Marketing Analysis of Apple Inc.: Roles, Mix, and Planning Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc.'s marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing and its significance, followed by an examination of the key roles and responsibilities of marketing within Apple, including gathering market information, marketing planning, product design, standardization, and customer support. The report then explores the interrelationship between these marketing roles and other organizational functions like production and finance. A detailed analysis of Apple's marketing mix, comparing it with Samsung's, is presented, covering product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence. The report concludes with a marketing plan for Apple, including vision, mission, marketing objectives, STP analysis, SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, marketing mix, and a marketing budget. The report emphasizes Apple's focus on innovation, premium pricing, and a strong brand image to achieve its marketing goals.

BUSINESS MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1 ................................................................................................................................................3
Roles and responsibilities of marketing function........................................................................3
Interrelationship of roles and responsibilities with different organisational context .................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
Marketing Mix apply by the company to achieve its overall objective......................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
Marketing plan ...........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be mean as the study of management, and the process which is being
undertaken by an organisation in order to increase buying and selling activity of the company. In
this include the different activities such as advertisement, promotion, selling and delivering the
products in market. This report of marketing is based on the Apple Inc, which is multinational
company based on America. Apple makes computer hardware and software and different mobile
devices like iPhone.
This will describe the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing in Apple company.
This will also include how apple use marketing mix to achieve its overall business objective.
Lastly the marketing plan will be produced for the Apple Inc company.
LO 1
Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
As marketing is related to the wide range of the management activity like, promotional,
advertisement, selling and buying the goods and services, in order to satisfying the customers
and to increase the market share of the company.
As the marketing manager of Apple company, have to perform different roles and
responsibilities in the company in order to increase the sells of the Apple devices in the market
(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). These roles and responsibilities are:
Gathering and analysing the market information: This one of the main key role and
responsibilities that is being perform by the marketing manager of the Apple. They gather the
information about the market like what costumers want, what will be the price of their hardware
and other mobile devices, what kind of advertisement and promotion like customers and in
market.
marketing planning: In the direction to achieve the objective of gaining more and more
market share and provide the best devices to the customers, Apple company's manager make
plan for the marketing, like estimate the cost that required in all the marketing activities, level of
production and promotional efforts is being done.
Product designing and development: As the Designing of all the iPhones and other
computer hardware of the Apple company also being done by the marketing manger of Apple.
As they gather the the information about the market and customer choice and according to it

design their iPhones. As the design of all the iPhone is same since the first iPhone they had
launched.
Standardisation and grading: To set the standard and grade for al the device of the apple
is also being done by the marketing manager of Apple company. In this they standardise their
devices on the basis of looks, durability of the screen, battery, its breakage, iOS speed and many
more. They set different criteria, and test the devices, if all the devices pass the set criteria then
give the grade (Zhang, 2018).
Customer support service: To give he after sells services to the customers is also a big
responsibility of the marketing manger of Apple company. As the iOS platform is different from
the android. Customer may have the problem or any query. That need to be handle by the
marketing manger. And for this they build different department to handle customers and to
support them.
Interrelationship of roles and responsibilities with different organisational context
As gathering and analysing the marketing information which is one of the main key
responsibility of marketing of the Apple, is connected with the production department and
manufacturing of the Apple company. This role of the marketing gather different information
about the market and the customers like, what customers want, in what quantity of the different
devices is being delivered in the market, what are the customers need and desire in respect of the
iPhones and computer hardware and etc. all of these gathered information is provided by the
marketing manger to the production department of the Apple company. This help the production
and manufacturing to develop and make improvement in the device like, size, design, durability,
and others. In this way marketing responsibilities helps and connected with the other functions of
Apple company.
Marketing planning is another key responsibility of the marketing function played by the
managers of Apple company. As in this all the activities are planned in order to reaching the
marketing and overall business objectives, cost of all the activities is estimated and it also help to
identify that any new manpower required in he Apple company to handle its marketing activity
and other technical issues. As this provide help to the finance and human resource department to
plan their operation and activity in order to recruit new manpower in the Apple organisation for
the handle and operate its high techy technological devices and can help to produce new high

tech, full featured hardware and iPhones to the customers, as this Apple every year launch its
new rang of iPhone, which is always better than last one.
This responsibility of planning help the finance department of the Apple company, as by
estimating the cost required by the marketing in its all the activities. This help the finance
department of the apple to analyse the cost and manage the overall capital of the Apple company
which is generated by its devices and other services. Finance department manage the cost then
help the marketing department and it manager by providing adequate amount of fund to smooth
operation and implementation of marketing plan.
LO 2
Marketing Mix apply by the company to achieve its overall objective
Marketing mix is the tool that help the marketing manager of the Apple in order to make
the effective strategies that help the company to set their target by analysing the marketing
situation and other factor that affect the strategies of the Apple in order to launch its new devices
in the market.
Elements of marketing mix Apple Samsung
Products Apple provide the wide range
of the smart product range like
Apple smart watch, iPod,mac
computer, Mobile phone
range, which are high
techniques products to reach to
the new customers in the
market (Etzioni, 2018).
Samsung provide the wide
range of the products, which
are different from the other
company and Apple like, smart
phones, tab Note and etc. and
other all electronic device
range like TV, cameras, fridge
and other household devices
all the smart phone devices of
the Samsung is based and
worked on android platform.
Price Apple apply the premium
pricing strategies, price
skimming and geographical
pricing strategies. In
This apply the skimming ad
competitive pricing strategies.
In this company try to increase
the price then drop the price

