Discuss about the Marketing and Organic Revenue Growth.
Apple took birth on the hands of Steve Jobs and became a popular technological company in the entire world. The company excels in designing and manufacturing electrical gadgets such as desktops, computers, iPod, iPhone, iPad and others. Apple has sustained in the market for a long time and constantly experienced increased momentum. It is one among the top technological companies because of its innovative and classy products. In order to achieve the top position in the industry, this particular company has put in its extreme effort. Their proper planning and execution of strategies enabled them to attain success (Babin & Zikmund, 2015).
In this paper, the marketing mix of Apple watch will be considered along with the target goal. This report will discuss the opportunities for the brand to enter a new market and the strategies required for the same. The marketing theories relevant to Apple watch will be considered for practical application. The discussion of the 4Ps of marketing mix, augmentation, targeting and positioning model of Apple watch will help in the analysis of the market entry of the product by defining the strategies.
Apple Company is intended to create and develop innovative products for the industry by providing the best user experience. They have performed well in the manufacturing of unique hardware, software and other such services. They have always been dedicated and committed to manufacture unique designs, wonderful integration and premium quality for the customers. They have always planned to maintain their superior class quality and did not compromise it any terms. Constant evolution and high volatility within the company has paved the way for improvement and innovation of the Apple products (Carlson, 2016). Apple watch is one such product that will enable the company to enhance their online and retail stores by effectively reaching out to more target customers. In this way, the target customers will let them experience the best quality sales and post- sales support. Being consistently successful in the market, Apple watch is manufactured with the aim of maintaining their constant innovation in the industry along with their top- notch company culture. Given below are the SMART goals of Apple watch:
Specific: In the beginning, Apple watch had planned to increase their revenue by penetrating into the high- level market and get 15% market share within a year. It became their specific goal because new market was defined which would help Apple to continue with their innovation in the same manner. There was no successful smart watch in the market until Apple watch was introduced.
Measurable: According to Eisenstein (2015), Apple is aimed at making a firm position in the market, which is a measurable goal. This is because sales figures are necessary to be reported. Moreover, they have an advanced system of sales metrics analysis to report to the stockholders.
Attainable: As Apple is one of the leading technological giants in the world, their outputs are closely observed by the technical stalwarts in the market. It is considered as the attainable goal for the company because the distribution system of the company is highly advanced in terms of online and retail stores. They are popular in the market because of their nature and trend in consumer electronics.
Relevant: the company is intended to get hold of the fashion interests by modifying its product line in a personal manner for making convenient functions. It is a relevant goal because a high growth standard is set in that particular area where the company has invested a huge amount of its resources.
Timely: the goals of the company must be time- bound as it has an objective of gaining the shares within specific time of one year. Their lack of success would have been clearly explained otherwise. Specific time enables them to set accurate deadline for measuring growth and development of the new product (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015).
Apple watch or iWatch is a smart watch manufactured by Apple Inc and it is related to the consumer electronics industry. It was introduced in the market on 24 April 2015 and within the second quarter; it became the best seller in the market with a supply of 4.2 million units. Given below are the 4P’s of marketing mix of Apple watch (Isaacs et al., 2015).
Product: Apple watch or iWatch is a multi- functioning watch that is provided with touch- screen facility (Wu & Li, 2018). In addition, this product has unique factors such as health related fitness measuring capabilities, which is combined with other products and services of Apple. Apple watch first generation was available in double case sizes of 1.7 inches and 1.5 inches. There were four variants available in the watches such as Apple Watch Edition, Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch Hermes and Apple Watch. The product is connected wirelessly and it is able to perform the functions of sending messages and make calls from iPhone. It is sensitive to pressure and can access Apple Pay. The battery lasts for eighteen hours and can be charged with inductive charging (Jung, Kim & Choi, 2016).
Place: Apple watch belongs to a global brand and it is available in almost every country such as USA, UK, India, Indonesia and others. A strong network connection of the company has helped in making its products easily available to the customers in the market. The problem of ordering the product only through the official website was rectified by amending their distribution policy. There were selected models available at the retail outlets and the tied- up companies of Apple. Apple watch is now available at all the Apple stores along with other retail outlets of Later Sprint and T- Mobile (Wu et al., 2015).
