(Solution) Introduction to Marketing : Assignment

Introduction to Marketing:
Assessment 2

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Critically evaluate organisation and its strategic marketing approach compared to its
competitors in the market.............................................................................................................3
TASK 2 ..........................................................................................................................................6
New or innovative idea for improving marketing approach........................................................6
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
.........................................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the management process by which company can move their products and
services from the concept to the customers. It involve the coordination of four elements these are
known as 4P's of marketing such as: product, price, place and promotional strategies1. Below
mention report is based on Apple Inc. which is an American multinational technology
organisation founded in 1976. Along with this, explanation of its competitors Samsung is also
mention. This assignment is going to explain marketing strategy used by Apple Inc. and their
competitor as well as why they are using it. In the end, innovative ideas for both the organisation
is also given.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Critically evaluate organisation and its strategic marketing approach compared to its competitors
in the market
Overview of company – Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company
and it is founded in 1976 on 1st April. Headquarters of the respective organisation in 1 Apple
Park Way, Cupertino, California, U.S. As well as they design, develop and sells computer
software, consumer electronics and online services2. Company sell both hardware and software
products in which, hardware involves Apple TV, Mac, iPad, iPhone, HomePod and so on.
Whereas, software includes macOS, Safari web browser, iLife, iOS and iWork. Moreover,
products and services offering by the company is at worldwide level and there are approx. 500
retail stores. Founder of Apple Inc. are Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Samsung
is One of the competitor of Apple Inc. Respective organisation and its competitor Samsung
comes under the consumer electronic industry. Goods included are smartphones, computers,
televisions, video game consoles, automotive technology, and many other home products as well
as emerging product categories such as wearables and 3D printers. Apart from this, respective
1 Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge
2 Chandon, J.L., Laurent, G. and Valette-Florence, P., 2016. Pursuing the concept of
luxury: Introduction to the JBR Special Issue on “Luxury Marketing from Tradition to
Innovation”. Journal of Business Research. 69(1). pp,299-303.

organisation is rapidly changing and it is highly competitive in nature as well as influenced by
technological developments.
Samsung is a South Korean multinational Conglomerate industry organisation and it is
founded in 1938 on 1st march. Headquarter of respective organisation in 40th floor Samsung
Electronic building, 11, Seocho-daero 74-gil, Seocho district, Seoul, South Korea. Products
serving by them at worldwide level are electronic components, telecommunication equipment’s,
home appliances, automotive and several others. Whereas, services offering by them are
advertising, construction, entertainment, financial services, hospitality, medical and health care
services etc.
Marketing strategies - It is a business overall game plan which they used for reaching
to people and making them customer of their product and services3. Basically , it inform about
the marketing plan of the company which lays about the types and schedule of the marketing
activity. It was done in the business to make customer aware about the features ,product
specification and benefits. Apple Inc. and its competitors Samsung both are implementing
marketing strategy apple is applying product differentiation and premium pricing whereas,
Samsung is applying economy pricing strategy. For grabbing or attracting customers there is
requirement of proper marketing strategy.
Marketing strategy of Apple - Apple used product differentiation and premium
pricing marketing strategy in order to attract new customer and retain old customer. The high
price or premium price help the company to promote and develop a trust among the loyal
customer. An Apple product is positioned as superior over its competitors by the help of pricing
strategy4. There are some customers in the market who believe that expensive product gave
exceptional quality on the basis of this thought respective organisation adopt pricing marketing
strategy. They set their product at high price as compare to its rival to create distinct image in the
mind of the customer. Apple provides the different product compare to other companies in
market area. It is the best marketing strategy in the industry as the customer wants to purchase
unique features as well as quality products when they are paying high price. Due to this they
3 Charter, M., 2017. Greener marketing: A responsible approach to business. Routledge.
4 Fine, S.H., 2017. Introduction to social marketing. In Marketing the Public Sector (pp.
1-12). Routledge.

