Detailed Report on Apple Brand Management and Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple's brand management strategies. It begins with an introduction to brand management and its importance, focusing on branding as a successful marketing tool. The report delves into Apple's use of the Aaker Brand Equity model to create brand awareness and loyalty. It explores the key components of a successful brand strategy, including brand identity, meaning, response, and resonance, using Keller's brand equity model. The report also examines different strategies for portfolio and brand management, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a strong brand image across Apple's diverse product offerings. Furthermore, it discusses how brands are managed in partnership at both domestic and global levels. Finally, the report analyzes various techniques for measuring and managing brand value, providing a complete overview of Apple's brand management practices.

Brand Management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1. Branding as successful marketing tool..................................................................................3
P2. key components of a successful brand strategy for building and managing brand equity....6
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Different strategies of portfolio and brand management........................................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P4 How brand is managed in partnership at domestic and global level......................................9
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................11
P5 Different techniques for measuring and managing brand value...........................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Brand management is that function which is used by organization so that they increase
perceived value of their product line. It means managing brand in such a way that consumer
loyalty is being created. Brand value can be created by company by analyzing consumer
perceptions, needs and demands. It can also be developed by enhancing consumer experience
while buying the goods and services. Present study will lay emphasis on brand management of
Apple. It is an American multination technological company which has bene headquartered in
California. Report lays special focus on Brand hierarchy of IPhone followed by company.
Assignment has laid emphasis on branding as successful marketing tool. It has also laid focus on
various strategies used by company to revitalize, extend and manage brand. Study has Analyze
different strategies of portfolio management, brand hierarchy and brand equity management. It
has also discussed about how brands can be managed collaboratively. Assignment highlighted
different types of techniques used for measuring and managing brands.
LO 1
P1. Branding as successful marketing tool
“Brand as Power”
Introduction: Brand is basically a name, design, logo that differentiates between goods of one
seller form another. It is being used by company for advertising, promoting and increasing the
sales of products. Brand equity is the term which is been used in marketing, it provides the value
from the view point of consumers about the brand name of particular product or service. it
basically is the perception of customers towards company’s particular product. There are various
benefits of Branding which can be provided to Apple like it provides firm with credibility and
assists them in attracting various consumers towards them. It helps company in remaining
consistent. Stages of building a successful brand includes determining target audience,
explaining Brand mission, research and analysis, Creating USP, determining Brand guidelines
and then marketing Brand. Marketing is the most important tool that can be used by Apple for
Branding. It assists them in understanding consumer prospects, there needs and demands. It helps
in having deep knowledge about business objectives and creates consumer loyalty.
Main Body: There are various strategies that can be used by Apple to strengthen and extend
their Brand. It includes the following:
Aaker Brand Equity model: This model can be adopted by apple in order to create Brand
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awareness and brand loyalty. It can assist organization in having competitive edge over other
Brands by revitalising and re-enforcing brands. It can be strengthening while creating Brand
identity. Through Aaker Brand equity model how brand can be extended, brand value can be
created will be explained:
Brand value can be created by Apple by adhering to consumer perception and ensuring total
quality management by all way. It has been analysed that there is always a taste of innovation in
Apple products, so consumers are really conscious while purchasing their products. Brand
awareness, perceived quality and brand associations would all be able to reinforce the loyalty
towards the brand by expanding consumer loyalty and giving motivational reasons to purchase
the product. Company must be engaged in making that branding strategy which can fully address
consumer wants or demands (France, Merrilees and Miller, 2016). In order to extend and
revitalise their brand they can engaged in doing ad campaigns. It will assist Apple in creating
interest of consumers to buy apple products. Also they can be engaged in creating products for
their targeted groups of customers. Well design and utility of Apple products can give them
competitive advantage. Apple leveraged it’s “lifestyle” brand into products that weren’t just
computers: these were a status symbol and a choice of life to customers. Brand value is based om
five components which needs to be controlled by Apple, these components are as following:
Brand Loyalty: Consumer loyalty is one of the most important aspects as it helps company in
improving their financial performance. In order to create Brand loyalty Apple needs to engaged
in creating branding strategy (Piehler and et.al., 2016). Like for example they can adopt premium
pricing strategy for their products. This can assist them in reinforcing brand identity. Loyalty can
also be created with marketing. Like for example Apple can expand its products offering. By this
they will be able to maximise brand equity. Brand Loyalty can also be created by relying to
Consumer expectation and delivering them with high quality products. Customer satisfaction can
lead to loyalty. It can also be created by providing consumers with personalised service and
having proper interaction with them.
