In the current competitive market scenario, lifecycle of the products especially the electronic gadgets are having shorter lifecycle due to the reason of rapid evolution and development of the technologies. This is also creating the urgency for the contemporary business organizations to initiate different strategies in different stages of the product lifecycle to extent the product life (Bakker et al., 2014). Apple Iphone 5 is one of the products, which went through different stages of product lifecycle and faced different intent of strategies by its manufacturer. This report will discuss about the different strategies being initiated by Apple for Iphone 5 in different product lifecycle stages.
Introductory stage is the first stage in the product lifecycle that refers to the first introduction of the product in the market. In this stage, the particular product is having lower visibility in the market and high level of buzz among the customers (Hellweg & Canals, 2014). At the time of the introduction of Iphone 5, competition was lower for Apple due to the reason that the premium features offered with Iphone 5 are distinctive with not having being offered by other competitors. In accordance to this situation, Apple initiated the rapid skimming pricing strategy, which refers to the process of launching the product at higher price point compared to the competitors (Spann, Fischer & Tellis, 2014). This is being done by them due to the reason that Apple is positioned as a premium brand in the market and it acts as their competitive factor. Thus, initiation of the rapid skimming pricing strategy helped Apple in gaining larger profitability and sales revenue along with maintaining the premium positioning in the market.
In terms of the manufacturing process, Apple initiated the lean process to have major two advantages with one being the lower and level of production and reduction in the average cost. Apple is one of the leading brands in the world that initiate extensive promotional strategies and involve huge cost in it. Thus, with the help of the lean manufacturing process, the average cost of the manufacturing is being reduced by them to adjust with the increased cost of promotion in the introductory stage (Fullerton, Kennedy & Widener, 2014). It was also important for Apple to initiate extensive promotional strategy for Iphone 5 due to increase their visibility among the customers. Furthermore, Apple products are not volume getters rather their profitability per unit is more. Thus, lower production due to lean manufacturing process helped Apple to maintain the demand in the market and focus more on quality over quantity.
In terms of the product approach, Apple maintained standardization strategy due to the reason that in the introductory stage, the major objective of the manufacturer is to create a singular experience for all the users. It should also be noted that introduction of the varieties of the same product in the introductory stage will dilute the brand equity among the customers (Tan & Sousa, 2013). Thus Iphone 5 was offered in single variant only with different color options. In terms of the distribution strategies, Apple initiated the exclusive distribution strategy. This is due to the reason that in accordance to the premium and exclusive branding of Apple, Iphone 5 was sold only through the authorized resellers. This helped them in maintaining their exclusivity and aligned with the strategy of niche market associated with Apple.
Product growth stage refers to the growth of the market for the introduced product with the increase in their visibility and brand awareness among the customers. In terms of pricing in this stage, Apple initiated more market penetration pricing strategy by reducing the initial price of Iphone 5 to a certain extent. This is due to the reason that with the growth of the product in the market, competition also gets increased with the new introduction of new products in the market. In addition, the reduction of the price of Iphone 5 helped Apple to target more customer segments and have more growth in the market. In terms of the product strategy, more adaptive approach is being initiated by Apple (Kim, Sting & Loch, 2014). This is due to the fact that with the growth of the product in the market, Apple has gained feedback from the customers for further improvement. In accordance to these feedback, Apple changed the features of Iphone 5 and made it as per to the competition in the market. In addition further improvement of the product based on the customer feedback helped Apple to have more favorable growth in the market.
In addition, agile manufacturing process is also being initiated by Apple in the later growth stage of the product lifecycle. This is due to the reasons that from the introductory stage till the growth in the market, Apple has enabled their assembly line to be more efficient and effective in meeting the changing needs of the customers. Thus, it enabled Apple to initiate the continuous process of product innovation with the Iphone 5 and deal with the competition. In this stage, Apple also introduced a number of varieties of their Iphone 5 such as Iphone 5C and Iphone 5S. These variants are introduced in the market based on different feedbacks and expectations of the customers (Choiu & Droge, 2015). Thus, having more variants helped Apple to cover diverse and larger customer segments and enhance the growth rate. For instance, Iphone 5C was introduced to cater to the lower end customers who are not having the affordability to have IPhone 5S.
It is also identified that in terms of distribution strategy, Apple changed their exclusive strategy in the introductory stage to intensive distribution strategy in the growth stage. This is due to the reason that with the availability of more number of product variants and larger market growth, Iphone 5 is made available from more mediums including the third party retailers (Belu & Marinoiu, 2014). This helped them in catering to larger market segments and increases the product sales volume. In the growth stage of the product lifecycle, the key objective of the manufacturers is to target as much customers as possible to maintain the upward trend of the demand of the product.
During this stage of iPhone 5’s product life cycle, a decrease in the overall sales of the product is observed to a certain level. In such situation the competition faced by the product was high as numerous similar products were introduced in the market by its business rivals (Batarfi, Guergachi & Wahab, 2017). Among them few were genuinely good products and some were replica of their own goods. In such stage the manufacturers of phone 5 considered developing certain tactical strategic decisions as per the changing demand and volatility of consumers in the market. In this stage the marketers of phone 5 focused on re-developing the sourcing and prices design for attaining increased market share and to hold on to the competition faced from the new products with new specifications launched within the market (Jennings, Wu & Terpenny, 2016).
