Answer To: WAYMAKER PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING (Replace this line with your name) Marketing Plan Template (Replace...
Arunavo answered on Mar 14 2021
Running Head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT 1
MARKETING MANAGEMENT 4
MARKETING MANAGEMENT OF APPLE
Executive Summary
Apple Inc. is one of the leading tech giants in the world, with their innovative product portfolio and services. The company’s marketing effectiveness will be determined the process through which it has analysed their potential and weakness, and that helps them to make strategies to position themselves in the market effectively. Through the proper marketing campaign they will be able to achieve the competitive success over the other companies.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 2
Company Profile 5
Market Segmentation & Targeting 5
Situation and Company Analysis 5
Economic Environment 5
Technical Environment of Apple Inc 6
Industry Environment of Apple 6
Competitive Environment 7
Political Environment 7
SWOT Analysis 7
Mission Objectives and Goals 9
Ethical and Social Responsibility 10
Current Status 10
Recommendations 10
Marketing Information and Research 11
Research Question 11
Information needed 11
Research Recommendations 11
Customer Decision Making Profile 11
Identifying the Customer and Problem 11
Factors Influencing Customer Decision 12
Reaching the Customers 12
Positioning and differentiation 12
Competitive advantages 13
Market niche and positioning strategy 13
Positioning statement 13
Positioning consideration 13
Branding 13
Brand Description 14
Brand Promise 14
Brand Voice and Personality 14
Brand Positioning and Strategy 14
Marketing Mix 14
Product Strategy 15
Pricing Strategy 15
Distribution Strategy 15
Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy 15
Goal 16
Messages 16
Promotion Mix and IMC Tools 16
Sales Alignment 17
Measurement of KPI 17
References 18
Company Profile
The company name is Apple. It is associated with information and technology, telecom, computer hardware, software and entertainment category. The company was founded on April 1, 1976. The founder members are Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The headquarters of the company is in California, U.S. The company has around 147000 employees all around the world. The revenue generated by the company by 2020 is USD 274.515 billion. The major products of the company are Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, iOS and many more. The website of the company is www.apple.com. The company uses both direct and indirect channel of distribution. The key competitors of apple are: Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Microsoft, and Sony. The customer range of apple belongs in middle income group to high income group people (Apple, 2021).
Market Segmentation & Targeting
Apple segmentation, targeting and the positioning of the products represent the core efforts of marketing based on the requirements of the people. Tedja (2020) the company offers innovation, creativity and premium technology through their products. The company has around 1.5 billion users and the range of products cater customer needs. The initial age group of the products are between 22-55 years of age, with the different segmentation of products or services, such as iTunes, Apple Pay, app store and iTunes stores are used maximum in 18-30 years of age. The company targets the college going students, young professionals and the business persons. The market plan is focussed on the middle level income group because of the huge number of people fall in this group and that to on global basis.
Situation and Company Analysis
Economic Environment
The purchasing power of the consumer is dependent on many factors, such as the income, employment inflation, the rate of interest, wealth that influenced the buying power of the customers. The economic environment was challenging for the company; however, it has recovered from the challenges faced by the company by forecasting the national income and the strategies to overcome the recession phase. The economy of U.S. and Europe are in recovery phase, which also helps the company to strategies in recovery, however, not hiking the price of the products. The current interest rate of the company is increasing at a slow and steady phase. The staffs are easily available to work with the company considering the growing demand for the products among the customers. The customers had the tendency to treat themselves following the economic improvement, and that will take place through the increased purchase of quality and premium products (Lockamy III, 2017).
Technical Environment of Apple Inc
Technology is continuously changing and it affects the businesses, such as Apple, which has to keep changes based on the needs. The opportunities are created by the technological external factors in the macro environment of Apple. The technological opportunities available for Apple are cloud computing trend, technological integration and the growing market of apps. The cloud computing is becoming popular among the individuals and the businesses, which the company can explore to increase their share. The technological integration of device is also a new trend, which apple can take advantage by providing easily connectivity feature. The access to the app store and increasing the quality and useful apps in the store will also provide the company with a competitive advantage (Coccia, 2018).
Industry Environment of Apple
The advancement in this industry is based on increasing demand for cloud computing. Similarly, the technological integration has become a latest industry trend in this sector upon which the company could focus on. The substitute to the products offered by Apple has not been introduced and neither any new entrant threatening to the company has been introduced. This industry is witnessing changes at regular basis and new technological advancement is coming, such as the latest advancement of technological integration has arrived, on which the company is focussed.
Competitive Environment
The competitive environment of Apple Inc. is very dynamic in nature, because the new companies are continuously entering into the market, however, the existing companies are introducing more innovative products in their portfolio. Therefore, the threat or the competition can be received through the existing companies in the market with new products.
Political Environment
Each and every country has different type of political environment, and that will have a direct impact over the company’s working. The macro-environment of Apple presents a lot of opportunities for the company, and the political external factors for the company will help in improving the trade policies and the stable politics in developed countries will provide opportunities for Apple. With respect to the developing countries the free trade policies will provide a range of opportunities to the company, where they can increase the distribution of the products (Kim, 2018).
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis of Apple Inc. is to determine the strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities, which will help the company to make appropriate strategies for growth and sustainability. Vasilaki and Tsakalidis (2019) have discussed that the SWOT analysis of Apple Inc. is as follows:
Strengths
· Apple is ranked #1 for eight consecutive years, with a brand value of $322 billion
· Apple is renowned globally for the advanced personalized...