An Overview of Apple Inc.'s Marketing Strategies and Stakeholders

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc.'s marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing fundamentals and then delves into the company's marketing processes, including production, product, sales, and marketing orientations. The report examines Apple's STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) strategy, highlighting its focus on specific demographics and its brand positioning. A detailed analysis of the marketing mix (7Ps) is presented, covering product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence. The report further explores Apple's methods of stakeholder communication and assesses the impact of both internal and external stakeholders on its marketing activities, providing a complete overview of Apple's marketing approach and its effectiveness in the global market.

Marketing fundamental

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Process and stages of marketing..................................................................................................4
STP of Apple Inc.........................................................................................................................6
Role of marketing mix ................................................................................................................6
Apple's way of communicating with stakeholders......................................................................9
Impact of internal and external stakeholders on marketing activities........................................11
.......................................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an activity of communication and transfer offers that have respective value
to customer's and society in the marketplace. It involves strategies that help to promote the
commodities to buyers (Baltes, L. P., 2015). The fundamental include all the elements of
marketing basically fundamental include know your targeted customers, educated the targeted
customer's so that they are beneficial to the company. Apple Inc. is a multinational brand that
provides electronics, computer softwares, digital services in the global market. It is one of the
largest firm in entire united states. The brand produce hardware products like smartphones,
Tablet and many more (Khan, M. T., 2014). It has been established in 1976 with a group of
peoples. This report will determine the process and stages of marketing and roles of marketing
mix in the market. It will further evaluate the engagement of stakeholders of Apple Inc. and its
respective impact on the marketing activities of the Apple Inc.
MAIN BODY
Process and stages of marketing
Marketing is a process which encourage the people to attract towards the products and
services of company (De Mooij, M., 2019). In marketing process the manager build approach to
communicate with the peoples in a way that they are willing to buy their respective commodities.
The marketing is a wide term so it consists of following stages have to perform by marketing
managers of Apple Inc.
Production Orientation : As the Apple Inc. is an international company used to produce
electronics and mainly smartphone, tablet etc. so they are having a huge base of customer's, so
they are trying to increase their production, so they can regularly increase their supplies
internationally. As the brand is having similarly higher price in the market but now Apple Inc. is
trying to reduce the cost and make a price that is affordable by its potential and fresh buyer's.
The brand is leading to increase its revenue with sell volume. The company is making is efforts
towards high production inefficiency so the buyer's in the market has less choice as the
production is of standard products then they will buy the same. Production orientation
philosophy is that as the buyer in the market will buy anything when it is offered at reasonable
price.

Product Orientation : Apple Inc. use do produce electronics and softwares which are premium
in their quality and are offered at higher price than the competitors as their target market is
higher class peoples, and they also try to improve the software and hardware quality so that
people are attracted towards the products. Apple Inc. is not much invest in marketing process as
per the quality of products the people automatically come to buy the product. The sales of Apple
products also increase because they are providing a quality that is outstanding and remarkable in
the marketplace. The modern customer's have knowledge of what they are buying and what they
should buy, so they also try to buy the best in the market. The product orientation lack behind
those customers who can not afford the First-rate quality of product. This stage is more
concentrated on product nor on customer's.
Sales orientation : As the buyer's in the market are trying to buy the latest technologies of
products in electronics weather it is software or hardware. So Apple Inc. is trying to clear its
stocks. The brand is trying to sell its products when the time its launching because at that time
the product is consisted of the latest technology so the company can easily clear its stock in the
international market. The sales of Apple Inc. can increase through quick sell on the time of
launching. Sales orientation is due to high level of production so the company have to sell its
goods frequently to customer's thereby it can defend from any loss.
Marketing orientation: At the time of this process the Apple Inc. is trying to inspect the market
so that it can know the want and desire of the customer's. Apple is regularly inspecting its
market place to influence its employee's to work in a way that the product are able to satisfy
needs of customer's. The marketing orientation needs peoples in Apple to become customer
orientated because they are only the end target to sell the products in the market. The Marketing
department of Apple is continuously working towards the needs and want of people around the
global market and on that basis and produce the goods accordingly (udák, M., Kianičková, E.
and Madleňák, R., 2017).

