Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Psychology: Apple iPhone 8 Report

This report examines consumer behavior and marketing psychology related to the Apple iPhone 8, comparing it to the iPhone 6. It analyzes survey data to understand how marketing strategies influence consumer attitudes, behaviors, and purchasing decisions. The report covers Apple's current marketing strategies, including the marketing communication mix, and provides a critical analysis of factors such as group influences, attitudes, culture, and consumer learning processes. It also offers strategic recommendations for Apple, focusing on distribution expansion, automation improvements, and partnerships to enhance market share and brand image. The report emphasizes the importance of innovation, brand reputation, and addressing market challenges to maintain a competitive edge. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the factors that influence consumer behavior and the effectiveness of marketing strategies.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY
Consumer behaviour and marketing psychology
Name of student
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY
Executive Summary
The report was presented to analyse the different marketing related aspects and how it
helped in influencing the consumers’ buying behaviours. The survey results were analysed
and interpreted, which mostly showed the positive responses of the respondents who believed
that the positive image and enhanced features present in Apple iPhone 8 contributed to the
influence on consumers attitudes and behaviours, which also facilitated the process of
decision making process. Few strategic recommendations were made, which demonstrated
abut the essentiality of managing partnership with contract manufacturers and enabling
partnership with Government and regulatory agencies for presenting a positive brand image,
which also influenced the buying behaviours of customers largely.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Selected Product or Service Overview.......................................................................................4
Critical Analysis.........................................................................................................................4
Apple’s current marketing strategy........................................................................................4
Marketing communication mix..............................................................................................5
Strategic Recommendations.......................................................................................................6
Reference List............................................................................................................................7

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Selected Product or Service Overview
From the assignment already done, it is understood that the two products, i.e., Apple
iPhone 8 and iPhone 6. The major product selected here is the Apple iPhone 8, which has a
price of $599 for the 64GB variant and $699 for the iPhone 8 Plus. Though it does not have
slick edge to edge design features like the latest offerings of Apple, still it has been
considered by many as a value for money device with great quality pictures and 4K videos
along with A11 Bionic processor. The iPhone 8 is resistant to water and supports LTE
Advanced speed of over 450Gb/s, though lack the dual SIM functionality feature. The smart
phone was introduced in the year 2017 and it had been a trendsetter as it boosted of a glass
body and matching aluminium frame with the Touch ID Home button and thick bezels at the
top and bottom portion of the display. The product has been made available in three colours
including the Silver, Gold, Space Gray and with the most durable glass present in the
reinforced steel and aluminium structure, the product has been water and dust resistant as
well. The iPhone 8 boosts of a 4.7 inch display while the iPhone 8 Plus includes a much
bigger display, i.e., 5.5 inch display that has been designed to adapt the colour temperature
and intensity for adjusting to the ambient light and provide a paper like viewing experience
for the individuals who by the product too. The 3-core GPU further has enhanced the
functioning of the smartphone and made machine learning tasks much easier and faster to
perform.
Critical Analysis
From the analysis of the survey monkey results, it has been found that the
questionnaire is entirely prepared on the basis of comparing the Apple iPhone 8 with the
iPhone 6 and how the various factors have influenced the buying behaviours and decision
making processes. The critical analysis also demonstrates about the various issues related to

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marketing and how those have been related to the consumer buying behaviours such as the
group influences, attitudes, behaviours, culture, social class and consumer learning processes
associated with the consumer buying behaviours and decision making processes (Hoyer,
MacInnis and Pieters 2013).
Apple’s current marketing strategy
From the analysis of the assignments done previously, it has been found that the
consumers’ buying behaviours and purchase making decisions are often influenced by the
marketing strategies implemented by Apple while promoting the product, i.e., Apple iPhone
8. With the help of the current marketing strategies, the company has managed to attract three
market segments including the music lovers who are targeted by Apple Ipod and Itunes,
another market segment comprises of Generation Y individuals who have been targeted by
introducing new range of smart phones, especially the Apple iPhone series, Tablets,
Macbooks, etc. while the other segment consists of individuals who use Ibook, Apple Pay, etc
(Mullen and Johnson 2013). Apple has reinvented the iPhone 8 to ensure huge transformation
of business functions and processes and at the same time, represented the future of mobile
base technologies and convenience for customers to facilitate innovation and meet the
changing demands and expectations of the clients much more easily (Foxall 2014).
Apple has made sure to invest largely on the PPC ads with the Facebook or Google
for increasing the sales revenue and ensure placing the products properly for easy
accessibility by the customers. According to Valos et al. (2016), this has been beneficial for
increasing the market share and at the same time, facilitated the marketing efforts required to
manage business perfectly. While introducing iPhone 8 in the market, Apple also made sure
to manage a free trial program and delivered a free trial of the service or product in
replacement of a positive recommendation (Stephen 2016). This ensures gathering necessary
information from the clients about the product and allow the business to understand whether

