Apple Inc. Marketing Strategies, Competitors, and Weaknesses

Submission Coversheet (All Programmes)
Student ID Number
(Do not include student
name as anonymous
marking is implemented)
RAD17454331
Programme Title BSc Business Management
Module Title Business and Management Dissertation
Module Code (listed on
Moodle and in LTAFP) QAB020X602H & QAB020X604A
Coursework Title Business and Management Dissertation – 3000 words
proposal
Academic Declaration:
Students are reminded that the electronic copy of their essay may be checked, at
any point during their degree, with Turnitin or other plagiarism detection software for
plagiarised material.
Word Count
3500
Please save your file as:
student id_module code_module_title_assessment name
for example: COR15416549_QAB020N592S_Managing Organisations)_Essay 1 Teamwork
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Dissertation proposal
Apple Inc. – marketing
strategy, competitors and
weaknesses
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Background for the study.......................................................................................................5
Importance and rationale for selection of topic......................................................................5
Aim of the research project....................................................................................................5
Research objectives................................................................................................................6
Research questions.................................................................................................................6
Scope and limitation...............................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................8
To evaluate about the role of marketing strategies in the success and worldwide invasion of
Apple Inc................................................................................................................................8
To implicate about the main weaknesses and shorting coming in the marketing strategies of
Apple Inc..............................................................................................................................10
To review about the main competitors of Apple Inc. along with weaknesses in their strategy
..............................................................................................................................................11
To determine the better ways that can be adopted by Apple Inc. to become more successful
and have better invasion at global level...............................................................................12
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................15
Research philosophy.............................................................................................................15
Research approach................................................................................................................15
Research strategy..................................................................................................................16
Choices of method................................................................................................................16
Time horizons.......................................................................................................................16
Data collection and analysis.................................................................................................16
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Sample method.....................................................................................................................17
Ethical consideration............................................................................................................17
Time Frames.........................................................................................................................17
RESULTS......................................................................................................................................19
FINDINGS.....................................................................................................................................33
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................36
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................36
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................37
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INTRODUCTION
Background for the study
Apple Inc. is a well-known multinational technology based company the main headquarter
of which situated at California, United States. The main operations and dealings of Apple inc.
comprises of designing, developing and marketing consumer electronic product and other
electric accessories across the world (Palmatier and Sridhar, 2017). Apple inc. is the leading and
most successful technology company in the world which is differentiated from its competitors
through its effective product innovation, exclusive design and most prominent and effective
marketing strategies. The product portfolio of Apple inc. comprises of Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod,
Apple Watch, Apple TV, Digital content, Software, Accessories and other associated Cloud
services (Budzinski and Kuchinke, 2020). Thus, being a multinational company and operating in
technology sector a huge level of competition is faced by Apple Inc. thus, current study is lead
out to evaluate about the marketing strategies of Apple Inc. along with determination of their
competitors and weaknesses.
Importance and rationale for selection of topic
The selection of current topic is important as it is viable and rationale to evaluate the
marketing strategies of Apple Inc. that plays a vital role in its success and global invasion. Apart
from this, Apple Inc. is a multinational company which faced a high level of competition threat
thus, determination of its competitors and along with their weakness is helpful and important to
ensure adoption of better’s strategies and ways to have better success and enhanced performance.
A description and analysis regarding the importance and the role of marketing strategies in the
success and worldwide invasion is also made along with analysis of better ways to become more
successful and have better invasion at global level which is rationale and important from
organisational view pint. Apart from this, selection of current topic is also meet the personal
interest of researcher along with ensuring better skills development and enhanced knowledge on
selected topic.
Aim of the research project
The main aim set out for current dissertation is, “To evaluate about the marketing
strategies of Apple Inc. along with determination of their competitors and weaknesses”. A
research work on Apple Inc.
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Research objectives
Following are the main objectives set out for current investigation on Apple Inc.
 To evaluate about the role of marketing strategies in the success and worldwide invasion
of Apple Inc.
 To implicate about the main weaknesses and shorting coming in the marketing strategies
of Apple Inc.
 To review about the main competitors of Apple Inc. along with weaknesses in their
strategy.
 To determine the better ways that can be adopted by Apple Inc. to become more
successful and have better invasion at global level.
Research questions
The research questions evaluate under current dissertation are stated as below:
 What role is played by marketing strategies in the success and worldwide invasion of
Apple Inc.?
 What are the main weaknesses and shorting coming in the marketing strategies of Apple
Inc.?
 Who are the main competitors of Apple Inc. along with weaknesses in their strategy?
 Are there any better ways that can be adopted by Apple Inc. to become more successful
and have better invasion at global level?
Scope and limitation
The scope of current dissertation is wide which comprises of evaluation about the role of
marketing strategies in the success and worldwide invasion of Apple Inc along with implication
regarding the main weaknesses and shorting coming in the marketing strategies of Apple Inc.
Beside this, a deep discussion about the main competitors of Apple Inc. along with weaknesses
in their strategy is also made to develop better understanding about selected research topic.
Further, the main focus and scope of current investigation consists of determination of any better
ways that can be adopted by Apple Inc. to become more successful and have better invasion at
global level.
The main limitation and shortcoming associated with current dissertation is based on lack
of sufficient resources and adequate amount of time along with collection of reliable data for
study. Therefore, implication of suitable research method is made for collection of data to meet
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set objective in a better way. Further, implication of Gantt chart is useful in overcoming the
issues of time management through leading effective time frames for timely completion of
activities.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
It forms one of the most vital and crucial chapter of a dissertation which comprises of a
discussion and evaluation of various available secondary information to get better understanding
about selected research topic along with providing a base for further investigation through
analysis of objective (Gilbert, 2020). Literature review provides a comprehensive summary and
description about previous research work on a specific topic with the help of surveys of scholarly
articles, journals, books, documents and other relevant sources to clearly enumerate, describe and
evaluate set objectives (Jeong, Lee and Lim, 2019). The current literature review is based on
marketing strategies of Apple Inc. along with analysis about its competitors and weakness for
which a number of online articles and journals are reviewed a discussion about which is provided
below:
To evaluate about the role of marketing strategies in the success and worldwide invasion of
Apple Inc.
As per the view point of Chirag Kulkarni, 2016, marketing is essential for good business
which helps to reach and connect with target audience and lead to better growth and invasion of
organisation. Marketing strategies and exclusive way of promotion provides a method for Apple
Inc. to differentiate itself from its competitors and allows to focus in its strengths to attract and
cater larger customers through providing better quality product and services. The marketing
strategies of Apple Inc. is having many key features which makes it better and more attractive
than its competitors in business environment and plays a vital role in its success and worldwide
invasion a description and evaluation of which is provided below:
Keep marketing strategies simple- Apple Inc. is used to keep its marketing strategies
simple as technology consumers often get over whelmed with complex marketing strategy and
leads to creation of confusion in their minds. Apple Inc. Keeps its marketing message very
straightforward with simple graphics without much use of jargon or any other complex technical
terms so that consumers can translate and understand marketing message in a better and more
effective way without any complexity and confusion (Yang, Nam and Kim, 2018).
Leverage reviews- The another key aspects of marketing strategy of Apple Inc. comprises
of getting regular reviews from its customers along with implementing relevant suggested
modification in its services and products which makes it more better to meet the expectation and
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