STP of Apple Inc.
The STP shows Apple's marketing contribution as the Apple is valuable brand
internationally. The image which the brand is having that is not achieved by anyone in the
market like Apple Inc.
Segmentation : With the help of this Apple Inc. manager will divide the buyer which are
potential or existing into sub-groups of customer based on a particular characteristic. The market
segmentation is done by the Apple Inc. on the basis of variables like Demographics( age, gender,
education and the income level), behaviour, geography and physiographic characteristics. In the
the Apple Inc. targeted people who are young of urban sector, and they can be a man or women,
but they should have an affordable income to buy the product because the products of Apple are
having high pricing, and they are loyal to the brand. The customer of Apple Inc. willing to buy
the product from the same brand in near future.
Targeting : As the brand is offering a higher price product so the targeting people for Apple Inc.
are youngsters who are interested to buy electronics products more than compared to other age
group it can be man or a woman. As the brand is rich so its targeted people are those who
disposable income is higher than normal, and they want to earn their lifestyle better. The another
target market of Apple Inc. are its potential and existing customer's who will be as loyal
customer of the company.
Positioning : This is a process of marketing in which advertisement and promotional activities
are performed to set a standard position for the Apple Inc. the Apple brand identity play a vital
role because the logo, its brand colour, tag line and other elements related to brand help to make
a valuable image in the mind and heart of customer's. The products of Apple its quality and
design a great role for its positioning so the company is regularly launching the products with a
innovative style and features and the advertisement is less done by company their thinking is to
do fewer Ads is better than large advertisement (Atwal, G. and Williams, A., 2017).
Role of marketing mix
This is the process or work in which the company uses to promote the brand as well as its
products in the international market. The promotion is done in marketing with the 7ps that are
fully planned by manner. The marketing mix help to develop its strength part and obviate the
weaker section of the company (Wright, A. J., end et.al.,2015). Marketing mix of Apple Inc. help

to indicate how the Apple match to its activities of business related to information technology
internationally. The company is trying to focus on superior quality of brand, so they are take
advantage of quality brand and ensure its marketing mix 7Ps which help in maintaining strong
image of Apple Inc.
Product mix of Apple : the product mix includes goods and the services which are produced by
the Apple with information technology. The company is regularly increased its product mix
element they are also produced non- information technology in their Ps of marketing. The
product mix involve : I phone, I pad, I pod, Apple watch, digital content, Software, Cloud
services, Accessories all these products are for human resource utilization. I Phone is the first
company to introduce its smartphone that have multi touching in the international market. The
iPhone is a combination of iPod and smartphone its have many variates and series as for now
iPhone 12 and 12 pro are the latest series of these. The watches are also produced by the
company which is smart and have all the features of a smartphone. Brand also sell its smart TV
but this is not success product in international market.
Price Mix of Apple : As the Apple is providing Superior product In market so their targeted
people in the market are not all the section of the society. As the apple is leading its segment and
its price also make it as leader in the market. The brand is known for its innovation in the market
and innovation will come when there is certain up price (Leeflang, P. S., end et.al.,2014). The
hardware products of Apple Inc. are generally expensive, and they are coming with a status
symbol. Pricing are basically high because they are having a premium technology in their
products.
Promotion Mix of Apple : the promotional activities in the Apple is done to reach its targeted
customer so the company uses to promote its products in lots of ways which involves
communication parties and channels the brand is doing its promotional activities by
advertisement in TV so that the people who are not aware about the products can easily able to
know about the latest brand, and they can attract fresh customer as well with its potential
customer. Apple Inc. is also doing personal selling so that its potential customer get the product
on its door step and as nowadays people want to buy product digitally. Sales promotion is also
done by marketing people of the company this includes giving discounts and offers to its
potential and new buyer so that they switch the preference (Lusch, R. F. and Vargo, S. L., 2014).

