Discuss about the Evaluating Marketing Strategy and Recommendations for Apple iPhones.
There are number of organisations all across the world who considers marketing mix as an important tool for effective marketing. One such company is Apple Inc. which has emphasised on the implementation of the marketing mix to a large extent that helps the company to alter the elements of the marketing mix effectively and also monitor the marketing strategy in order to get the best possible result from the marketing programs implemented by the organisation. The present study takes an opportunity to have a proper marketing audit which will mainly take into account the discussion of the 8 different Ps’ of marketing or the extended marketing mix with reference to the product Apple iPhone. The contemporary issues in marketing do have significant effect on the process of marketing nowadays and hence it becomes extremely important to discuss these contemporary issues and accordingly provide recommendations in order to improve the marketing mix of the organisation Apple.
Apple Inc. is one of the leading IT companies in the world operating almost all across the world. The company is a major manufacturer of different Hi-Tech products mostly digital devices like music players, mobile phones and personal computers. The company has brought a revolution in the field of digital devices with coming of the age technology and excellent service. One of the most loved products of Apple is iPhone. The iPhone is considered as one of the classiest and stylish mobile phones available in the market nowadays. Effective and compact business strategy of the Apple Inc. leverages its unique design and helps to design its own operating system and hardware and application interfaces that helps the organisation to provide something new every time a new version of iPhone launches (Armstrong et al., 2012). Apple as an organisation faces significant competition in the Australian market with Samsung, Dell, Microsoft and some of the other IT companies who have enjoyed market share in the IT market. The launches of iPhone in the market by Apple in the Australian market have been effective for the company to attract interest of the consumers due to their effective marketing mix related to the product. The company focuses on having a compact marketing mix that allows understanding the needs and wants of a particular market targeted (Baker, 2014).
The extended marketing mix helps the organisation to effectively understand the elements and apply them effectively in the context of Apple iPhone. The different elements of the marketing mix are products, price, place, promotion, partnership, people, process and physical evidence. These aspects are important for the organisation to effectively apply in the marketing process to get the best result from the marketing process implemented. While developing the concept of iPhone Apple had focused on the needs and wants of the consumers which has helped the company to provide not only the basic mobile services to the consumers but they have also been able to create the needed interest among the consumers which has helped the organisation to gain competitive advantage in the Australian IT market (Boone & Kurtz, 2013). In order to keep the competitive advantage intact in the market it is important to discuss the extended marketing mix of Apple iPhone in the Australian market to gain effective insights to improve the marketing mix of the product.
Product: Product is one of the key elements of the marketing mix. Product could be defined as a tangible or intangible thing for which the consumers pay a certain price to get the services. Products come in different forms like convenience goods, shopping goods and specialty goods. It could be said that the shopping goods is one of the segments that the consumers are highly inclined to invest in. There are various kinds of shopping goods and the IT products are one of them. Most of the consumers nowadays are highly interested in buying expensive IT products like Computers, Mobiles et cetera. Apple iPhone is the product that has stirred interest in the market with its excellent style, great features and unparalleled service. Product is one of the key aspects of the marketing mix and hence it is important for the organisation to develop and implement innovation on its products effectively (Dominici, 2009).
The product concept has three different levels namely core product, actual product and augmented product. The core product is focused on addressing the main problem of the consumers. In this case the iPhone is a Smartphone and when a person buys smart phone the main need of the person is communication. iPhone provides voice call services now on the Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) is a latest service which could be availed over the latest iPhones like iPhone 6, 6s and iPhone 7. Hence the core product of iPhone meets the needs of the consumers effectively. The second level is actual product which mainly tries to address the core customer value which is identified into an actual product. The actual product mainly involves developing features, designs and quality and brand name (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). The actual product of iPhone has been able to address the secondary needs of the consumers. IPhone comes in three different colors (Black, White and Golden), iPhone has features which are different from other products, and the packaging of the product is also different, design, the styling of the product gives upper hand to iPhone as a product. It is also important to mention that the brand name of Apple has also supported the product and have also kept the consumers interested to connect with the company. Finally the augmented product is an additional feature that comes with the product. The brand name that comes with iPhone and the additional features that could be used by the consumers are high internet services, video calling, emails and other services that add value to the product and attract consumers to increase sales and revenue (Goi, 2009).
