Words: 1883
Apple Inc. is a multinational organization that manufactures consumer electronics. Its best known for the Mac, the iPod, the I-Phone, the recently launched iPad and for software the Mac OS X, iTunes, iLife. It was established on April 1, 1976 in California. It changed its name to Apple Inc. from Apple Computer Inc. on 9th January, 2007 since it was changing its focus to consumer electronics from personal computers. As of 2009, 35000 employees are registered with Apple. Apple is known to revolutionize the computer industry with its innovating and user-friendly devices which are powerful and look eye-candy.
Dell Inc. is a multinational organization that manufactures PCs and ropes related products and services. It was established in 1984 in Texas by Michael Dell as PCs limited intended to retail IBM PC-friendly computers from stock components. It changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation in 1988. In 2003, its name changed to Dell Inc. As of 2009, 76,500 people are registered with Dell. Dell is known for its direct customer relation. It provides customers with PCs having components of their choice. There is no middle-man between the customer and the manufacturer.
Customers can logon to the Dell website and order the PC of their choice. Situation Analysis for Apple: During the span of the company, it was led by a number of chief executives. Each of them had their own ideas on how the company should be and made changes accordingly. Some of the characteristics of the company have been lost but the company still has a reputation for fostering individuality and excellence that draws talented people to its work force. Some of the problems Apple has faced and overcome: Scenario 1 In the early years, apple were months late in schedule to create their softwares.
Also their sales people did not have direct access to the corporations therefore the company failed to portray a good business image to the market. Due to this issues, the workers kept resigning. Apple then began to adjust its products and marketing strategies in such a way that would better fit the computer industry environment. The products they made were filled out with what the customers actually demanded. To pursue the business segment, the company now hired employees with professional business backgrounds as they would be able to handle the corporate managers who were similar to them.
The business market expansion resulted in a 30% increase in Apple’s sales from $1. 9 billion in 1986 to $2. 66 billion in 1987. Scenario 2: there were many issues between Apple’s sales, marketing, and engineering departments. “The technical people didn’t respect the marketing department and the marketing department were disorganized. The senior management were all busy in managing their own departments. Sculley, the CEO of apple in an effort to centralize operations and involve Apple’s senior management in day-to-day decisions, created a new position of Chief Operation Officer. This also gave him more time to spend on long term planning.
The growth of the company made it realise that its markets were distinct and required different expertise. Apple splitted the international divisions and made the U. S. sales market, the Apple USA division. Scenario 3: The position of Apple had dropped down to being the last among the electronic companies as in May 2008, a non profit organization named Climate Counts, gave only 11 points to Apple out of a possible 100. To resolve this issue Apple upgraded the iMac and Macbook in October 2009. Scenario 4: The labourers in China who worked for Apple were kept in unfavourable conditions and were given a low pay.
This issue was bought to the attention to the people through media. As soon as these allegations were made, Apple launched a full investigation and worked with their manufacturers to ensure that conditions were acceptable to Apple. Situation Analysis for Dell: Dell PC first came into existence in 1986. Since then, it has changed the face of the IT industry by bringing pioneer developments that are vital for home, small business and enterprise computing. Dell’s R consists of industries top-notch product designers and engineers and these people have helped spread the Dell Technology across the globe.
The main reasons for Dell’s success and its innovation lie in its commitment to address its customer’s needs with new and better solution. Problem 1: Gartner Analyst asked twice the CEO and the chairman of the caompany, Michal Dell, Is the PC business, Dell’s core business, “at risk? ” If a user decides to move his client computing onto servers in the datacenter, Dell said that his company will be able to meet their need and that “in fact, we already do “Flexible Computing Solutions” was the strategy used by the compny in order to response to the need of their consumers.
Just today, for case in point Dell stated that they had introduced a product which streamed the operating system as well the applications to a diskless desktop and he named it as Demand Desktop Streaming. While he agreed that it would cost an amount to its customers, it will affectively shift the costs to the servers and storage and hence he stated it as a solution to the problem. After leaving the chairman post Dell came back as CEO of his company early this year. Dell also faced many challenges from there rival HP. After Dell came backhe said he was concentrating to “bring back the customer-centricity” into the company. I think we lost some of that customer focus. ” Now they are increasing their focus on new upcoming markets by serving latest consumer wants and needs. The retailer came forward saying that they would ship Linux on a Desktop this year. Introduction of Tablet Computers was then announced by Dell himself. Problem 2: A Dell user, Peter Ulyatt’s faces a problem of CD drive on his desktop. He calls up the support crew at Dell. After speaking to retiree he was on hold for 45 minutes, a technician whom Ulyat could barely understand came on the line and detected a “software problem’.
