Business Plan of Apple Inc

This report analyzes the marketing strategies, policies and tactics of Apple Inc. It identifies the prospective competitors of Apple Iphone and how it affects the smooth running of the business. It determines the internal and external factors affecting the business. It has utilized the SWOT analysis in determining the forces and factors affecting business.

Running head: BUSINESS PLAN OF APPLE
BUSINESS PLAN OF APPLE INC
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Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to determine the marketing strategies, policies and tactics of the
chosen brand Apple Inc. The reports analysis the prospective competitors of Apple Iphone and
how it affects the smooth running of the business. It determines the internal and external factors
affecting the business. It has utilized the SWOT analysis in determine the forces and factors
affecting business. With the help of PESTLE analysis, the report identifies the external factors
that impose threats and opportunities of the business. Lastly, it concludes whether the launch of
new product will be success or failure of the business.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Market research and its use in marketing plan................................................................................4
Competitive analysis of Apple.........................................................................................................5
Samsung-.....................................................................................................................................5
Microsoft-....................................................................................................................................5
Sony.............................................................................................................................................5
PESTL analysis of Apple Iphone....................................................................................................6
Political factors affecting Apple..................................................................................................6
Economic factors affecting Apple...............................................................................................6
Social factors affecting Apple.....................................................................................................7
Technological factors affecting Apple.........................................................................................7
Legal factors affecting Apple......................................................................................................8
Swot analysis and its use in market plan.........................................................................................8
Weaknesses of Apple Iphone.......................................................................................................9
Opportunities of Apple iphone....................................................................................................9
Threats in SWOT analysis of Apple Iphone................................................................................9
Apple segmentation, Targeting and Positioning..............................................................................9
Positioning of Apple..................................................................................................................10
Brand management of Apple Inc...................................................................................................10

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Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Apple Company is the world’s largest manufactures and mobile markets company. The
company sells variety of software, phone accessories, and applications. The company sells its
products all across the world through retail stores, online stores, and wide range of wholesalers.
The company is committed in providing high quality products at a premium price through
knowledgeable sales persons and via online stores. The report provides brief analysis of the
Apple Company. The product chosen is Apple Iphone. The report identifies the major
competitors of the product. It utilizes the PESTLE model and how it affects the introduction of
the new product. It determines the SWOT analysis of the company and uses that analysis of in
the market plan. The report further identifies the segmentation, targeting and positioning in the
market. The current trends of the industry and provides detailed analysis of the brand
management of the company. Lastly, the report concludes the success and the failure of the
organization’s marketing strategy.
Market research and its use in marketing plan
Brand awareness is used to to measure the prospective consumer’s awareness of brand. It
studies and research on the buying behavior of the customers and identify the brand position in
the mind of the consumer. Research is done to target the audience, which will have help the
company to focus on the customers who are most likely to buy the product. Customer acquision
and customer retention have been utilized in order to acquire new customer and retain the old
customers. market research has been conducted to measure the satisfaction of the customer,
enhace and acquire loyal custonmer.

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Competitive analysis of Apple
Apple has always brought in success for the organization. Every product launched by the
company has brought in revolution. However, Apple has potential competitors; some of them are
mentioned below (Ansoff 2019).
Dell- Apple faces stiff competition from Dell. Dell is manufacturer of laptops and PC. Its
major competitors include HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Apple. The competition with Dell and
Apple began when it released the Dell DJ model (Castro 2016). However, Dell did not find as
much success as Apple. Presently, these two companies fiercely compete in the market.
Samsung- Samsung is one of the biggest competitors of Apple. In terms of Price, Apple
loses its customers to Samsung. Samsung has gained significant market share of smart phones in
the company. Hence Samsung is a major competitor of Apple (Cao 2018). Samsung’s Galaxy
series and J series are primary competitor products of Apple Iphone.
Microsoft- There lays a stiff competition between Apple and Microsoft since long time
in terms of smart phones, PC and media entertainment markets. The company is famous for the
entertainment. The company brings in significant revenue for its multination operations.
Microsoft’s new launch Microsoft Lumia, Microsoft Lumia 950, Microsoft Lumia 650 LTE are
some of the products which competes with Apple Iphone (Dolata 2017)
Sony- Sony is known to the global leader for personal computers. It is one of the leading
companies of electronics industry today. The company makes notable efforts, resource and time
to offer its customers the best products and service. The company has set standards if its own in
dealing with its products. Sony is also a competitor of Apple Iphone (Feng, Govindan and Li
2017). However, it is not as big competitor as Samsung.

