Effective Marketing Strategies Of Apple And Sony: An Analysis Through Ansoff Matrix And Porter’s Five Forces

Marketing success of Apple and Sony through efficient literature

Question:

Analyse the Marketing Strategies and Marketing Processes of real Organisations and determine their effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effectiveness of the marketing strategies adopted by the companies. For this, there has been highlighted the marketing success of Apple and Sony through the efficient literature. The paper will present the sustained competitive advantage gained by both the companies from their marketing initiatives. The paper will also present an in-depth analysis of the companies through ansoff matrix and the porter five forces model. These models will help in understanding the market position and marketing strategies of the companies.

Apple is extremely successful with its marketing initiatives as the company has huge and continuous investments in the research and development as well as advertising and marketing departments for extensively promoting the products across the globe. The company have its emphasis on marketing to the customers that possess few diverse characteristics that includes marketing through segmentation. The primary customers of Apple’s products are the upper class and upper-middle class individuals as there is a sense of willingness to pay a bit more for relishing the ‘better use experience”. It has been observed and analysed that the organisation’s biggest competitive advantage is its marketing strategy. There is a clear understanding by Apple about the needs and demands of the consumers and the things the customers are excited about in the products. Thus, Apple adopts extensive market research and implements the best marketing strategies for advertising its products. There are strong advertising campaigns that help the company in achieving strong customer base. The company advertise its services and products in the manner that provides improved life to the customers and develops the trend of aesthetics and the significance of lifestyle appeal (Johnson, et al., 2012).

Sony is among those companies which have a substantial and significant presence in the market through its effective and renowned marketing strategies. Sony remained high in technology and innovativeness in its marketing initiatives. Presently the organisation has taken use of the Adobe Marketing Cloud for increasing its social presence, customer engagement, multiple channels for interacting with the customers and social engagement. The primary and vital factor of Sony’s marketing initiatives is to target the techno savvy audiences. Sony has a reliable understanding of the requirements of the tech savvy customers and the way they can be attracted towards the products of Sony. Because of the fact that individuals spend a considerable time over engaging with brands, connecting with friends, consuming entertainment content, shopping and online researching, Sony has its key emphasis on online marketing. To build one-on-one association with the customers and have success in the e-commerce, the company employs effective digital marketing campaigns which are significantly integrated across the social sites, web points and digital touch points (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2014).

Marketing initiatives and competitive advantage gained by Apple

Evidence for Apple’s sustained Competitive Advantage

The success of Apple and its sustained competitive advantage can be evidently shown by its strong financial position as it is the leading organisation in the electronics and software industry. The organisation has attained huge success which be reviewed from the increasing customer base and the positive feedbacks and reviews of the customers (Lee and Raghu, 2014). Apple has received numerous awards for its innovation and marketing practices that demonstrate the efficiency of its marketing strategies which helped the company in attaining huge global presence and strong brand visibility (Pisano, 2015). The marketing strategy of Apple of expanding in the global markets was a successful initiative as in the international market the company holds for the second largest position and with the introduction of Apple 7, it recognized as the leader in the fourth quarter. All such continuous developments, increased market share and upsurge customer base are the evidence of the sustained competitive advantage of Apple (Perez, 2017).

Evidence for Sony’s sustained Competitive Advantage

By taking sue of the digital marketing techniques such as Adobe Marketing Clud, Liveclicker video in email and other real time marketing, Sony was able to positive outcomes that offered increased competitive advantages to the company. The rates of Fan Favorites click-through have upsurge by more than a total of 400 percent. The rates of 4K Pre-Sale campaign were upsurge by more than a total of 300 percent (realtime, 2015). The reports, news and data published demonstrate the success of Sony and achievement of competitive advantages by its strong marketing channels. There are a total of 7,526,537 followers of Sony at Facebook and a total of 4,130, 825 followers at Twitter. This explains the social engagement of the customers with Sony. The company has gained huge online presence by its digital marketing which can be analysed by its increasing market share (Hibbard, 2011).

Market Penetration

To penetrate the market, Apple launches every updated and new version of the iPhone in almost in a period of every twelve months. It results in increase of varieties for the customers to select from. The biggest rival in the industry for apple is Samsung which makes complex for Apple to have an increased market share. And thus Apple is taking use of extensive promotions and advertising for fetching the attention of the customers.

Product Development

To attract the already existing customers of apple, the company has taken several initiatives such as launching iPod shuffle and other Apple products so that the customers can get a more handy experience (Darroch, 2014).

Marketing initiatives and competitive advantage gained by Sony

Market Development

For the market development, such as international markets, Apple has taken sue of launch of iPad as it is just the copy of iPhone except calling functions thus it is perfect for the markets which does not possess cell phones carrier.

Diversification

Apple iTunes is the perfect example of diversification as it has entered the market of music industry as being the leader in the phone or computer industry, but it is much difficult to have such diversification (Paicu, 2015).

Market Penetration

The market share of Sony is very strong and extended with hundreds of stores and improved customer service. And due to these benefits, the company is required to defend its market share as well as strive hard to upsurge sales with the means of penetration pricing, bundling and effective advertising (Auwinger, 2010).