The call was then transferred to the software technician which was dropped. On calling back, Ulyaat was kept was hold for another 45 minutes, asked for the software desk, and waited for half-hour more before hanging up. This straight way led to Dell’s customer-satisfaction rate which fell 6. 3%, in a survey by the University of Michigan. Dell is working to reverse the service slide. According to John Hamlin, senior vice-president of Dell U. S. consumer business, justifies that the corporation is appointing a few thousand additional reps this year and striving to reduce call transfers.
Already, he says, internal weekly surveys of 5,000 customers show a 35% increase in customer satisfaction from a year ago. Dell plans on changing its support system since direct model is not very efficient. As the message is understandable that new Personal Computers you purchase comes with the most fundamental support. Plus more hand-holding costs extra fpr more support and services. Problem 3 In 1995, Dell entered the Chinese market. It adopted a ‘direct model’ for selling its products to its customers. This model had been successful in many other countries and it proved to be successful in the urban markets of China as well.
However Dell witnessed slow growth in 2004 and 2005. This was because Dell’s ‘direct model’ to sell its product was unsuccessful in semi-urban and rural markets of china. This was mainly because these places had low penetration of the Internet and low usage of credit cards. Hence, by late 2005 Dell’s market share in China was dwindling. So they should have sold in urban area of the country more than depending on rural areas. Also they could increase there advertising in these areas. Apple marketing strategies Some of the main strategies to market products used by Apple Inc. re: Do not sell products, people buy what other people have: apple do not use the orthodox way of making products, publicizing their features and specifications. Through their advertisments they create such an image of their products which makes other competitive products look ordinary and inferior. For example with the advertisement of the biggest hit of the apple corporation, the “I Pod”, in it’s advertisments they show people partying, dancing, grooving while listening to their I Pods. The backgrounds look very colourful, vibrant, etc and the people look so energetic.
It automatically makes a viewer want to be one of them, as if it is a special club for people who own an Ipod. After its launch Ipod has become a sensation it has become a must have for people these days, mostly with youngsters. Therefore apple believe people want to buy products which other people, and want to be one of them. Do not be the first one to market, make existing products better: they do not encourage invention, they believe in improving existing products, provide good quality products, adding some more features, give the products an exciting, interesting new look.
Apple have invented the Newton, a graphic interface but it was a huge flop, so they got back to this strategy again. Empower early adopters: Apple trust their hardcore fans and consumers and empower them to advertise their product. They are one of the companies who understand their consumers very good. They make such quality products that the people who own them suggest it to their friends and families, and the product sells through this word of mouth strategy. They believe that if they make a quality product it will advertise itself.
So therefore they do not have to spend huge money like other companies for advertising which reduces their costs and increases their profits. DELL marketing strategies Dell INC. have one basic market strategy which is to sell their products directly to their consumers and eliminating middlemen which would reduce costs and these savings would be directly passed on to the consumers. People can order custom laptops on the dell website which also attracts many people all this at very low prices compared to their competitors like Apple, HP, Lenovo, etc.
Recommendations Dell makes products keeping in mind the financial aspects of their consumers and they give more choice to them by delivering custom made products, on the other hand Apple focus on the quality, adding extra features and making the product look attractive so therefore it depends on people what they are looking for and what is their budget. Personally we would recommend Dell because they sell products with almost the same features at almost half the price. ??? ??? ???N. A. (2009). Dell’s Problems in China. Available: http://www. icmrindia. rg/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy/BSTR193. htm. Last accessed 20 Feb 2010. ???Patrick Thibodeau. (2007). Is Dell’s core PC business at risk?. Available: http://www. infoworld. com/t/hardware/dells-core-pc-business-risk-122. Last accessed 15 feb 2010. ???n. a. (2008). Shopper Research Pinpoints Loyalty, Problems. Available: http://www. ifoapplestore. com/db/2008/02/27/shopper-research-pinpoints-loyalty-problems/. Last accessed 18 feb 2010. ???n. a. (2009). Apple Computer Inc. Available: http://www. answers. com/topic/apple-computer-inc.
Last accessed 14 feb 2010. ???Richard D. Freedman and Jill Vohr. (1998). APPLE COMPUTER, INC.. Available: http://www. stern. nyu. edu/mgt/private_file/mo/rfreedma_ca/apple. pdf. Last accessed 14 feb 2010. ???Steven Levy. (2010). Garage start-up. Available: http://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/30632/Apple-Inc/92993/Garage-start-up. Last accessed 16 feb 2010. ???Steven P. Jobs. (2010). Reinventing Apple. Available: http://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/304313/Steven-P-Jobs/280816/Reinventing-Apple. Last accessed 16 feb 2010. ???