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the needs and preferences of clients would be fulfilled easily or not. In case the free trial for
the product is not feasible, then positive reviews and feedbacks should be acquired from the
customers for ensuring the market mix components to develop and grow over time,
furthermore enabled Apple to remain competitive and sustainable within the concerned
industry (Boush, Friestad and Wright 2015).
Apple has tried to prevent price wars by prioritising on the unique value propositions,
which has made the company not compete on price by lowering down the cost of iPhone. As
stated by Dissanayake and Amarasuriya (2015), the content marketing strategy has helped in
sending the right messages and information and present those via audio or visual content to
the clients. Apple has also maintained a good design and managed smaller packaging to
ensure getting the best furthermore through use of social media platforms and raising the
chances of gaining competitive advantage in business along with bigger market share
(Dissanayake and Amarasuriya 2015).
Figure: Marketing method (Apple.com.au 2019)
The marketing strategy also includes understanding the audiences well and cope up
with the local culture by using local languages. Apple also focused on understanding the
audiences well and focused on using their own languages for attracting more visitors to the

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website by addressing the features in the form of “edge to edge glass”, “retina display” and
“LED lightning”, which further enhanced the level of trust and loyalty among the customers
of Apple iPhone series present in the marketplace (Hannah et al. 2014). To enhance the
marketing efficiency, Apple also allowed their potential customers to create videos and post
those through various filtering procedures on social media networks and video streaming
platforms. As stated by Machado, Cant and Seaborne (2014), this innovative marketing
strategy enables unboxing, which has improved the designing ability for a better customer
experience and even influenced buying behaviours. The retail stores of Apple are also
designed in such a manner that it can address or represent the feelings inside with the help of
warm lightning, monochromatic colour schemes and other extended features that replicate the
feelings of people and encouraged the customers to make purchase of the iPhone 8
(Apple.com.au 2019).
Marketing communication mix
The marketing communication mix by Apple enables undertaking approaches for
focusing on the key components of the communication mix and manage various promotional
activities to improve the brand image and influence consumer buying behaviours. The
various components including the print and media advertising along with sales promotions,
events and experiences along with direct marketing, public relations and personal selling
activities too. This has helped in communicating the right messages and information about
the product, i.e., Apple iPhone 8 t the customers, which has further influenced their buying
behaviours and purchasing decisions furthermore (De Mooij 2018). Due to this, the target
market has been attracted, which has further allowed Apple to use the various components of
the marketing communication mix and ensured maintaining consistency while delivering
marketing messages and information to the clients in different market segments (Chernev
2018).

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Based on the analysis of survey data, it is found that most of the responses are
positive as because customers who are avid buyers of Apple products have been not much
concerned about the price, rather they have trust on the brand and focus on the quality of
products delivered. Most importantly, the hexa core processor and 2GB RAM along with
greater picture resolution and great quality camera have further created positive mind sets
among the people and influence them to make purchase of the specific product from the
brand (Boone and Kurtz 2013). When compared with the Apple iPhone 6, the product has
some extended features, which has motivated and encouraged the selection of choices
between these two products offered by Apple quite easily.
The use of Apple Print and Media advertising has further promoted the brand and its
products and the endorsements of the brand with the involvement of popular celebrities have
further enhanced the brand identity and awareness among the customers. The “Think
different” print media campaign has boosted the brand exposure and it has been well
supported by the sales promotions. The Point of sales materials helped in improving the
design aspects, which could be seen in the Macbook shaped roof for the Apple store in
Thailand. Being one of the largest and wealthiest companies in the whole world, the company
did not focus on customer loyalty programs, rather provided them with rewards and benefits
while making purchase of the iPhone 8 and ensured retention of customers largely too
(Londhe 2014). The seasonal sales promotions such as ”Buying the product at only 1$ and
then paying the rest of amount as EMI and other discounts provided have enhanced the
effectiveness of marketing communication mix and ensured reaching a wider group of
audiences much conveniently (Apple.com.au 2019).
Strategic Recommendations
Based on these strengths of the company and according to the analysis of these survey
results, it has been found that the most the respondents reacted positively and also stated

