Apple’s Management strategies 6) Conclusion… -? 5 7) Recommendation… 6 8) References… …. 7 1 . Abstract Business management and marketing is a huge topic to discuss, to study this topic, it’s necessary to analyses a lot of facts and cases. Therefore, this report introduced several successful marketing strategies Apple company used to sale their product consumer electron company and gain so much of market share. Moreover, this report also analyses a few management techniques that Apple employed to manage its staffs and how these techniques drive Apple to maximize its profits. . Justification I hope to be a successful businessman in the future and have thus applied to study Business Management and Marketing at the University of Newcastle. There are many ways to learn how to run a business well, and many a times, experience is important. While I myself have no experience to boast of, I can however look to the experiences of other successful businessman or to the history of companies that have done well, and learn much from them – I can learn and apply what other companies have done well, and also to avoid the mistakes they have made.
For this reason, I have chosen to kook in detail Apple Inch’s management and its wildly successful marketing strategies that have gained Apple products mainstream popularity. Through a deep analysis of the Apple case study, I hope to have a better understanding of how to run a business well. Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Woozier and Ronald Wayne (WISPED, 2008). The first Apple product was actually not the Mac which many people mistakenly believe it to be. Instead, Apple was founded to sell the Apple 1 personal computer kit.
This was Just an assembled circuit keyboard and did not have NY of the features that we associate with our computers today, such as a keyboard and monitor (WISPED, 2008). One of Apple’s most famous products, the Macintosh, was only launched in 1984. While it gained success initially, it soon became evident that the success of the Macintosh was a flash in the pan. With a plot as dramatic as that of a soap opera, Steve Jobs, the face of Apple, was kicked out of the company a year later in 1985. Apple continued to decline after Jobs left the company.
Though there were a few hits, Apple mostly scored when expensive misses. When Jobs finally name back as an interim CEO in 1997, he inherited a company which was facing a 3 year record low stock price and crippling financial losses (WISPED, 2008). Yet, with astute management and marketing strategies, Jobs started to build the company up, scoring first mild success with the “computer geek” crowd with the release of the Macintosh KICK: the Imax, in 1998 and later strike gold with the release of the pod in 2001 (WISPED, 2008).
The phenomenal success of the pod saw the sale of 100 million units in a mere 6 years and catapulted Apple into mainstream success. Apple as continued to score many successes since then with both its hardware and software and set the bar high for other electronics companies. 4. Apple’s Marketing Strategies 4. 1 Definition of Marketing “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (American Marketing Association Board of Directors, 2007). Simple.
This is the best word to both describe Apple products and its marketing strategies. This is perhaps best seen through the product that propelled Apple into mainstream success – the pod. Even up till this day, it remains the most successful and is “now the market leader in portable music players by a significant margin, with more than 350 million units shipped as of September 2012” (Sloan, 2012). When AMP players were first released, many AMP makers peppered their advertisements with tech specifications that a large majority of the public could not understand. However, Apple did the total opposite.
Jobs marketed the pod with the now famous tagging, “1000 songs in your pocket”. The lesson to be learnt here was that Jobs recognized a gap in the market. While everyone focused on selling AMP players to people who knew what they were and how to use them, Apple instead chose to focus on the masses and develop a AMP player that they could understand and use. For this reason, Apple has placed a large focus on the aesthetically appeal of the pod as well, designing it such that people would not only be proud to use it, but also would want to flaunt the fact that they are the proud owner of an pod.
According to David Table While everyone else was making an AMP player that was better/cheaper/faster, Apple was making electronic Jewelry that also played Amp’s. Never focusing on price, they brought to market more value, more style, and new ways of interacting with digital media (Waistline, 2008). One of the most famous pod advertisements simply features the silhouettes of both men and women dancing on a colored background. While many advertisements choose to feature famous celebrities, Apple chose instead to go “incognito’.
This advertisement is ingenious for many reasons. For one, you don’t know where these people are. They could be anywhere in the world. Secondly, you don’t know who they are or what they do for a living. They can be anyone. All you know is that they are enjoying the music and rocking out. This is what makes that commercial so great and such an excellent idea. It allows anyone in the world to be that person (Wesson, 2008). In other words, by choosing to buy the pod, you can buy into the identity that Apple has constructed – being the cool kid dancing to the music.
