Comprehensive Marketing Report: Apple's Strategies and Future Plans

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple's marketing practices. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction to Apple, detailing its history, product line, and market position. The report then delves into a marketing environment analysis using the PESTLE framework, examining political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting Apple. A SWOT analysis is also included, outlining Apple's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report further explores Apple's new product launch—the electric car—including its target market segmentation and marketing strategies, such as pricing skimming and guerrilla marketing. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and a list of references.

Marketing practice

Marketing practice 1
Executive summary
The marketing practice is the procedure accountable for classifying, forestalling and
sustaining customer necessities profitably. The marketing is all about the action or business
of buying, selling and promoting products and services comprising the act of advertising,
market research, and offering products to the end customers. The marketing has great role in
building relationships with the customers by undertaking several promotional activities. The
aim behind marketing is to match the products and services of the organization to the end-
users who require them. This report includes the marketing of Apple which is globe’s
recognized electronic brand. Apple designs, advances and trades customer electronics,
computer software, and online services. The report states the marketing environmental
analysis of Apple in the form of the Pestle analysis. The SWOT analysis has been also
described in the report along with the new product launch which is electric car. The target
market has been also defined in the report. The marketing strategy has been discussed in the
report for the new product launch.

Marketing practice 2
Contents
Executive summary...............................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Marketing environment analysis............................................................................................................3
SWOT...................................................................................................................................................5
New product and target market..............................................................................................................6
Marketing strategy.................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9

Marketing practice 3
Introduction
This report includes the marketing practices of Apple. Apple is one of the tops and successful
brands of the domain. Apple offers robust technology products along with exceptional
software services. The company was established by Steve Jobs and is headquartered in
California. Apple launched its first product in 1976 which is Apple 1 computer. The company
has grown exponentially in the forms of products and services. Apple is having limited
product line in the form of Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, Music, iPad, TV, and music. The
company also designs proprietary software and iOS operating system in order to gratify all
the devices. Apple has been ranked fourth on the Fortune 500 list.
Apple has been identified as the globe’s largest IT Company in stand of the income, major
technology company in stand of the total assets and largest phone producer with 123,000
employees. Apple is having all the resources required to execute basic applications which
maximize productivity. This report includes the product expansion of Apple. The company
has decided to enter the automobile industry. Apple will add electric car in its product
portfolio (Kirshner, Levin, and Nediak, 2017). Apple can grab new opportunities in the
market by producing electric cars. The cars will be launched in different models. The
company will target the higher income segment that is ready to pay any amount when it
comes to the premium products and services. These cars will be fuel efficient along with the
advanced features.
Marketing environment analysis
Apple has limited class product line designed with innovative technology. The marketing
environment analysis of Apple is possible through the Pestle analysis.
Political factors: The trade war of China and the US has created political issue to Apple as it
affects performance of the company and the market portion in the Chinese market. The US
tariffs have been also enlarged on Chinese imports into the US. Therefore Apple can face
hefty taxes from the Chinese government. It can even distress demand of the Apple products
from the Chinese customers. On the other side, Apple is a leading taxpayer in the world and
these political issues affect the financial performance of the organization (Park, 2015). Other
than this, the sales and supply chain of Apple is affected by the political stability and unrest
in the host nations.

