Marketing and Management 19: Apple Inc. Market Evaluation

This report provides a comprehensive market analysis of Apple Inc., examining its industry trends, growth, and profitability. It delves into the macro-environment using PESTLE analysis, considering political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The report outlines Apple's market segmentation, targeting primary and secondary segments, and analyzes the involvement of the primary segment. It explores Apple's pricing strategies, expansion through new stores and online facilities, and product diversification. Furthermore, the report conducts a competitor analysis, comparing Apple to Samsung and Dell, and discusses Apple's positioning in the market. The analysis highlights Apple's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, concluding with strategic recommendations.

Running Head: Marketing and Management
Marketing and Management

Marketing and Management 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Industry market for Apple...............................................................................................................4
Growth and profitability..............................................................................................................4
Macro environment......................................................................................................................5
Political factors........................................................................................................................5
Economic factors.....................................................................................................................6
Social factors...........................................................................................................................6
Technological factors...............................................................................................................6
Legal factors............................................................................................................................7
Environmental factors..............................................................................................................7
Market segment...............................................................................................................................7
Primary and secondary target market..............................................................................................9
Involvement of primary segment.....................................................................................................9
Price range.................................................................................................................................10
New Stores.................................................................................................................................10
Online facility............................................................................................................................10
Diversified products...................................................................................................................10
Competitor’s analysis....................................................................................................................11
Apple..........................................................................................................................................12

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Samsung.....................................................................................................................................12
Dell............................................................................................................................................13
Positioning.....................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
The next stage of the marketing audit is to consider the evaluation of the market of the
organization. The organization has been selected for the evaluation is Apple Inc, an American
multinational technology company with headquarter in Cupertino, California. The company
develops and sell the computer software, consumer electronics, and online services. The
hardware products that are offered by the company include an iPad tablet computer, Mac
personal company, Apple watch, TV, digital media player, HomePod and many other items.
The report is based on the market analysis of the Apple Company and this analysis is conducted
to evaluate and analyze the opportunities and threats of a company. To analysis the opportunity
and threats the company can make use of the different framework which has been discussed in
the report.

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Industry market for Apple
The industry market analysis includes the description of the current trends which include the
growth, profitability and the macro-environment analysis.
Growth and profitability
Apple Inc. growth is transforming from past few years. Though, this is the fact that the growth
was slow until the year 2010. After 2010, the company started introducing new versions of their
products which helped the company to gain the market. Due to this, the company was able to
generate more profit in 2011 and 2012. This is clear from the graph below which shows the
Apple Revenue and Net Income.
(Source: Wildstrom, 2013)
After 2012, the company achieved the success and growth along with the profitability. Apple
sold 50.46 million of its iconic iPhones in the first 3 months in 2017 which helped the company
in generating $ 52.9 billion revenue at that time. The company is able to achieve the 4.5% more
profit than the previous year. The company is selling fewer iPhone and yet yielding more

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revenue per device (Popper, 2017). The strategy of the company is to sell the products at high
prices as this is the best way to achieve the goals for the revenue (Maurer, 2017).
Macro environment
The macro environment includes the external environment factors that influence the decisions or
affects the working of the Apple. The pestle analysis is a framework that is used by the company
to analyze the external factors (Cavusgil, Knight, Riesenberger, Rammal & Rose, 2014).
(Source: Cavusgil, Knight, Riesenberger, Rammal & Rose, 2014)
Political factors
The company accumulated a large amount of cash in America. The company was having $ 34.7
billion in a bank in 2015, June due to which the company paid high corporate taxation in the US.
The company is depended on the Chinese manufacturing for the lower cost of products. Political
unrest in China can disrupt manufacturing of the products or costs (Pestle Analysis, 2015).

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Economic factors
The strong U.S dollar leads to fluctuation in the exchange rate which affects the decisions of the
company and influences their decisions. Due to the U.S dollar, the exchange rate increase which
makes it more costly for the company to perform the activity in the key markets (China and
Europe). Apart from it, the increased labor cost in China can affect the cost advantage of the
company for some of the specific products. Stagnation middle-class income in developed
countries could collapse the market for the customers (Pestle Analysis, 2015).
Social factors
The company is dealing with some of the ethical concerns in China that could affect the
company’s appeal for their product in the socially-conscious consumer market. The company
noticed that the biggest growth in the consumer spending is going to be in Africa in the coming
years. Africa is a place where most of the people are not aware of the range of products offered
by Apple. This might affect the growth and opportunity strategies of the company as the
company will generate the awareness about the products and services in the emerging markets
globally.
Technological factors
The use of the advanced technology is growing and leads to the cybercriminals that make the
Apple system less secure. Apple is reputed in the market for high levels of security and safety.
Apart from this, the competitors of the company have a strong ability to duplicate the products
and services provided by the company. For instance, Google took a year to introduce a payment
app; Android app with the similar capabilities of Apple Pay. This shows that the company has to
bring the changes in strategy and have to make use of the advanced technology to gain the
competitive advantage again in the market (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015).