geographical pricing, apple set
the different price range for
their product in different
geographical areas.
when any new competitors
enter in the market.
Promotion As the Apple does not need
any promotion, it is well
known and big brand name
itself. It consist branding,
social media outreach, sales,
advertisement to make
promotional activity for their
high tech products in the
market among the customers
around the globe.
For the promotion, Samsung
use both offline and online
channel to promote and
advertise their products and
make aware the customers
about their whole product
range.
Place Apple is the world largest IT
company, as this has number
of stores around the world.
Apple give high importance
and value to the retailer. To
distribute their devices and
products through websites,
apple stores, telecom
companies and online offline
stores.
Samsung follow the channel
marketing for the distribution
of its products. This make
connection with both small
and big retailer like chroma,
reliance and etc.
People Apple give the high value to
their employees and also
promote its vision through
their employees.
Samsung company also give
the high importance to their
employee and give them on
going professional
development program.
process All the activity of the Apple All the process and activities

company are aim to achieve
its target by development of
the customer experience.
are aim to generate the profit
and also to giving the best
value and quality product to
the customers (Išoraitė, 2018).
Physical evidence Apple manage its physical
evidence by creating its own
culture in their organisation.
Physical evidence of the
Samsung company is to make
differentiate in the market by
its new products and its
designs.
LO 3
Marketing plan
Executive summary
This marketing plan is based on the Apple company and its product and services provided
in the market.
Vision and mission
Vision of the company is to constantly focus on the innovation of the products. They
believes in simple work no complex work.
Mission of the company is to design the beast computer in the world by designing Macs.
Marketing Objectives
To expand the sales for the customers who have not buy any apple products yet.
STP
Apple target the high end customers in the market between the age of 25 to 45 years, it
basically target people of US and also to international across the globe.
SWOT
Strengths
 Strong brand image in market. Effective and continues innovation (Hisrich and Ramadani, 2018).
Weakness
 High price range of products.

 Limited distribution network.
Opportunities
 Development of new product line. Can expand their distribution network.
Threats
 Increasing and strong competition.
 High labour cost in different country.
PESTLE
Political – Trade disputes, specially between China and US can affect the apple and its products
and strategies of Apple.
Economical – High and good economical condition of country can help the Apple to make
innovation in their all the devices.
Social – Increasing use of mobile and choice of the iOS platform by the customers can affect it
sells and help to increase profit share.
Technological – Rising cloud computing demand and be effective for Apple company and other
competitors, technological change may affect its products (Bassell, Lambert and Friedman,
2019).
Marketing mix
Product – Apple provide the high tech devices to reach their high end customers in market
around the globe.
Price – Apple use skimming, geographical and premium pricing strategies for their products.
Place – Apple marketing manager give high value to their retailers to distribute their products.
Promotion – It use different, online and offline promotional activities for their products.
Marketing program
Channel Activities Time
Direct marketing Email 2 weeks
Digital Marketing Social media 3 weeks
Commercial Marketing TV, News Paper 1 Month
Marketing Budget

Channel Budget
Direct marketing £7.2
Digital Marketing £6.50
Commercial Marketing £9.20
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above study of the marketing of Apple company is that,
being a marketing manger have different key roles and responsibilities like marketing planning,
analysing to increase the market share. It also been analysing that all the key role and
responsibilities of marketing is inter connected with other function of Apple company to smooth
running of operation. From the comparison of marketing mix of Apple and Samsung it has been
concluded that Apple has different marketing strategies to achieve all the target.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bassell, M., Lambert, S. and Friedman, H.H., 2019. Attitudes and opinions regarding leadership
qualities of marketing executives: A quantitative analysis. Journal of Global Scholars of
Marketing Science. 29(1). pp.138-150.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Etzioni, A., 2018. Apple: Good business, poor citizen?. Journal of Business Ethics. 151(1). pp.1-
11.
Hisrich, R.D. and Ramadani, V., 2018. Entrepreneurial Marketing: A Practical Managerial
Approach. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Išoraitė, M., 2018. Guerilla Marketing Features. Ecoforum Journal. 7(1).
Zhang, Q., 2018. Research on Apple Inc’s Current Developing Conditions
Online
12 Important Functions of Marketing.2019.[Online].Available
through<http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/12-important-functions-of-
marketing/1074>