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They also collaborated to social websites and get the feedback and suggestion from customers through different blobs, it’s kind of customer relationship management through which they make relation with customer and design the product according to the customer expectation. 3 V. Competitors: Samsung: Samsung has managed to maintain its position among the elite in mobile technology. Samsung products are loaded with features that are generally sought out by technology lovers; Samsung places heavy focus on the features and specifications of their products in their commercials.
Currently it is the biggest competitor of Apple in smart phones and pad (Tablet) category. Dell: Dell has positioned itself in the market as a competitor to Apple with high affordability and is also user friendly. Dell’s marketing campaign has always been catered to families and everyone in it. Using the fact that their computers are more affordable than more expensive brands such as Apple, Dell focuses their advertisement campaign with an economical approach. So dell is the direct competitor of apple in laptop category.
Blackberry: Blackberry marketed their brand as sophisticated and the latest and easiest technology for networking. Blackberry has the reputation of being elite and positioned high within the industry; it is only fitting that they cater to and consistently revolve their advertisements around elite business types. Android: Samsung success and large market share is in fact due to the latest craze for the Android operating system. The Android operating system is used in various different models with a few different vendors such as LAG, Sony Ericson, ETC, and Motorola.
The advertisements for these models are all essentially sending out the same message as they are all trying to state their models are very advanced and on the cutting edge of technology. So it also the competitor of apple, because the other mobile companies offering handsets with android software installed. Microsoft: Another Direct Competitor to Apple would be Microsoft and their latest operating system, Windows Phone, Tab, or PC’s the Windows operating system prides itself on being quick. The Windows phone advertisement campaign revolves around social life and activities.
B. STEP Model: l. Segmentation: The market segmentation concept is crucial to market strategy. Apple has targeted and marketed their products to consumers with a few certain characteristics. Apple doesn’t target markets in the same way many of their competitors do, because it targets people and focuses on users, more so then the target markets alone, who hen decide how and where they will use Apple’s products. The segmentation strategy followed is cryptographic segmentation to appealing to all consumers no matter the age, race, income level, and/or demographic.
Although Apple try to be appealing to all consumers, this is never the case for any company even Apple. Instead, Apple typically appeal to those who are middle to high class who do not mind spending a little extra cash for the best quality in the product being purchase and those who are in the profession of media and design. Generations X and Y have been heavily expose to the internet using computers for a did variety of reasons. Apple offers unique and innovating computer device with great quality at and reasonably affordable price.
Top of the line and innovating products is what most appeal to the youth and middle age people. II. Targeting: It is the second stage of the STEP process. After the market has been separated into its segments, the marketer will select a segment or series of segments to target at, and then resources and efforts will be targeted at the segment. 4 Apple has following targeting strategy: Segment 1 One product for all segments Supplier Segment 2 Segment 3 Segment 4 Segment 5 Apple Inc. Has been using the approach of being one supplier that is targeting many segments.
Apple mainly targets people, as it focuses on users and lets them decide how and where they’ll use their products. Ill. Positioning: Positioning is the third and final part of the STEP process. Positioning is one of the simplest and one of the most useful tools for marketers. After segmenting a market and then targeting a consumer, you would proceed to position a product within that market. Apple is positioned as a premium brand in the mind of the customers that demands and earns a price premium. This price premium spans the entire Apple product lineup encompassing the Macintosh, pod, phone, software, and accessories.
Therefore, Apple’s has positioned them to target a less price sensitive customer, thus which has created a culture and a set of activities through which Apple differentiates itself from competitors to meet the needs of their targeted customers. By analyzing the mental map of apple it shows that what thing comes in the mind of the customer when he thinks about the Brand. 5 C. 4 Up’s of Marketing Mix: l. Product: Products are the goods and services that a business provides for sale to target the rarest. Apple includes different technological brands, with premium pricing strategy.
All the brands are very successful in the market, especially the Pod, I phone, I pad, Mac book. Apple always focuses on innovation and new design and with the little time they launch new model in their brands to keep their brand on the top. Following are the products of Apple: ; phones G ; ‘phone ASS ; ‘phone 4 ; ‘phone AS ; ‘phone 5 ; phone 6 ; Mac air book ; Mac book pro ; Mac mini ; ‘pad ; pod ; pod Anna ; pod Shuffle ; ‘touch Laptop/Pc smartness pod/pad others ; Mac SO mimic ; Apple TV II.
Price: Price concerns with the amount of money that customers should pay in order to purchase the company’s products. Pricing strategy followed by Apple is skimming pricing strategy. Apple has never considered pricing as one of the competitive advantages. They only use their best resources to make a great final product first, and then only worry about the costs. The only buck to this trend we have seen now is with pad. Apple’s competitors release their own tablet devices, but none of them are coming any closer to pad’s entry price of $499 even when everything is equal in geared of the hardware and component quality.
It is clearly seen that Apple is leveraging some of the supply chain advantages earned from the phone and pod with regards to materials like touch screens and flash memory in order to keep pad’s pricing down, which will prove very difficult for the major competitors to approach in the near term. The high price charged for its products also portrays the high quality of its products, for which customers are willing to pay for. Ill. Promotion: Promotion refers to the act of communicating the benefits and value of your company’s product to their consumers.
Apple’s commercial spots are instantly recognizable by everyone whether you are a fan of their products or not. It is easy to identify their commercials immediately because of the use of the simplistic approach of the layout of their product featured on a white background, with catchy music playing in the background. Everything in their advertisements are visual, and 6 visually plentiful, but not overpowering as some ads can be. When a new product gets launched, along with the press conference, several major tech blobs and websites also take part in covering the event.. However, given the memorabilia of
Apple’s advertisements, it seems to be more pervasive than it actually is. In addition, if there was a poster child for the powers of word-famous marketing and brand loyalty, it would be Apple. ‘V. Place: Place is related to the distribution, location and methods of getting the product to the customers. Apple has adopted a hybrid distribution channel involving an online store, physical outlets and the retail points of the exclusive mobile service provider and its online store. Apple recognized that by getting their products used by students, could influence brand preferences more in the development years of a new enervation of computer users.
The most dramatic Jobs-led’ initiative involved the 4th element of marketing mix “place”, which was the opening of its now iconic Apple retail stores. Apple expanded its consumer reach by building numerous new retail outlets, owing and operating around the world in the last ten years. It has also placed their products from pods, pads, and phones in about every store that sells electronics these days. Also, from numerous retail outlets to a great e-commerce website, like Amazon, Apple’s website, making their products as easy to buy for nonusers as anything out there today.