Competitive Marketing For Activities And Strategy Analysis: Apple Vs Samsung

Marketing Strategy Analysis

Discuss about the Competitive Marketing for Activities and Strategy Analysis.

In the current competitive market, it is important for any company to keep a regular watch on the marketing activities of its rivals. Considering the marketing activities of the competitors is necessary to build a highly competitive strategy that will help the organisation to seek competitive advantage in the market  (Rosenbloom, 2016). There are four primary elements of the marketing mix that plays an essential role in policy planning of an organisation. The four elements are known as products, price, place and promotion (Otubanjo, 2013). Every organisation focuses on one or more elements of the marketing mix to make it better than the rivals.

The paper has been developed to conduct an analysis of the marketing strategy of two primary rival companies that rules the techno gadget world. The study has been developed to understand the importance of considering the marketing strategy of the competitors to seek success and growth in the market. In order to observe the importance of marketing strategy, the examples of two companies have been presented namely Apple Inc and Samsung Corporation. Along with that, the marketing strategies of both the companies have been presented to understand their competitive moves. Furthermore, the paper discusses the most important elements of the marketing mix that are chosen by both of these companies to stay ahead of each other.

The marketing strategy analysis of the two international hi-tech companies such as Apple Inc and Samsung Corporation can evaluate the specific insights of the organisations to achieve brand affinity at the global business platform. Through the identification of current marketing plan of both Apple Inc and Samsung Corporation, a full coverage of existing business status of the consumer electronics product manufacturers can be highlighted on the basis of global market performance (Kerin, Hartley and Rudelius, 2009). Being direct market competitors in the global consumer electronics manufacturing industry, massive marketing battles have been seen between the brands. The marketing showdown of Samsung Corporation has included significant advertising blitz to match the culture, tradition and contemporary market trends (Constantinides, 2016). The marketing content strategy of Samsung includes celebrity-partnered movements, social media advertisements and in-store promotional activities to reach to the new set of buyers in the target market.

On the other hand, Apple Inc has invested significant money in the Research and Development (R&D) section rather than putting the investment on conventional advertising of latest products (Ferrara and LaMeau, 2012).  Moreover, by contemporary marketing standards, Apple Inc has a scrawny content marketing strategy as the organisation does not promote social media marketing through Facebook or Twitter. In the last couple of years, Samsung has spent over $770 million in order to marketing and advertising purpose (Walgrove, 2015). By utilising digital media marketing, social media marketing, Super Bowl advertisements and unique promotional concerts of Samsung have significantly contributed to the actual sales. Meanwhile, in order to close the branding gap to some extent, Apple Inc has started to put more capital in marketing and advertising so that the marketing blitz can create sufficient impact on sales figure (Smith, 2014).

Apple Vs Samsung Marketing Strategy

Apple and Samsung are two primary competitors in the mobile phone market. Both of these companies focus on different elements of marketing mix to seek competitive advantage in the market. If market shares are considered, it can be seen that Apple owns a better market share than Samsung in the Australian and the US market because it’s innovative products and good reputation (Otubanjo, 2013). When considering the global market, Samsung is believed to be the market leader with its lower pricing and innovative products.  The marketing strategies of both the companies are presented herein below.

Product

Samsung has a good product range that work over the Android Platform differentiating it from Apple. Along with that, the company has a R&D team that keeps on introducing new innovative products that are in high demand in the market (Kreutzer, 2008).

Price

In terms of pricing, Samsung implements a competitive pricing policy that helps it to seek competitive advantage in the market. Samsung products are much cheaper than Apple iPhone in regards to the innovative technology offered by them (Maghnati, Ling and Nasermoadeli, 2012). Hence, Samsung has a competitive advantage through its low pricing policy.

Promotion

Samsung employs marketing experts from all across the globe capable of carrying on traditional advertising and innovative PR stunts. Currently, the company has introduced a marketing budget of $14 billion which is more than the combined marketing budget of Apple, Microsoft, Sony and others (Dignan, 2014). Hence, it can be seen that Samsung focuses on promotional activities to seek competitive advantage.

Place

The Samsung products are easily available through a diverged channel of distribution. It has its service centres all across the globe located in almost every region of the world. Along with that, the integrated promotion techniques of the company help the customers to get all sort of information about the services and products of Samsung (Crook, 2012).

Product

The expanding nature of the organisation can be seen on the product line as well. As the manufactured products define the business output of the tech giant, Apple has come out with innovation, elegance designs, hi-tech gadgets such as iPad, iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, iPod, Apple TV, and iOS software to prove the rarity and product uniqueness. The diversification of product range has significantly contributed to the intensive growth strategy of the organisation (Dominici, 2009). Through collaboration with other organisations such as Tesla Motors, Apple has aimed to introduce Apple Car in the upcoming future. 

Samsung’s Marketing Strategy

Price

In the contemporary business standards, Apple Inc has competently utilised a premium pricing strategy to represent the efficiency and hi-tech value of the Apple manufactured devices. Through the identification of the premium set of buyers for the Apple products, the organisation has selected the concept of premium pricing strategy quoting relatively high product pricing (Kolberg, 2015). The premium pricing strategy has established a high-end brand image of the organisation so that the loyal customers belong to the upper class, and upper-middle class can be targeted to entail the highest profitability.

