Marketing Management for Apple Inc.

This article discusses the marketing strategies of Apple Inc. including 5 C's, market research, STP, and value proposition. It also provides a brief history of the company and its mission and vision statements. The article is relevant for marketing and business courses.

Running Head: Marketing Management
Marketing Management
Apple Inc.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
5 C’s of Apple.............................................................................................................................................3
Market Research of Apple...........................................................................................................................5
STP of Apple...............................................................................................................................................6
Existing value proposition.......................................................................................................................8
4P’s of Marketing mix for Apple.................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Apple Inc. was earlier known by the name of Apple Computers Inc. It was launched with
the partnership by Steven Paul Jobs, Stephen Gary Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. It was founded
on 1st April 1976 in California, United States. This firm was initially into producing the
Macintosh Pc’s (Zhang, 2018).
Brief Description of Products: In the year 1977, the firm included its name with no third
partner Ronald Wayne. In the year 1984, the firm introduced Macintosh that went on to become
famous as the name of Mac and that resulted in creating huge revenue for the firm. Later in the
year 1999, Apple produced the products like Apple III, Apple one scanner and Power Book 140
which did not acquire success in the market. Later, Apple created iBook which created a good
buzz in the market and while it was selling on boom, it also released iPod 1, 2, 3 and 4 in years
2001 to 2004. Then later Apple created many such devices which became Apple really famous
and most wanted in terms of gadgets (Johnson, Li, & Phan, 2012).
Mission Statement: The firm always considers the business that keeps on changing and
influences the probabilities of what exactly the business can do. The mission of the firm is to
keep on recognizing the changing market and environment and work according to that.
Vision Statement: The values on which Apple work is the quality, customs. Principles
and maintain the standards which the firm believes will help it and the employees in
succeeding (Aljafari, 2016).
Orientation of Marketing: The firm is equipped with both types of market orientation. It
is product oriented because it always has its focus on the quality of the product and also innovate
new designs for breaking into the market segments (Chromatic, 2018).
Apple can also be termed as the market oriented company due to its large usage of market
research for continuously developing and improving the products and also due to its innovation
in the product quality.
Role of Apple in Marketing Strategy: Though Apple has the best quality products and it
has less competition due to this yet there are some products which can give tough competition to

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the products of Apple like Apple TV vs. Fire TV by Amazon etc. Hence, it still promotes its
brand on a huge level to their customers (Bhasin, 2018).
5 C’s of Apple
The 5c’s of the company includes Customers, Competitors, Company, Context and
Collaborations. The detailed analysis of each ‘C’ is as follows:
Customers: Every firm works on the basis of the needs of their customers. The industry
from which Apple belongs, there is a strong need of the smart phones by their customers and
always when Apple is about to launch a new device, there is always a buzz in the market. A
smart phone is the basic need of any person in the world due to the accessibility it provides.
People can easily do the multi tasking on the smart phones when they are busy or on the go.
Apple always works according to the latest technology smart phones or laptops it can provide to
its customers (Slideshare, 2016).
Company: Apple as a company has the skills, intellect as well as the resources for
creating a brand and products which has the best quality. At the same time, the products have to
be reliable as well as useful for everyone. Since the foundations of Apple iPod, the customers
learned to use the gadgets with ease, with comfort and never adjusted with the quality too. With
great skills that the employees of the company as a whole possess, it has been able to transform
its products and refine them for good. With all this happening, the customers also are able to
learn working on the superfluous operating system interface in the desktops and laptops
(Technology, 2017).
Competitors: The biggest of all competitors that Apple has is the firm Samsung and the
galaxy smart phones which are based on the operating system of Google. The Galaxy Smart
Phone can attempt the things which the Apple I-phone also can and it costs approximately half of
the Price which the Apple is costing. Hence, it is definitely a biggest competition for the firm.
Collaborators: The collaborators of the firm are the people who do the sales for the firm
and are known as “a genius” who works at the factory stores of Apple. They have an exceptional
knowledge about the product. There are most of the consumers who do not use all the features of
the Apple products. The buyer will be educated and hence, these sale people make the buyers

