BA Business Management: Marketing Fundamentals Analysis and Evaluation

This essay undertakes a comprehensive analysis of marketing fundamentals, utilizing Apple as a case study to illustrate key concepts. The essay begins with an introduction to marketing and its processes, including the crucial role of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion). It then delves into the stages of the marketing process, from mission statement and objective setting to situational analysis (incorporating SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter's Five Forces), strategy development, implementation, and control. The analysis assesses the external environment and competitive landscape faced by Apple. The essay explores the role of marketing in creating value for consumers, emphasizing the importance of informing and educating consumers, managing expectations, and fostering brand loyalty. Furthermore, the essay examines stakeholder engagement, differentiating between internal and external stakeholders and their impact on marketing activities. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and reinforces the significance of effective marketing in driving business success.

Marketing
Fundamental Analysis
and Evaluation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Processes and stages of marketing along with role of marketing mix.........................................1
Role of marketing in creating value for the consumer................................................................4
Stakeholder engagement and their impact on marketing activities.............................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plays a significant role in promoting of products and services to customers. It
allows business to reach their target audience and create awareness in the market. In recent
times, there are many trends which has occurred in way of marketing. It has transformed the
entire process. Digital marketing is highly used in it. Marketing mix plays vital role in as it
consists of 4 main P's. This present study is based on Apple which is an American multinational
technology Company having headquartered in California. It serves worldwide with variety of
products and services.
In this report it will be described about the process and stages of marketing and role of
marketing mix in it. Also, it will be explained about how marketing create value for customer.
Moreover, the engagement and impact of stakeholders in marketing activities will be discussed.
Processes and stages of marketing along with role of marketing mix
Marketing: Marketing can be defined as a procedure of attracting customers and making
them interested with the company (Armstrong and et.al., 2018). It is a set of activities which
companies perform for promoting their products in order to aware customers and influence them
to buy.
Stages on marketing process: Marketing is a set of activities as process of marketing
include several stages. In the context of Apple it can be said that it is important for its marketing
manger to perform all stages in a systematic manner in order to accomplish their goals. Some
steps are being discussed in a detailed manner: Planning mission, analysing company’s
positioning by analysis, establishing strategies, selection of target market, marketing mix and
controlling (Naseri and Noruzi, 2018).
Mission: It is the main step and mission statement of Apple company is: to bring out the
best user experience to its all customers with its effective innovative both hardware and software
services.
Objectives: Setting marketing objectives also play an important role as it works as a
guide for which all steps are being performed. Some marketing objectives include:
 Targeting a quality centricmarket.
 To increase sales up to 35% within the end of this year.
 To increase brand awareness.
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 To produce Hassle free products in order to provide enjoyment to customers.
Situational analysis
After setting objectives and goals, it is important to analyse marketing condition in which
company wants to sell their products and want to operate. Situational analysis is one of the main
and important in which manager of an organization like Apple’s make an effective use of
techniques and tools to identify condition of business environment. With the help of SWOT
analysis Tool, Apple Company can identify internal environmental factors (Clarke, 2019).
PESTLE is being used for analysing external business environmental factors and Porter’s 5
forces is for identifying intensity of competition.
Implementation
After selecting strategies it is important to implement them within an organization in
order to see own strengths and weaknesses. It also allows Apple Technology Company in taking
competitive advantages.
Controlling
Controlling is the last but not the least step in the process of marketing as it allows
companies in analysing whether their implementation is going on the right track or as per the set
objectives or not. If they find any variances than they immediate make changes in order to
prevent themselves against failure and loss.
Porter’s five forces: It is one of the important tools of situation analysis by which Apple
can identify the actual condition of the market in the context of competition. Five forces of
Apple’s include:
Five forces Intensity Description
Bargaining power of
customers
High It is high because there are several other
technological companies which allow
customers to switch their shops. Dell,
Samsung and other well-known companies
also provide same features of products and
services so, customers in this industry have
high power. Due to low switching cost,
customers have more bargaining power.