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PESTL analysis of Apple Iphone
For launching a new product in the market, it is vital to refer to the PESTLE analysis to
identify its external factors that affect the business. Conducting research before introducing a
new product in the market is essential as it enables the managers to identify factors and utilize its
information to take advantageous decisions for the organization.
Political factors affecting Apple
Presently, there are acts and laws which enables free trade policies especially in the
developed countries. This has increased the opportunity for Apple for increased profits. There
has been reduction is the income tax from 35% to 21%. There are tax reforms which imply that
the companies are required to pay tax only one time on its accumulate profits. The politics are
stable in the developed countries. There are more free trade policies that are created over time.
This has increased the opportunity for Apple to distribute its products to markets all across the
globe at a reduced cost. It is expected that the companies can improve its operations and
performance based on the fact that there are minimal political issues. Apple can take advantage
for such situations (Fozer, et al. 2017).
Economic factors affecting Apple
The economic external factors include economic stability and rapid growth of the
economies of the developed countries. These factors provide opportunity for the company to
expand its business. The increasing growth of the developing countries is even more significant.
The rapid development of the Asian countries provides opportunity for the company to expand

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its operations and increase its sales. It is essential for the company to expand its business
operations exploiting these major opportunity. This will enable the company to increase its
revenue and ensure its effectiveness (Jeong and Yoon 2017). They essentially need to target
economies which show high growth.
Social factors affecting Apple
The main social factors of Apple Inc indentified as an opportunity for the company, it is
anticipated that there will be immerce growth in the consumer spending in some countries,
hence, the company has a wider scope for the success of new product launch. However, there is
a lack of emotional attachments of the customers towards the Apple brand in some countries, due
to its premium price strategy. There has been Apple manufacturing in China because of which
the company has lost appeal among its customers who are socially conscious. Failure of Apple
to bring in new innovation, and failure of its music market strategy has led to criticisms among
its customer. This could hamper the image of the brand (Sarsby 2016).
Technological factors affecting Apple
From the external analysis of the company, it has been identified that the company has
generally more opportunity considering the present technologies and the advancement of
technology. It has generally positive effect on the daily operations of the business. The
technological external factors such as increasing software applications in the market, integration
of technology and cloud computing has opened new door of opportunity for the company (Noe,
Gerhart and Wright 2017).Cloud computing has become highly popular among the people and
other organizations. Therefore the company needs to exploit these technological opportunities. It
may offer devices which supports cloud. Apple can build a marketing strategy which provides

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products and devices with cloud facility and advancement in technology. Apple can exploit these
opportunity as it stand in a positive position in the business environment (Lockamy 2017).
Legal factors affecting Apple
From the external analysis of Apple, it has identified that the legal factors are posing
threats to the company. The PESTLE analysis identifies the factors which pose threat to the
company. The external legal factors include increase in privacy regulations of the organizations.
The government has recognized several governmental regulations as there has been privacy
related issues connected to digital technology. This factor is a threat to the company. This has
also increased opportunity for the company to improve the specifications of the products in order
to protect privacy ( Saleem 2017)
Swot analysis and its use in market plan
Apple iphone is known for its amazing IOS operating system and its unique features. In
the following swot analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that
affect the firm internally and externally.
Strengths of Apple Iphone
One of the biggest strengths of Apple is its Brand equity. It is considered to one of the top
companies known for its brand equity. Besides its brand equity, the company is well known for
bringing in innovation for its various ranges of products from McIntosh computers and the
Iphones. There biggest strengths in that they bring in tech revolutions time to time. Strength of
Apple is that they have achieved loyal customers who are loyal to brand. (Sarsby 2016).