Fig 1: Product in marketing mix (Source: Goi, 2015)
Price: Price is another key element of the marketing mix. There is a very little discussion needed on the price aspect of iPhone. The company is very particular about its pricing. Right from the very beginning the company has targeted the premium niche market which allows the organisation to keep its pricing in the higher range. There are different ways of pricing a product namely premium pricing, penetration pricing, price skimming which are some of the common ways of choosing the pricing system of a product. Apple iPhone is mainly targeted for a niche market based on income and lifestyles choices of people and hence in order to reach this targeted market Apple uses the price skimming system to set the price of iPhones (Goi, 2015). In the Australian Market there are different similar products from Samsung, HTC, and Microsoft and hence Apple sets the price of the iPhones tad higher in order is different from the rest of the products. As Apple targets the executive class people it helps the organisation to set the price higher which also provides self satisfaction to the consumers. Another key aspect in the pricing system of the company is it doesn’t provide any direct discount on the iPhone price which also gives sentimental value to the product (Goi, 2009).
Place: Place could be considered as the way of distribution as well as could also be considered as the mode of presence of the organisation. Apple Inc. is a global business and available almost everywhere. In the present scenario the company focuses on the top cities of Australia namely Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth which are the top cities of the country. IStores as it has named the distribution outlets of the organisation to get immediate personal connect with the consumers could be found in almost all the shopping malls and the premium places around these cities. In the modern retail distribution centers and the individual retailers receive iPhones through carrying and forwarding agents and through distributors. Finally the IStores receives the products directly from the company which are given at the best possible rates. The IStores are located in the posh localities which are easily accessible to the consumers. The company also sales its products online through different e-commerce sites which has also helped the organisation to gain market share in the online market (Hair & Lukas, 2014).
Promotions: Apple is known for its unique promotional ideas and plans. In Australia the launch of Apple iPhone is celebrated. The company launches their annual event of keynote where the invite the press, and developers and share the product live. The keynote stands to be an extremely effective promotional event for the organisation. Along with that the company also focuses on using the mass media promotions like the newspapers, TV, Radio, and also the social media platforms which helps to focus on improving the communication with the consumers as well as promotes the market wonderfully well. The company has its own YouTube channel and contains 3million subscribers and gets over 100 million views every time it launches its products. Within Australia the company follows the same method of promotion and it has around million people from Australia as subscribers in their Facebook page (Hollensen, 2015).
Partnerships: Partnership is recently included in the concept of marketing mix. It is understood as the process of tying up with companies or agencies in order to expand the business and gain market share. In Australia Apple serves the consumers with the help of different Australian companies like NEC Australia is tied up with Apple who work as the authorised system integrators. The company has also tied up with one of the leading security firms in the country Australia that is MicroLatch for the improvement in the fingerprint technology. Apple has also collaborated with SAP the German Software developer giants to improve its native iOS applications and an SDK. Overall it could be said that the company has fruitful collaborations in Australia (Khan, 2014).
Physical evidence: The Company aims to provide the best possible services to the consumers and this clearly reflects in the way they shape up the aspect of physical evidence in marketing mix. Apple understands that for effective customer satisfaction an overall development of marketing infrastructure is required and hence the company focuses on locating the outlets in the aesthetically beautiful areas that impresses the consumers. On the other hand the staffs of Apple are highly qualified in customer service and try to provide the best possible service to the consumers. Apart from this the company has a world class website which is completely clutter free, easily navigable and efficacious in customer interactions and this has helped the company to improve its market share (Kotler et al., 2014) .
Process: The main aim of the company is to satisfy the consumers and for that the company follows a particular process. It makes sure that the staffs who are involved with the company are better at meeting consumer queries and do not focus on sales particularly, more sales staffs are involved in conversion of a customer, The website is more streamlined now and is also focused on meeting the needs of the consumers (Kotler et al., 2015).
