Marketing Report: Apple's Strategies, Roles, and Marketing Mix

This report delves into the core concepts of marketing, using Apple as a case study to illustrate key principles. It begins with an introduction to marketing, defining its role in attracting customers and satisfying their needs. The report then explores the interrelationship of marketing with other functio...Read More

Marketing essential

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
The roles of marketing and interrelationship with other functional units ..................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Comparison of ways in which the company use elements of the marketing mix for achieving
organisational goals.....................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is actions and process of attracting potential customers towards a company's
products and services in order to develop the demands of products and also for satisfying the
needs of customers. Apple is an American multinational technology company. Headquarter of
this company is in Cupertino, California. It designs and develop consumer electronics and online
services like Apple watch, Apple stores and so on. This study will cover and show about the
importance of marketing and their roles in order to raise profits of an organisation (Armstrong
and et.al., 2015). It also shows the interrelationship of all the functional units of the firm and the
roles of a manager in the development of marketing. This report will show the marketing mix
that includes the 7Ps of marketing.
TASK 1
The roles of marketing and interrelationship with other functional units
Definition of marketing
Marketing is a process of the company which is associated with buying and selling of
products and services. It is a method of attracting more customers towards the firm' s products
and services. This process includes advertising, promotion of products, selling and delivering of
products to customers.
The concept of marketing
The marketing concept is a philosophy which Apple company analyse the demands and
needs of its customers and according to that needs it makes effective plan and strategies in order
to satisfy their needs in better way than its competitors. In the marketing concept, the manager of
Apple company finds and analyse the needs of customers and they make plans that how they can
achieve goals. The marketing concept includes production concept, product concept, selling
concept, marketing concept and societal marketing concept. Before developing the products and
services it aligns all the functional units of the company in order to productive work and focus on
needs of the customers.
Current trends: There are some marketing trends which Apple company use for
improving and development marketing like digital marketing better video contents, marketing
campaigns etc. Digital marketing can make an ideal career choice and the scope of this trend is
endless. It is the best way of interacting with customers because most of the people spend their

time on social media. It helps the company in analysing their customer's needs and ways of
responding to them (Babin and Zikmund, 2015).
Future trends: Future trends can be defined as the usage of different attractive ways that
includes artificial intelligence which can help the manager of Apple company in order to utilize
their time and also increase their sales by attracting more customers. Artificial intelligence is an
important and effective future marketing trend which can be defined as an area of computer
science which focuses on the creation of intelligent machines which work like humans. These
machines have many features like learning, planning, speech recognition and problem solving.
These features help the manager of Apple company in gaining positive results.
The marketing process:
A marketing process includes some steps which help the company in better marketing
and achieving their marketing goals. There are some steps which includes in the process of
marketing.
Identify the mission: The very first step of marketing process is to identify the mission
and objective of marketing. Before developing marketing plan it is very important for the
manager of Apple company to create a mission statement which guides them in the marketing
planning.
Analyse situations: The next step is to identify the current situation of the company. In
this step Apple company' s manager identifies that what they already have like their strengths,
weaknesses and how can be more effective in this process.
Objective development: In this step marketing manager analyse the ways of improving
marketing activities so that objective can be accomplished. The required resources and
distributed channels are used in order to carry out their plan and development of their objectives.
Marketing strategy: It is an important step because in this step the marketing manager
of a company makes the marketing strategy after analysing all the factors and situations. The
main aim of marketing strategy is to develop products and services of the company. It also helps
their customers in understanding the importance and uniqueness of their products.
Evaluation and planning: It is the final step of marketing process in which the manager
of the company implement and develop its marketing plan. In this step manager evaluate
feedbacks and periods in order to assess the effectiveness of their strategies.
Roles and responsibilities of marketing manager:

