Advanced Marketing Plan Journals: Analysis of Apple and Tara

This assignment presents a series of marketing plan journals created by a student, exploring various aspects of marketing strategy. The journals cover PEST analysis applied to Apple, product differentiation techniques with an example of Walmart, pricing strategies, and a SWOT analysis for a fictional company named Tara. The assignment delves into the 4 P's of marketing (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) and discusses various marketing techniques such as relationship marketing, word-of-mouth publicity, internet marketing, transactional marketing, diversity marketing, undercover marketing, and paid advertising. The student analyzes competitors like Samsung, Lenovo, Apple, and Reliance JIO, targeting students and the working population. The assignment concludes with a bibliography of referenced sources.

Running Head: Journals of Marketing 0
Advanced Marketing
Student name
5/25/2019

Developing Marketing Plan 1
Unit- 2 Journal:
Apple Company is one of the popular companies in the world which provides electronic
devices such as smartphones, tablets and music players to customers. It has adopted unique
business model so, it becomes successful in the market (The most powerful products for business
are the ones people already love to use, 2019).
PEST Analysis:
Political:
a. Apple is dependent on the cash only therefore, has to bear the huge cost in the way of tax
payment.
b. It depends upon China for manufacturing its products so, it is cost effective.
c. Doing research on alternatives for manufacturing is a costly exercise.
d. Its relation with China becomes a political issue in the country U.S.
Economic:
a. Due to increased labor cost in China, its markets coverage is reduced.
b. It is an expensive product so consumers looking for the other substitutes available in the
market.
c. It is not easy for a company to do business in Europe because of high exchange rates.
Social:
a. It is treated as a prestigious product.
b. Ethical practices are not followed by the company.
Technological:
a. Its services are now not considered as unique as, many companies offer similar type of
services.
b. It limits various applications which are generally in phones because of its operating
model.

Developing Marketing Plan 2
c. There is lot of cybercrimes is happening nowadays which can also hack this brand.
On the basis of PEST Analysis, it can be said that it can survive in the market in spite of the
problems that it faces if it adopts changes in the organization successfully, as it is done by the
company in the past (French & Gordon, 2015). It has different type of features and unique
designs as compared to its competitors exist in the market. It has achieved good growth in sales
as well as in profit.
Unit- 5 Journal:
Product Differentiation is a marketing process in which products are made different from
others in order to attract the target audience well. It is also called as USP. It is important for
value creation, non- price competition, supporting high prices and for creating loyalty towards
the brand (Stuyck, 2013).
Products can be differentiated on the basis of price, features, quality, design, and post-
sales services. The most important factor is the price which, impacts on the buying decision of
consumer (Customer Decision Making Criteria and the Importance of Price, 2016). It is a vital
truth that resources are limited but wants are unlimited. So, the consumer has to make a choice of
in the products, according to the budget set.
That’s why Walmart has made marketing strategy to provide goods at a low price and
also focuses on giving maximum value to customers. It is successful in the market plus it
watches the competitors pricing strategy, in order to keep its prices down. It satisfies the needs of
consumers at low cost also (Our Business, 2019). It does buying in large stock and also put
efforts on cutting the cost. It understands the value of price to customers so; it makes strategy to
provide quality goods at fewer prices.
Unit- 6 Journal:
It is very much important decision to set the price of a product available in the market. It
is not to be set at either low or high as it may give impact on the business of the concern. Cost is
the amount to be spent on producing goods whereas Value is the return that is expected by the
consumer towards the product. Price is charged for giving products to consumers so, it is a sort
of combination of both value and cost (Meehan, Simonetto, Mothan, & Goodin, 2011).