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feel confident about the product and the fear of using these kinds of products is automatically
eliminated from their minds.
Context: For learning about the context of the firm, the Pestle analysis of the firm should be
done. The pestle analysis of the firm is as follows:
 Political Factors: In case of Apple, the improving of the free trade policies is needed.
There is also an opportunity of the stable politics in developed countries. The free trade
policies are created with time. These free policies actually increase the chances of the
firm in distributing more and more products in different markets across the world. At the
same time, the political landscape stability in most of the developed countries gives the
chances due to which the firm can expect less political issues that might affect the
business. If this information is considered, the firm can improve its performance by using
these political opportunities in the remote atmosphere.
 Economic Factors: The stability of the country in terms of economy gives the
opportunities to the companies like Apple in expanding their business. Though, the
speedy growth of developing countries is much more important. For example: high
growth rates of the Asian places are huge chances for the firm to rise up the revenues via
sales in these foreign markets. If such things are considered, the firm should make sure
that it exploits the economic opportunities too. The speed and the effectiveness both are
most important due to the competitors targeting such high growth economies (Raboch,
2009).
 Social Factors: The access of the mobile phones has become a huge trend these days.
This is a very huge opportunity for the firm in continuing the productivity of the easy to
use mobile phones. Apple already has taken some steps for exploiting the opportunity
like inventing iPad, iPhones and Smart Watches. Usage of the social media is also rising
day after day due to the increase in the demand of the digital devices such as Apple
products. Considering these points, there are many chances in the social dimension too in
the business environment of Apple.
 Technological Factors: There is a new technology which has a boom these days. That
technology is cloud computing. It has become popular very much these days. Apple has
this opportunity of exploring the field of cloud friendly devices and applications. At the

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same time, the technological amalgamation of the devices is a huge trend. The firm has
the chance of continuing with the strategy of the production of the products which can be
connected with each other. Apple has the opportunity to the app store too. Apple has the
chance to explore new technological opportunities in future (Gosnar, 2012).
 Environmental Factors: Apple avails the chances of maintaining the business
sustainability via recycling and related programs. For improving the energy efficiency,
the firm cab use good technology and new innovative solutions like batteries, processors
and also the components that emits less heat. At the same time, the right of the labor
impacts in the business globally. The customer perception is also one of the opportunities
in improving the practices which are related to the employment via supply chain. Apple
is also on the right track in the ecological factors (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015).
 Legal Factors: The government of all the countries has this realization of the privacy
issues which is related to the usage of the digital technology. Due to this. More of the
privacy regulations are applied on companies like Apple. This issue creates a major
challenge for the firm in the development of the products which consists of the
transmission of the private information. Though, this factor also gives the chance to
improve the features which protects the privacy. At the same time, the governments also
try to apply strict telecommunication regulations that are a threat due to the potential
limits of the usability of Apple products (Reder, 2009).
Market Research of Apple
Since Apple incepted, it has been hugely seen and believed that it has never conducted a
market research at all for its products. The late Mr. Jobs also had quite dismissive attitude
towards the focus groups. He always said that the customers never know what they actually want
unless the product is actually shown to them. This statement raises the question: “How Apple
creates great products even when they have not at all invested in the market research and why
Apple is so successful?”
To start with, the idea that Apple does not conduct research is actually false. Despite the
fact what Steve jobs said, this actually is not the job of the customers to know what they actually

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are looking for. The market research would turn out to be instrumental in developing the iphones
and iPad. The fact is that the marketing data of Apple is gathered by the extensive studying of
the behavior of the consumer (Heracleous, 2013).
From protecting the firm with the competitors, the marketing research of Apple is
actually a secret. If there was any sort of competition were there to gain the access of the
research, there is always the probability that the firm will be able to use the data or the
information in identifying the gaps in the market and use it to push t he firm go ahead in the race.
There are some other methods too which are used by Apple that includes SWOT analysis,
surveys are conducted which are related to the consumers, testing of the prototypes and
anonymous data collection. These are the internal methods which are used by the firm for the
market research (Capatina & Draghescu, 2015).
Though the firm has its own ways of researching, all these methods just do not come
without restrictions. Example: Even if the brand is well known in the global world, it is really
difficult to conduct the research on the global scale. In addition to that, due to the firm’s image
which is fresh and innovative, it continuously creates the cutting edge products and also pushes
the industry. Due to this pushing, the added pressure and high expectation comes into picture.
The huge success of Apple can easily be attributed to the loyalty of the brand. With the
establishment of good connection with the customers, the firm has really pulled off to emerge as
one of the top firms in the field of technology industry. The limited market research of the firm
and huge cult following and the amalgamation of the fantastic designs of the product and also
commitment for the new innovations, this all makes the firm non stoppable force in the world of
technology (Shiu, 2005).
STP of Apple

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STP Process
Source: (Consumerpsychologist, 2018).
STP is a three step process which includes Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. The
detailed STP analysis of Apple is as follows:
The strategy of Apple is to create new innovative products and sell brands that are the
amalgamation of art and technology for providing simple yet streamlined experience for the
users (Tarran, 2012).
Segmentation: The segmentation of Apple for their iPhones involves behavioral and
psychographic areas. These actually are segmented into those who actually want to use the smart
phones for their self expression, comfort and also with those customers who gear towards the
capabilities of the iPhone in terms of the technology. The firm is easily able to capture the
markets and the market shares about the iPhones for satisfying all the benefits that the customers
expect. The behavioral segmentation relates with the loyalty of the brand for its customers and
the firm aims to stay that way for ever for their customers who trust the brand blindly. The
geographic segmentation of the firm consists if the retail stores which are located in the cities
which are highly populated in the world. Hence, it allows the global presence via the help of
metropolitan cities.