Place mix of Apple : As the place element in the marketing mix is to select the place through
which the product are to be distributed. The brand is trying to distribute its products from its
owned locations and different affair that are authorized to sell the products. The company
general distribute its product from Apple stores and online website and their digital stores.
Secondary Apple Inc. also selling its product by authorize seller in the market in the area where
the demand of Apple products are relatively high so if the Apple is not having its separate store
than they sell its produce through the areas authentic seller. The store are so well maintained
from inside, and they have efficient staff as well to show their product to customer's and
communicate in a way that buyer get attracted and willing to buy the product. Apple has a strong
base in the international market so to supply adequate amount of product to potential and fresh
customer's brand is trying to expand its store change more and more because as many stores are
build internationally more buyer will attract to buy the Apple products.
For support this 4ps the marketing mix have another 3ps which are people, process and
physical which extend the marketing mix process (McDaniel Jr, C. and Gates, R., 2018).
People: The people in the Apple Inc. organization are having enough skill and knowledge
because the company is known for its innovation and technology so the people who are
producing the product are highly trained to think more innovative than before.
Process: Apple Inc. is having a well process to produce its innovative product as the customer's
of the brand need fresh technology in the market and the people who are considering Apple they
need quality in their product. The customers are not hesitated to invest in the product, but they
are expecting a quality in the respective commodity (Baker, M. J., 2014).
Physical evidence : the Apple Inc. is had a premium evidence as the products are sell in well
stabilized store so the customer get more attracted towards the store to went there and their staff
who is serving the buyer is also qualified and every aspect so that buyer get satisfied by
communicating with the staff available there.
Stakeholder
Stakeholder is one who has long term interest in the company and thus has a long association
with the company with vested interests in it. This has an effect on both the company as well as
the company's operations. There are two types of stakeholders- Internal and external
stakeholders.

Internal Stakeholders
They are the ones who are in a direct relation with the company and their interests are directly
vested. This can be through being an employee in the company, having a stake in the company or
being the owner of the company. It may also be another institution investing in the company.
Thus the impact of a company doing well has direct impact on its internal stakeholders who can
also be said as the investors of the company (Yoon and Chung, 2018).
Speaking of Apple, the internal stakeholders are Board of Directors, its employees and
other shareholders. Top executives also form a part of the internal stakeholders. Apart from
individual shareholders, company also has institutional shareholders like the Vanguard Group ,
Blackrock Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
External Stakeholders
These are the ones who are not in direct relation with the company but are affected by the
business operations. For e.g.: government of a country may have interest in a company making
indigenous technology and of course, government would want the company to do well. It may
also happen that a company is producing carbon emissions and it has to be regulated according to
the issued regulatory guidelines of the government (Barić, 2017).
Speaking of Apple, the external stakeholders of the company are its customers, suppliers,
competitors and the government. Customers loyal to Apple generally don't switch to the
competitor brands and they always are in look out for new models of apple's mobile set I phone.
This has increased sales for the company many bounds. Apple's competitors in the market are
Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo in phone market. Apple's competitors in personal computer
market are Lenovo, HP Inc, Dell etc.
Apple's way of communicating with stakeholders
Apple has its website which showcases its products of all ranges suiting to different types of
customers, career information for its applicants, information for its stakeholders of its financials
and annual reports and advertising done on its website of upcoming launches. Online bots are
also available for chat with customers and whosoever would like to contact with the company for
investing. Companies generally ask for mobile numbers and e-mail ids of people who would like
to get in contact for product or investing information and then accordingly send the messages