Marketing manager play a significant role in the company. They play various functions
and role in order to increase the sales and profits of the firm. The main aim of marketing manage
r is to promote the products and services of the organisation for achieving their determined goals.
Some roles and functions of marketing manager are as follows:
Development of the marketing plan: The main function which is played by the
marketing manager is to develop the marketing plan and strategy of Apple company. Marketing
plan is a approach that helps in developing marketing strategies (Baker, 2016). It is essential
function of the manager of Apple company because it supports them to meet the needs of their
customers.
Achievement of effective outcome: For achieving effective and determined outcomes,
marketing manager focus on improving the relationship of all functional units and also focus on
collaborative working. This helps them in getting positive outcomes.
Development of effective strategy: For developing marketing process it makes
marketing strategies and the function of manager is to develop that strategy. This strategy defines
them that how the company can promote its products and services. For developing this strategy,
it researches about their market in that it collects all the information’s related customers.
The proper market segment: Market segmentation is the process of dividing the group
of people which have the common characteristics. Marketing manager segment their market
which helps them in focusing on one type of people. It is not possible for the marketing manager
to fulfil the needs of all type of customers at a one time so it makes them able to focus on their
target customers (Chen and Bai, 2016).
Value and importance of marketing roles
There are various functional departments in Apple company who play various roles.
Functional units of the company are: Human resource, sales department. Production department,
customer services department, finance department etc.
Production and marketing department: Production department play an important role
in the company as they are responsible for producing products according to the needs and
demands of the company. Production department has the interrelationship with marketing
department because marketing department collects all the informations related customers like
their needs, like dislike and they give this information to production department. After receiving

all the informations production department makes the products in order to satisfy customer's
needs.
It is very important to maintain this relationship because it makes their works and
activities easy. When they work together then there becomes the less chances of errors and
mistakes in the process of production. Collaboration is very important for Apple company as it
decrease the pressure and burden on functional units (Berman and et.al., 2019).
Marketing and human resource department: The main responsibility of marketing
function is to communicate to the people and potential customers and tell them the importance
and features about the products of the company. On the other hand human resource is branding
as a employer to the prospective employees that helps in adding human value to the company.
Human resource department is also responsible for the achievement of the company's goals by
satisfying employees and well as customers needs. Sop it can be said that there is an
interrelationship between marketing and human resource department.
TASK 2
Comparison of ways in which the company use elements of the marketing mix for achieving
organisational goals
Definition of marketing mix:
Marketing mix is strategy that the company uses in order to formulate their services and
products offering fro their customers. In another words marketing mix is a set of actions an
organisation use for promoting its products and brand in the market.
7 P's of marketing mix
7 P's is also known as marketing strategy of the company which includes price, product,
promotion, place, people, process and physical evidence.
Product: Product is the main part and element in marketing mix. Products refers that
what the company sells according to the customers expectations (Kotler and et.al., 2015).
Place: Place refers an area and location where the company wants to sell or sells its
products.
Price: It refers the pricing strategy of the products of an organisation. It is the cost of
products which company sells for earning money.

Promotion: Promotion refers the activities that an organisation choose fro promoting
their products like advertising, direct marketing etc.
People: People refers the staff that work for the company and help an organisation in
achieving their goals.
Process: Process refers to the processes that are involved in delivering products and
services to the customers.
Physical evidence: Physical evidence is the appearance of products and packaging.
Comparison of marketing mix
7P's Apple Dell
Product Apple designs, produces and sells technological
devices that includes iPad tablets, iPhone,
smartphones and so on. It also designs and sells
third party and own Mac-compatible accessories
that includes Apple TV, displays, storage
devices and other connectivity products (Larson
and Draper, 2015).
Dell produces a wide range of
services and products for
profession, home and industry
use. It also makes all in ones,
accessories and electronics that
includes servers, tablets and so
on. It also provides different
types of soft wares that are
helped in data protection.
price There are various pricing strategies that Apple
uses such as: Geographical pricing, premium
pricing and price skimming. Apple believe that
customers can pay more for those products that
are well designed and satisfy the needs of them.
Most of the Laptops and PCs of
this company are prices
competitively. It also uses
premium pricing strategy.
Place Place elements of this company integrates
different sales channel like Apple store, direct
sale force, online stores, retailers, wholesalers
etc. Apple retail stores are creatively designed
place where customers can use their services and
products and also get friendly assistance.
The products of Dell company
are sold through various
channels. The main and
important channel which the
company prefer is its website.
It also sells its products

