BS102 Marketing Assignment: Apple Inc. Market Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive market analysis of Apple Inc. within the Australian market. It begins with an introduction highlighting Apple's global success and its expansion into Australia, where it holds a significant market share. The report then delves into a macro-environmental analysis using the PESTLE framework, evaluating political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. A micro-environmental analysis, utilizing Porter's five forces, assesses competitive rivalry, buyer and supplier power, and the threat of substitution and new entrants. The report further examines Apple's customer segmentation, including geographic, demographic, and psychographic profiles. It identifies key challenges such as aggressive competition and high labor costs, while also highlighting opportunities like brand reputation and innovativeness. The report concludes with a market positioning analysis and emphasizes the importance of innovation and quality for Apple's continued success in the Australian market. The report is supported by references and appendices containing figures and data related to the analysis.

Running Head: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING
FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Marketing environment analysis......................................................................................................2
Macro environment analysis........................................................................................................2
Micro environment analysis........................................................................................................4
Customer segmentation...................................................................................................................5
Geographic...................................................................................................................................5
Demographic................................................................................................................................5
Psychographic..............................................................................................................................6
Challenges and opportunities...........................................................................................................6
Challenges....................................................................................................................................6
Opportunities...............................................................................................................................7
Market positioning...........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10
Appendices....................................................................................................................................12
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................12
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................13
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................................13
Appendix 4.................................................................................................................................14
Appendix 5.................................................................................................................................15
Appendix 6.................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Apple Inc. is considered to be the most successful multinational company across the
globe and is one of the big four tech companies along with Amazon, Google and Facebook. The
legacy of Steve Jobs and his innovations are further carried out by the Apple employees under
the leadership of Tim Cook (apple.com, 2019). Entering into the Australian market was
identified as one of the optimistic steps that Apple has done. The increasing rate of mobile users
in Australia is expected to reach almost 85% within 2019 and because of this the market share of
Apple in Australia is maximum with a percentage of 56.33 (landing.deloitte.com.au, 2019). In
this regard, Apple Inc. offers various range of products as well such as Macbook, ipad, iphone
and so on. As a matter of fact, there are more than 20 stores in Australia that Apple operates and
most of those Apple stores are located in cities.
On the backdrop of those facts, this research is going to analyse the market environment
in Australia and customer segmentation for Apple that creates challenges and opportunities for
the organisation.
Marketing environment analysis
Macro environment analysis
PESTLE analysis
Elements Facts
Political Political stability in Australia is quite satisfactory with an average value of
1. Therefore, it facilitates a healthy business environment

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(theglobaleconomy.com 2019).
Moreover, the government effectiveness inside the country has an average
value of 1.58 so that it is important for Apple to abide the government
regulations effectively.
Economic The economic growth of Australia is resembled is steady in process with an
average percentage of 2.4. Therefore, it will be profitable for Apple to
expand its business in Australia (theglobaleconomy.com 2019).
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is increasing at a rapid pace in Australia.
Henceforth, it is lucrative for Apple to execute a better business
penetration in Australia.
Social Diversity is identified as one of the important aspect for the business in
Australia. Different type of people with different cultural identities help
to generate diversity in business that is associated with the business
practice of Apple as well.
The unemployment rate in Australia is decreasing strategically that enables
Apple to operate in the Australian market extensively.
Technology Technological advancement in Australia also plays significant role for
influencing the customer behaviour. As a result of that it becomes
essential for business companies for Apple to focus on advanced
technology and creativity.
Apart from that, the innovation index in Australia is very high so that it is
necessary for the business organisations to pursue unique and innovative
technological measures.

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Legal The Australian government facilitates a good and healthy business
environment by introducing the competition law where all the business
companies will maintain fair trading (Business.gov.au 2019).
For maintaining standards of products, the Australian government also sets
a number of regulatory frameworks (Austrade.gov.au 2019). As a result
of that it will be beneficial for Apple to focus on their product and
service quality.
Environment For environmental protection, Australian government enacts the EPBC Act
that makes the organisation to comply with environment safeguarding
activities.
Micro environment analysis
Porters five forces analysis
Elements Facts
Competitive rivalry Companies like Samsung and Huawei create a high competitiveness in
the Australian market for Apple. Therefore, the competitive rivalry is
high in Australian market. Rapid innovation, aggressive advertising
and imposing strong force in the industry environment are the basic
features that the mobile companies are facing in Australia (Zhang,
Liang and Wang 2016).
Bargaining power of
buyers
Bargaining power of the buyers is strong in Australia because there are
plenty of options that the buyers can get in order to choose the right
option (Massad and Carr 2017). Therefore, using high product features
will definitely help Apple to attract more customers in the Australian

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market.
Bargaining power of
suppliers
In case of the Australian market, Apple is facing weak bargaining
power of the suppliers because in association with the expansion of
mobile phone market in Australia, the number of suppliers is also
increased rapidly (Yun, Lee and Aoshima 2019). As a result of that
there are plenty of options that Apple gets in supplying products.
Threat of substitution Weak substitution of mobile phones is considered to be one of the core
feature for the Australian mobile phone market. Low threat of
substitution thus makes the mobile phone manufacturer confident
enough to sustain business effectively.
Threat of new entrants The saturation in the Australian mobile phone and technology market
led to reduce the threat of new entrants as the leading mobile phone
manufactures across the world like Apple, Samsung and Huawei are
already existed in the market.
Customer segmentation
Geographic
The geographic segmentation of Apple is generally based on the urban cities with densely
population. One the major reason behind opting for the urban areas is that the technology driven
Apple products have huge demand in the urban market in compare to rural Australian parts. As a
result of that Apples puts great deal of focus on the urban population as core target customer
segmentation. In association to this, the population density is also identified as an important
aspect that creates high chances for Apple to increase its possible target customer base.