Brand Awareness: It can be created by making consumer aware about the product served by
company through right promotions. It means how much knowledge is being acquired by
consumers related to product line of Apple. They can promote their goods and service through
commercial advertisement and print media. Also brand awareness can be created by them by
advertising I-phone 11 pro on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Overall promotion can be linked to Apple’s brand image. They need to keep consumer interested
and also make them regularly updated on their new products and innovation. Firm can also have
positioned them as different in front of public. This will assist them in increasing awareness
among consumers and give them competitive edge.
Perceived Quality: In order to manage Brand equity and extend their Brand Apple needs to
maintain their service quality. Maintaining quality means Apple has to address all consumer
touch points. Quality can be improved by providing smaller quantity of products with high
quality. Also they can make use cost positioning strategy that can assist them in gaining
competitive advantage. Enhanced quality can also improve market demand through product
differentiation. Apple has created power over prices through product differentiation, creative
advertising, brand loyalty and creating hype around new product launches. This aspect has also
helped them in gaining competitive advantage (John and Torelli, 2017).
Other Associations: It means that brand must be associated with something positive. It has been
analysed that Apple's phone are easy to use which are closely connected with consumer’s
emotional attribute. They are stylish and have innovative features and quality in them. It has
been analysed that Apple's latest IPhone 11 is available in different attractive colours, it has mat
finished and also 64 Gb data can be stores in it. Phone also contains three cameras. This has
increased the consumer satisfaction and also consumer have positive attitude towards buying it.
Apple also targets consumer on the basis of their needs and demands which is very necessary for
growth of company. When anyone says sleek, quality and cool phone it is generally linked with
Apple. Such high consumer loyalty has been created by Apple (Zarantonello and et.al., 2016).
Conclusion: It is really important that company makes use of marketing as branding tool. As this
will assist Apple in reaching out large number of consumers and making them aware about the
new innovation and creative aspects which has been brought up by firm. This will help them in
gaining competitive advantage and also achieving their goals and objective. Marketing will
create brand value for company. It will assist them in creating consumer loyalty and increase
sales and profit of organization. It is very beneficial for future growth of organization. Good
branding can help firm in creating credibility in market. Also marketing of IPhone can be done
by company while making use of various channels. This will help them in reaching out large
number of customers. They have also improved their distribution capabilities by serving products
online and marketing them via internet. This has also helped them in increasing acceptability of
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IPhone, I-pods, Mac Book. Company has positioned themselves are being very helpful which has
assisted them in creating brand loyalty. Firm has worked on their adverting campaigns adding it
to management of their brand equity.
P2. key components of a successful brand strategy for building and managing brand equity.
Brand equity can be defined as value of company in the mind of consumers, each firm
emphases on creating the unique image or be a reputable brand in order to gain success in
market. Keller’s brand equity model (CBBE model) states that companies are required to
emphases more on customer thinking and their feeling in order to enhance brand equity. If
consumers have positive feeling about the company’s products, then it would be better for
business to gain competitive advantage in market and build brand equity.
Figure 1: Keller's brand equity model
(Source: Keller's brand equity model, 2019)
Brand identity
This is considered as pattern or way of consumers to look towards the brand. Each consumer
has own preferences and the brand which fulfils these needs create a unique identity in their
mind (Renton, Daellenbach and Davenport, 2016). Apple builds its identity by awarding its
consumers with the new IPhone 11. Apple can take assistance of social networking sites in order
to build the brand identity. Use of Facebook, Twitter will be beneficial in making contact with
wide range of people globally which will raise awareness among users about features of its new
iPhone and how it is different from others. This will raise or build the brand equity of Apple.
Brand meaning
Once Apple build contact with users then it is essential to know more about customers.
Consumers always prefer to buy products of the firm which provides them reliable items. They
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can spend more money on the products that can be used by them for longer duration. Brand
performance and imagery are two main components of it. Features of iPhone 11 and its reliability
is very high (Guzmán, Ruiz and Siller, 2019). No other mobile phone is having such features
that are in this phone of Apple. Style and design of iPhone 11 is very good which make it unique
and raise interest of buyers. Apple can behave clam with its potential buyers or can behave soft.
This would help in building the brand equity and managing the value of the firm significantly.
By focusing more on customer service entity will be able to manage and measure its brand equity
effectively.
Brand response
This is most essential component that affect the value of brand, each person has some
expectation whenever individual buy any item. If Apple meets their expectation, then consumers
will be happy and will give positive reviews to others but if firm fails to meet their expectation
then they will be negative which will affect brand equity badly (Mills and Robson, 2019). Apple
must measure post- sale behavior of its customers, this is the great strategy through which it will
get to know experiences of consumer and will be able to improve lacking points which can aid in
building brand equity. Holistic marketing is another great way to measure and build the brand
equity.
Resonance
This is considered as most challenging task for company to develop relationship with
consumers, this develop psychological bond with buyers and make them loyal towards the brand.