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Legal factors
The company is having the opportunity in the automobile manufacturing even the company is
planning to enter into a highly-regulated sector. Though, to enter into automobile industry the
company have to face the regulations, insurance and litigation cost. So the company has to fulfill
all the legal obligations before entering into any market. Apple is also depended on the diverse
variety of products that are covered by the intellectual property laws which include software and
music. This leaves the company with highly vulnerable to both piracy and litigations.
Environmental factors
One of the biggest environmental issues faced by the apple company includes the disposal of the
used and nonworking electronic devices. The company has to pay the high amount if a company
wants to dispose of the devices that contain the lithium batteries. The manufacturing factories of
Apple in China is generating the pollution and other environmental side effects due to this the
company might have to face the regulations and have to pay high manufacturing cost in the near
future (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015).
Market segment
Apple segmentation, targeting, and positioning signify the essence of its marketing efforts.
Segmentation includes dividing a population into groups according to certain characteristics and
the targeting include selecting specific groups or segments to which the company is looking to
offer the products or willing to sell the products mainly (Weinstein, & Cahill, 2014). The
targeted customer segment consists of quality and performance of technology products and
appreciating design. Positioning reflects the position of the company in the mind of the
customers.

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Demographic segmentation- The demographic segment include the people of different age,
gender, life-cycle stage, income and occupational. The demand for the products provided by the
company is continuously increasing with the increase in the living standard of the people. The
company targets the people belongs to the high-income group having the age group of 20-45.
Psychographic segmentation- This segment includes the traits, lifestyle, and social class of the
people. The company generally targets the people who have the preference of the social class and
believes in maintaining the lifestyle (Hollensen, 2015).
Behavioural segmentation- The behavioral segment shows the perception of the customer for
the products that are offered by the company. It includes the degree of loyalty, benefits sought,
personality and user status. The company targets the people who have the high degree of loyalty
and user status (Brian, 2015).
Demographic
segmentation
Psychographic
segmentation
Behavioural
segmentation

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Primary and secondary target market
Primary target market- Apple targets the segment on the basis of primary and secondary. The
primary target segment is that segment to which the company offers their products on the
primary basis as they know that they can give their best chance. Apple targets all the segments
and mainly focus on the people belongs to the age group of 20-45 (Dudovkisy, 2017). The
company believes in targeting the people who are loyal to the company and have the capacity to
pay the high amount. The company targets both male and female having the occupation of
professional managers and executive. These are the primary targets of the company because they
are the one who can easily buy the Apple products at high prices. Along with that the company
also targets the people who have believes in maintaining the lifestyle and thinks that Apple
products represent the social status symbol.
Secondary target market- The secondary target segment is that segment which is important for
the company on the secondary basis (Winston & Weinstein, 2016). The product is also available
for the students but company treats students as their secondary target because there are very
fewer parents who allow their children to buy expensive products of Apple. The social class is
another element to which the company targets on the secondary basis. A social class consists of
the middle and upper classes of people, most of the middle and upper-class people buy products
offered by the Apple Company as they believe this adds to their status in society.
Involvement of primary segment
The involvement of the primary segment is essential for Apple Inc. This involvement of the
people might influence the working and decision making of a company which might get clear
from the below discussed few points.

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Price range
The prices of the products can create the direct impact on the sales of the company. The
company keeps the high prices of the product because they provide high quality and this is the
reason company targets people having the high-income slabs. Though, the Apple is trying to
understand the market and peoples demand in different countries. Due to this, the company is
bringing the fluctuations in the prices according to the places.
New Stores
The company is establishing new stores so that they can meet the demand of the customers for
the service centers and apple stores. Most of the loyal customer faces the problem related to the
service stores and Apple stores due to which the company is trying to increase the number of
stores that helps the company in providing the accessibility keeping the preference of customers
in mind (Ross, Beath & Sebastian, 2017).
Online facility
The demand for the products is rapidly increasing due to which the company took a step to
provide the products through online mode in which the company performed the ties ups with
different merchants. Now the products of the company are available on most of the e-commerce
websites including flip kart, Amazon, snap deal and many others. This fulfills the demand of the
primary customers as now they can book the products through online.
Diversified products
Apple targets all the segments and these segments include different people having a different
preference for the products and services. In the present situation, Apple provides the wide range
of products and services and this was possible because of the demand of the customers for the

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wide range of products and services. Still, the company is planning to move the focus towards
the automobile industry because the demand for the automobile related products by the targeted
customers is increasing (Ross, Beath & Sebastian, 2017).
These points clearly show that the primarily targeted customers guide a way for the development
and growth of the business along with that these customers affect or influence the decision
making of the company.
Competitor’s analysis
The competitors of the company are increasing with the growth in the industry. The company is
facing strong competition from different companies operating in diverse sectors of consumer
electronic goods. The main competitors in the desktop and laptop computers industry are Dell,
HP, and Sony, out of these Dell give tough competition to Apple (Investopedia, 2017). The
smartphone industry is dominated by Samsung. So, the main competitors of Apple are Dell and
Samsung who can give the tough competition to Apple Inc.
(Source: Jurevicius, 2017)