Product Report: Apple Watch's Marketing and Competitive Analysis

This report presents a comprehensive case study analysis of the Apple Watch, encompassing various aspects of its marketing strategy and product performance. The report begins with an overview of Apple and the Apple Watch, followed by a SWOT analysis to identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It then delves into the three product level model and provides an industry overview, specifically focusing on the Australian product industry and a PESTLE analysis. A competitor comparison table is included to highlight the Apple Watch's positioning relative to its rivals. The report also examines the target market, key segmentation variables, and targeting strategy employed by Apple. Furthermore, it constructs perceptual maps to illustrate the competitive benefits and positioning of the Apple Watch. The analysis concludes with recommendations and references, providing a well-rounded assessment of the product's success and challenges in the market.

Product Report (Case Study)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
COMPANY AND PRODUCT OVERVIEW..................................................................................1
Overview of Apple and Apple watch..........................................................................................1
SWOT analysis of Apple and Apple Watch...............................................................................3
Three Product Level model for Apple Watch.............................................................................3
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW...............................................................................................................4
Overview of Australian Product Industry...................................................................................4
PESTLE Analysis of Apple and Apple Watch...........................................................................5
COMPETITOR COMPARISON TABLE.......................................................................................6
TARGET MARKET........................................................................................................................7
Detail main target market for Apple watch.................................................................................9
Key segmentation variables and corresponding sub categories..................................................9
Targeting Strategy of Apple........................................................................................................9
PERCEPTUAL MAPS AND POSITIONING..............................................................................10
Highly differential competitive benefits...................................................................................11
Other attributes..........................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
To sustain in the competitive environment, it is essential for the organisations to focus on
continuous improvements and launching innovative products. Albeit, even after launching
innovative goods and services does not guaranteed business success (O’Neill, 2017). There are
numerous examples of products failures which negatively impacts on brand image. In this
context, the focus of this assignment is to analyse the key component of marketing plan and
reasons for failure of product. Apple Watch will be selected for analysis. It is produced by one of
the leading American Technology company Apple Incorporation. In the report analysis of the
company will be made and its internal and external analysis will be described by using precise
strategic tools. The competitive table that describes the competitive position of the product will
be described in this assignment. The target market for the product will be determined by using
Segmentation and Targeting Strategy. Eventually, the perceptual map will be formulate which
outline the competitive analysis.
COMPANY AND PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Overview of Apple and Apple watch
Apple Incorporation is an American multinational technology company that provides
electronic goods and services to the customer. It was founded by renowned entrepreneurs Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 for development and sales of its
Wozniak's Apple I personal computers which incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc (Abt, Bray
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and Benson, 2018). In 2015, the company launch its first line of smart watches which relies on
wirelessly connected iPhone to perform many of its default functions such as calling and texting.
The major target market as per marketers of Apple was youth as it was designed and developed
accordingly for them. Unfortunately, in Australian market, the product was not able to attract the
expected amount of customers and eventually got failed badly. In Australia, the product fails to
attain the attraction of targeted customers due to compatibility issues, flaws and competition. For
instance, Telstra customers are not satisfied with the product as they are finding it hard to
synchronise their account with Apple watch.
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SWOT analysis of Apple and Apple Watch
Three Product Level model for Apple Watch
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 Core Benefit: The core problem identify the management of Apple was efforts of users
who constantly took time to pick up phone or take it out from pockets (Wallen and et.al.,
2016). They provide them accessible watch which can provide them messages, attending
calls without taking phone out. Actual Product: In order to turn the core benefits into reality, the management created
actual product and launch it in overseas market in 2015.
 Augmented Value: The Augmented value is the other benefits which provided by the
organisation. Customer will get more customer value for eg. Communication and also
more than actual product.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Overview of Australian Product Industry
Apple Incorporated works under Australian mobile and information technology sector. It
is one of the leading and renowned American computer technology company which have
immense brand reputation and enormous customer base (Koshy and et.al., 2018). In Australia,
communication sector is critical enabler of economic and social activity. Communication
technology touches and transforms everyone's lives. In past decade, three fundamental
transformations impacts on the consumptions of communication services in Australia. These are
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 Content merging of media and communication technology
 Increasing ubiquity of online platforms and
 Emergence of over-the-top (OTT) services
These transformations influences the ways of producing communication services and
consumed with far reaching implications of the market. Australian consumers have depicted
increasing appetite for mobile technologies over the past five years (Kirk, 2016). Smartphone
revolutionised today's world. Internet acts as an icing on cake. Mobile and smartphones
subscriptions specifically raised above 38 per cent. In June 2012 it was 16 million which
increased to 22 million in June 2016 (illustration 1). This implies that significant growth can be
witnessed in the mobile industry of Australia.