Marketing practice 4
Economic factors: The economic exterior factors states to both positive and negative effects
which can influence the business atmosphere and performance of Apple. The economic
factors concern inflation, economic growth, deflation, unemployment rate, and wage policies.
The countries having economic constancy create opportunity for Apple to conduct operations.
Apple can expand business in such nations. The products and profitability of Apple are
affected by the increased labor cost (Khan, Alam, and Alam, 2015). The strong US dollar can
adversely affect exchange rate which makes it more challenging for Apple to conduct
business operations in the nations like India, China, and Pakistan.
Social factors: The increasing popularity of Apple products has created an opportunity in the
market. Apple offers easy to use products along with the prestige. The increasing social
media trend has created both opportunities and encounters for Apple. Apple is having close
link with the nations like China and several customers from Europe and North America can
feel affronted. If the tension arises between China and US then it can distress the brand image
of Apple. Additional social factor identified is urbanization trends in China and India can be
more favorable for brands like Apple. Africa has arisen as a new member where spending of
the customers is growing (Ashley and Tuten, 2015).
Technological factors: Apple is having several opponents who are offering advanced
technological products of the higher value at the nominal prices. It adversely affects the brand
image and financial performance of Apple. Cloud computing is identified to be another
technological impact and has become quite popular currently. Apple has attained a great
opportunity to exploit by providing clout connected devices and applications. The apps
market is also growing nowadays and created an opportunity for Apple (Sharma, Davcik, and
Pillai, 2016). So the company expands it to the app store. Another opportunity identified by
Apple is the trend of the assimilating several devices. The company can exploit the
opportunity by offering products which can be effortlessly connected devices and platforms.
Legal factors: The legal factors create a threat to Apple. The compliance is mandatory and the
company can surface lawsuit and fines which can lead to the bad brand image. Another
concern of the technology for Apple is privacy issues. The legal factors can create more
challenges for the products dealt by the company as it can leak the private information. The
company has strict telecommunication guideline which is an frightening threat. Apple has
planned to establish new product which is electric car. This way company will enter into the

Marketing practice 5
automobile industry. It can increase regulations to the company along with the litigation
costs.
Environmental factors: Apple produces most of its produces in China. Pollution and
environmental side effects are a pronounced concern for China which influences to the
producing costs and regulations. The company has started to work for the innovative
technology solution by offering energy-efficient products such as batteries, processor and
equipment with less heat release. Apple has even initiated with the business sustainability
program which will enable disposition and recycling nonworking electric devices. The supply
chain of the company can be affected due to climate change caused by global warming.
Apple has relied on the huge internet infrastructure and data center which can cause increase
in the electricity cost in the coming years (Khundyz, 2019).
SWOT
Strengths
Innovative products: Innovative products are the main strengths of Apple. The company has
offered hit products on a regular basis, as originally it came with the Macbook, then iPod,
iPhone, Ipad, and I watch.
Brand equity: Apple has been posited as 1 and appreciated brand among all the companies.
The company has naturally attained leadership position which makes its brand equity.
Design and technology: The design and technology used by Apple makes it the most fantastic
brand. The company has always followed in its product design. The machine has been
empowered to offer ultimate performance (Dissanayake, and Amarasuriya, 2015).
Weaknesses
Incompatibility: The key issue faced by Apple is that its several products are mismatched
with 3rd party software and accessories. When a customer buys the products of Apple then it
has to continue with Apple only (Trent and Mohr, 2017).
Narrow portfolio: Apple is having 8-9 products in its portfolio whereas the rivalries like
Google and Microsoft have a great number of products in its portfolio (Muroyiwa, Abratt,
and Mingione, 2017).
Opportunities

Marketing practice 6
Cars: Apple has established itself globally and now has realized opportunity to launch Apple
car. Like other products of Apple, great things can be anticipated from the Apple cars.
Technology advancement: technology advancement is an opportunity for Apple in the
technology industry. The company can make use of the technology in the advancement of the
iPhones, MacBook’s and Iwatches (Brexendorf, Bayus, and Keller, 2015).
Threats
Market diffusion in the smartphones: Apple faces the major threat as the market is penetrated
by other brands in the segment of smartphone. Android has attained 47.5% market share
whereas the iPhone is having 42% of the market share.
Laptop competition: There is severe competition in the segment of laptops. There are several
attractive models which have been introduced by Dell so as Sony and Lenovo.
New product and target market
Apple has planned to launch electric cars as a new product category. For the production of
cars, Apple will hire employees from renowned companies like Mercedes, BMW, General
Motors, Ford and more. The cars will be enabled with an autonomous driving system as a
core technology.
Apple will target on the basis of the demographic division. Apple will aim the people above
the age of 35 and the persons belonging to the higher income group. There will be even three
different versions with different price variations and features (Faith, and Agwu, 2018). An
appropriate segmentation approach will be used by Apple to segment market in an innovative
manner. The company will focus on the requirements of several customers. On the basis of
the gender, Apple will recognize the females looking in compact cars and what majors look
in a car (Nguyen, Zhang, and Calantone, 2018). This way Apple can identify the
requirements of the several income groups. It will assist Apple in comprehending the market,
and customer requirements. Apple will attract customers by adopting an operative
differentiation and positioning strategy. The company will introduce cars in the new ways
and enabled with the advanced features as compared to the existing models of the competitors
like Toyota, Mercedes, BMW and more. The females like unique colors and simple features