Apple can concentrate on behavior loyalty by providing them gifts, discounts etc. Apple can also
ask feedback with them regarding its iPhone 11 and can appreciate their responses. This will help
in making them loyal and raising their engagement with brand.
LO 2
P3 Different strategies of portfolio and brand management
For every organisation it is necessary to maintain high brand value and image in the
market. This is because it helps in retaining customers and goodwill. There are different types of
products and services provided by Apple (An and Harvey, 2019). So, it is essential for them to
maintain brand image of all products. Moreover, different brand strategies are followed which
enable in successful brand management. A portfolio management refers to all branded products
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that are included in it. Alongside, there are different models of brand portfolio that is described
below :-
Portfolio management- brand portfolio is a structure where numerous brands are sold under
single brand name. This is done because it helps in establishing a large customer base in different
markets. Basically, focus is to expand business in different markets to attract large number of
customers. Apart from it, each brand reflects a specific group of customers and fulfil their needs.
Likewise, Apple products are Iphone, Ipod, etc. that fulfil needs of people.
Branded house – It is a model where the entire firm is itself a brand. In this all products and
services are sold I the market within one brand name. Besides that, it allows organisation to
develop a strong brand value in the minds of customers. this type of model is highly followed by
large companies such as Pepsi, Coca Cola, P&G, etc. where all products are sold under one
brand. Here, logo, tagline, messaging, etc. are simply referred in single brand. This enable
customer to recognise brand. Similarly, Apple products such as Iphone, Imac, Ipod, etc. are sold
under one firm brand strategy (Cassia and Magno, 2019)
House of brand – this is another brand model where company focuses on its subset brand. It is
because the primary brand gets no attention from people. Here, there are different types of brand
owned by company under its single brand name. So, in customer mind the brand image set is of
subset brand rather than company. Through that, it becomes easy to manage and maintain a
unique and strong brand value in the market. However, they focus on different target market and
are able to retain customers. For example – companies like HUL sells products such as Dove,
Lux, Surf Excel, etc. under subset brand name.
Hybrid brand hierarchy – A brand hierarchy is an architecture which is integration or mixture
of both strategy. It is like a tree which is having different branches under it. here, large number
of products are sold under different brand name but ultimately its company is same. Customers
easily distinguish products. It allows in focusing on numerous markets. For example – Microsoft
use hybrid brand architecture. In this various service are offered like word, excel, power point,
etc. similarly, Google also use this brand management strategy by providing services such as
Gmail, maps, drive, etc. (de Carvalho Rodrigues, and Febra, 2019)
Brand equity management – this allows organisation in taking effective decision in order to
manage their brand. With help of it, they are able to maintain brand value and equity in the
market. However, main purpose of using this strategy is to survive in market for long term.
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Along with it, brands are categorised on several factors. For example – in premium brands its
brand image is high. This has to be maintained as it is included in premium one. thus, customers
are highly attracted towards it. here, an example can be taken of P&G where variety of products
such as Ariel, Ambi pur, Olay, Pantene, etc. are there. So, they have to maintain brand equity in
all segments. For each segment brand value is referred as main factor of attracting customers.
Moreover, overall existence of P&G with large number of products is useful in generating and
increasing brand awareness. Thus, consistency in brand equity make it easy to retain customers.
LO 3
P4 How brand is managed in partnership at domestic and global level
It is important for business to expand in global market to generate more revenue and profit.
This also helps in attracting more people and establishing a customer base. However, there are
many companies already operating in other countries. thus, by doing partnership or through
collaboration brand can be managed (Jin, C., Yoon and Lee, 2019). It shows collaboration and
partnership with different companies help brands to develop their business at a global level.
Partnership help large number of brands to achieve goals and objectives easily and require to
improve effectiveness of products and services. For this there are many ways which is
mentioned below
Product line extension – in this strategy new products are developed and launched under same
brand name. But the products are launched in different countries globally. The products can be
related to same line or different one. thus, Apple can launch new products such as Apple car, etc.
under their brand name. it will enable them to manage their brand at domestic and global level.
Furthermore, it will be useful in attracting more customers and increasing sales and profits.
Multi brand – it is a strategy where company launch a new product under sub brand name. but
here parent company brand name is constant. Usually, this strategy is followed in order to
increase competition in the market. Many companies follow this strategy basically in retail sector
to enter in new market.
New brand – This strategy allow company to develop and offer a new product in the market.
The purpose is to attract more customers and generate revenue.
