This report is going to examine the Integrated Marketing Communication plan a leading IT company, i.e. Apple Inc. The company is using various effective strategies and promotional activities in the process of introducing its products in the market. It includes all the information about the target market segment. Apple’s IMC strategies would be analyzed, consisting of sales promotion, advertising and other marketing activities. This entire plan will emphasize on the marketing and advertising that will help in reaching to the target customers. With assistance of communication strategies, it is forecasted that the idea will be communicated to the audiences effectively. Finally, there will be requirement to measure the effectiveness of the plan, so an evaluation is conducted in the discussion.
Apple, Inc. is an Information Technology (IT) Company, which is headquartered in Cupertino, California. The organization was founded in the year 1977 In the United States. The founders of the company were Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozaniak. At that time, it was established with the name of Apple Computer, Inc. with the intention to manufacture and sell the personal computers only (Fehrnstorm, & Rich, 2009). Now it has removed the computer from its organization’s name. This alteration shows the desire of Apple to expand its business in consumer electronic market. Apple Inc, offers the quality products at the premium prices while it is still covering a large share in the market and maintaining high profits. The products and services of the organization include iPad, iPod, iPhones, Apple TV, Smart watch etc.
Apple Inc. is doing very well in the Information Technology industry. The major objective of the company is to offer customers new and innovative products for maintaining and expanding its brand name and business all over the world. It is making efforts to creating brand awareness among its targeted market segment. The company is focusing on the customers, who are not using the Apple products yet (Keller, 2009). They are engaging in this not only through advertising but they are expanding their distribution channels also. Moreover, company wants to become a leading player in the consumer electronic market.
Market segmentation focuses on dividing the total customers on the basis of different aspects. It includes some factors, like; psychographics, demographics and other factors. From all the factors, demographic includes the age, income, gender and education. Psychographic measures include hopes, aspirations and purchasing power of the customers. The third criteria of the segmentation will be based on the user related factors (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015). It will be done on the basis of the current users of the products. By considering all these factors, Apple will target its customer base for the products and services. This organization aims its customers, who require to store the information and want to communicate and the people who want continuous entertainment.
The company will focus on the people, who are very concerned about the prices, quality and design of the products. They purchase the products for their own utilization. The primary target of Apple for its products is college students and young adults. It includes the age group of 21 to 55 years males and females and who hold a better average annual income (Kotler & Keller, 2009). According to an analysis, the consumers must have the willingness and ability to spend in the electronic products. It will target the people from the social class A & B.
There are various players, who are already established in the IT market, such as; Nokia, Samsung and Sony. So, Apple requires to set marketing and communication objectives and create a well-planned marketing campaign before introducing the product. The major marketing objective of this plan is to increase the market share of the company by the end of the year. Moreover, other objective of this marketing campaign is to build brand awareness for iPhone among the target segment (Luo & Donthu, 2006). The organization wants to make the brand awareness among the customers about the functionality of the products to enhance the utilization by altering their mindset for the products. The company will use the public relation for creating a better image of the company’s products. Along with these objectives, another objective of the company is to increase the sales of the products by focusing on the reviews of people, who are currently using the products.
There may be some ethical issues regarding the communication objectives of the organization. Sometimes, advertising causes the people to purchase the products more they can afford. This is true in the case of Apple. The prices of Apple products are generally high and people cannot afford it easily, but the advertising and brand name influences the youth to buy the product (Mihart, 2012). The company add the marketing expenses in the costs of the products. It increases the overall cost of the products. Another issue is the product quality. As the brand of apple centers on the quality of its products, so if there will be any mistake, then it can create a serious ethical issue. The ethical issues at Apple are affecting the future success of the organization.
In the modern era, many organizations have implemented creative advertising strategies to get the attention of consumers and motivate them to buy their products and services. Generally, these creative advertising strategies are based on the demographic, psychographic and behavioral factors of the targeted market (Porter, 2008). These creative strategies enhance the public relations with the consumers. Apple is using generic strategy as its creative advertising style. Generic strategy is the strategy, which a company pursues for creating the demand for a product category at the time of promotion. Apple is employing the generic style because it is dominating the product category of electronic gadgets and smart phones. For example, it is using the tagline, i.e. “Think Different” for its product’s promotion. This is the best slogan in the technology industry. Furthermore, it is using broad differentiation strategy. It means that Apple always targets to establish itself apart from its competitors not by pricing but by the different specifications in the products, which are beneficial for the customers (Porter, 2008).
