Deakin University MPK732: Apple Inc.'s IMC and Distribution Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc.'s marketing strategies, focusing on its integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign for the Apple Watch and its distribution strategies. The report delves into the specifics of the Apple Watch IMC campaign, highlighting its targeted approach towards specific demographics, the use of various media channels like Vogue magazine and television advertisements, and the strategic timing of social media presence. It examines Apple's distribution methods, exploring both direct and indirect channels, including Apple Stores, e-commerce sites, retailers, and third-party carriers. The report also discusses Apple's brand image, pricing strategies, and its ability to adapt to the changing market landscape. The assignment fulfills the requirements of the MPK732 Marketing Management course, exploring key concepts like IMC, distribution strategies, and their application in a real-world business context. The report also contains references to academic and industry sources to support the arguments presented.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Blog 1: Integrated Marketing Campaign- The case of Apple Inc.
Search Results for “Apple IMC Strategy”
A GREAT IMC CAMPAIGN: APPLE WATCH
People today have recognised the different communication techniques that are more
effective while coordinating with the other marketing elements. In this rapidly changing
business world and marketing place, there is an emergence of complex competitors (Vargo
and Lusch 2014). Every day, new companies are formed, developed, merged and taken over
in different parts of the world. Along with this daily phenomenon, the modern companies are
required to be smart enough in terms of marketing strategies. IMC (Integrated Marketing
Communication) ensures that there are different objectives of marketing and every objective
has its own plan of communication (Batra and Keller 2016). Within an IMC plan, role of
public relation is identifying the way of communicating with the customers and clients
effectively (Seric, Gil-Saura and Ruiz-Molina 2014) IMC plan, role of public relation is
identifying the way of communicating with the customers and clients effectively. As
organisations depend on the demands for profits, it is very important to identify the ways in
which services and products would be benefitting the customers and the ways in which these

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customers can understand the benefits that they could gain from using those services and
products (E. Prescott 2014).
Like many other modern companies,
Apple Inc. too has turned towards integrating
its advertising efforts with the other
communication techniques like websites,
sales promotions, public relations, internet,
event sponsorships and direct marketing
(Yip, Zhu and Chan 2017). It faced an uphill battle while marketing with the Apple Watch.
The wearable consumer technology is still a new phenomenon for the world, particularly
where the typical functions of smartphone are of great concern. Before Apple even started
promoting its smart watches, the other market leaders like LG already released their own
(Pradhan and Sujatmiko 2014). Hence, this made the marketers get puzzled over the slow
paced marketing campaign of Apple watch. But, at that time, Steve Jobs might just be living
by the maxim “Slow and Steady Wins the Race”.
While Samsung, LG and the other competitors ran with the typical multi-channel
campaigns for reaching the widest possible population (Hogarth 2018). Apple chose to hit the
ground with a 12 page advertisement in Vogue Magazine targeting a specific audience- the
“fashionistas”. Marketers began to buzz about why Apple was marketing its Apple Watch
only to women (Wang and Nien 2016). Not all the readers of Vogue were able to afford
things that they read about in the magazine. Hence, keeping this in mind, Apple chose to
introduce the least expensive version of Apple Watch that cost just 350$ and this allowed the
average customers to perceive these highly
fashionably, super cool and highly valued item as
much more affordable (Gupta 2017). A wide

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series of cover photos and images of the popular models like Valentino and Manolo Blahnik
wearing the Smart Watch that cemented the image as functional fashion.
However, Apple Inc. knew that Vogue alone was not sufficient to fuel the fire of the
Apple Watch and this is why, its measured integrated campaign gradually unfolded with eye-
catchy television advertisement which looked
much like a live demonstration of the features
of the watch, featured by Nick Jonas (Evans
2017). It further followed by a wide range of
interviews with Apple execs, bringing Public
Relations (PR) into the mix. Apple let advertising to lead a two pronged approach (Giri and
Sharma 2014). Fashion media wanted to talk about the Apple Watch as it was competing the
modern smart watches, including the luxury ones (Udoh and Alkharashi 2016). Similarly,
Tech media also wanted to talk about it as it was one of the Apple’s electronic products in an
emerging technology.
As this IMC campaign of Apple gained momentum, its social media presence went
into high gear, especially when it saw its competitors to timing the advertisements for their
smart watches around the launch event of Apple Watch (Machado, Cant and Seabone 2014).
Warring Twitter advertisements in between Pebble and Apple showed how intense was the
battle for customer attention when the competing firms were rushing towards capitalising a
new technology at the same time (Jellicorse 2015). The outcome of this was that Apple was
successful at capturing 75.5 percent of the global market of smart watch during the first
quarter of its launch (Chauhan et al. 2016).
Hence, it is to conclude that beyond the application of different channels integrating
perfectly, the final magic of Integrated Marketing Communication, Apple Inc. showed

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something that goes back to the foundation of a good IMC plan. The company paid much
attention to the customers whom they wanted to target. Apple marketers knew when and
where and how to reach them and rather than picking up just customer segment, they chose to
target multiple customer segment. Apple had different buyers in mind- one that buy their
product anyway and the other are the “fashionistas”, who might be more attracted to a luxury
watch more than a high fashion brand.
Blog 2: Distribution Strategy- The Case of Apple Inc.