Bargaining power of suppliers Low or weak It is relatively low because there are several
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suppliers from whom company can contact
and for being in the market, suppliers cannot
increase their cost. There is moderate to high
overall supply.
Threats of new entrants Moderate Establishing a new business in this industry
and against Apple and big brand is complex.
People require high capitalisation for making
customers believe in their products and
compete against Apple so, it is relatively
moderate. Because those people and
companies who has strong financial and skills
they can enter in this market (Apple’s Porter’s
Five Forces Analysis, 2019).
Threats of substitutes weak In this context, it can be said that there are
some substitute products like Apple such as
Digital camera and others by which people
can click pictures but performance of these
substitutes is relatively low.
Competition among existing
players
High It is relatively too high because in the UK,
there are some popular well known brands of
this industry such as Samsung and LG. By
using technologies and others strategies they
try to become market leader.
SWOT analysis
It is being used to identify own strengths and weaknesses in order to decrease weaknesses
and making use of strengths.
Strengths
 One of the main strength of Apple company is it has an ability to think out of box and its
make it able to take right decision about business expansion as well as the most valuable
brand.
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 It makes an effective use of advanced and top technology.
 Apple is the most demanded brand in corporate offices because it has effective problem
solving skills.
Weaknesses
 High risk of brand switching by customers is main weakness (Swot Apple’s Porter’s Five
Forces Analysis. 2020).
 High prices for products and services are other weakness.
 Limited and less focus on advertisement and promotion as compare to others.
Opportunities
 Development in emerging markets with having expansive distribution network.
 Having skilled workforce and qualified professionals.
Threats
 High intensity of competition in existing players is the threat.
 The latest and present Corona virus outbreak is other threat which can affect it for
approximate 1-2 years.
STP
Segmentation: Geographical, demographical, behavioural and psychographic all types of
segmentation are being used and focused by Apple company and it is one of the main strengths.
In this context it can be said that it focuses on some factors of each of the segment (Apple
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning, 2019).
Target: Main target of each segment include such as:
Geographic: US and international
Demographic: 18-35 age group of people overall and it is also being subdivided as per the
services. Urban people, males and females both and mainly bachelor group of people.
Behavioural: Hard core loyal who remain loyal with the brand.
Psychographic: It includes: middle, social and upper class.
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Positioning: For making and effective position it focuses on target quality centric market.
Marketing mix
Product: It has wide range of products which include: iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Apple
watch, Accessories, could services etc.
Price: It uses 2 pricing strategy as per the current situation of the market and mainly focuses on
premium and freemium pricing. Freemium is a combination of free and premium in which some
products of Apple are being sold free but customers have to pay to access more advanced.
(Abdelhady, Fayed and Fawzy, 2019).
Place: It has several physical sore locations, owned official website, authorized sellers as well as
telecommunication companies which sell its products and services.
Promotion: It makes use of variety of media and sources to promote products and service such
as: personal selling, sales promotion, advertising and public relation.
Role of marketing in creating value for the consumer
One of the major roles of marketing is to create value for the consumer by promoting their
brand and also creating awareness related to the products and services that has been sold by the
firm. It has also been analysed that Apple can create value for the consumers by providing the
right information to consumers in advertising that has been done by them. This will assist the
firm in retaining consumers. It will also help them in attracting large range of consumers which
is necessary for growth of firm. It includes the following:
Informing and education consumers: It has been analysed that marketing assist Apple in
making consumer know about the facts and figures related to goods and services that has been
sold by them. This assist those in creating value and also support firm in enhancing the likeness
of their product. Value can also be created by Apple by making consumers aware about the
quality of products that has been sold by them with the help of marketing. Firm can also be
engaged in making use of different type of marketing channels such as digital marketing, social
media marketing which can assist them in creating the value. Educating customers about the
goods and services by Apple products and services can also help them in increasing sales. They
can also create brand awareness through it (Biswas, 2018). They can also include more practical
information such as manufacturing date, address, and phone number. This can also help Apple in
taking feedback from consumers by creating consumer loyalty. Creation of value is really
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important for the company in order to grow. This can assist them in achieving their goals and
objectives and also increase their revenue.