Marketing practice 7
so Apple will differentiate its model with unique colors and eminent design in order to appeal
more of the female customers (Zhang, Benyoucef, and Zhao, 2016). When it comes to the
differentiation, Apple will work in concern to the positioning in a different way. The electric
cars to be launched by Apple will be fuel-efficient with different variations. The company
will be able to position itself with the unique selling proposition (USP) for its different
versions (Gardere, Sharir, and Maman, 2018).
Marketing strategy
The marketing strategy is a procedure which comprises deliberately investigating
environmental, modest and business factors which power to the business units and
forecasting future needs in the business zones of the interest of the comapny. Apple will
make use of the pricing skimming strategy. The purpose of this strategy is to exploit sales and
accomplish extensive market share. According to this strategy, Apple will set high initial
price for the product first then lower the price over time. This strategy will be used to recover
the cost of development. There are enough customers in the market who are enthusiastic to
buy the products of Apple at higher prices (Prasad, Venkatesh, and Mahajan, 2015). The
higher prices decided by the company will represent sign of the high quality of the cars.
Apple will sell its cars in the high end of the price spectrum. This strategy will cater to
customers who are fewer prices sensitive.
Another marketing strategy to be used by Apple will be a guerrilla strategy. This strategy will
make use of the unconventional techniques to attract attention of the customers. The guerrilla
marketing strategy is a fairly innovative marketing technique. The incorporation of Apple’s
guerrilla will outline the reason to appeal the younger crowd which is young adults. The
company will conduct this strategy by employing advertisements on the objects which are
used every day like food or drink packaging. The alternative methods will also be used by the
company like placing advertisements in the locations where people travel regularly
(Heracleous and Papachroni, 2016).
Apple will even use the social media marketing strategy as a contemporary strategy in the
marketplace and is deliberated to be quite effective marketing strategy. Apple can make the
most use of social media marketing strategy. The social media marketing strategy will
comprise web technologies like blogging, social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn and
media sharing sites. Apple will tie-up with the digital marketing organizations in order to

Marketing practice 8
promote new product (car). It will assist features of car as fuel-saving advice. The company
will be able to produce positive anticipation among the community’s online users (Zhang,
2017). Apple will also create its blogging site for car production. The traffic can be increased
on the blogging site by offering sufficient information. It will also assist company to reach
customers. The additional tool to be used by Apple over the social media will be the
incorporation of the online newsroom with social media outlets like Twitter and YouTube. It
will even enable company to make use of the marketing technology integration to enable web
community to access the images, videos and the campaigns linked with the company (Hung,
et al. 2018).
The trade show marketing strategy will also be included in the marketing strategies of Apple.
This strategy is used by all the established and successful organizations. Trade show
marketing strategy comprises exhibiting products of the company (Shams, Alpert, and
Brown, 2015). The trade shows comprise containing the gathering and distribution of the
information. Apple will make use of this strategy for exhibiting the new car production.
Conclusion
Apple has established itself in the global market through its innovative product portfolio.
Now the company has decided to add electric cars to its product category. The trend of
electric cars is increasing nowadays. People are keen to purchase the new offerings of Apple.
The company will offer features to keep in mind the target segment. The strength and
opportunities of Apple are assisting in the new product launch. The strengths like Innovative
products, brand equity, design, and technology represent growth aspects to the new product
launch (Jiang, et al. 2018). The company has even attained opportunities in the form of
technology advancement and production of cars.
Apple can easily capture the people above the age of 35 and the persons belonging to the
higher income group. The goodwill of Apple is enough to appeal the customers. The
operative differentiation and positioning strategy will be further used to attract customers. For
the promotion of the new product segment, Apple will make use of the marketing strategies
like pricing skimming strategy, guerrilla strategy, social media marketing strategy, and trade
show marketing strategy. The price skimming strategy will be used to cater customers who
are fewer prices sensitive and capable to pay higher prices. Whereas social media marketing
strategies will be used to produce positive anticipation among the community’s online users.

Marketing practice 9

Marketing practice 10
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Marketing practice 11
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