Industry Analysis and Marketing Strategy for Apple Inc. Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc.'s marketing strategies within the Australian market. It begins with an introduction and then delves into an industry analysis, highlighting market trends and the competitive landscape. A PESTLE analysis is conducted to assess the macro-environmental factors influencing Apple's operations. The report then explores Apple's major market segments, including primary and secondary markets, and discusses the involvement of the primary market in the organization's decision-making processes. A competition analysis is presented, followed by a perceptual map to visualize Apple's positioning. The report concludes with key findings and recommendations, supported by relevant references, offering a detailed understanding of Apple's marketing approach in Australia. The report also includes a segmentation analysis of the primary and secondary markets with the involvement of primary market in decision making, and a competition and perceptual map analysis.

Marketing and
Management
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Industry analysis and market trends........................................................................................3
3 Pestle analyses..........................................................................................................................4
4. Major market segments (STP)....................................................................................................5
4.1. Primary and secondary markets............................................................................................5
4.2 Involvement of primary market in organization’s decision making......................................6
5. Competition analysis...............................................................................................................7
6. Perceptual map.........................................................................................................................8
7. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
8. References..................................................................................................................................11
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1. INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process in which various tools and techniques are employed by an
organization to create awareness of its products and services among people in the market.
Nowadays, marketing is essential for businesses because it directly supports in enhancing the
volume of sales and profitability (Hannah, Parent, Pitt, & Berthon, 2014). However, it can be
critically argued that management of marketing practices is not an easy task for companies as
they are required to invest vast ranges of efforts and resources.
The current research is based on Apple Inc. which is an American based multinational
technology company. The organization was established in 1976 and at present, it is considered as
the leading brand in the world. This study explores industry market of Apple Inc. in Australia.
Furthermore, the primary and secondary market segment of the brand is also highlighted in the
present research.
2. Industry analysis and market trends
In a market such as Australia, the company is operating with the name of Apple Pty and
is headquartered in Sydney (IBIS World, 2016). The main products and services offered by the
organization in Australia include software’s, mobile phones, consumer electronics, personal
computers, and portable media devices. The brand has also established its retail stores in areas
such as Western Australia, New South Wales, Canberra, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland,
etc. The industry in which Apple Inc. is operating is consumer electronic industry.
It can be expressed that at present, the consumer electronic market of Australia is at
declining stage. In addition to this, it has become very challenging for the organizations to
maintain the interest of people within the industry (Kane, Palmer, Phillips, Kiron, & Buckley,
2015). The demand for products and services offered by leading brands is declining, and these
companies are facing issues regarding increasing their volume of sales and profitability in
Australia (EuroMonitor International, 2016). In the consumer electronics industry of Australia,
Apple Inc. is facing intense competition from the brands such as Samsung Electronics Australia
Pty Ltd, Lenovo Pty Ltd, and Hewlett-Packard Australia Pty Ltd, etc.
The Australian consumer electronic industry has reached stages such as maturity and
saturation. It means that the competition among existing market players in the sector is highly
intense. Further, it is now required by brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Lenovo to reduce the
price of their products and services to attract more customers (Strauss, 2016). The industry is
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also getting affected by the Free Trade Agreement between China and Australia. It can be stated
that the agreement has resulted in the price war as many Chinese products offering same features
at low prices have entered the market.
On the contrary, the internet retailing has continued to grow despite the fact that the
overall growth rate of the industry is declining. To sustain in the marketplace, it is required by
Apple Inc. to develop products and services which are highly innovative. The rationale behind
this is that innovation will support the brand in carrying out differentiation. In addition to this,
innovative products will also result in providing the competitive advantage to the selected
business enterprise (Babin & Zikmund, 2015). However, it can be critically argued that even on
the stage of the intense competition, some companies have witnessed positive growth in the
consumer electronic market of Australia. For example, brand such as Apple and Cannon has
acquired adequate growth rate in the year 2016.
On the other side of this, the tablet market in the country has experienced the decline in
the demand and thus, sales and revenues of many companies have been affected by the same.
The net sales of Apple Inc. have declined, but the brand can achieve adequate growth by selling
ample volume of its expensive Smartphone (West, Ford, & Ibrahim, 2015). The sales of brands
such as Philips was almost constant in the industry and at the same time companies such as Sony
corporation has managed to achieve 5% increase in its sales volume.