In the maturity stage, the marketers of iPhone 5 have developed several strategies to attain market shares and such strategies included introducing new product features, cost, distribution and marketing. Through effectively positioning itself in each of thee areas, this product was able to hold its position within the market. The product is modified by the marketers to become glossy in which the fingerprints will be promptly visible and increasing storage tom 64 GB (Markard, 2018). Adding new features as per the consumer demands such as extra memory card expansion slots that can prove to be better product n comparison to its competitors. Moreover, having more variants helped Apple to cover diverse and larger customer segments and enhance the growth rate. For instance, Iphone 5C was introduced to cater to the lower end customers who are not having the affordability to have IPhone 5S.
Apple has enabled their assembly line to be more efficient and effective in meeting the changing needs of the customers. Thus, it enabled Apple to initiate the continuous process of product innovation with the Iphone 5 and deal with the competition. In this stage, Apple also introduced a number of varieties of their Iphone 5 such as Iphone 5C and Iphone 5S (Zink et al., 2014). Moreover, in this stage the marketers were focused on increasing its advising expenses for making its consumers to use phone 5 rather than its competitor goods through explaining certain new advantages or features offered to consumers in which phone 5 can be used in different ways for their convenience.
In this stage, the consumers of phone 5 make the decision to shift to another better product. They are no longer interested in the product as the product is not capable to offer anything new in competition to its substitute goods those are within the introduction and growth stage (Bull & Kozak, 2014). In this stage of the product life cycle, iPhone 5 turned out to be technologically obsolete. In such scenario, the marketers changed product positioning and portfolio strategy for iPhone 5 to attain as much shares it can for increasing sales and competing with newly launched products. Such tactical decisions included lowering prices, removing the after sales support in order to decrease the marketing and personnel expenses and discounting the product for boosting sales and decreasing related expense with this product (Giachetti & Lanzolla, 2016).
As the iphone 5 of Apple Inc is in the decline stage it has no software updates available for this product. Moreover, in order to the make the product remains within the maturity stage the company must come with a software and product specifications update. Apple Inc is recently working on developing IOS 7 after declining shares of this product. In addition, through developing a modifying version of iphone 5, Apple Inc intends to re-launch its new version that is IOS 7 that can come with features such as updated Maps that can offer turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D view along with flyover feature that can facilitate the consumers to attain a better view of major areas from any airplane (Suckling & Lee, 2017). The iPhone 6 will be focused on by the manufacturers after taking the decision of decreasing the production of iPhone 5. Strategic decisions in this stage as been taken to focus on developing a new version of this product range that is iPhone 6 with new and improved IOS system having the facility of new calling feature that can facilitate to rely with a new text features to setting a callback reminder. This can increase the sales and profit of this new and improved version of iPhone 5 (Yang, 2016).
In the decline stage, the marketers of iPhone 5 has taken the tactical decisions on decreasing the promotional expenditure on this product, decreasing number of distribution outlets that sells this product, decreasing the price of the product for stock clearance of iPhone 5 products. Moreover, promoting the price drop of this product is also considered so that the consumers buy the product and at the same time the marketers took tactical decision to maintain the product and wait for its competitors such as Samsung to withdraw their declining products from the market.
Conclusion
The objective of the paper was to analyze the ways in which manufacturers of the selected product Apple Inc’s iphone 5 change their strategic decisions for reduction and supply of goods at each stage of the product lifecycle in consideration to certain factors. It has been gathered that the marketers of iPhone 5 focused on re-developing the sourcing and prices design for attaining increased are share and to hold on to the competition faced from the new products with new specifications launched within the market. Moreover, in declining scenario, the marketers changed product positioning and portfolio strategy for iPhone 5 to attain as much shares it can for increasing sales and competing with newly launched products.
References
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Batarfi, R., Guergachi, A., & Wahab, M. I. M. (2017). The life cycle of a feature: modelling the transitions between feature states. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 34(8), 1229-1251.
Belu, M. G., & Marinoiu, A. M. (2014). A new distribution strategy: The omnichannel strategy. Romanian Economic Journal, 17(52).
Bull, J. G., & Kozak, R. A. (2014). Comparative life cycle assessments: The case of paper and digital media. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 45, 10-18.
Chiou, J. S., & Droge, C. (2015). The effects of standardization and trust on franchisee’s performance and satisfaction: A study on franchise systems in the growth stage. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 129-144.
Fullerton, R. R., Kennedy, F. A., & Widener, S. K. (2014). Lean manufacturing and firm performance: The incremental contribution of lean management accounting practices. Journal of Operations Management, 32(7-8), 414-428.
Giachetti, C., & Lanzolla, G. (2016). Product Technology imitation over the product Diffusion cycle: Which Companies and product innovations do competitors imitate more quickly?. Long Range Planning, 49(2), 250-264.
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