Managing consumer expectations: It has also been analysed that value to the consumers
can also be developed by Apple company through managing expectations of customers.
Company needs to be engaged in doing market research so that they will be able to find out the
needs and demands of customers (Aaker, 2020). This can assist the firm in creating
belongingness of consumers which is really necessary for the growth of firm. It has also been
analysed that on order to create value for the consumers; Apple needs to be engaged in creating
brand loyalty. This will help them in managing the wants of consumers. It will also be helpful in
gaining competitive advantage which is really necessary for the growth of firm. During the time
of promoting the products, firm also needs to make sure that only right information is been
provided to consumers. This will help them in building their brand value and also relationship of
trust can be created. It will also be helpful for the growth of firm. They can also use information
group in order to know about which group is most reliable. Apple also needs to be engaged in
analysing the needs and demands of consumers.
Stakeholder engagement and their impact on marketing activities
Stakeholder: Stakeholder refers people who take interest in an organization growth and are
involved with the company directly and indirectly (Fageha and Aibinu, 2016). It may be person,
organization and a society which has stake in an organization.
In the context of Apple, it can be said that it has several stakeholders which are being
divided into 2 parts such as internal and external. Both stakeholders are discussed in a detailed
manner:
Internal stakeholders
Managers: It is one of the main important stakeholders because they play several roles
by carrying out the main vision. It is stated that the growth of this retailer is especially because of
abilities of manager to manage all activities.
Staff: It has around 137,000 employees in all departments. It is considered the main
stakeholders because they help company in developing and also want Apple to become the
market leader.
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External stakeholders
Customers: It is the main stakeholder whose satisfaction is the main key of its success.
Customers’ interest in products and services as well as knowing that how it perform is important
which makes it able to focus on quality of products (Cardwell, Williams and Pyle,2017).
Suppliers: It is called indirect stakeholder for the company who determines that firm is
performing in an effective manner or its social responsibility efforts. One of the main strength is
it has strong relationship and suppliers of this company wants this company to increase sales.
Communication strategy: After identifying stakeholders it is important to communicate with
them. For an effective interaction Apple make an effective use of letters and oral communication.
As per the type of message it uses communicate modes like letters, oral communication, news
conferences, updating on social media platforms etc. But one of the main modes of
communication is social media and oral because it believes that with oral communication it can
identify human behaviours and can improve relation with them.
CONCLUSION
From the above, it can be concluded that stages in marketing include mission, goals and
objectives, situational analysis, implementation and control. Furthermore, it consists of STP and
marketing mix. Also, marketing create value by informing and educating customer, managing
consumer experience, etc the internal and external stakeholders are engaged in marketing and
impact on it. Supplier, customer, provide useful data and info from the market and manager
analyse it to develop marketing strategies. The stakeholders are communicated about the
strategy.
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REFERENCES
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and LCCs. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems, 12(2).
Armstrong, G.M. and et.al., 2018. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson UK.
Biswas, A.K., 2018. Strategic Market Management: Managing Market for Profit and Growth.
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Cardwell, L.A., Williams, S. and Pyle, A., 2017. Corporate public relations dynamics: Internal
vs. external stakeholders and the role of the practitioner. Public Relations Review. 43(1).
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Clarke, A.E., 2019. Situating Grounded Theory and Situational Analysis in Interpretive
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Fageha, M.K. and Aibinu, A.A., 2016. Identifying stakeholders’ involvement that enhances
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Naseri, Z. and Noruzi, A., 2018. Content marketing process model: A meta-synthesis of the
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Swot Analysis of Apple. 2018. [Online]. Available through <https://bstrategyhub.com/swot-
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