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Weaknesses of Apple Iphone
One of the weakness of Apple company is its premium based pricing, it has brand equity
but is high priced as compared to its competitor products. There are various other specifications
in the phone which are not present in the Iphone as compared to its competitive products. The
product lacks certain features which are expected by the customers being the product high
priced.
Opportunities of Apple iphone
The market potential of smart phones is one of the biggest opportunities of Apple iphone.
The market for smart phones are expanding hence it is an opportunity for the company to gain
potential customers (Sarsby 2016). Due to continuous technological advancement the company
is bringing in, the company has the opportunity to take it on higher levels.
Threats in SWOT analysis of Apple Iphone
Apple faces threat from its competitor products like Samsung and Google, Apple looses
half of its customers to its competitors. The competitors bring in further innovation and produces
variety of products. Hence competitors are posing biggest threats of Apple.
Apple segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Segmentation, targeting and positioning of the business represents the current trends and
marketing strategy of the business.
Segmentation implies grouping the total population according to particular
characteristics. The potential customers are grouped under variables such as behavior of the
customers, demographics of the customer that is age, gender, income and education level of the
customers.

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Targeting implies the strategy of the business which decides which segment of the
customers is focused. The targeting is based on the target segment which is most profitable for
the business.
 Age: 22-60 years
 Gender: Both male and female
 Income: Being the premium price policy of Apple, it targets high income group people.
 Lifestyle: As the high income group is targeted, the targeted lifestyle is Modern and
young.
 Behavior: Apple targets the loyal customers. Apple targets the customers who are loyal
towards the brand and its products.
Positioning of Apple
The positioning of the brand is done through the use of core marketing strategy and
promoting the brand and advertising. Promoting the brand identity, the elements of the products
and its way of communication all plays a vital role in positioning the brand (Sarsby 2016)
Brand management of Apple Inc
Apple has been successfully able to mange its brand by implementing innovativr
branding strategy, focusing on the company perspective, the company has continued to be
successful in comparison with the other competitors, it has gained loyal customer, it managed to
retain the customers who are willing to pay for a high price in order o acquire its products which
are of premium quality. The products offered by Apple is a symbol of status (Saleem 2017)
Hence, it can be said that Apple has been able to successfully manage its brand. However, there

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are other failures faced by the brand such as the Apple Music ping, the company has seen a
mojor flop in that aspect. However the company has seen more success than failures.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that Apple marketing strategy, has enabled
to company to gain much success in the industry. From the swot analysis, the strengths,
weakness, opportunity and threats of the company were identified. The company needs to focus
on the opportunities as there are potentially more opportunities which the company can exploit in
order to increase its profitability. From the PESTLE analysis it can be concluded that the launch
of its new product has a high possibility of success considering the opportunity identified from
external analysis.
References
Ansoff, H.I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A.O., Helm-Stevens, R. and Ansoff, R., 2019. Implanting
strategic management. Springer.
Cao, D., 2018. Adobe Systems Inc. Strategic Analysis and Recommendation.
Castro, R.B., 2016. Apple Inc.–A Marketing Success Story.
Dolata, U., 2017. Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft: Market concentration-
competition-innovation strategies (No. 2017-01). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Organisations-und
Innovationsforschung, SOI Discussion Paper.

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Feng, L., Govindan, K. and Li, C., 2017. Strategic planning: Design and coordination for dual-
recycling channel reverse supply chain considering consumer behavior. European Journal of
Operational Research, 260(2), pp.601-612.
Fozer, D., Sziraky, F.Z., Racz, L., Nagy, T., Tarjani, A.J., Toth, A.J., Haaz, E., Benko, T. and
Mizsey, P., 2017. Life cycle, PESTLE and multi-criteria decision analysis of CCS process
alternatives. Journal of cleaner production, 147, pp.75-85.
Jeong, B. and Yoon, J., 2017. Competitive intelligence analysis of augmented reality technology
using patent information. Sustainability, 9(4), p.497.
Lockamy III, A., 2017, July. An examination of external risk factors in Apple Inc.’s supply
chain. In Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal (Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 177-188). Taylor &
Francis.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Purkayastha, A. and Sharma, S., 2016. Gaining competitive advantage through the right business
model: analysis based on case studies. Journal of Strategy and Management, 9(2), pp.138-155.
Saleem, M.A., 2017. The impact of socio-economic factors on small business
success. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of society and space, 8(1).
Sarsby, A., 2016. SWOT analysis. Lulu. com.
SHTAL, T.V., BURIAK, M.M., AMIRBEKULY, Y., UKUBASSOVA, G.S., KASKIN, T.T.
and TOIBOLDINOVA, Z.G., 2018. Methods of analysis of the external environment of business
activities. Revista ESPACIOS, 39(12).

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Zinovieva, C.G., Kuznetsova, M.V., Dorfman, T.V., Limarev, P.V. and Limareva, J.A., 2016.
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