An Evaluation of Digital Marketing Communication for Apple Company

This report provides a detailed analysis of Apple's digital marketing communication strategies. It begins by defining digital marketing communication and outlining the various tools employed, with a focus on social media marketing, its characteristics, and its role in promoting Apple products and services. The report then delves into a competitor analysis, examining the social media channels used by Samsung and Dell, and comparing them to Apple's approach. It explores the concept of consumer engagement, detailing its three levels, and discusses the significance of online brand communities. The report concludes with recommendations for future social media communication strategies and addresses the challenges faced in digital marketing communication. The analysis covers various aspects such as paid social media campaigns, email marketing, and display advertising, providing a comprehensive overview of Apple's marketing efforts.

Evaluating Digital Marketing
Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SECTION A.....................................................................................................................................1
1. Definitions of Digital Marketing Communication...................................................................1
2. Range of Digital Marketing Tools...........................................................................................1
3. Social Media Marketing, its Characteristics and Roles...........................................................2
SECTION B.....................................................................................................................................3
i)Competitors of Apple and social media channels used by them...............................................3
ii) Consumer engagement and its 3 level.....................................................................................5
iii)Online brand community.........................................................................................................6
SECTION C.....................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
SECTION D.....................................................................................................................................7
Challenges faced by digital marketing communication...............................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing communication is made up of three words – Digital, Marketing and
Communication. To understand what digital marketing communication is, we need to understand
the meaning of these words. Digital means electronic technology which use digits (0 and 1) to
generate, store and process the information. Marketing means all those activities which promote
and sell the products. Communication refers to the transfer of information between two parties.
So basically Digital Marketing Communication (DMC) refers to the transfer to information
regarding promoting goods and services of the company through electronic devices which use
binary numbers such as 0 and 1 (Ashraf, 2018). Apple is a multinational company which was
established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on 1st April 1976. Its headquarter
is in California, United State. It provides its products and services at worldwide level. It has
500+ retail stores. Apple has employed 132000 employees. Report will introduce digital
marketing communication and its tools. Report will highlight the social media communication
for marketing. Report will also recommend on future social media communication for marketing
the products and services and explain the challenges of digital marketing communication that
marketers have to faced.
SECTION A
1. Definitions of Digital Marketing Communication
Digital Marketing Communication is the communicating and marketing of products and
services of the company to customers in order to promote and increase the demand and sales by
using various digital technologies, channels and medium through internet (Chaffey and Ellis-
Chadwick, 2019).
Digital Marketing Communication is the transfer of knowledge about the products and
services and its core qualities to the consumers for the purpose of marketing of products and
services using various digital marketing techniques / technologies to reach the customers for the
purpose of promote the brand, fulfil the needs of consumers and increase the sales.
2. Range of Digital Marketing Tools
There are various tools and technologies for the digital marketing available for the
marketing communication by Apple Company. These tools are as follows -
Paid Social Media Marketing Campaigns
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It is a major digital marketing tool used by Apple company because today's era is social
media era where everyone (whether kids or youngsters or adults or old age) are using various
kind of social media sites. Thus, company is also using social media for the promotion of its
products and services. For that Apple has to pay an amount to the social media company for
marketing their brand through social media advertising such as Facebook advertising, YouTube
Advertising, Instagram Advertising, Twitter Advertising and Pinterest Advertising etc.
(Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi, 2015).
Email Marketing
It is digital marketing tool in which Apple sends a commercial message regarding its
products and services to the particular group of people using email. In this mailing system,
company sends advertisements, vouchers, discount news, upcoming products of the company
etc. to the potential customers in order to increase the brand awareness and attract the customers
towards company.
Display Advertising
It is a type online paid digital marketing tool used by Apple company. In this
advertisement, company uses text and images of the logo of brand, products and services to
attract the customers. It is displayed on websites and blogs so that whenever users visits on that
blogs or websites, they can see that advertisement.
3. Social Media Marketing, its Characteristics and Roles
Social media marketing is the types of marketing in which company promote a products
and services to the customers by using various types of social media platforms. These platforms
are mainly social networking websites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and
Snapchat etc. It is a part of digital marketing. It is one of the most popular marketing used by
various companies.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
There are various characteristics of social media marketing which are as follows -
Cost Effective
It is the most cost effective marketing for the promotion of products and services, its
features, contents and offers. Company just need to open an account on social media platforms
and post about the products and services.
Easy Access
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Social media platforms are using by every ages of people and every corner of the world.
Thus, company can easily access to its potential as well as its current customers with the help of
social media platforms (Tuten and Solomon, 2017).
Highly Popular
Social media platforms are highly popular between every people and company. That is
the biggest feature of social media marketing. Through social media marketing, company can
become popular by using corrective strategies of marketing.
ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social media marketing plays a crucial role in the marketing of Apple and its products
and services. These roles are as follows -
 Social media marketing helps Apple to access its customers easily and give information
about the products and services to the customers easily.