This campaign was highly successful, with many people forking out the money to buy the new identity that Apple created. Apple was also smart in providing its users a seamless music playing experience. 2 years after the launch of the pod, Apple’s tunes store was introduced. Apple also ensured that its products were integrated. Many features were available to users who have both the Mac and the pod as compared to pod users who used an ordinary PC. Hey made it work better on the Mac than on a PC for obvious reasons – to get people to buy more Apple computers, both pod and Mac sales benefited from is strategy (Wesson, 2008). 4. 3 Marketing Strategies Used in the Sales of the Mac “Mac is a line of personal computers designed, developed, marketed by Apple Inc. It is targeted mainly at the home, education, and creative professional markets” (WISPED, 2013). As mentioned above, Apple has made “sleek” its middle name. The design of the Mac is no exception. It immediately captures people’s upscale feel.
Apple has added a twist to the skimming strategy. Rather than introducing their products at a high price and then lowering their prices later, Apple stakes out a price and then maintains and defends that price by significantly increasing the value of their products in future iterations (Kirk, 2013) Apple used the skimming strategy for Mac’s marketing strategy as they wanted to sell a quality product and let their customers know that the computers they get are worth very dollar they spend even if the Mac seems more expensive than other computers on the market with similar specifications.
Nevertheless, this marketing strategy was a huge success because this meant that more money could be devoted to research and development (R&D) which would in turn allow Apple to continue to develop quality products to give them an edge over competitors in the same market. As with the marketing of the pod, Apple always aims to provide their customers with a seamless experience when using their products. For the Mac, Apple came up with the ‘Life Suite, which includes a video editing program (movie for consumers and Final Cut Pro for professionals) and a music creation program (Greenland) 4. Marketing Strategies used in the promotion of the phone Even with new players in the smartened market, Apple continues to widen its lead and control the market with the phone at 40% domination (Campbell, 2013). This is a huge number – every 4 in 10 smartened owner uses an phone. Even though Apple has a reputation for quality hardware and software, without clever marketing strategies it would have been impossible to control such a large market share.
After Apple’s success with the Mac and the pod, Apple continue to ride on the success of its previous two products and launched the phone which too had a sleek packaging that was soon becoming its trademark and with the interface that many Mac/pod users have fallen in love with. By convincing consumers that not only their products were the best but the only ones in the market, the sales of the phone only saw an upward trajectory.
The actual pod device had been extremely popular up to this time, and also the apple phone had been said to be the actual next-generation pod device, Oh yea, also it’s the telephone (Apple Pirate, 2011). Mobile phones were already available in the market when the phone was launched, with brands such as Monika dominating the market. Instead of being contented with merely differentiating themselves in this market overeducated with competitors, Apple instead created a whole new market of their own – the smartened market. The phone has an all-in-one.
Not only did it have the usual phone functions, it allowed consumers to play games that were more complex than the iconic “snake”, read their emails and surf the net on a much larger screen than what many Blackberry users were using and even camera/picture applications (APS) that allowed for editing of photographs. All additional APS were available through the Apple owned and designed App store and like before, phone users could download music into their phone from the App store. As seen once more, a seamless user experience that its users fall for “hook, line and sinker”.
Another marketing tactic that Apple utilizes was the secrecy it adopted before the launch of its products. This was particularly evident in the marketing for the phone where each new upgrade of its products might see many significant changes. By reduces, Apple ensured that the hype for its products would be high and this would in turn help to generate publicity especially on social media platforms. This leaves Apple fans especially hungry for each new release of their products and eagerly snap up the products once they hits the shelves.
While most companies, from food to manufacturing is run by the “business” people (the managers and section heads), Apple is instead run by its engineers and its designers, the people who understand what they are creating and this in turn helps them create the products that millions all over the world love. At Apple, if an employee was using a product and found an issue that bothered them, they had the freedom to o in and fix it without having to deal with layers of bureaucracy to get approval (Male, 2010). A lot of freedom is given to Apple’s employees and this allows creative to flourish.
This helps the employees to “own” the products they create and this give births to products that the masses like simply because the engineer and designers who work on them love them too. By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay -? well above the minimum wage of $7. 25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Luncheon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, contributions and the chance to buy company stock, as well as Apple products, at a discount (Deeding, 2012).
Providing an incentive for one’s employees may not be anything new or groundbreaking. However, Apple has recognized a good business strategy and put it into practice, and also tailored it so that it would be in line with the company’s visions and beliefs. For example, keeping in mind that they are marketing to the masses, they allow their employees to buy their products at a discounted price to serve as walking advertisements. A company hat cares for its employees would always benefit when the employees treat the 6.
Conclusion: In conclusion, it can been seen that a company’s marketing and management strategies are essential not only for its success but its existence itself. As the case study of Apple has shown, a product can be good in its own right, but great marketing would make the product phenomenal. Similarly, while talented people can boost a company’s performance, a combination of talented people and astute management tactics would bring a company to much greater heights. 7. Recommendation The marketing strategies and management techniques that Apple used are very mart and successful, it really help Apple to increase its profits and revenue.