globally through distributors
and resellers.
Promotion Promotion activities help the company in order
to emphasizes on its premium image. For
promoting its products it uses various channels
like personal selling, advertising, public relations
and sales promotions. The main channel which
is preferred by Apple fro promoting its products
is advertising and personal selling. In advertising
its uses its own websites and their technologies
sites.
For promoting its products the
company spend millions on
promotion and marketing. Fro
promoting it uses various
channels like television ads and
print media (Mohammad,
2015).
People The main reason of Apple growth is its people
and employees who helps them in achieving
company's vision. The people of the company
have perfect knowledge of their products.
People and staff members of
Dell enjoys to work with the
company. Dell also encourages
team work that helps them in
operating globally. It also
provides opportunities for
internal growth to their people
which increases their morale.
Process It uses various processes whose main aim is to
match the market conditions and fulfil their
different customer needs.
It uses various procedures in
the delivery and operating
system.
Physical
evidence
Apple is managing in creating its own culture.
For packaging and attracting more customers
towards its products it uses advance technologies
and innovations (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2016).
It is related to the environment
in which the services and
products of the company
delivered.
Analysis of the marketing planning process:
Analysis of marketing planning process includes some steps that includes analysis of
market situation, action programs, sales forecasting, implementation, controlling and so on. This
plan of the company is based on its development or where a company wants to be at some point

in the future. The main aim and purpose of the company to make and develop marketing plan is
to set the company on a specific path in marketing. Before making and developing plan it needs
to determine their vision and objectives. Without mission it can not develop their plan.
Analysis: In this step a marketer needs to analyse the market situations. It also needs to
analyses its data and research that they collect and summarize it into their meaningful findings.
In that research it finds out the needs and demands of their potential and target customers which
helps them in making and developing an effective planning. In this step of marketing process a
marketer of Apple needs to analyse its competitors also which helps them in knowing that what
types of services and products they will need to products in order to compete with them. It also
helps them in increasing their sales and profitability (Pike, 2015).
Planning: After analysing all the factors and research marketer needs to make an
effective plan. In this plan and with the help of analysis it identify their target audience.
According to the needs and demands of their target audiences it makes it plans with the helps of
research analysis. In this step it also decides its budget and price which should be suitable for
customer as well as employer.
Implementation: An implementation schedule is a time-line which shows them that
when and by whom the marketing actions will be done. After analysing all the factors it
implement their plan. In this process a marketer ensures their efficient use of resource like
capital, human and other marketing resources of the company.
Control: This process is done by the implementation of their plan. In this step it
compares their determined results and real outcomes in order to control their planning. Marketer
also make changes if it finds the difference between its results. A marketer of Apple company
ensures the achievements of objectives that are adopted by the company. It measures the values
of indicators by comparing its actual values to its planned values (Serrat, 2017).
Marketing strategies: In this step marketer of the company develop marketing strategies
that helps them in achieving their determined goals. By focusing on the elements of strategies
and its practices helps them in creating a special value in the mind of their customers. The main
aim of developing marketing strategy is to provide satisfaction to their employees and also
achieve their goals.

CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that marketing played an important role in an
organisation. Marketing department has responsibilities of promoting products and services of
the company in order to make a good image of the company and also for increasing sales of the
company. It has different functional departments which interrelated and worked together in order
to satisfy their customers. It has discussed about marketing current and future trends that
marketer used for promoting the company's products. It also showed difference and comparison
between 2 company from same industry in context of marketing mix.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Armstrong, G. and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Essentials of marketing research. Nelson Education.
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Berman, E.M. And et.al., 2019. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes,
processes, and problems. CQ Press.
Chen, J. and Bai, H., 2016, September. Analysis on the Reasons of Social Responsibility
Management Deficiency of Multinational Corporations' Supply Chain Based on PDCA
Model-a Case Study of Apple Company. In 2016 6th International Conference on
Management, Education, Information and Control (MEICI 2016). Atlantis Press.
Kotler, P. and et.al., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Larson, J. and Draper, S., 2015. Internet marketing essentials. Idaho Falls, ID: Stukent
Incorporated.
Mohammad, H.I., 2015. 7PS marketing mix and retail bank customer satisfaction in northeast
Nigeria. British journal of marketing studies. 3(3). pp.71-88.
Pike, S., 2015. Destination marketing: essentials. Routledge.
Serrat, O., 2017. Marketing in the public sector. In Knowledge Solutions (pp. 111-118).
Springer, Singapore.
Wirtz, J. and Lovelock, C., 2016. Services marketing. World Scientific Publishing Company.