Price: Apple watch is the most convenient and high- performing devices in the consumer market. This superior product created with the aim of wearing rather than carrying possesses high quality and a premium pricing policy. The price range of the Apple watch is higher than the products of the rival companies in the market but the company has full faith on its loyal customers. They firmly believe that the customers who have once used the Apple product will not switch to other brands at any cost. Apple products might be highly priced but their status symbol is worth mentioning. They are determined not to reduce their price range, as it will hamper their competitive advantage (Kotabe & Helsen, 2014).
Promotion: Apple Company has represented the watch in the market as a fashion symbol and designed their promotional activities in the same manner. They have not missed their unique features such as health and fitness activities calculation while making their ad campaigns. They have adopted different promotional strategies before the introduction of this particular product in the market such as television ad, print ad and magazine advertisement. It was mostly covered by Vogue magazine by focusing on its integrated band and body (Steenkamp, 2017).
According to Lehmann (2015), the STP of the company is enhanced by its strategic planning and implementation of the entire marketing strategy of Apple watch. Initially the product was targeted towards the younger customers due to their affinity for technological and electronic gadgets. This market segment was mostly intended towards the adoption of new and emerging technologies. In order to work on their objective capturing the market share and target segments, the brand has positioned itself in a premium manner by offering unique but simple product design with in- built iOS system and highly- advanced customer care support of the company (Solomon et al., 2015)
In order to support the STP strategy, Apple has generated and incorporated a strong marketing mix. This particular marketing mix is well- crafted with innovative products such as iPod, iPhone and iWatch (Levine, 2016). The process of the products was set strategically in order to maintain the company class and standard. Their special distribution channel has enabled them to attract the target market with the provision of convenient shopping both online and offline. The marketing of the product was always intended towards the promotion and advertisement of the superior quality by luring the customers through print and broadcast advertising. The products of Apple are created keeping the upper middle class and higher class in mind, and iWatch was no exception. The specialized prices set by the company for different market segments made sure that, the clients would not have doubt about the quality of the product and the price they are paying for the same (Liu et al., 2017).
Apple Company followed the strategy of IMC or Integrated Marketing Communications to communicate its product iWatch in the market. Traditional and non- traditional marketing channels were used to spread the message among the probable target customers. The planning process of IMC helped the company to boost up their reach in the market (Michael & Michael, 2015). The company made a gradual shift from the traditional mass media to the non- traditional social media in order to get hold of maximum target market.
Advertising: TV advertising was used for a wide coverage of the product and 25% of the budget was allocated for the same. However, only 10% budget was allocated for radio advertising, as it is not a popular medium in comparison to TV.
Personal selling: As it is an interactive form of spreading message about the product, therefore 20% of the budget was allocated for personal selling of Apple Watch.
Public Relations: A public relations officer was employed by the company to take care of the public image. He was accountable for evaluating the trends and making an assumption about the success of the product in the market (Park et al., 2016).
Sales promotion: Lucrative offers, free coupons and discounts were offered to test the urge of the target customers in buying the Apple Watch.
Social media marketing: Facebook and Twitter was used for marketing the product on social media platform. It is a common platform among the youths as they are more tech-savvy and deal with the virtual world more than other age group people.
Event marketing: the company had invested in organizing rallies, meetings and other such programs for launching the watch among the public. The potential buyers were allowed to test the product in between the promotional event (Shankar et al., 2016).
It can be recommended from the marketing mix and target goal of the Apple Watch that the company should focus on its efforts to appeal to a large amount of customers without the limitation of only a certain age group. They should remain firm on their decision of manufacturing high- quality products by maintaining their primary value of product excellence. It will be helpful for their expansion in the Asian countries to appeal to the local customers for using smart watches. They will be able to improve their profit margin by expanding to other areas and continuing with their high- quality product and systematic customer service. As they have already started their online business along with retail stores, they should highlight more into it to provide convenient shopping experience and customer satisfaction. Finally, they should continue with their cutting- edge technology along with the constant innovation to sustain as a leader in the competitive market.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the marketing analysis of the Apple watch that the strategies adopted by the company in introducing its smart watch in the market helped in increasing their distribution system. It also helped in increasing the availability of the products through online and retail stores. They have always maintained an innovative policy in their business by offering a wide range of products to the customers. The loyal customers of Apple are dedicated to the brand and they do not have any plan of switching their brands because Apple is a symbol of class and standard. A well- balanced performance and strategies within the company has enabled them maintain their position as a valuable firm in the industry.
Reference
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