Brand leveraging – It is strategy where company enter into new market by using their brand
name. it allows in attracting customers and building brand value. So, brand leverage does not
refer to leveraging of brand (Matute, Palau-Saumell, and Occhiocupo, 2019 )
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Strength of Apple
Apple is a highly innovative company having a strong brand name in the industry. They
manufacture high quality electronic devices with latest features installed in it. However,
company is already having a strong customer base at global level. Moreover, they are able to
generate huge revenue. A highly strong brand value and equity has benefited company to retain
customers and compete wit rivals. Another strength of Apple is company uses high tech
technology. So, here Apple can apply brand leverage to manage brand at global level. the
company can produce new product like Apple car and categorise under their brand name. By this
strong brand awareness can be generated.
Weakness of Apple
The main weakness of company is product are placed at high price. So, middle class
people are not able to afford it. Also, people like to buy product that are of cheap price of other
companies. Another weakness is Apple product is only purchased by people when they hear that
some features are installed in it. Due to this, it is difficult for company to maintain brand value
and image in the market.
Collaborative and partnership agreement – The name suggest that company by partnering
with other one can enter at global level. It allows them to increase competition and gain more
customers. furthermore, more opportunities are identified and grabbed. However, doing
collaboration helps in strengthening brand value and image in the minds of customers.
But this strategy will not benefit Apple as the company is having a strong brand value
and image in the market (Oh, Prado, and Frizzo, 2019). Moreover, people are also able to
recognise brand easily. The logo and high brand value allow in attracting them automatically.
However, Apple is market leader in many countries. So, they do not need to collaborate or
partnership with others to sustain in market. but in future it may be require to partner with other
in order to retain customers.
LO 4
P5 Different techniques for measuring and managing brand value
A company makes efforts to establish a strong brand image ad value in the market. It
enables in retaining customers and improving goodwill. Brand value can be created by company
by analyzing consumer perceptions, needs and demands. It can also be developed by enhancing
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consumer experience while buying the goods and services. A brand value represents the
perception of customers towards brand. It shows to what extent they are satisfied with brand.
However, it is important for companies to measure brand value so that new strategies are
developed. For measuring brand value there are several techniques available that provide
outcomes as well. the techniques are as follows:-
Brand awareness – In this technique the brand awareness reflects how much people are aware
about the brand. So, customer feedback is taken to identify whether they are able to recognise
brand name or not (Schaeffer, 2019). It gives insight and description of recognition of brand by
people in the market. In addition to it, many other factors are included that is also measured such
as brand identity, logo, tagline, etc.
Market share- It is also an effective technique in which market share is determined or
calculated of a particular brand. For this profit and sales are calculated of specific time period
and then measured with set goals and objectives. Alongside, sales of each product under brand is
calculated. Thus, by identifying overall profits market share is determined. Therefore, at both
domestic and global level brand value is measured. Besides that, profits and sales are evaluated
with competitors as well. It makes easy to do analysis of market share. Furthermore, companies
are able to manage brand value. They generate brand awareness in those market where market
share is low. Apple uses this technique to measure brand equity.
Consumer attitude – this technique is highly referred in measuring brand value. Here, consumer
attitude is analysed in context of brand. The consumer attitude consists of beliefs, emotions,
behaviour, etc. regarding a product or brand. By analysing the outcomes whether it is positive or
negative brand value is measured (Scorrano, Fait and Vrontis, 2019). With help of it,
companies easily identify that to how much extent brand value exists in the market. Moreover, if
there is negative attitude of customer than strategies are developed to manage brand value.
Purchasing intent – In this technique the probability of buying a product or service by a
customer is identified. Thus, a prediction is made about possibility of buying product in the
future. For that past data is used to analysed and on that basis brand value is measured. This
technique is highly useful in comparing results with goals. Furthermore, the purchasing intent is
useful in finding out how much leads is generated within particular time period. Therefore,
accordingly brand is managed in future.
Customers feedback
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It is an information provided by a client after using product and services of an
organization. It shows satisfaction and dissatisfaction of customers with organizations product
and services (Sujchaphong, Sujchaphong and Chen, 2019). Customers feedback is opinion and
review of client towards their need. Large number of companies take customers feedback as
importance for success of organization at a large scale.
Here, brand value can be managed through delivering right message to target audience. It
will enable in analysing what brand product reflects and how it will fulfil needs. Other than this,
consumer attitude can be managed by providing them specific choice or category of product or
services.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that by providing high quality of goods and
services, company has been able to maintain their brand value. They have also engaged in
providing different types of products so that their brand can be extended. It has also been
analyzed from report consumer loyalty has been created by providing creative and innovative
products. Firm has made use of various type of promotional channels in order to increase sale of
their various products such as Mac Book, IPhone, Air pods etc. It has supported firm in gaining
competitive advantage. Company has also been able to increase brand awareness by promoting
their goods and services on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They have also evaluated and
analyzed consumer touch points that has supported firm in growing. Brand value has been
created by using marketing as the tool. They have also made use of premium pricing strategy in
order to attract consumers.
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