Product Development

There are few new products of Sony which can be seen as the part of product development such as the Xperia XZ. The company launched it in 2017. As per the customers’ feedbacks, it will be able to influence customer through its innovativeness. The features like water resistant, smart technology etc. are the factors of product development for attracting the potential customers (sonycorporation1, 2014).

Market Development

Sony has required expanding its geographical reach and must tap into new overseas regions and markets other than Japan, America and Europe. At present, the sales as well as the marketing teams must have their emphasis upon identifying new possible areas which can be served by the products of Sony.

Diversification

Presently Sony is producing electronic gadgets, mobile phones, laptops, cameras, recorders and printers. The new marketing strategy must have kits focus upon the development of the medical equipments such as lens, sensor, Micronics, diagnostics equipments, etc. By this, it will be able to enter the science and technology market and achieve diversification (sonycorporation1, 2014).

Barraging power of buyers

The bargaining power of the buyers in context with Apple is low as Apple offers highly innovative and supreme class products which are not available anywhere else. Thus, the buyers do not able to bargain. In context with Sony, the bargaining power of the buyers is medium as there are other competitive products which can attract the customers and thus buyers tend to bargain (Wonglimpiyarat, 2012).

Bargaining power of suppliers

The bargaining power of the suppliers in context with Apple is medium as Apple has a demand for specific and innovative technologies and parts. Thus, which is not available easily as well as not all companies purchase such products. Thus, there is medium bargaining power of suppliers. In context with Sony, the bargaining power of the suppliers is low as there are number of suppliers which can offer the products to the company.

Success of Apple’s diversified strategies

Industrial Rivalry

There is intense and extreme industrial rivalry in the electronic industry as there are number of competitors of both Apple and Sony such as Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, etc. Thus all the companies are taking sue of innovative technologies and efficient marketing to attract the customers and retain the market share (Khan, Alam and Alam, 2015).

Threat of new entrants

Apple does not has a threat of new entrants as any other new company cannot offer such innovative, techno savvy and supreme products and cannot have such strong customer base. In case of Sony, it has a little threat of new entrants as there are companies which offer similar products like Sony and are able to fetch the market share from Sony (Kauerhof, 2015).

Threat of substitutes

Threat of substitutes in context with Apple is low as Apple offers highly innovative and supreme class products which are not available anywhere else. Thus, the buyers do not able to switch on any other brand. In context with Sony, the threat of substitutes is high as there are other competitive products which can attract the customers and thus buyers tend to switch easily (Xue, 2016).

Conclusion

From this report, it can be concluded that both Apple and Sony have attained extreme success and competitive benefits by their innovative and effective marketing strategies. The authors have presented their success in their literature and have highlighted marketing initiatives as the key to their sustained competitive benefits. It can also be stated from the analysis of both the companies through ansoff matrix and porter five forces that Apple is among the leaders of the industry but have to increase customer base for being at the first position. But Sony needs a lot of efforts to maintain its position in the market in terms of advertising, marketing, innovativeness’, analysing customer needs and market trends.

References

Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2014. Sony Electronics reaches out to a tech-savvy audience. Pp.4. Accessed on: 5^th August, 2017. Accessed from: https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/customer-success/pdfs/sony-electronics-case-study.pdf

Auwinger, H.M., 2010. Entertainment software and hardware industry: utilizing market research and experiential techniques.

Darroch, J., 2014. Ansoff’s Growth Matrix—In Detail. In Why Marketing to Women Doesn’t Work (pp. 131-147). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Hibbard, C. 2011. Sony Combines Social and Local for Successful Product Launch. Accessed on: 5^th August, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/sony-combines-social-and-local-for-successful-product-launch/

Johnson, K., Li, Y., Phan, H., Singer, J. and Trinh, H., 2012. The Innovative Success that is Apple, Inc.

Kauerhof, A., 2015. The Strategy of the Smartphone Industry. A Comparative Analysis of Apple, Sony and Xiaomi.

Khan, U.A., Alam, M.N. and Alam, S., 2015. A Critical Analysis of Internal and External Environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), pp.955-961.

Lee, G. and Raghu, T.S., 2014. Determinants of mobile apps’ success: evidence from the App Store market. Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(2), pp.133-170.

Paicu, C.E., 2015. Communication And Branding–Economic Standpoint. Annals-Economy Series, 5, pp.79-82.

Perez, 2017. iPhone 7 sales helped Apple reclaim the top spot in the global smartphone market. Accessed on: 5^th August, 2017. Accessed from: https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/01/iphone-7-sales-helped-apple-reclaim-the-top-spot-in-the-global-smartphone-market/

Pisano, G.P., 2015. You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), pp.44-54.

Realtime, 2015. Sony Electronics increases customer engagement, boosts click-through rate 300-400%. Pp.2. Accessed on: 5^th August, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.realtime.email/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RTE-Sony-Case-Study1.pdf

sonycorporation1, 2014. Competitive Advantage of SONY Corporation. Accessed on: 5^th August, 2017. Accessed from: https://sonycorporation1.blogspot.in/

Wonglimpiyarat, J., 2012. Technology strategies and standard competition—Comparative innovation cases of Apple and Microsoft. The Journal of High Technology Management Research, 23(2), pp.90-102.

Xue, C.T.S., 2016. An Examination of the Strategic Use of IT Applications in Achieving Competitive Advantages. International Journal, 4(7).