MKTG5408 Marketing Analysis And Planning

Part 1: Interview

1. Who are the target customers of Apple Inc.?

The target customers of the company are those who belong to the premium group.

2 .How are the customer segments of Apple Inc. identified?

The three major segments of the company are the youngsters, the professionals and normal crowd.

3.How does the products and services are able to satisfy the customers?

The products and services are able to fulfil the needs of the customers who belong to different groups.

4.What is the position of the product based on competitors?

Apple has developed a leadership position in comparison to its competitors in the technology industry.

5.What is the source of competitive advantage of Apple Inc.?

The major source of competitive advantage of the company is based on the brand value of Apple.

6.Is the competitive advantage sustainable in nature?

The brand value which has been created by Apple is highly sustainable in nature.

Part 2: Analysis

Target customers – Apple mainly has three different target groups which include the music lovers who are provided with services like iTunes and iPod. The professionals and teenagers are also considered to be the target customers for services and products that are provided by Apple. The products which are targeted towards this group mainly include, iPhone, Macbook and Tablets. The third group include the crowd who are able to use the other products of the company like, Apple iWatch, Apple TV and iBooks (Apple.com, 2018).

Needs and wants of customers – The main product which is able to affect the revenues of the company is Apple iPhone. The wants and the needs of these consumers are thereby satisfied in an effective manner with the help of the unique features that are offered by these products. The premium quality of the products is considered to be another major factor which is able to affect the wants and needs of the consumers (Davcik & Sharma, 2016).

Position of iPhone based on its competitors – Apple iPhone has been able to develop an effective position in the industry with the help of its innovative and unique products. The services that are thereby provided to the customers by the company are able to affect the competitors in a huge manner. The leadership position which has been developed by Apple in the technology based industry is thereby related to the innovative products and services which are provided to the premium group of customers. The products that are offered by Apple are unique as compared to those which are offered by the other organizations which operate in the technology industry (Gummesson, Kuusela & Närvänen, 2014).

The effective supply chain of the company is an important factor that has been helpful in the development of its position in the industry. The company has thereby been able to operate in a leadership position with the help of its diverse and effective range of products. The company has thereby developed the topmost position in the industry with the help of different innovative products which have been developed in an effective manner. The distribution based network of the company has played a major role in the development of its position in the technology based industry (Hunt, 2018).

The price which has been set for the products is able to provide the tag of premium organization to Apple Inc. The premium pricing has further ensured the high quality of products that have been offered by Apple Inc. to the huge number of customers all over the world. The brand image of Apple is able to provide the company a position of the market leader in the technology industry. Apple Inc. is thereby a leader in the technology industry with the help of effective position in the industry (Solomon et al., 2014).

Source of competitive advantage of Apple iPhone – The major source of competitive advantage which has been developed by Apple iPhone is based on the innovativeness of the products and the ways by which the products are able to provide effective advantages to the customers. The major competitive advantage based source of Apple iPhone is the innovative design of the products and the premium features. The value which has been developed by the brand in the technology based industry is an important part of the competitive advantage of the company (Taoketao et al., 2018).

 Apple has been able to develop a leadership position in the industry in the year 2017 in comparison to the organizations like, IBM and Coca Cola. The strength of the brand is an important factor that has been able to increase the visibility of the company in the industry. The premium pricing based strategy which has been implemented by Apple Inc. is also a major source of competitive advantage which has developed a unique market for Apple iPhone in the technology industry (Teng et al., 2015).

Long term sustainability of the source of competitive advantage – The source of competitive advantage which has been gained by the company is highly sustainable in nature. The brand value and strength of the company is a competitive advantage which is sustainable in nature. This can provide long term profitability to the company in the technology industry of the world. The brand value of the company is important for the technology industry in which Apple had its operations. The long term sustainability of this competitive advantage is thereby able to affect the ways by which Apple is able to operate in the market (Wensley, 2016).

The brand value has also been able to affect the ways by which the products which are developed by the company in the industry. The brand strength has thereby been able to play the most important role in the effective operations of the company in the market. The products which have been developed by the company have developed by the company are able to develop their customer base with the help of the value which has been developed by the brand in the industry (Taoketao et al., 2018).

References

Apple.com. (2018). Apple. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/

Davcik, N. S., & Sharma, P. (2016). Marketing resources, performance, and competitive advantage: A review and future research directions. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 5547-5552.

Gummesson, E., Kuusela, H., & Närvänen, E. (2014). Reinventing marketing strategy by recasting supplier/customer roles. Journal of Service Management, 25(2), 228-240.

Hunt, S. D. (2018). Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: from promise, to neglect, to prominence, to fragment (to promise?). Journal of Marketing Management, 34(1-2), 16-51.

Solomon, M. R., Dahl, D. W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J. L., & Polegato, R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). London: Pearson.

Taoketao, E., Feng, T., Song, Y., & Nie, Y. (2018). Does sustainability marketing strategy achieve payback profits? A signaling theory perspective. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management.

Teng, Y. W., Tai, C. H., Yu, P. S., & Chen, M. S. (2015, August). An effective marketing strategy for revenue maximization with a quantity constraint. In Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (pp. 1175-1184). ACM.

Wensley, R. (2016). The basics of marketing strategy. In The marketing book (pp. 75-107). Routledge.