Recommendations for Expanding iPhone Market in Developing Nations

The report delves into the marketing strategies employed by Apple for the iPhone 5, emphasizing the dual focus on product and sales concepts. The analysis reveals how these strategies contributed to its success in the U.S. market while highlighting challenges faced internationally due to competition from local brands like Samsung and HTC. Despite these challenges, post-purchase satisfaction was high among users who appreciated the innovative features of the iPhone 5. The report concludes with recommendations for Apple to increase its market share in developing nations such as China and India by adopting new marketing techniques tailored to these regions.

INDIVIDUAL REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Apple is considered as one of the most successful companies in the history of this world.
They launched their one mobile i.e. iPhone in 2007 by the name of iPhone 4. This report is based
in iPhone 5 which is known as a revolutionary product (Kardous and Shaw, 2014). Marketing
concepts related to this mobile will be discussed in this report. Consumer buying decisions in
different condition will also be included in the project. There are different marketing concepts
among which sales and product are kept as a base for the given assignment.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A)
Marketing is a function which starts by ascertaining the needs of customers and it ends
when company assures that buyers of products or services are satisfied with the purchased item.
Below are some of the marketing concepts which played a crucial role in the success of iPhone
5:
Product concept – Apple is known for selling high quality of innovative goods. They
earned this image because this organisation firmly believes that if they will not improve their
current products and injects innovative features in their new phone then they will get failed to
attain their goals. At the time of making iPhone 5, founder of this company gave details about all
new things which will be present in this product. An enterprise can spend a huge amount of
money on promoting their offerings but if their ''Product'' lack in quality and performance then
they cannot achieve the desired success. iPhone 5 was a much better product as compared to
previous one and all the existing smartphones in market. Apple knew that they are selling an
item which will bring revolution in this industry and so, they keep their focus on increasing the
curiosity of people. This strategy attained success because features of iPhone 5 was one of the
most discussed news of that time.
Selling concepts – Selling iPhone 5 in market is not an easy task because when people do
not understand the use of new features and ''why these characteristics are important'' then they
will not show interest in buying it iPhone 5. Apple invested a lot of money in organising and
promoting their new products (Walke, Witschi and Reiner, 2013). Efforts relating to sales are
made for increasing the sale of this phone. Management of this company knew that if they will
will do proper presentation of the features and their usage, then a good market can be coverd
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which will increase the total productivity. Apple was successful in generating curiosity among
the customers about its new launch of iPhone 5 before it was actually available in the market.
They successfully managed to earn attention from world’s media because of their proper
presentation of product's advantages. Giving the name of ''revolution'' to a new product was one
of the best promotional strategies of all time.
Pricing strategy – Apple adopted price skimming strategy from their early days. In case
of iPhone 5, they followed same tactics because it was successful in the past. This company
launched iPhone 5 at a very high price and so, they can deliver a message that Apple charges
more money because they offer something unique and revolutionary. Gradually, they bring down
price of this product in order to maintain proper balance in between demand and supply.
B)
Consumer buying decisions
Apple came in mobile industry because it knew that they can use innovation for
developing the future products. They firmly believed that people would love a product which can
be hold in hand and used for the purpose of entertainment also. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple,
once said that according to him, people do not know what they want (Webster and Lusch, 2013).
Below is a framework for understanding buying decisions in different circumstances:
Need recognition – Normally, customers have a clear understanding about what is
needed from a product but in the mobile industry, this rules does not follow. At the time of
making iPhone 5, Apple analysed that customers have to carry a different gadget for storing and
listening songs. They tried to put a lot of features in a single phone and so, they can accomplish
all the needs of customers which even they do not know.
Information search – After success of iPhone 4, this company gathered information
about the demands of customers, what they like/dislike in previous product and how much would
buyers happily pay for a better phone. In USA, iPhone 5 got appreciation from across the nation
and but Apple did not earn much amount from some other nation because few countries could
not afford their phones and remaining already have a lot of options in their regions.
Evaluation of alternatives – Products of HTC, Blackberry and Samsung were some of
the main competitors of iPhone 5. They were the main reasons behind slow growth of Apple as
compared to European and Asian countries. Local customers did not give much preference to the
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smartphones of above mentioned companies but in the international market, iPhone did not attain
expected results (McDaniel and Gates, 2013).
Purchase decision – iPhone 5 gained majority of market share in the mobile industry of
USA because this was an innovation on which whole country was proud. They bought iPhone 5
because they were addicted to IOS and looking of this phone was better than other products.
Buyers of foreign nation have shown less interest in iPhone 5 because they were not ready to use
a completely different operating software i.e. IOS. In the premium segment, HTC, Blackberry
and Samsung launched many products which have similar or even better features than iPhone 5.
This ultimately changed buyer’s decision and perception about Apple's product. Online and
offline availability of products did not make any major impact on the sale of iPhone 5. Although
there is a major part of market which do not like to buy Apple due to the issues faced while
buying it from stores like excessive waiting time. (Berthon and et. al., 2012).
Post purchase decision – Both local and international customers were satisfied with
iPhone 5 because it made a huge impact in their life (MARKETING 101: POST PURCHASE
BEHAVIOR, 2018).
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above report, it can be concluded that iPhone 5 was marketed as a revolutionary
product. This company focused on two concepts of marketing i.e. sales and product. Apple
should focus on increasing the sale of their products in developing nations like China and India.
Implementation of fresh techniques needs to be done so that new market can be covered.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Berthon and et. al., 2012. Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers:
Implications for international marketing strategy. Business horizons. 55(3). pp.261-271.
Kardous, C.A. and Shaw, P.B., 2014. Evaluation of smartphone sound measurement
applications. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 135(4). pp.EL186-EL192.
McDaniel, C. and Gates, R., 2013. Marketing research. Singapore.
Walke, T., Witschi, M. and Reiner, M., 2013, March. Case study@ Swisscom (Schweiz) AG:
iPhone 5 self-service order app and process-workflows. In International Conference on
Subject-Oriented Business Process Management (pp. 264-273). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg.
Webster, F.E. and Lusch, R.F., 2013. Elevating marketing: marketing is dead! Long live
marketing!. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 41(4). pp.389-399.
Online
MARKETING 101: POST PURCHASE BEHAVIOR. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<http://marketmedialife.blogspot.in/2013/04/marketing-101-post-purchase-
behavior.html>
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