stick to the apple brand and increase their market share and the sale. By considering the above
fact concerned organisation able to create a large pool of loyal customer by using the product
differentiation strategy5. This product portfolio of the respective company able to enhance their
customer base. For example : An iPod or an iPhone is incomplete without an iTunes or the store
app. The development and growth of unique commodity and services are major part of the
marketing strategy of Apple.
Marketing strategy of Samsung – pricing strategy is that which taken several segments
into account such ability of paying, competitors action, market condition, input cost and many
more. There are various pricing strategies such as premium, penetration, economy and
skimming. Samsung apply economic pricing market strategy and it is one of the competitors of
respective organisation is Samsung and they also use marketing strategies for promoting goods
and services in the market area6. Pricing strategy is used by the respective organisation and it is
one of the effective strategies ever created because it assist a cost-driven enterprise to modify its
structure and become an authority manufacturer. Samsung is using pricing strategy for providing
unique features services in their products by considering affordable cost.
Reason of chosen marketing strategy - Apple is using product differentiation and
premium pricing strategy because it helps them in creating different image in market area.
Features offered by the respective company are unique which result in grabbing customer’s
attention and influence them to purchasing it. Moreover, premium pricing is the marketing
strategy which automatically shows quality and uniqueness of Apple products in market area.
Whereas, Samsung is using pricing strategy because it helps in increasing sales and profitability.
Every customer can't afford expensive products this is taken as advantage by the respective
organisation. Then started offering goods with unique features in affordable price which result in
attracting large number of customers7. Good features with affordable price assist in gaining
5 Homburg, C. and et.al., 2015. The loss of the marketing department’s influence: is it
really happening? And why worry?. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
43(1). pp,1-13.
6 Mayer, J., Borges, P.V. and Simske, S.J., 2018. Introduction. In Fundamentals and
Applications of Hardcopy Communication (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham.
7 Sargeant, A. and MACQUILLIN, I., 2016. Marketing for nonprofit organisations. In
The Marketing Book (pp. 555-576). Routledge.

loyalty of customers at huge level. At the time of recession economy pricing sees more sales in
the market area.
Apple Inc. is the wealthy and most influencing technology organisation in the world from
smartphones to the software computers. Respective company is the innovative powerhouse
which will contribute to dominate tech as well as media for the upcoming years8. Since 2001,
stock price of Apple has grow by 15000% it results in making worth to the enterprise $1 trillion.
They have $285.1 billion into their cash reserves.
(Source: Apple’s Stock Value, 2018)
Stock value of respective organisation grow tremendously since Apple get public in
1980. price of shares truly took off in 2001 which was valued at $1.97 per share and in 2018, it is
$207.39 per share.
Samsung sale increase by 37.71 in 2017 because in 2016 it was 201.87 trillion KRW and
in 2017 239.58 trillion KR9. Moreover, estimated brand value of the respective administration is
$45.5 billion.
8 Apple’s Stock Value, 2018.[Online].Available
Through<http://mediakix.com/2018/07/apple-statistics/#gs.=5xLa7o>
9 Samsung statistical and facts, 2018.[Online].Available
Through<https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/samsung-statistics/>
Illustration 1: Apple's Stock Value

Swot analysis of Apple:
 Strengths: The key strengths of the apple that make it superior brand . The company is
efficient to introduce profitable innovative products due to its brand image. The strong
pricing strategy of the apple,which enables it in high profit margin. Moreover to
competitive growth strategy involves the rapid innovation ,which enables to gain
competitive advantage.
 Weaknesses: Weaknesses are internal factors that are hindrances in the business growth.
Apple has the limited distribution network because it selects only few distributors .
Another aspect is company product categorised into high premium prices its increase the
dependence of sales on high end markets.
 Opportunities: opportunities are the internal factors that based on environmental factors.
The SWOT focuses on the need for the change in distribution network . The company
has the opportunity to increase its sales volume through aggressive marketing. The other
opportunity is to explore the other product lines although it launch its Apple watches to
expand the market. Apple is the well known brand name so the demand of its products is
always high.
 Threats: Threats are external factors that reduce the financial capabilities of the company
.the foremost threat is fierce competition eg. Samsung also brings innovative products. It
is obligatory to maintain strong fundamentals for maintaining competitive advantage. The
another threat faces imitation. Local firms imitates the features and designs. In addition to
the high labour cost impacts the revenue of the organisation.
TASK 2
New or innovative idea for improving marketing approach
Innovation – It is the process of translating an invention as well as idea into products and
services which creates value. In simple words, innovation is defined as an new ideas or though
for developing something new that will satisfy needs and wants of customers10. Innovation is
necessary for every organisation because with the old goods and services customer get bored
after sometime they want new. There are several approaches of innovation such as: New
10 Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.

customer channel, customer relationships, new advertising/branding opportunity, product
development, product launch and integrated marketing campaign. Apple inc. may implement
innovation through product development. Description of this are as follows :-
Product development – Apple has strong and one of the most powerful design process
with the business orientation. The company has a simple concept to allow the creation of
incredible product. It gives the freedom to the designer and ensure that the product they produce
that fulfil the vision of the company. The design team work on the new product they cut all the
previous product of apple so that they fully focused toward the new one and it may help to
achieve the new desire of customer and existing customer as well to know about the product.
Apple executive team hold the meeting on every Monday so that they reviewing the entire
product demand and stage of producing and what were the changes they need. When production
were complete, EPM will take custody of some of the trial invent and then take them back to the
headquarter of APPLE. This is very costly approach but it’s one of the reason that apple has a
reputation for quality base product11. For example, there are three fresh iPhones are organised the
style. There will be two iPhones with advanced gradual light releasing diode displays, and a
lower-cost ideal with a cheaper LCD (liquid crystal display).
These three iPhones are said to come equipped with Apple's A12 processor, but the two
OLED replicas will apparently have dual-lens cameras while the LCD model will have just a
single-lens camera. It's clear that with Apple's upcoming iPhones, it's trying to enhance its
product subdivision policy. The starting point iPhone in this case must be a solid device with
best-in-class with its internal functions and a modern design. But for users ready to pay for
advanced cameras, better displays, and possibly a more luxurious production, each of the two
OLED iPhones will do the trick. Product differenciation and premium pricing is the marketing
strtegy of apple facing several challenges as price of existing products in market get reduce and
premium pricing new product is not easily expectable by every type of customers these are the
major issues facing by Apple Inc.. For overcoming with these major issues respectrive
organisation implement some innovation strtaegy i.e., product development and Apple Inc.
Started coming in market with developed product for istance, after iPhone 6 they come with
some innovative product iPhone 6s in the market-area. Apart from this, while using product
11 Van Den Berg, L. and Braun, E., 2017. Sports and city marketing in European cities.
Routledge.