After analyzing the industry and conducting the market research, the organization will form a media plan to introduce its products in the market. Apple will use communication strategies or channels to fulfill the above-mentioned communication objectives (Freeman, 2010). The media plan includes the different media vehicles, which will help the organization to achieve its objectives. The media vehicles, used by the Apple. Inc. are described below:
There are two channels of broad cast media, i.e. Radio and Television. Apple will plan to implement an idea of using the feelings or emotions to appeal to the desires of customers. Television will be a significant medium the marketing campaign of Apple. This will help the company in brand building. The company can place the commercial ads on TV. Along with this, it will sponsor the television programs, because it allows more publicity for describing the features of the products and influencing the purchasing decision of consumers.
Apple will contact with some specific and top-rated TV channels for this marketing campaign. This media will be beneficial for the organization, because it allows the marketers to include the visuals and audio in their messages. So, the ads seem more attractive and interesting. This will give life to the advertising message of Apple that is not possible via other types of media vehicles. In this mode, the message will be delivered in the TV commercial, like; Apple’s products can fulfill your aspirations and can help n entertaining yourself. It will attract the customers towards it.
New media is the new form of communication in the digital world. In this, Apple will place the advertisement on internet. This would include SMS and internet (Dudovskiy, 2017). There are various web pages, which display the ads, like; Google, Gmail, Facebook, Yahoo. The organization will place the ads on these web pages. These sites will allow the operators to access the website of Apple with a single click on the mouse. This type of media will help the organization in targeting the collected audience with the messages. The target customers can get the updated information about the products on their mobile phone or other social networking site.
The internet is a medium that shares the features with the interpersonal communication and mass communication. This media includes the ability to disperse a message to the customers with the possibilities of interpersonal communication of revert and feedback. From the advertising point of view, this medium is more interactive. The users of the World Wide Web play an important role in communication and sharing process in comparison to other media. As the youth and other professionals spent much of their time on the internet and social networking sites, so Apple will promote its products on the internet (Bhasin, 2016). The Apple will have a better presence on online E-commerce. Most of the portals of E-commerce promote the brands because they know that this brand has a huge demand and it will be beneficial for them. With this, the price penetration of Apple is very less, so the e-commerce sites and media partners will be very happy too because they do not have to compete on the prices of the products (Wood, & Masterman, 2007).
Print media is also a better way to increase the brand awareness of Apple’s products and Services. The people will get the information regarding the products via print advertising, like; magazines and newspapers (Percy, 2014). This media will give get more information and reviews about the products, which they want to know before purchasing them. For reaching to the target customers, Apple will select highly circulated newspapers and magazines. It will place the ads in business and fashion magazines for attracting the targeted segment.
Thus, these vehicles of media will assist Apple Organization in creating a better customer base and achieving its marketing and communication objectives.
After creating IMC plan, it is very important to get a confirmation that the strategies for the marketing campaigns are probably on the target (Shimp, 2008). The companies use the post testing and pretesting techniques for taking the feedback from target customers. The evaluation of the marketing campaign will be done on the basis of how well the company reaches to the target market and attain the marketing and communication objectives (Brindha, 2014). First, Apple will evaluate the response of customers to the advertisements on the media. The marketers will see that their ads are enough effective to attract the interest of customers from the target market.
As the company is using various types of media, so the effectiveness will depend on the number of media that show the introduction of the Apple’s products. If there will be more broadcast and print media, then there will be more publicity of the Apple brand. Post testing is done after the marketing campaign (Rosenbloom, 2012). Apple will conduct this to measure the impact of promotional activities and change in the mind set towards the use of iPhones and other products of Apple. The company will conduct the survey or any other technique to get the feedback of the target customers and take the feedback from the current users of the products.
Conclusion
For Apple Inc, it is not very easy to cover a large market share in the information technology industry. There are so many competitors, who are selling the similar product category at comparatively lower prices. Apple requires to create a well-planned and strategic integrated marketing communication plan before introducing its new products in the market. However the people think that Apple’s products are not worthy, but its innovative products attract the customers. The media vehicles will also help the organization in creating the brand reputation in the market and attracting more and more customers. From all the strategies of IMC plan, it is expected that the message of the company will be reached to the targeted customers effectively and brand image of Apple could enhance in the mind of targeted audiences. This IMC plan will help Apple in increasing its sales in this competitive environment.
References
Brindha, G. (2014). Integrated Marketing Communication Strategies of Apple and Samsung. International Journal of Research and Development – A Management Review.
Bhasin, H. (2016). Marketing Strategy of Apple Inc – Apple Marketing Strategy. Retrieved on 5 December 2016 from https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-apple/.
Dudovskiy, J. (2017). Apple Business Strategy- Product Differentiation in Design and Functionality. Retrieved on 1 March, 2017 from https://research-methodology.net/apple-business-strategy/.
Fehrnstorm, M. & Rich, D.M. (2009). Using Events to Drive an Integrated Marketing Model. Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications.
Freeman, R.E. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Cambridge University Press.
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