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Search Results for “Apple’s Distribution Strategy”
APPLE’S SECRET DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
Distribution strategies that are embraced by any organisation can either give them an
edge in the market or make them fall behind the market winners (Durand, Grant & Madsen,
2017). According to Buckley and Ghauri (2015), the more efficient the distribution of
product of a company is, the more number of sales are gained, thus making more profits.
Delivery of right products at right time to the customers not only influence the product utility,
but at the same time, also results in higher level of customer loyalty and satisfaction.
According to Fisher (2015), the key modifications made in the organisational operations are
particularly based on the strategic fit of the various channels of distribution in relation to the
company’s business model and the demands that are faced by it in different marketing
environments. Several types of distribution channels are been used by the companies in
modern days and they all can be categorised into- direct channel, indirect channel and dual
distribution (Thompson et al., 2014). Firstly, direct channels enables the companies to
directly sell its products and services to the customers, right from the manufacturers and there

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is no interference of the intermediaries in between. Indirect distribution channel is used by
the manufacturers for reaching out to the customers through inclusion of diverse
intermediaries. Use of intermediaries allow organisations to widen the scope of markets while
making further expansions (Von Kistowski et al., 2015). Finally, dual distribution is the type
of distribution that is based on diverse channels of media and it is considered by the
companies in order to reach out large number of target consumers by means of using online
and physical stores (Dan et al., 2014).
It is very important to have customer talking
about a brand. Apple has created some exciting
experiences for its customers that they are likely to
talk about and share to each other (Gardere, Sharir &
Maman, 2018). When it comes to distribution
strategy, the company usually uses either direct or indirect approach. The mission of the
company is:
“To bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware,
software, and services”
With a tagline-
“Think Different”
According to Kohli, Suri and Kapoor (2015), distribution strategy is the fundamental
component of the digital marketing strategy of the big companies like Apple. By means of
different channels like retailers, resellers, e-commerce sites and supermarkets, Apple Inc.
distribute its products throughout the world. The company has gained excellence in the
segments like clothing, sports equipment and many other. It makes use of different
campaigns for making itself remain at the top (Mudambi & Puck, 2015). The business model

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of the company use direct or indirect approach and in many cases, a mixture of both the
channels. For example, Apple sells majority of its products directly to the customers through
its Apple Stores. It is very critical for the success of the brand as it allows it to deliver high-
quality customer buying experiences for its products where education and service are focused
on more.
Apple sells its products world-wide and is a well-recognised global brand. It has
several flagship stores in certain nations and at the same time, has huge online presence
(Ailawadi & Farris, 2017). It distributes its products world-wide by means of different
channels like e-commerce sites, licensers, supermarkets, resellers, the company owned Apple
stores etc. Chai et al., 2017). Furthermore, it is also to mention that the retail stores of Apple
are typically located at the high-traffic locations in the quality shopping malls in big cities
and also in the urban shopping districts. The main aim after doing this is to create higher
visibility independently from the product sales (Fried, 2015). Also, it is to note that majority
of the revenues of Apple comes from its direct distribution channels. The company employs
different indirect distribution channels that include retailers, 3rd party cellular network
carriers, wholesalers and resellers. It concentrates on sponsorships and television more, even
though it does have its instore and online presence. According to Clinton and Whisnant
(2019), Apple distributes its services and products on a level basis.
High priced premium offerings are
provided to certain distributors and this leaves
the low priced ones to be sold at highly
discounted prices at mega retail stores like Wal-
Mart, Sam’s, Radio Shack and Target (Pollard,
Chuo & Lee, 2015). Apart from this, the company has about 301 retail stores in ten different
nations and has online stores in 37 countries where both the software and hardware products

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are sold. Moreover, it has about 3000 retailers and about 320 large distributions. With the
same, Apple is gradually adding many other channels for its product distribution with high
sales volume and this shows that the company is ventured more into global market
capitalisation (Craig, DeHoratius & Raman, 2014).
Hence, it is to mention that marketing strategy of Apple Inc. is based completely on
the brand image of it that is favourable and has evolved into some great multinational
company over the passage of time. The brand image of the company has been kept afloat as
of the strong link that it has with the logo of the company and this is quite distinctive. Also
the tagline of the company, “Think Different” has long been used by the company in the
advertisements for quite long time. It invests a lot on its product advertisements and brand
promotion.

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