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Demographic
Mostly people from the age from 20 to 45 are identified as the core customers of Apple
products. It can be argued that the adult population is the primary customer of Apple products.
However, there is no gender biasness in customer that Apple follows. It helps the organisation to
facilitate a huge range of people irrespective of their gender and creates a possible increase in
customers. In this regard, both the bachelors and married couples are identified as the possible
customers of Apple. This diverse customer segmentation generates bring a number of buyers to
purchase Apple products. However, the high pricing of the Apple items requires high income of
the customers and generally professional, managers and executives are willing to buy the Apple
products due to its high pricing strategy.
Psychographic
From the psychographic segmentation of the target customers, it can be argued that in
Australia the social class of the potential customers is comprised of both the middle class and the
upper class. It helps the organisation to set its product range from with different pricing so that
the affordability of the people can also switch from high to medium. In case of the lifestyle of the
customer, the Apple management identified that the aspirer, explorer and optimistic people are
always fond of the Apple products. The product specifications and looks also attracts people with
positive mentality with a creative visionary.

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Challenges and opportunities
Challenges
Aggressive competition in the Australian mobile phone and technology market is
considered to be one of the important aspect that can put a barrier into the stable growth of
Apple. According to Yeoh and Yeoh (2018) aggressive competition can lead to degrade the
quality of the products. For Apple also this kind of issue can be emerged.
Apart from that the innovative ideas and innovativeness of Apple has been copied by
other leading mobile manufacturers. As a result of that it is a real problem for Apple to manage
its exclusiveness all the time and at the same time immense focus on the cutting edge technology
creates problem for Apple to keep a tab on its maintenance of existing applications.
Moreover, high labour cost is a grave problem for Apple to manufacture iphones in
Australia. Increasing cost of production paves the way for Apple to face threat in the competitive
mobile phone market of Australia.
Opportunities
For managing the high labour cost Apple tries to produce items in different countries
where the labour is comparatively low. As a result of that it provides a strategic advantage to
Apple in achieving success to a great scale. In addition to this, the extensive distribution network
of Apple has a strategic advantage that makes Apple ahead of the competitors.
Den Hartigh et al. (2016) argued that Apple had successfully created its own brand
reputation that is able to differentiate Apple from other mobile brands. One of the important

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High price
High QualityLow quality
Low price
reasons behind the reputation of Apple is its quality of products and durability. As a result of that
the sales volume of Apple is rising at a stable pace.
Apart from that the innovativeness of Apple is at its peak and as a result of that it helps
Apple to create a strategic position in the market. Delivering new products with high
technologies and innovation facilitates strategic advantage for Apple to establish a strong
organisational practice.
Market positioning
Figure 1: Market positioning of mobile companies, Australia
(Created by the author)

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Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it can be stated that Apple gets a strategic role in the
Australian market despite of having immense competitiveness. Using innovative ideas and
uniqueness lead are identified as the most important aspect for Apple in order to do business
within the Australian market. As a matter of fact, the innovativeness also generates a high brand
value for Apple that no other mobile manufacturer in Australian market can provide. Therefore,
it can be concluded that product and service quality attached with the better business
environment in the Australian market facilitates an effective environment for Apple Inc. to
establish market extensively.

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Reference
apple.com 2019. Newsroom. [online] Apple Newsroom. Available at:
https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Austrade.gov.au 2019. Australian business and environment laws - Austrade. [online]
Austrade.gov.au. Available at: https://www.austrade.gov.au/International/Invest/Guide-to-
investing/Running-a-business/Understanding-Australian-business-regulation/Australian-
business-and-environment-laws [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Business.gov.au 2019. Legal essentials for business. [online] Business.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.business.gov.au/planning/new-businesses/legal-essentials-for-business [Accessed
10 Aug. 2019].
Den Hartigh, E., Ortt, J.R., Van de Kaa, G. and Stolwijk, C.C., 2016. Platform control during
battles for market dominance: The case of Apple versus IBM in the early personal computer
industry. Technovation, 48, pp.4-12.
gs.statcounter.com 2019. Mobile Vendor Market Share Australia | StatCounter Global Stats.
[online] StatCounter Global Stats. Available at: https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-
share/mobile/australia [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
landing.deloitte.com.au 2019. Smart everything, everywhere. [online] Landing.deloitte.com.au.
Available at: http://landing.deloitte.com.au/rs/761-IBL-328/images/tmt-mobile-consumer-
survey-2017_pdf.pdf [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].

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Massad, V.J. and Carr, A., 2017. Apple and Consumer Collectivism: A Look at the Nature of
Brand Cults.
theglobaleconomy.com 2019. Australia data, chart | TheGlobalEconomy.com. [online]
TheGlobalEconomy.com. Available at:
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Australia/GII_Index/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Yeoh, J.P.S. and Yeoh, P.A., 2018. Competitiveness between Ethnic Malays and Ethnic Chinese
in Malaysia. GSTF Journal of Psychology (JPsych), 2(1).
Yun, B.S., Lee, S.G. and Aoshima, Y., 2019. An analysis of the trilemma phenomenon for Apple
iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. Service Business, pp.1-34.
Zhang, H., Liang, X. and Wang, S., 2016. Customer value anticipation, product innovativeness,
and customer lifetime value: The moderating role of advertising strategy. Journal of Business
Research, 69(9), pp.3725-3730.