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about the marketing communication mix. This induced the promotional activities and at the
same time, enhanced the brand image and awareness among the customers, which also
assisted Apple to raise the level of expectations among them and deliver products and
services accordingly. From the analysis, it has been found that, in some cases, the brand may
face difficulty due to the higher priced products and targeting the premium segment of
markets consisting of customers (Todorova 2015). In spite of this also, most of the potential
clients who are loyal to the brand have remained inclined to the brand, which has helped in
influencing their buying behaviours and even the brand and its products have been promoted
through word of mouth promotions, thereby resulted in positive brand image and reputation
(Fill and Turnbull 2016). The major strategic recommendations for Apple are as follows:
 It is recommended for Apple to use the major strengths of the company for addressing
the scopes and exploit those opportunities to expand the network for distribution of
Apple iPhone 8. The rapid process of innovation and strong brand image have further
helped in introducing new products and services, which has also helped in facing the
threats of competitors and challenges in the global market with much ease and
efficiency.
 Apple is also recommended to improve the process of automation with the help of
establishing relationships with the contract manufacturers and furthermore address the
rising costs of labour associated with the manufacturing and production processes.
 Recommendations are also made for developing partnerships with the distributors of
the product, which could not only improved the market share, but would also enhance
the network of distribution for making it easy for the customers to gain access to the
product.
 The implementation of cost leadership and differentiation strategy is also
recommended for managing the economies of scale and promote “Think different”

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philosophy to facilitate innovation, marketing activities and create great scopes and
opportunities for managing the differentiation strategy implementation.
 It is also recommended to manage the ‘Switchers’ campaign and create a customer
focused strategy for making customers inclined towards the brand and prevent them
from switching on to some other brand, furthermore influence their buying behaviours
and purchase making decisions as well.
 The formation of close relationships with the Government and educational
organisations is recommended as well for the purpose of creating more sources of
income and ensure targeting each and every group of audiences present in the
different market segments
 Lastly, Apple is recommended to adopt sustainable and environment friendly
practices for contributing to the positive environmental impact. The company must
also focus on the corporate social responsibility measures to focus on providing
benefits to the community, furthermore, should ensure contributing to the community
as well as the environment largely too.

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Reference List
Apple.com.au (2019). Apple (Australia). [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/au/
[Accessed 4 Jun. 2019].
Boone, L.E. and Kurtz, D.L., 2013. Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.
Boush, D.M., Friestad, M. and Wright, P., 2015. Deception in the marketplace: The
psychology of deceptive persuasion and consumer self-protection. Routledge.
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
Dissanayake, D.M.R. and Amarasuriya, T., 2015. Role of brand identity in developing global
brands: A literature based review on case comparison between Apple iPhone vs Samsung
smartphone brands.
Fill, C. and Turnbull, S.L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and
participation. Pearson.
Foxall, G., 2014. Consumer Behaviour (RLE Consumer Behaviour): A Practical Guide.
Routledge.
Hannah, D., Parent, M., Pitt, L. and Berthon, P., 2014. It's a secret: Marketing value and the
denial of availability. Business Horizons, 57(1), pp.49-59.
Hoyer, W.D., MacInnis, D.J. and Pieters, R., 2013. Consumer behavior.

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Londhe, B.R., 2014. Marketing mix for next generation marketing. Procedia Economics and
Finance, 11, pp.335-340.
Machado, R., Cant, M.C. and Seaborne, H., 2014. Experiential marketing on brand advocacy:
a mixed-method approach on global apple product users. The International Business &
Economics Research Journal (Online), 13(5), p.955.
Mullen, B. and Johnson, C., 2013. The psychology of consumer behavior. Psychology Press.
Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior.
Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
Todorova, G., 2015. Marketing communication mix. Trakia Journal of Sciences, 13(1),
pp.368-374.
Valos, M.J., Haji Habibi, F., Casidy, R., Driesener, C.B. and Maplestone, V.L., 2016.
Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication
frameworks: Perspectives of services marketers. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(1),
pp.19-40.