Illustration 1: Mobile subscribers, wireless broadband and handset
(Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Internet Activity, June 2016, cat. no. 8153.0,
October)
PESTLE Analysis of Apple and Apple Watch
Political Factor
 Government type and
stability
 Tax Policy
Economic Factor
 Stage of business cycle
 impact of globalisation
 labour costs
Social Factors
 Population growth rate
 Population health,
education and social
mobility
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 Regulation and de-
regulation
 likely changes in
economic factors
 Lifestyle choices and
attitudes toward socio
cultural changes
Technological Factor
 Research and
development activity.
 Impact of emerging
technology
 Impact of technology
transfer
Legal Factor
 Apple has been in
number of patent case
with competitors like
HTC and Samsung
 Needs to follow
employment legislation
of Australia.
Environmental factors
 Expense of disposing
of non-working or used
electronic devices.
 Climate change due to
global warming could
disrupt Apple's supply
chain.
COMPETITOR COMPARISON TABLE
Basis Apple Watch Pebble LG G Watch MOTO 360
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Benefits
 Price Relatively high as
compare to
competitors
Lowest price
among
competitors
Price is set on the
basis to gain
competitive
advantages.
Higher than LG
and Pebble but
lower than Apple.
 Place Provided on
authorised Apple
store and
available online.
Provided on
authorised Pebble
store and
available online.
Provided on
authorised LG
store, electronics
shops and
available online.
Provided on
electronic shops,
and available
online.
 Promotion Promoted on
digital media and
digital marketing.
Promoted on
digital media and
digital marketing.
Promoted on
digital media and
digital marketing.
Promoted on
digital media and
digital marketing.
 Product Apple Watch Pebble
Smartwatch
LG G Watch Moto 360
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TARGET MARKET
Apple Watch Series 3 advertisement was aired in 2017. The concept in advertisement
shown was that there is a watch for every purpose such as sports, running, corporate, dancing,
etc.
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One can track and share daily activities, measure calorie burn, daily step count, etc. by
using Apple Watch. In the advertisement, it was described the numerous uses and benefits of
Apple Watch.
In the advertisement commercial, the marketer’s motive is to explain that the watch is
very easy to use and it can be used by any user who have iPhone. It easily synchronises with the
device wirelessly and assist users in getting calls, messages and any other vital information. It
was aired worldwide by Apple Incorporation and in Australia it has different version of which
illustrations provided above (Playford and et.al., 2017). The marketing management of Apple
motive was to enhance the attraction of customer through the commercial. They targeted majorly
youth and teenagers of age between 20-40 years.
Detail main target market for Apple watch
The main target market as per the marketers of was young demographic. The rationale for
selecting young natives as the watch was specifically designed for them and integrated for their
use. It has advance features which can be easily comprehended by youths. As people who are
fans of Apple products or uses Apple products like iPhone the watch has been designed for them.
It comes in variety and for all purposes (Michael and Michael, 2015). The watch will be familiar
to past Apple users including feature that they already know such as Siri, touch sensitivity and
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notification. It has other features such as heart monitor rate, GPS, accelerometer, etc. which were
installed in order to attract the target market.
Key segmentation variables and corresponding sub categories
Market segmentation is the process of dividing customers into groups which helps the
marketers to prepare marketing plan for particular products and services. In this context, the
market segmentation done by the marketers at Apple for Apple watch is described below: Demographic: The customers targeted were mostly youth and young adults of age
between 20-40 years. The watch has been designed for both genders irrespective of
marital status, ethnicity, sexuality, occupation and education. The watch is designed
specifically for high earners. The reason for selection of young demographic was they
can easily able to synchronise the watch with their iPhone. Geographic: Marketers target all the developed and developing countries who have
authorised dealers and manufacturer operating (Huynh, Sonar and Haick, 2017). In
Australia, they target popular and famous cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland,
Victoria, etc.
 Behavioural: The motive of providing product is to reduce the efforts of people and
provide them with trendy and unique accessory which enhance their standards.
Customers can use the watch for different purposes according to their needs.
Targeting Strategy of Apple
In order to determine target market, the management of Apple utilised Focus or
Concentrated target strategy. They have segmented customers on the basis of needs,
demographic, psychology and behavioural and formulate marketing strategy accordingly.
Concentrated targeting strategy refers to the strategy where organisations concentrates on
resources and meeting the needs of narrowly defined market segment. It is considered as more
profitable than spreading the resources on different segments (O’Neill, 2017). By using this
strategy, the management at Apple were able to target the needs of their target market
effectively. As focus of organisation was majorly on gaining attraction of youth of age 20-40
years, the organisation prefers to use concentrated targeting strategy which enables them in
targeting the segmented customers efficiently. In order to sustain in the global competitive
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