relevant to queries. This forms a bond between the customers and the company. Company also
gets its product reviews done through feedback websites which customers write a review about
the products (Yoon and Chung, 2018).
Apple uses social media platform also in which its customer support answers and
discusses customer issues regarding the company's products. They post a tip each day at their
Twitter account which keeps the people hooked as it discusses the features present in the
products which even the customers using may not know about. Actually this promotes word of
mouth also for other people to follow their account who may not be using the product and only
out of curiosity they become the followers. This is how company increases its potential
stakeholders. Apple answers to a number of questions asked on its support platform and values
the feedback too.
Apple schedules a meeting of stakeholders as it is the best way of communicating and
sending message to a large number of people. It also helps in solving any misinterpretations
which may occur on another platform. It comprises of the institutional shareholders as well as
other investors. The company discusses its strategy and plan of growth with them and
suggestions of betterment in policies are invited to discuss upon (Hyatt and Berente, 2017).
Apple sends newsletter at time periods in between through intranet and e-mails. Through
it latest updates regarding the happenings in the company, its product launches, its investments
are all provided. This not only benefits existing stakeholders but also people who are not in
collaboration with the company. This can influence their minds to invest in the company seeing
the future prospects.
Company uses project summary reports usually sent out monthly. This generally
encompasses information about the projects currently undertaken by the company. This includes
the statistical data regarding the project and is away of assurance of investors' money being used
in right direction.
Company takes regular feedback of its customers through offline and online surveys. It
has its executives taking customer opinion about the products of how they have felt after making
the purchase, any suggestions they would like to give how to make the product a better
experience. Online also it is active in getting polls done about its products to know the
expectations of its customers and stakeholders (Barić, 2017).

Impact of internal and external stakeholders on marketing activities
The stakeholders have a major influence on how an organisation design its marketing activities.
The company has to know the expectations of the investors and accordingly design its marketing
plan. The marketing activities have to be in rhythm with the culture and location where it would
be launched.
As company has to find a balance between meeting both demands of internal and external
shareholders, it has to create a product which is commercial as well as suits the interests of its
customers. Speaking of Apple, the products company created has been targeted majorly in the
youth who have a charm of using handsets which are sophistically branded. Hence, accordingly
the marketing activities are focused on youth with say the packaging of mobile handsets and the
look given to them caters to the young audience. Commercials given on TVs, magazines and
papers are popularised with youth using them to listen to their favourite music stations. The
youth are aware of the present technicalities in gadgets therefore the advertisement gives a brief
of the unique and advanced features of the phone (Hyatt and Berente, 2017).
Coming to the PC segment this segment encompasses a broader target audience. Not only
the students and young executives using the laptops, people of an elder generation also find
comfort in using them. Apart from this, laptops are widely used in offices now speaking of the
past decade, so institutions also make a purchase. The advertisement done online as well as
offline take a different approach then to market the same. The advertisement shows the features
one can use at home as well as the ones which are for assistance in office purpose such as office
excel. The laptop Mac book has its own software and thus own functions which are provided
with help options in the system explaining them.
Speaking of the competitors, Apple has focused on product differentiation to stand out in
competition. These features being marketed create value for its stakeholders. Features like
having a unique operating system running on their hardware devices, screen resolution being
large with retina display technology, I tunes app which helps manage files,music, videos and
photos are promoted in online and offline campaigns and feedback for the same is taken. Every
time Apple launches a new I phone it is marketed as a better version than previous. Same is the
case for Mac book which has its own operating systems and office functions with facilities of I
tunes. This way competitors influence the strategy in which apple differentiates its handset
products from them (Chan and Oppong, 2017).

Speaking of government as an external stakeholder, Apple has its marketing campaigns
in lieu with guidelines of the government. It takes care of the sentiments and values of the people
of the country it is marketing in. The government has an initiative of having eco- friendly
advertising campaigns which produces less of wastage in plastic materials. Apple tries to follow
the same and promotes recycling of the wastages produced in packaging of the products. This is
also highlighted in the campaign as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility taken up by the
company. This works for the company as well to give it an image of environment sustainable
brand.
CONCLUSION
It can be said that marketing plays a prominent role in company's growth. The marketing process
used for each company is different and has to be carved out according to a strategy focused on
long term building of a brand. The marketing mix discusses the factors affecting the company in
market and the recommendations on which each factor can be improved upon. The STP Analysis
helps in defining the customers and devising schemes to target a specific group an also
positioning the brand with unique features in people's mind. The concept of stakeholders playing
an important role in company's functions of marketing activities and devising the marketing
campaigns. Also the communication prevalent in various ways with stake holders in business
environment was depicted.