development innovation strtaegy Apple Inc. Is decresaing their existing products price in the
market area which is opportunity cost for them12. PESTLE Analysis of APPLE:
 Political factor: The political model of the Apple denotes the influence of organizations,
such as government,on business. The political impacts are favourable for Apple. Positive
conditions provide the free trade especially with developing countries. Free trade enhance
the opportunity to distribute the products in the whole world. On the other hand , Apple
face has minimal issues in the landscape of developed countries.
 Economic factor: The aspect of Pestel model indicates market and industry conditions
that impacts firms. The economic stability of most developed countries increase the
opportunity for the Apple to expand the market share in worldwide. And on the other
hand better economic conditions of the global economy means higher purchasing power
of the consumers are the important aspect.
 Social factor: The social aspect of Apple is the rising use of mobile increase the sale of
the brand and simultaneously increasing trend of the social media and enchanted towards
the brand .
 Technological factor : The technical factors that affects the market share is cloud
computing that offers the cloud friendly apps and webs. The other advantage is
technological integration of the devices that connects the devices. In addition to the rising
trend of growing app market that enables to open the large stores and innovation.
 Environmental factors: The environmental factors consist of the business stability trend
includes the recycle the products . In addition company solve the problems related to
batteries, improve processor efficiency by reduce heat.
 Legal factors: In legal factor today the telecommunication industry suffer from the
privacy issues that become the both opportunity and threat because it improves the
quality of the product. On the other hand the regulations of telecommunication hinders
the growth.
12 Verhoef, P.C., Kannan, P.K. and Inman, J.J., 2015. From multi-channel retailing to
omni-channel retailing: introduction to the special issue on multi-channel
retailing. Journal of retailing. 91(2). pp,174-181.

RECOMMENDATION After going through the above mention assignment it
has been recommended that, company should have implement proper
marketing strategy so that their customers get satisfy as well as result in
increasing sales. Because it is the only tool through which Apple Inc. and
Samsung can remain in touch with their customers and provide them
services. Apart from this, innovation or smoothing new is necessary as
Apple always come in market with developed product which is grapping
customers. Moreover, their premium pricing shows brand vale,
uniqueness and quality of offerings. Whereas, Samsung comes in the
market with new model and latest features at economy price which is
affordable for each and every member. Although, while choosing one
innovative idea companies are losing anther which is opportunity cost
form them.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Chandon, J.L., Laurent, G. and Valette-Florence, P., 2016. Pursuing the concept of luxury:
Introduction to the JBR Special Issue on “Luxury Marketing from Tradition to
Innovation”. Journal of Business Research. 69(1). pp,299-303.
Charter, M., 2017. Greener marketing: A responsible approach to business. Routledge.
Fine, S.H., 2017. Introduction to social marketing. In Marketing the Public Sector (pp. 1-12).
Routledge.
Homburg, C. and et.al., 2015. The loss of the marketing department’s influence: is it really
happening? And why worry?. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 43(1).
pp,1-13.
Mayer, J., Borges, P.V. and Simske, S.J., 2018. Introduction. In Fundamentals and Applications
of Hardcopy Communication (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham.
Sargeant, A. and MACQUILLIN, I., 2016. Marketing for nonprofit organisations. In The
Marketing Book (pp. 555-576). Routledge.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
Van Den Berg, L. and Braun, E., 2017. Sports and city marketing in European cities. Routledge.
Verhoef, P.C., Kannan, P.K. and Inman, J.J., 2015. From multi-channel retailing to omni-
channel retailing: introduction to the special issue on multi-channel retailing. Journal of
retailing. 91(2). pp,174-181.
Online
Apple’s Stock Value, 2018.[Online].Available Through<http://mediakix.com/2018/07/apple-
statistics/#gs.=5xLa7o>
Samsung statistical and facts, 2018.[Online].Available
Through<https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/samsung-statistics/>