Marketing Proposal: Strategies for Apple Inc. Market Penetration

This marketing proposal examines the challenges Apple Inc. faces due to its high product prices, which have impacted its market share compared to competitors like Samsung. The report analyzes the issue, highlighting that high prices limit accessibility for many consumers. It provides background information on Apple's target consumers, products (iPhone, iPad), and competitors. A key aspect of the proposal is the implementation of a customer survey to gauge consumer perceptions and willingness to pay, along with income analysis. The report suggests using regression and correlation analysis to interpret survey data, which would inform pricing strategies and product development. Ultimately, the proposal aims to help Apple Inc. increase sales and market share by understanding customer preferences and adjusting its pricing to be more competitive, and to develop products that meet the demands of the target consumers. The report concludes with a call for data-driven decision-making to enhance the company's market position and revenue generation.

Marketing Proposal

Introduction
Apple Inc. is a famous American multinational technology whose headquarter is situated in
Cupertino, California. Apple designs sell, and develop different consumer electronics, online
services, and computer software’s. In this paper, we will study the problem faced by the
organization which affected its sale in a large manner. Steve Jobs established it in 1976. It is
known for its high and innovative quality. It is considered the largest information technology
organization in the whole world. It provides various varieties of products to its customers so that
it can satisfy their needs in an efficient manner.
Issue (High Prices of Products)
The main problem of the organization is high prices of its products. Price is the biggest factor
which influences the customer preference in a significant manner. Due to the high prices of
Apple products normal person cannot purchase it. With its high prices, Apple contributes only
12% of the market, on the other hand, its toughest competitor Samsung can contribute 32% of
the market. It is because pricing system of Samsung products is quite effective than Apple
products. The Samsung also provides features which are provided by Apple in its single product.
The difference is that Apple offers same features in high prices, and Samsung at lower prices. It
declined the sale of Apple products. It is a fact that if Apple sales increases by 23%, then
Samsung's sale increased by 46% (Cecere, 2015). It will influence the overall productivity of the
organization. If it wants to be the market leader and want to enhance the sale of its products, then
it should offer its products at lower prices so that low-income group people can also purchase its
products and benefited by its high quality and advanced features.
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Background Information on consumers, products, and competitors
The target consumers for Apple is high-income people. This is because high-income group
people are highly conscious towards their lifestyle. It offered the products which match their
lifestyle with high advance features. Its quality and innovative features of products make it
different from the others. It deals in following products:
 iPhone: It is the main product of Apple which makes it highly popular. iPhone is a
combination of both the mobile phone and an internet communication device. It offered
iPhone with different features such as web browsing, searching, desktop-class email and
Window-based computers (Lay-Yee, 2013).
 iPad: It is the combination of media players and portable digital music. Its highly
innovative features enhanced its sale in the market.
 iTunes, Mac App Store, iCloud and various other software products are the key products
of the organization which makes it competitive in the existing market.
Competitive advantage can gain by the organization only be enhancing the sale of its products.
Potential competitors of the organization are Samsung, Micromax, and Redme. They can gain
the huge market share by prices and quality of its products. They can generate high revenue with
the large sale of its products. Market penetration strategy of price fixing strategy
Competitive Analysis
Current company’s
strengths and
weaknesses
Potential
Competitor’s
strengths and
Competitive Rival’s
strengths and
weaknesses
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weaknesses
Target Market Large Income lead in
Large Profit margin
Lower income group Lower income group
Product iPhone Samsung Galaxy Good Android
version
Place Online Apple Stores Large size of
Retailers
Online stores and
Retailers
Promotion Sales Promotion Advertisement Public Relation and
Advertising
Price Premium Pricing
Strategy
Skimming Price Product
Differentiation
(Fitzsimmons, 2013)
Competitive
Barriers
Asset Specificity Fabless Business
Models
High Entry Cost
Likely responses Growth Decline in
near future
High growth in future Growing in future
Required Information
The organization needs to conduct a customer survey to address its problem. The customer
survey is an important method by which the organization can easily diagnose perception of
customers towards its products. Customer survey provides a direction to the organization through
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which it can resolve its problem (Fowler 2013). Also, the organization can conduct income
analysis of customers through which it can produce the product as per their income level. It
ultimately enhances the sale of organization and can generate high revenue. Producing products
as per the desire of customers provide various future growth opportunities and it can able to gain
a competitive advantage in the market. The required information can gain through conducting
primary research. It includes methods such as survey and questionnaire. Survey questions for
identifying current problem can be following (Liao, 2013):
Survey Questions
1. Which smartphone brand do you have?
2. Which Apps do you utilize more?
3. Which brand do you think you will be using in next one year?
4. How important is the style or design of a smartphone to you as opposed to functionality?
5. What do you think important when selecting a smartphone?
6. How much are you willing to spend on a smartphone?
Data Analysis
Data collected from the above questions is analyzed by using regression and correlation analysis
method. Regression analysis enables us to find the change in a dependent variable on the basis of
change in one or more independent variable (Nandi, 2016). Correlation can be used by the
organization to test the significant level of data. Regression can be calculated through following
formulas:
 The regression equation for y on x is calculated through y= bx + a where b is considered
as the slope and a is the intercept
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 Here, b is calculated by:
b= ∑dxdy
∑ d x2
a is calculated by:
a= y - bx
 The regression equation for x on y is calculated through x= by + a
 Here, b is calculated by:
b= ∑ dydx
∑ d y2
From the above Logit model it can be understand that if income of the people rise purchasing
power of the consumer also rises. With the high income they are willing to purchase high quality
products and in case of low income they only want to purchase needed products. Multiple linear
regression can be very beneficial for finding the answer to above problem (Draper, 2014). In the
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multiple linear regression, we can measure the problem under availability of different
independent variables such as consumer preferences, culture, lifestyle and various others.
Conclusion
After studying all this, we can conclude that conducted consumer survey helps the organization
in measuring their preferences and price paying capacity (Chatterjee, 2015). With the help of
such information, it can produce a product in the limited margin of prices so that it can facilitate
a large number of customers in single time.
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References
Cecere, G., Corrocher, N., & Battaglia, R. D. (2015). Innovation and competition in the
smartphone industry: Is there a dominant design?. Telecommunications Policy, 39(3), 162-175.
Liao, C. H., & Hsieh, I. Y. (2013). Determinants of consumer’s willingness to purchase gray-
market smartphones. Journal of business ethics, 114(3), 409-424.
Lay-Yee, K. L., Kok-Siew, H., & Yin-Fah, B. C. (2013). Factors affecting smartphone purchase
decision among Malaysian generation Y. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 3(12),
2426-2440.
Fowler Jr, F. J. (2013). Survey research methods. Sage publications.
Nandi, R., Bokelmann, W., Gowdru, N. V., & Dias, G. (2016). Factors Influencing Consumers’
Willingness to Pay for Organic Fruits and Vegetables: Empirical Evidence from a Consumer
Survey in India. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 1-22.
Draper, N. R., & Smith, H. (2014). Applied regression analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Chatterjee, S., & Hadi, A. S. (2015). Regression analysis by example. John Wiley & Sons.
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