.
The concept of brand differentiation has allowed Apple to create a virtual split in the world of
electronic devices