Apple Marketing

role of marketing

• strategic role of marketing goods and services
  • The development of brand awareness and customer loyalty are key contributors to the success of companies like apple
    strategic role of marketing goods and services
• interdependence with other key business functions
  • Finance: relies on marketing to increase sales by altering the marketing mix
  • Operations: Changes in marketing aim to increase demand, operations must manage this increased demand.
  • Human resources: changes in marketing activities (i.e. launch of new products), requires staff retraining (Human Resource Management)
    interdependence with other key business functions
• production, selling, marketing approaches
  • Selling approach: in introductory stages of product lifecycle, innovative nature of smartphone design created a Selling approach to marketing
  • Marketing approach:
    • As the smartphone market becomes established (more saturated), the focus of iPhone marketing shifted more towards persuasive as opposed to informative.
      production, selling, marketing approaches
• types of markets - resource, industrial, intermediate, consumer, mass, niche
  types of markets

influences on marketing

• factors influencing customer choice - psychological, sociocultural, economic, government
  • Psychological:
    • Apple launched 2 phones consecutively in 2013:
      • iPhone 5c: cheaper, sold in plastic colours,
        • psych influence demonstrated in it’s marketing
          • ‘Colour is more than just a hue, it expresses a feeling. Makes a statement.’
        • colourful plastic casing received poorly, indicated by low sales.
      • iPhone 5s: expensive, metallic colours
        • appearance (esp. gold) associated with quality
        • promotion targeted at consumers with an ethos of:
          • (quality, leading technology, innovation) terms
        • received well
  • Sociocultural:
    • smartphone design has influenced society
    • rising popularity of social media, gaming, streaming:
      • → strong focus in design features that support these digital habits.
  • Economic:
    • economic downturn → reduced consumer spending on apple products (non-essential goods)
    • during (& following) the GFC recession → apple had negative growth in iPhone sales (in US & some of EU)
      • apple responded by developing ‘low-cost’ phones (iPhone SE)
        • and marketing older models in India.
  • Government:
    • China gov:
      • in 2014 the iPhone 6(+) launch was delayed for Chinese customers (due to CH gov concerns)
        • concerns regarding privacy and accessibility of account data (iCloud, location) by 3rd-parties
      • Given China’s large growing market for phones,
        • the influence of gov policies have large implications for Apple’s competitive position.
    • India gov:
      • For years, the Indian government’s protectionist policies have prevented Apple’s attempts to open stores in India.
        • As of recent gov efforts to encourage foreign investment in India
          • first online store Est. 2020
          • first two physical stores Est. 2023
      • Further growth expected following a $6.6 billion incentive program aimed at boosting local phone manufacturing
        • Key challenge for Apple in India is the high prices of phones
          factors influencing consumer choice
• consumer laws
  consumer laws

  • deceptive and misleading advertising

    • in 2015: a class-action was filed against Apple by >100 iPhone 4 users (in US)
      • claiming their phones were being made intentionally unusable via IOS updates.

  • price discrimination

    • Apple must sell at same price, although retailers aren’t restricted

  • implied conditions

    • Australian law requires Apple phones to:
      • be fit for purpose
      • correspond with their description
      • have spare parts & repairs available

  • warranties

• ethical - truth, accuracy and good taste in advertising, products that may damage health, engaging in fair competition, sugging
  Ethical influences
  • Product placement:
    • Apple has vast product placement in media
      • interestingly, Apple ensures that their products are used only by the good guys in films, allowing the opposing antagonists to use android/competitor-like devices
      • and introduction of Apple TV+ → e.g. placement of over 36 Apple products in one episode of ‘Ted Lasso’
  • Radiation (damage health):
    • in 2011, WHO ranked phone radiation as potentially “carcinogenic to humans”

marketing process

0. The marketing process

• situational analysis - SWOT, product life cycle
  1. situational analysis
• market research
  2. market research
• establishing market objectives
  3. establishing market objectives
• identifying target markets
  4. identifying target markets
• developing marketing strategies
  5. developing marketing strategies
• implementation, monitoring and controlling - developing a financial forecast; comparing actual and planned results, revising the marketing strategy
  6. implementation, monitoring and controlling

marketing strategies

• market segmentation, product/service differentiation and positioning
  0. market segmentation
  0. Product, service differentiation and positioning
• products - goods and/or services
  1. Product
  • branding
  • packaging
• price including pricing methods - cost, market, competition-based
  2. Price
  • pricing strategies - skimming, penetration, loss leaders, price points
  • price and quality interaction
• promotion
  3. Promotion
  • elements of the promotion mix - advertising, personal selling and relationship marketing, sales promotions, publicity and public relations
  • the communication process - opinion leaders, word of mouth
• place/distribution
  4. Place (distribution)
  • distribution channels
  • channel choice - intensive, selective, exclusive
  • physical distribution issues - transport, warehousing, inventory
• people, processes and physical evidence
  5. people, processes and physical evidence
• e-marketing
  6. e-marketing
• global marketing
  7. global marketing
  • 2023, APPLE SECOND MOST VALUABLE BRAND IN THE WORLD
    • behind amazon
  • global branding
  • standardisation
  • customisation
  • global pricing
  • competitive positioning