 It also helps company to build its relationship with its customers through which firm
understand what customers wants and company accordingly make products and services
to satisfy the needs and wants of its customers.
 By the use of Social media, Company is able to create an identity between its customers
which helps company to create its brand awareness and brand loyalty (Sajid, 2016.).
SECTION B
i)Competitors of Apple and social media channels used by them
Apple is an American multinational technology company that designs and sells electronic
items, computer software and also providing online services. It is considered as the biggest
company in terms of technology along with Amazon, Google and Facebook. It was founded by
Steve Jobs in 1976. Its headquarter is in California and serves worldwide. Competitors of Apple
are Samsung and Dell (Ryan, 2016).
SAMSUNG
As Samsung is using 3 different channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Through Facebook Samsung contributes 10% share in social media and over 5 million people
use this social media for promoting its brand. Twitter is the another social media channel that is
being used by Samsung. On twitter around 31k people are following the updates of the company.
On YouTube 5 million people have seen the promotion branding of Samsung.
DELL
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As it is highly respected brand and its social media communication is very diversified.
Dell also uses Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Its Facebook strategy is very simple and
interesting. It publishes updates once in a day and these updates are helpful for the company.
Dell shares updates that helps in improving the experience of people. Through Twitter it
manages the customer queries. As it appoints people that will respond to the queries of the
customers. YouTube channel of Dell is more focusing on the content rather than television
commercial (Kannan, 2017).
APPLE
As Apple is using different channels for branding the product such as Facebook, twitter,
Instagram and YouTube. As Facebook is the biggest social media network that is used by every
company. It is the most popular way of doing social media marketing. Apple is having 11 million
followers on Facebook. It is the main marketing tool for many companies that helps in increasing
the sales of the product. Apple also uses its own website and blogs other than social media
channels. There are many followers that is using Facebook page for branding their product. On
Twitter also Apple is having many accounts. Each product is consisted of different accounts as
one for I tunes, and another one is Apple. Apple's official page on Twitter is having 2 million
followers. As on music page it has the highest number of followers at 9.33 millions. On Itunes it
has around 1.3 million followers. On Instagram it has 7.5 million followers whereas that of
Apple Music is having more than 3 million followers. On YouTube 6.8 million followers
(Stephen, 2016).
TOP 5 social media channels used by these brands
APPLE SAMSUNG DELL
Twitter YouTube Facebook
Own website Twitter Twitter
Instagram Facebook YouTube
Facebook P interest Instagram
YouTube Instagram Google plus
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ii) Consumer engagement and its 3 level
It is the involvement of a customer in purchasing a particular brand. It enhances
engagement of customers to buy, promote and demonstrate more loyalty to the brand. High
quality customer experience is an important part of consumer engagement in the company.
3 levels of consumer engagement
Level 1 The Conference Roomers: At this level company is introducing the new product in the
market at the initial level. This stage helps in deciding the company about its customers. This
level is used at the time of introducing the new product in the market.
Level 2 The Expert Askers : After introducing the product then the company ask to the experts
for determining the needs and wants of the consumer. In this level advice are taken from
different people but although decision is being taken by the internal assessment (Todor, 2016).
Level 3 The customer Surveying: Then the survey is being done to analyze the reviews from
the customers.
As nowadays many companies are using Facebook for promoting its brand through social
networking area. As Apple is doing the promotion of goods mostly through Twitter. It also uses
Facebook as the social media channels to introduce the product in the marketplace. As through
Facebook customers are more getting involved in social media networking for purchasing any
product from the market. Apple's products are high quality products that are being used by rich
people. As Apple is providing the best quality and services to the customers so that more
customers are getting involved. Facebook is the platform where companies promote their
products easily. Nowadays most of the consumers are using smartphone so they use social media
applications and are aware about what is happening in the surrounding. As on Facebook 11
million followers of Apple. Through this social media networking company earns more profit as
compared to the other brands. As there are lot of consumer engagement with the Apple.
Facebook is the biggest social media platform of advertising the product. Apple also do the
marketing through its online website (Taiminen and Karjaluoto, 2015). As many people are fan
of Apple brand so they purchase the product. As Apple is the biggest brand so people is having
more trust on it. Apple advertise its brand positioning that attract more people towards it.
Consumer engagement plays an important role in achieving the success for the companies. It
enhances the interaction between the customers and the organization. Engaging customers with
the Apple helps in contribution more to the company. Apple is having more consumer
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involvement due to its service and quality provided to the customers. Apple enhances consumer
engagement in the company. It sells its product through various strategies used in the market
(Yasmin, Tasneem and Fatema, 2015).
iii)Online brand community
It is a way of adverting the product online collaborate with communities that is being
formed to advertise the product in the market. As online brand community helps in removing the
dependency on ads and promotions that are being used in reducing the traffic on the website. As
in brand community customers are also investing in it. It also helps in increasing customer
retention in Apple. It creates valuable brand image in the market. Through this branding
customers are more attracted towards Apple. As Apple does not need online branding but it helps
in attracting more customers in the future. As it helps in understanding the customers better and
gaining more experience towards it. Creating an online brand community helps in developing the
understanding about the needs and wants of the customers. Customer feedback helps in getting
the things done properly. Through this feedback Apple can analyze if any improvement is being
done by the company in this advertising branding (Chaffey and Smith, 2017).