Developing Marketing Plan 3
Our Product is Tara. It is a cheaper phone as compared to Apple’s iPhone and also offers
all features as given by Apple. It is a Dual-SIM phone while Apple is Single-SIM phone. Our
Product is having an excellent battery and good storage. It is connected to television also. I value
quality so make it reasonable for customers so that consumer can get value while purchasing.
While iPhone is used for showing as a status symbol, as it is expensive for customers because of
this, some people are moving towards our phone which gives value to them and also affordable
to their pockets.
Thus, it can be said that prices should be set in such a way so that customer can get value
and also by which organization can cover its cost.
Unit-7 Journal:
Tara Company is having the vision to provide innovation to all people. Our product range
is Sitar and Shine in which smartphones, televisions, and routers are launched.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
a) Highest selling smartphone brand.
b) Good quality.
c) Brand awareness (Phadermroda, Crowder, & Wills, 2019).
Weakness:
a) Offline mode.
b) Weak advertising.
Opportunities:
a) Expansion and Distribution.
b) Expensive.
c) Brand building (Sarasby, 2016).
Threats:
a) Competition.
b) Service centers.

Developing Marketing Plan 4
c) Product differentiation.
4 P’s of Marketing:
Product: Our product provides various types of electronic products which are not only limited to
smartphones. I made the phone flexible so to have changes according to the environment such as
using Qualcomm processors to capture the attention of society.
Price: Our Company charges low price from customers because of the strategy to survive for
longer time period by offering value to buyers. It is made with an intention to capture the global
market.
Place: I am selling products online and by retail stores but majorly online selling done to
familiarize the people towards digitalization.
Promotion: I run the initiative known as “Just for fans” in which products are made according to
the interest of a buyer. I have done promotion through social media platforms. In our company
strategy, flash sales are conducted by online shopping sites as well as also provide goods at
discount to our VIP members (Londhe, 2014).
Tara is set up with a great business model in which emphasis on modern methods of
advertising such as online modes. Our product used all types of promotion for promoting
product. Samsung, Lenovo, Apple and Reliance JIO are the competitors. I have targeted the
segment of students and working group population.
Unit- 8 Journal:
Marketing Techniques used by me is:
Relationship Marketing: I am focusing on creating a bond of relationship with
customers. It is done for increasing customer loyalty towards the brand.
Word of mouth publicity: It is a good factor which impacts on sales of firm positively
so putting efforts on providing good service to buyers.
Internet Marketing: It is done by promoting goods online with the help of using various
social sites by our company (Jones, 2015).

Developing Marketing Plan 5
Transactional Marketing: It has been done to make the transaction of sales in the
organization. I conducted this by, giving coupons and discounts to customers so that they make a
purchase.
Diversity Marketing: It is done to satisfy the needs of different customers so that selling
is done suited to their culture, tradition, and values.
Undercover Marketing: It is done in such a way to create the interest in the mind of
consumers to know more about it by showcasing image but not necessarily its features.
Paid Advertising: It is done by advertisement in television and in print media given to
cover the target market successfully. In this, money is made easily by clicking the advertisement
as it is done by websites to find the consumer.

Developing Marketing Plan 6
Bibliography
Customer Decision Making Criteria and the Importance of Price. (2016). Retrieved from
Medium: https://medium.com/stax-insights/consumer-decision-making-criteria-and-the-
importance-of-price-1783d5589a8e
Our Business. (2019). Retrieved from Walmart: https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-
business
The most powerful products for business are the ones people already love to use. (2019).
Retrieved from Apple Inc.: https://www.apple.com/in/business/
French, J., & Gordon, R. (2015). Strategic Social Marketing. SAGE Publisher.
Jones, O. (2015). Sales and Marketing Techniques. Megan Publishing Services.
Londhe, B. (2014). Marketing Mix for Next Generation Marketing. Procedia Economics and
Finance, 11, 335-340.
Meehan, J. M., Simonetto, M. G., Mothan, L., & Goodin, C. A. (2011). Pricing and Profitability
Management:A Practical Guide for Business Leaders. Wiley.
Phadermroda, B., Crowder, R. M., & Wills, G. B. (2019). Importance- Performance Analysis
based SWOT anaysis. International Journal Of Information Management, 44, 194-203.
Sarasby, A. (2016). SWOT Analysis. Business Education.
Stuyck, J. (2013). Product Diffrentiation in Terms of Packaging, Presentation, Advertising,
Trademarks, etc. Springer.

Developing Marketing Plan 7