Apple Marketing Strategy Analysis

Marketing strategy is the process that allows an organization to analyze and concentrate on the limited resources to increase the sales and achieve leading competition. It acts as an fundamental or primary key for the organizational goals.

Marketing strategy of Apple.Inc:-

Product is the main or an important thing about Apple’s marketing strategy. Its product help in gaining market share, brand awareness and brand loyalty. Apple has been successful in recent years for their imaginative way to do their business. They are known for their unique style and design, great strategy, innovative marketing and for excellence in communication. Apple has achieved overwhelming success in recent years with their products such as iPad, iPhone, iPod and Macintosh etc. A combination of new hardware with great styles, performance and user friendly captures the customers in instant. Apple.Inc uses a great marketing strategy. They adopt same strategy for all their products.

At first the Apple will sell their products only in the US for 3-4 months. Later they will launch in foreign countries too. Six months later the company will rebate the prices. At the first the basic 16GB iPad will be released without the 3G connection at $499. The high class iPad that is 64GB will have 3G connection and it will be priced $829. After six months the Apple will sell the 64GB iPad with 3G connectivity for $499. This is rebate of $330. They sell their 32GB with 3G connection at the price of $339 that is again a rebate of $330. Apple’s marketing strategy helped them to top in the market shares.

Product Line:

The product line means set of related goods sold by a company.

The product line of Apple is clearly specified. It is easy to understand. The product line of Apple are :

• iPod
• iPhone
• iPad
• iMac
• Apple TV.

iPods are the actual MP3 players produced by the Apple company.

iPhones are the smart phones produced by Apple company.

iPad is the first capsule, it was introduced by Apple company.

iMac are the computer product of Apple company.

Apple TV is a set up box for television connection. This is a latest product introduced by Apple company.

Product Mix:

Product Mix means selling a set of related products which make greater profit when they are sold together than if they are sold individually. It means that a range of product make more profit when they are sold together. They don’t make much profit when sold individually.

Like the same way Apple sells their desktops with their accessories like keyboard, mouse, speakers etc.

Once Apple gave an offer for the students like if they buy iMac they would get one iPod touch 8GB for less cost. This is the Apple does their product mix.

One of the interesting techniques of Apple is they give more priority for the design of the product and

Pricing strategy:

Pricing is one of the most important in business strategy. The success of business depends on the pricing strategy of the company. Pricing should be always favorable for the consumers to increase volume of sales. The tablet introduced by Apple Inc. is $499. Whereas companies such as Dell and Android will give it cheap. Competitors are offering more functionality for hundreds of dollars less.

Apple uses different pricing strategy that other companies don’t. The Apple will rebate the prices at one stage. First the products will be released in US. After six months the products will be released outside US. For example, 16GB iPad will be released at the price of $499. The high end model will be priced at $829. Soon after six months the prices will fall and the high end model will be priced $499 which means $330 rebate in the price. This shows that first buyers are the big contributors for Apple. By reducing the price Apple will capture double of their original customers.

Distribution Channels

Apple distribution channel consists of:

• On-line store
• Retail store
• Direct sales force
• Third party wholesaler

On-line store: is a digital shop. Where customers can buy the products on-line. This is easy and simple. Apple products can be officially bought from apple.com, there are many other online shopping websites but apple.com is known as official. We can easily buy by paying through credit cards/ paypal/ debit cards. The customers are required to give the address correctly.

Retail store: is nothing but the retail shop by Apple.inc. The official Apple retail shop is iStore. iStore is located on major cities of the countries. We can purchase all the Apple products in iStore. This will be easy for those who want to buy from their same locality.

Direct sales force: is done to retailers. The Apple sells the product to its retailers. Then the retailers sell it to the final customers. The retailers may charge additional for their work. This is useful where there is no iStore.

Third party wholesaler: is more than two wholesalers. They buy the product and sell it to another wholesaler which again sold to retailer or directly to the final consumer.

Target Segment.

The Apple sells captures everyone in their market. They capture the youngsters, business people, ladies, sound engineers etc. The Apple targets the market and captures them as well.

Positioning:-

Apple has its unique brand name in the minds of the customers. They are well known company to all. The Apple word is heard it reminds me about their iPod. They are the conquerors of MP3 and MP4 players. Nothing can replace Apple when it comes to technology. They have good brand name among the consumers. Their innovation lets them lead the world. Every product that they release is well known. This lets the consumers buy Apple products. Apple products are considered as the best in the world. Customers will always choose Apple instead of any company. Some will not be able to afford for Apple products which leads them to choose other companies.

Marketing communication mix:-

Apple communicates through web ads and iStore. The Apple has introduced iAds which is about advertisements. Any company can put their company advertisement on it. Apple also advertises their products in it. Company also produces ads on Google and other well known sites which will create good brand name among then consumers. They communicate to the customers through their ads. They also inform about the product in their iStore. So that local people can know about the product.

Conclusion:-

World is growing in technology. I think that leaders of technology are Apple.inc. Their new innovation will still make them lead the world of technology. Their motivation and design will lead people to join them. Still new technology should be brought in, this can happen only if the Apple.inc is alive. It is alive. So we will wait for their new product which will have new technology.