Dissertation: Apple's Success Factors and Industry Application

This dissertation examines Apple's key success factors and how they contribute to its competitive advantage in the industry. It explores various elements, including customer orientation, innovation, marketing, and production strategies. The study uses a descriptive research design and a deductive approach, analyzing factors influencing Apple's success in the UK market and comparing its performance with competitors like Samsung and Sony. The research delves into the company's marketing and design strategies, its unique business practices, and areas for improvement in the global market. The dissertation includes a literature review, research methodology, data analysis, discussion, and conclusion with recommendations, providing a comprehensive understanding of Apple's success and its implications for other companies. The findings highlight the significance of factors such as product innovation, effective marketing, and customer-centric approaches in achieving market dominance.

DISSERTATION
(Apple’s key success factors that could be learned from and applied by
other companies in the same industry)
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................7
Rationale..................................................................................................................9
Framework and analyses.......................................................................................11
Chapter structure...................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................15
Factors affecting success of organisation..............................................................15
Significance of various factors in development of business...................................20
Ways to improve organisational performance in global market.............................25
CHAPTER 3- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...............................................................28
Introduction............................................................................................................28
Research philosophy.............................................................................................28
Research design....................................................................................................29
Research approach................................................................................................26
Data collection.......................................................................................................29
Sampling................................................................................................................31
Data Analyses........................................................................................................34
Ethical consideration..............................................................................................35
Validity and reliability............................................................................................. 35
Research limitations...............................................................................................36
Scope for future research......................................................................................37
Summary............................................................................................................... 38
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSES.........................................................39
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Introduction............................................................................................................39
Data Analyses........................................................................................................40
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ..........................................................................................65
Products.................................................................................................................65
Price.......................................................................................................................66
Place......................................................................................................................67
Process..................................................................................................................67
People....................................................................................................................69
Promotion.............................................................................................................. 69
Physical évidence..................................................................................................70
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ............................................77
Conclusion.............................................................................................................77
Recommandations.................................................................................................80
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................82
APPENDIX 1................................................................................................................. 90
Questionnaire........................................................................................................ 90
APPENDIX 2.................................................................................................................. 95
Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Apple's income statement.........................................................................95
Illustration 2: Samsung income statement......................................................................96
Illustration 3: Sony income statement............................................................................97
APPENDIX 3 98
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Model summary, ANOVA and Coefficients TABALES
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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor who has supported
me and has given me guidance for completing this dissertation. I would like to thank my
family members who have supported me and have given me inspiration.
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Declaration
I declare that it is my original work and it is not submitted for any other work. I
have faithfully cited all sources and I have used books, journals and internet articles for
completing this dissertation. I declare that there is no plagiarism.
Date 30/03/2018
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ABSTRACT
Apple is a multinational brand, which offers unique products and services to its
consumers. The current study discusses the key success factors that could be applied
by other companies in the same industry and market in order to grow their own market
share. This dissertation covers various components and their possible significance for
the development of other firms. Furthermore, the performance of Apple is examined in
order to analyse various factors, which have supported the company in gaining success
in the UK market.
INTRODUCTION
In today's world, every organisation seeks success and competitive advantage, and to
achieve these objectives, there are key factors playing key roles. It has been
established that there are several factors, which have great impact over the success of
any organization. These include customer orientation (Burke, 2013), innovation (Burke,
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2013), process, placing strategies , leadership (Booth, 2014), digital marketing (Barron
2013), and production (Cloud, 2010). Such as when the firm caters for the needs and
wants of the customers; this bring the organisation success; innovation helps to bring
new ideas, which can also help, in the success of the firm.
Organisations believe a large customer base and excellent brand image are essential.
These are the key factors, which help them to achieve success in the marketplace. In
today's world, customer orientation is the key concept at which every organisation work.
Customer orientation is the way by which an organisation can find the demands and
desires of customers and then try to produce those goods, which, first, serve the highest
level of satisfaction and, second, cannot be supplied by other
organisations/competitors .
In addition, innovation is another factor that helps the organisation to gain a
competitive advantage and success. It has been identified that there are several factors
that help the venture to gain success. In today's era strengths are called core
competencies of the venture (Yeoh and Popovič, 2016). When it comes to the plans of
the venture, strategic and tactical plans help the organisation to gain success. In brief,
businesses need to write and execute the different plans made by them, if they want to
move towards success.
Moreover, leadership is another key factor that helps the venture to gain
competitive advantage. Every organisation has expert people to focus on the big picture
in order to convert the plan into real life implementation. These leaders “must neither be
lost in the trenches; nor consumed with putting out fires; nor grinding their own axes.
They must be there for the business, and able to guide in powerful and sensitive ways”.
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(Aquilani and Gatti, 2017) With that communication and connection also play very
significant roles in the success of the organisation as well as in making customer
connection. Customers are key people of the venture, for whom different decisions are
made by venture. For customers the organisation tries to make innovative products and
services so that their demands and desires can be provided, and for them the
organisation implements different techniques and technology (Yusubova and Clarysse,
2016).