3 Pestle analyses
It can be expressed that the operations and business practices of companies in consumer
electronic market are directly affected by macro environment factors existing in the country. At
the time of carrying out its activities, a business such as Apple Inc. is influenced by political
factors such as changing government policies and tax rates (Scott, 2015). At present, the political
environment of Australia is stable and therefore, businesses can carry out a smooth flow of all
their operations. Further, political agreements such as Free Trade Agreement between China and
Australia have also positively affected the operations of Apple.
In the first quarter of 2017, the economy has expanded by 0.3%, and in the year 2016, the
economy has grown by 2.5% which is quite good (FocusEconomics, 2017). It can be expressed
that adequate economic growth has somehow helped businesses in the consumer electronics
industry to maintain their sales and profitability. However, social factors have adversely affected
the demand for products and services offered by the companies. Nowadays, consumers in the
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industry are not much interested in buying the existing products offered by companies in
Australia, and they want something new and innovative. The result of this is that many
businesses are not able to attain the expected growth rate and at the same time the demand also
declined.
Macro environmental factors such as technology have positively affected the entire
industry. The adaption of new and upgraded technology has helped businesses in the industry to
serve customers with more innovative and satisfactory products (Blakeman, 2014). On the other
hand, the organization's practices and policies are also affected by factors such as legal. It is
required by companies to follow all the rules and regulations developed by Australia strictly.
Furthermore, businesses are also restricted to make use of unfair practices and carry out war
price within the industry. At the time of conducting operations in the industry, it is also required
by organizations to ensure that activities do not adversely affect the environment. The
government and other regulatory authorities are stringent and force businesses to adopt
sustainable practices. The impact of this is that organization such as the Apple Inc. is required to
carry out certain changes in its existing practices, and this has resulted in increasing the overall
operational cost (Montgomerie & Roscoe, 2013).
4. MAJOR MARKET SEGMENTS (STP)
The market for businesses can be broadly classified into two broad categories which are
business markets and consumers markets. Further, business markets consist of groups and
persons who purchase products and services from companies with an objective to resale them or
to produce other products (Chaston, 2015). On the other side of this, consumer markets consist of
people and groups who purchase the goods, services for carrying out the ultimate consumption of
the same. Market segmentation can be termed as the process of dividing the entire market into
different subsets of the customer with similar demand, needs, and characteristics.
4.1. Primary and secondary markets
In the context of Apple Inc., it can be asserted that the brand has two different market
segments which are primary and secondary. The major market segment includes individuals and
parties which purchase the products and services for their end consumers. On the other hand, the
secondary market segment of Apple Inc. includes retailers and persons who buy the goods and
services from the company and resale the same to end users. The process of market segmentation
is carried out by different segmentation variables (Parente & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2014).
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The key variable includes demographic, psychographic, behavioural and geographical variables.
Here, Apple is using demographic variables for carrying out segmentation of its market in
Australia. The company has divided its primary market by demographic variable which is
income level. Further, it has targeted people who fall into the category of middle and higher
income group. Individuals who seek for maintaining a luxurious lifestyle is mainly aimed at the
selected business enterprise.
Working professionals and teenagers are also included in the target market for Apple, and
the brand offers products such as I phone, Mac book, and tablets to these customers (Kumar,
Townsend, & Vorhies, 2015). The company has also carried out geographic segmentation of its
market, and urban areas of the country are mainly targeted by Apple Inc. Regarding secondary
target market, the brand focuses on targeting retail stores, shops operating at small, medium and
large scale. These businesses buy products from Apple and resale them by keeping some profit
margin.
4.2 Involvement of primary market in organization’s decision making
It can be expressed that the primary market for Apple plays a crucial role in the overall
decision making. In the present scenario, the competition among businesses operating in the
consumer electronics industry of Australia has become highly intense. The result of this is that
companies are required to carry out changes in their existing products and services offering at
regular intervals. Apart from this, decisions regarding modifications in existing business strategy
and marketing tactics are also required to be made by corporations.
At the time of making decisions, it is necessary for Apple Inc. to understand the entire
decision-making process of people in the country. The consumer buying decision process
includes five major stages which are problem recognition, information search, evaluation of
alternatives, purchase and post purchase behaviour (Hao, Guo, & Easley, 2015). All these steps
are required to be taken into consideration by the organization during the process of decision
making. For example, it is necessary to develop products and services by identifying the
changing demand of people in the Australian market. In addition to this, the business is also
required to carry out aggressive marketing of its products and services to ensure that Apple’s
products are displayed at the top when an individual enters the stage of information search to
satisfy the identified demand (Hennessy, Hennessy, Najjar, & Najjar, 2017).