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Targeting: The targeting of the products of Apple is done almost in every demographics.
The ability that the firm has of customizing the apps which suits up the needs and the interests of
their customers for making it wishful for all the ages of people, gender, cultures and occupations
and financial statuses. The iPhone 6 and 6+ were the first smart phones which are marked in a
different way and it is in regards to the social working needs (Thompson, 2014).
Positioning: Apple keep on launching new products like iPhones new versions with the
technology that is always updated. The positioning in the minds of the consumers is always at
the forefront of innovation. This has become the product lifestyle though this still keeps the
premium products value a little at a higher than usual. Hence, they appeal wealthier and high
socio demographic market and this always allow the consumers to position all the products in
this way. Hence, the positioning for appealing emotionally as well as functionally to the
consumers as it is most of the time marketed presenting features which can be used for achieving
every day challenges (Razak & Zawawi, 2017).
Existing value proposition
Apple was positioned in a particular type of consumers, people who are rich, innovators
and people who have good jobs. In case if the firm’s target becomes poor people, wealthy people
will stop buying it. This will not be good for the brand and will affect the sales a lot. At the same
time, there is no substitute too for the Apple products, no similar machines with which one can
have the similar experience. Hence, Apple is the elegance for the minority.
4P’s of Marketing mix for Apple
There is 4 P’s of the marketing mix which fit on the issue of the Apple as a brand and
supporting to the market strategy. They are as follows:
Product: Apple is known for almost all of its products. Mac is one of those products
because of which the whole company exists now a days. This is one of the most important
products for Apple and also the iphones. It is a good combination of the iPod and smart phone.
This product is on boom till now and with its new versions coming 6 and 7, it has helped Apple

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making good amount of profits. IPod is another product which is the digital music player. Apple
watch is one of the products which are bought by a lot of people. Just like the smart phone, smart
watch is also one of the firm’s products which are on boom these days. Hence, it can easily be
said that Apple has a huge range of products (Mickalowsk, Mickelson, & Keltgen, 2008).
Price: Apple sells the products which are premium quality. Everyone knows that
premium quality products have their own prices. The firm targets only rich and well to do
people. This product cannot be considerably bought by the poor people. Hence, the cost of the
product is too high in market. The similar product just as iphones exists in the market which is
sold by the brand Samsung and it does all the work which an iPhone does. But then the Samsung
product costs just the 50% of what the iphones costs. Hence, price can be one thing Apple can
work on when it comes to the marketing mix strategy (Mallin, 2011).
Place: Apple is very strategic when it tries to reach to its customers. There are a lot of
channels which are used by the firm for targeting its customers. They have brought the concept
of the trade partners and they also have opened their own store in almost every city for selling of
their products. The trade partners are collaborated with just for maintaining the distribution
channel. The firm has this belief that if there would be lesser number of partners, it would bring
the efficiency in the distribution channel. Another way of selling the product is by selling it
online or via e-commerce (Latif, Hassan, Gulzar, & Babar, 2014).
Promotion: As everyone knows that Apple focuses on the people who buy premium
products (Mbaskool, 2018). Hence, it focuses on the products it sells and differentiates the
factors which make their products one of kind from other competitors. They work on the
promotions very strategically with the help of the usage of the ads on different TV channels,
online ads and billboards etc. Their ads are always simple and they go straight into the hearts of
the people. They just provide basic info in the ads and no other information which is irrelevant.
The hardly come up with new offer prices and stay strong as their product quality is very good
and premium (Lazonick, 2013).
Conclusion

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This report focuses on the firm which is highly known for its products when it comes to
buying any kind of gadgets. This firm is very well known to be as Apple Inc. The report gives
the overview of the company, the mission statement and value statement, brief description of the
product and also the role of brand in marketing strategy. The report also majorly focuses on the 5
C’s of the firm with the market research methods of Apple. The STP process is also mentioned in
details and based on the STP process, the recommendation and the justification to support
marketing strategy, the marketing mix of 4 P’s is discussed in details. In the conclusion, one can
say that Apple has already made its mark in the technology industry. Though it has no flaws as a
company on the whole yet it can still reduce its prices so that everyone can have the access to the
gadgets that it sells.

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