This is the era of digital world, where people communicate with the help of different
digital platforms such as social media tools, applications etc. In order to connect and
communicate with different people who are far away, social media platforms are
adopted by the individual. This strategy of communication and connection is being
adopted by the organisation to connect with large target market. Digital marketing is
very effective compared to physical marketing; this is because it helps the organisation
to grasp mass target audience with low cost. If these tools are effectively used by the
venture in order to attract, persuade and retain customers, the venture can gain
success (Vuksic and Merkas, 2016).
In addition, production is one of core competencies of the organisation, which
helps them to gain success in the market. Every venture serves some products and
services to customers for the value, thus it is the responsibility of the organisation to
supply their needs and and demands with the help of products and services. There are
a large number of competitors in the marketplace who sell the same products and
services as the venture produces (Behari and Soar, 2016). It is significant for such firms
to differentiate their products from their competitors so that they can create ideal image
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in the minds of customers. Such innovations and variety of products play a significant
role in the production process that helps them to gain competitive advantage and
success of the organisation.
Continuous quality improvement is also one of the major factors for the success
of a venture, which helps the venture to gain success and competitive advantage in
their business. The firm cannot stand still; otherwise, their products will become
obsolete. If they do not avoid obsolete products by coming out with something better,
their competitors will do it for them and take the firms customers (Yeoh and Popovič,
2016). If the organisation does not continuously eliminate errors and defects, their
customers will be disappointed and their costs will go up. (Aquilani and Gatti, 2017).
Having highlighted these factors, this study aims to shed more light on some of
Apple’s key success factors in the UK that could be learned and applied by other
companies from the same industry and market in order to grow their own market share.
To achieve this aim, this study investigates ‘what factors are having an impact on
Apple’s success?’ To narrow down the focus of this study, this research question is
broken down to following sub-questions:
 Are marketing and design of product the aspects that create competitive
advantage for Apple?
 How Apple’s way of doing business is different from its competitors? How Apple can improve its performance in the global market?
By investigating the above questions, this dissertation has the following objectives:
 Identifying factors that contribute to Apple’s success
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 Evaluating the significance of classified factors that create competitive
development in comparison with competitors
 Determining Apple’s performance in comparison with competitors like Sony,
Samsung, etc.
Rationale
In recent era, competitive advantage is a key aspect for any organisation because
level of competition has been advanced in a critical manner. By applying of diverse
strategies in terms of business management and marketing, companies are improving
their operations. Along with this, innovation is a factor which needs to be referred by
companies for sustainable values. Therefore, goals and objectives can be achieved. In
this dissertation, Apple Ltd, an American multinational organisation with headquarters
based in California is selected. This company produces electronic devices such as
smartphone (called iPhone), tablet (iPad), Mac personal computer, portable media
player (iPod), smart-watch, TV, and the Home-pod smart speaker etc.( Essays ,UK.
2013).It also designs, develops, and sells computer software and online services,
particularly macOS and iOS operating systems. To extend Apple’s list of products,
iTunes media player, Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and
productivity suites can also be added. The key reason for selecting the organisation
Apple is that the firm is a very successful organisation and there are several reasons for
the success of their venture.
The firm is very successful in the market of hardware, software and online
services. There are several reasons that helps the organisation to success and gain
competitive advantage (Key Reasons for Apples Success and the Effects of Apple on
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Society, 2015). One of the major factors of their success is their product mix which
consists of several product lines such as hardware, software, online service which
consist of iPod, Safari web browser, IWork, Apple TV digital media player, iPhone etc.
They regularly innovate and improve their products so they can stand out as leader in
the market among their competitors. Innovative spirit of Apple Inc. has been approved
across the world. In 2005, Boston Consulting Group held a poll which is called Top 20
Innovative Companies in the World. IPod, one of products of Apple launched in 2001
was in the list. The product has attracted customer attention because they can listen to
several songs anywhere. Meeting the entertainment demands of customers by this
product has greatly enhanced Apple’s performance.
Then, in the year 2002, Apple Inc. launched the second generation of iPod,
which began to support Windows OS. As a result, iPod became more widely popular
with both Macintosh and Windows users. Further, in the year 2005, they created an
iPod which can play both audio and video files (ibid.). Moreover, for users' convenience,
the battery life was longer than before. In 2007, the newest generation with larger
capacity which could store up to 4000 songs or 100 films, was launched. Another
rationale behind selecting Apple is that this company is considered as an innovative
firm. However, innovation is only one factor which provides success to business. It is
also essential to ensure what kind of other elements and factors are being referred by
business entity in order to attain better success.
Another relevant point to highlight is their marketing strategies and tactics.
Marketing plays a very significant role in an organisation’s success. Marketing of Apple
is classified in two ways, which are advertisement and communication style. When it is
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