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At the time of evaluation of alternatives also, the company is required to make sure that
its products are better regarding quality and durability in comparison with the products offered
by other market players. Even in the stage such as post purchase behaviour, the organization
needs to ensure that satisfactory after sale services are available to the customers. The rationale
behind this is that such services will contribute to enhancing the degree of customer loyalty and
repeat purchase.
The primary market segment provides a lot in the overall decision-making process of the
selected business. Apple Inc. carries out intense market research to identify the changing demand
and need of people in the market (Newton & Ojo, 2017). Based on the information collected
through these investigations, the company makes decisions with regards to the development of
new product or modification in the existing ones. In addition to this, the primary market segment
of Apple also plays vital role in making decisions linked with the implementation of various
marketing tools, techniques, and strategies.
It can be asserted that decision linked with the development of marketing mix in
Australia is also affected a lot by changing demand and needs of primary segment. Thus, the
mentioned-above information indicates that there is the high degree of involvement of primary
sector in the process of Apple’s decision making (Kopp & Langenderfer, 2014). For example,
the process of decision making is influenced by the views and feedback provided by the
customer of Apple Inc.
5. Competition analysis
At present, the competition within consumer electronic industry is highly intense, and this
has created obstacles for companies regarding achieving higher sales and profitability. It can be
stated that Apple Inc. is facing intense competition from brands such as Samsung in its mobile
phone segment (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). The main strength of Samsung is that it is
considered as one of the most successful electronic manufacturers in the world. The brand
operates with a diversified range of products which include Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), smart
phones, mobile phones, television sets, etc.
On the other side of this, the key strength of Apple Inc. is its advertisement and
marketing capabilities. It has helped the brand to create more and more awareness among people
in the market. Powerful and efficient ad practices have also supported Apple Inc. in getting the
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competitive advantage over other market players. A comparison between Apple and its
competitor key strength and weakness is mentioned below as:
Company Strength Weaknesses
Apple Inc  Advertisement
capability
 Innovative products
 Meeting expectation of
customers
 Dependency of few products
Samsung  Impressive research
and design
capabilities
 The most
successful
electronic
manufacturer
 Ineffective marketing as
compared to Apple Inc.
 Limited growth in market
such as Europe and USA
After carrying out the comparison between Apple Inc. and its key competitor, it can be
stated that the biggest weakness of Apple lies in its dependency on few products. On the other
hand, the weakness of Samsung is that its marketing practices are not as effective as Apple. This
weakness has created various obstacles for Samsung regarding stealing the market share from
Apple Inc (Gupta & Prinzinger, 2013). The innovative products offered by Apple have also
supported the company in getting the competitive advantage over other players operating in the
market. On the contrary, an impressive research and design capability have helped the
organization to attract more and more customers within the industry.
6. Perceptual map
Positioning map highlights how a particular business enterprise has positioned itself in
the marketplace as compared to key competitors.
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Figure 1Positioning Map - Apple Inc.
From the positioning mentioned above map, it is clear that Apple Inc. has positioned
itself as a brand which offers high quality of products and services at a great price. The company
focuses a lot on areas such as innovation. Furthermore, it also believes that changing the lives of
people in the society through its innovative products and services (Dalgic & Leeuw, 2015). Apart
from this, sufficient quality parameters have been set by the brand to ensure that individuals in
the market are being delivered with the most prominent quality of products and services. The
result of this is that even if the company has adopted a high price strategy, it has been the success
in attracting a large number of customers (Newton & Ojo, 2017). Samsung which is considered
as the main competitor of Apple also falls in the same category where it is delivering high-
quality products at high prices. The mentioned-above positioning map reflects that LG is offering
low-quality products at low prices.
7. CONCLUSION
From the above carried out research report, it can be concluded that Apple Inc. has
witnessed adequate growth in Australia market despite the declining consumer electronic
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industry. Furthermore, it can be inferred that factor such as political, economic and technological
has supported Apple Inc. in its long term growth and development. On the other side of this, the
figure of sales and profitability has been affected due to changing demand and needs of people in
the Australian market. The primary market of Apple includes individuals and groups who buy
apple for their consumption, and the secondary market includes individuals or parties who
purchase Apple’s products for reselling purpose. It can be inferred that Apple has positioned
itself as a brand which offers high quality of goods and services at high prices. Further, the
company is facing intense competition from market players such as Samsung, and the high
degree of competition has adversely affected the growth rate of Apple Inc.
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