This topic reveals about the fan page of Facebook. As most of the customers are fan of
using Apple products. As it creates a royalty in the person that it is using apple's product.
Hearing the name of Apple is mindset of the consumer that its product is good in quality. There
are many fan following of Apple on Facebook. There are 11 million followers on Facebook of
Apple. It helps in building the trust between the customers through which more customers are
involved with Apple. As Apple is the biggest brand people already have trust on it. It doesn't
require maintaining the trust with customers. Apple in itself is the known brand that does not
require any advertising technique. Apple is providing best services by offering quality products
that attract more customers. Customer satisfaction is the important part in selling the product in
marketplace.
SECTION C
Recommendations
As in future there is more growth in the social media communication. Apple can improve
its customer relationship by using online brand community. As this approach helps in enhancing
the customer engagement with Apple. If apple is using this approach of online brand community
then it will help in building the customer relationship in the marketplace. As there are different
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channels that can be used by Apple to create good customer relations. Currently it is using
Twitter as social media marketing but it also has to used different channels that creates more
customer attraction towards the brand. Apple has to use different strategies that can attract more
customers. Through Facebook also Apple can maintain relations with its customers. As these
channels helps in driving best relations with customers. For Apple Rich people are the target
market that buy the product of it. Apple has to adopt different channels that enhances in creating
social media communication in the future. It also uses other channels like Facebook on which it
has 11 million followers that helps in creating good customer relation. It can also use Linked In
channel of social media that helps in creating good relation with customers.
SECTION D
Challenges faced by digital marketing communication
The biggest challenge that is being faced by the digital marketing communication is
security risk. As security is the important part for every company to maintain so that no internal
data is going out of the company. Maintaining security is the biggest challenge that every
company face. Due to digital marketing the data is also going out from the company so proper
arrangement is to be done by the company. Proper IT protection is to be provided in the company
for security of data through digital marketing communication. As allowing mobile phones inside
the premises of the company is a risk for out data from the company. Security plays a crucial role
in the company (De Pelsmacker, Van Tilburg and Holthof, 2018).
As in online marketing there is more risk of hackers that hack the data and the company's
information get out from the company. Digital marketing is the biggest risk of doing business
online. Because of it data is out from the company that lead to hacking of data. As through
digital marketing nowadays online shopping, payment of bills and applications are also
submitted through which private information is going out. Working with the good security helps
in protecting the data of the company. Allowing electronic devices in the company will lead to
out of information from the company. For protecting the data of the company it has to use the
good firewall security for the company. Nowadays this risk is more as most of the business are
operating through digital marketing so there is more risk of out the information from the
company. Many employees are also there who leak the data of the company that is the biggest
risk in the companies.
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Cybersecurity plays an important part in the companies specially in IT companies. In IT
companies securing the passwords is the biggest challenge for the company. Cyberbullying also
plays role in the company. As security is the main risk for the company that creates risk for the
company. As security plays an important role in the company. By eliminating the different risk
through digital marketing is the biggest challenge. Removing risk is the main part of the
company so that data is not out of the company. Cybersecurity is the main part of the company
of reducing risk from the company. Risk is occurring in every business. Security is important for
the company so for that they have to ensure that mobile phones is not allowed in the company
premises. This helps in reducing the risk of the company. As it is the main problem for every
company to combat with the risk. This helps in reducing the risk as it helps in occurring the risk
for company.
Market analysis plays an important role before starting the business. It helps in analysing
the factor that affect the working of the company and create risk for it. It reduces the risk through
which security is good in the company. As maintaining the security in the company leads to
protection of data. It helps in creating less risk for the company and the data is not gone out. The
company have to do proper arrangement for security otherwise it will harm the company's work.
The risk is the biggest factor that affect the working of the company. Using antivirus helps in
reducing the risk from the company. As cybercrime is the biggest threat for the company that
occur through digital marketing in the company. As it helps in creating the biggest challenge for
the company to remove risk prone areas in the company and inbuilt software that protect the data
(10 reasons you need in digital marketing strategy, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that Digital marketing is becoming an
essential part of marketing of company and its products and services. Without that, Apple would
not be there where today, it is. But with the increasing using of digital marketing, company are
facing a lot of challenges regarding digital marketing because it not only harm the brand image
of company but also create different between company and its customers. Also, due to
digitalization, there are rapidly changing in digital marketing trends which must be get to know
about the company so that company can change its marketing strategy and does successfully
promotion of its brand, products and services provided by enterprise. Also, company should
evaluate its digital marketing effectiveness so that there should be no problems in promotion.
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REFERENCES
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integrating online marketing. Taylor & Francis.
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