Promotion

In Apple’s case, the promotional marketing mix includes four specific identified elements such as product advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales promotions. The organisation has promoted advertisements through official website and retail Apple stores. Through personal selling, the Apple employees have sold latest products to the customers in a convincing way (Walgrove, 2015). Moreover, in order to enhance the corporate image of the organisation, public relations have been promoted through events such as press releases, exclusive interviews and product demonstrations.

In product distribution, Apple Inc has utilised a holistic approach to taking the advantage of latest available distribution channels. However, the concept of selective distribution strategy of Apple has limited the marketing reach. The exclusivity of the distribution channel includes Apple Retail Stores, Authorised retailers, online stores and major telecommunication services (Boulding and Lee, 2012). Through the Apple Stores and online channels, the organisation has sold products to the customers. Apart from that, the authorised retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, ad Target have played a crucial role in product selling. Invariably, telecom services such as AT&T, and Sprint have been included in the distribution channel to sell products.

Under the current market scenario, Samsung Corporation’s expensive marketing ideas have taken the advantages as far as product marketing is concerned. In marketing mix, Samsung has considered pricing and promotion to be the most essential elements. Hence, the organisation has offered hi-tech, elegant devices at an affordable price range. Apart from that, the investment of $770 million in the past couple of years for product marketing is an evidence of Samsung’s marketing game plan. On the other hand, Apple Inc has out the investment for R&D purpose. In marketing mix, the organisation has chosen exclusive distribution channels and promotional ways to expand the market. Meanwhile, the organisation must consider pricing and product diversification in the recent competitive market.

Apple’s Marketing Strategy

However, the latest patent violation issue of Samsung has given a marketing edge to Apple. Currently, Samsung has got 41.7% of the global market share whereas Apple Inc has captured 28.6% of the total market share. In the US, Apple is leading by the same margin. In Australia, Apple Inc has got almost 49% of market share in compared to Samsung’s 31%. Understandably, innovativeness, design and technological efficiency have been the major product selling factors of Apple manufactured device. Also, the brand identity and Apple savvy customers have been the primary strengths of Apple’s business. Still, following the current marketing trend in the global arena, Apple Inc must consider changes to its existing marketing mix to match Samsung’s competitive marketing approach (Peter and Donnelly, 2013).

Conclusion

The above analysis shows that Samsung and Apple have always tried to implement a better marketing strategy in order to seek competitive advantage over each other. Failure of proper monitoring of marketing strategy of the competitors may lead to fall in the market share and impact the revenue of the company. Hence, it can be seen that a company cannot survive and seek market growth without proper monitoring of the marketing strategy of the rivals. There is a need to keep regular watch on the marketing activities to make necessary changes in the marketing strategy that helps the organisation to achieve growth, profitability, better market share, brand awareness and brand loyalty.

References

Boulding, W. and Lee, E. (2012). Differentiation via the marketing mix. Marketing Letters, 3(4), pp.343-356.

Constantinides, E. (2016). The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(3-4), pp.407-438.

Crook, J. (2012). Apple And Samsung Bring Their Marketing Strategies To Court | TechCrunch. [online] Techcrunch.com. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/20/in-this-complex-patent-battle-apple-and-samsung-take-their-marketing-strategies-to-court/ [Accessed Aug. 2016].

Dignan, L. (2014). Samsung's marketing blitz vs. Apple: Effective, but big data would help | ZDNet. [online] ZDNet. Available at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsungs-marketing-blitz-vs-apple-effective-but-big-data-would-help/ [Accessed Aug. 2016].

Dominici, G. (2009). From Marketing Mix to e-Marketing Mix: a literature overview and classification.IJBM, 4(9).

Ferrara, M. and LaMeau, M. (2012). Innovation masters. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning.

Kerin, R., Hartley, S. and Rudelius, W. (2009). Marketing. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Kolberg, W. (2015). Marketing Mix Theory: Integrating Price and Non-Price Marketing Strategies. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Kreutzer, R. (2008). Marketing‐Mix Standardisation: An Integrated Approach in Global Marketing.European Journal of Marketing, 22(10), pp.19-30.

Maghnati, F., Ling, K. and Nasermoadeli, A. (2012). Exploring the Relationship between Experiential Marketing and Experiential Value in the Smartphone Industry. IBR, 5(11).

Otubanjo, O. (2013). The Extended Corporate Identity Mix. IJMS, 5(1).

Peter, J. and Donnelly, J. (2013). Marketing management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Rosenbloom, B. (2016). The Trade Area Mix and Retailing Mix: A Retail Strategy Matrix. Journal of Marketing, 40(4), p.58.

Smith, J. (2014). Samsung vs. Apple: Insights for Achieving Brand Affinity. [online] Ama.org. Available at: https://www.ama.org/publications/eNewsletters/MarketingInsightsNewsletter/Pages/apple-versus-samsung.aspx [Accessed Aug. 2016].

Walgrove, A. (2015). Content Marketing Showdown: Apple vs. Samsung. [online] The Content Strategist. Available at: https://contently.com/strategist/2015/04/28/content-marketing-showdown-apple-vs-samsung/ [Accessed Aug. 2016].