People: People are always key in the development of a business. Apple has a great policy of hiring from the host country to continue its business. The company has been able to hire efficient people to provide the visitors a great level of customer experience. The people involved with the company in Australia are highly qualified and have excellent interactive and management skills which help to give effective service to the Australian consumers (Luca & Suggs, 2010).
There are number of contemporary issues that Apple faces while marketing iPhones in Australia. It could be said that these contemporary issues could have significant negative impact on the business and hence it is essential for the organisation to focus on eliminating these issues from the operations and implement a clean marketing mix which would help the organisation to focus on providing the best possible services to the consumers. With Apple iPhone creating a craze in the market there are number of different contemporary issues that the company has had to face. The very first issue is the ethical concern of the labor rights that has allegedly being denied by the company. Just recently Apple has been accused of mistreating its labors and they have face work and pay problems and even physical atrocities (Mullins et al., 2012). This clearly is a negative marketing for the company as many ethical consumers will give up using Apple phone learning about these incidents. Another key problem that the company faced is about environmental concerns especially in Australia as there have been incidents where the company has not been able to properly dispose its wastes that create significant impact on the environment and also from the business vantage point this will advertise the organisation in a completely negative way. These contemporary issues have not only had direct environmental impacts but also human impacts which will affect the marketing strategy of the business (Roger, 2010). Until and unless the company addresses the issues of labor rights consumers will feel highly reluctant to buy iPhone not only in Australia but also in the other parts of world given the poor treatment of the labors. On the other hand explosions in the factory producing iPhones and iPads have been rebuked and show that Apple doesn’t take significant steps to safeguard its employees and also has mere interest in safeguarding the environment. Improper waste removals in some of the factories in Australia have sent negative messages to the consumers and hence the marketing strategy of the company is to get negative response in the market (Sarker et al., 2012). In order to effectively make improvements the company should focus on making significant alterations in its marketing mix:
Conclusion
To conclude it could be said that the marketing mix implementation is extremely important for the successful advertisement of Apple iPhone. The company should focus on developing the product and implementation of the suggested recommendations effectively. The company should deal with the contemporary issues of ethical problems and environment which would help the company to apply the marketing mix of iPhone effectively.
References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2012). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Prentice-Hall, London.
Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2013). Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.
Dominici, G. (2009). From marketing mix to e-marketing mix: a literature overview and classification.
Drummond, G., Ensor, J., & Ashford, R. (2010). Strategic marketing. Routledge.
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2012). Marketing strategy, text and cases. Nelson Education.
Goi, C. L. (2009). A review of marketing mix: 4Ps or more?. International journal of marketing studies, 1(1), 2.
Goi, C. L. (2015). Marketing Mix: A review of’P’. The Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 2005.
Hair Jr, J. F., & Lukas, B. (2014). Marketing research. McGraw-Hill Education Australia.
Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.
Khan, M. T. (2014). The concept of’marketing mix’and its elements (a conceptual review paper). International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), 95.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing. pearson education.
Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., Ancarani, F., & Costabile, M. (2014). Marketing management 14/e. Pearson.
Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., Manceau, D., & Hémonnet-Goujot, A. (2015). Marketing management (Vol. 14). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Luca, N. R., & Suggs, L. S. (2010). Strategies for the social marketing mix: A systematic review. Social Marketing Quarterly, 16(4), 122-149.
Mullins, J., Walker, O. C., & Boyd Jr, H. W. (2012). Marketing management: A strategic decision-making approach. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Roger, K. (2010). Strategic Marketing Problems: Cases And Comments, 12/E. Pearson Education India.
Sarker, M. A. H., Aimin, W., & Begum, S. (2012). Investigating the Impact of Marketing Mix Elements on Tourists ‘Satisfaction: An Empirical Study on East Lake. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(7), 273-282.
Singh, M. (2012). Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. Journal of Business and Management, 3(6), 40-45.
Thorat, S. B., Kishor, S. B., & Meghe, B. (2013). Social Media Marketing Mix: Applicability Review for Marketing in Education. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 59, 16.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download
