Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

Business Marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption. In chapter 7, I read about the business marketing. Apple Inc. is a technology company that manufactures personal and business products.




The perfect example would be iMac in our college. College purchased iMac computers and placed them in lobby for student’s convenience, to allow them to perform valuable researches like blackboard, and other business related work. Where as, the same products can also be purchased as consumer product with which students can also fulfill their personal work such as social networking like facebook, and others. This means that Apple doesn’t only sell their products for as business products but also the consumer products. Also Apple has strategic alliances with phone companies like T-Mobile in which the company displays the Iphone 6 to customers for them to try it and experience it before they buy the product. Next comes, the role of Internet in business marketing. Apple'smain sourceof marketing is through the official website, which is www.apple.com. This allows the consumer to look up all the product lines briefly and see how each generation of product differs from the last one. Consumers can also place order online and get their desired products. Internet has made the purchase extremely easy and quick. Apple also has an application called Apple iCloud, which allows the users to remotely store all content in the cloud and access it from any other Apple device. In order to get back all the music, photos, contacts, calendars accessed to the new device or maybe to keep them for longer time of period. These types of apps attract more customers to the Apple market.

Apple Inc. uses different ways to market their products and spread the word to the consumers about the new produt such as:

·      The official website- allows reading about the product and getting all the information with pictures to see how the product works and differs.

·      Advertisements- the ad from the technician speaks details of Apple’s new product and also tells and convinces the people to become the customer and make life stylish and easy.

·      Apple HotNews- There is a site, which puts the latest news of how the products are doing so far, people’s feedbacks on the products, and the reviews on the retail stores of the company.  http://www.apple.com/hotnews/

·      E-mail subscriptions- this is another way Apple keep up in touch with their current customers and attract new markets too. Apple Inc offers the person to signup through email to get special offers, newsletters, and the product announcements are directly delivered to your inbox.

Apple Inc. is the best technology company that started in 1976 with a hope to sell their only one product. This company had ups and down but still never gave up instead as years passed, Apple Inc started making remarkable technology pieces and became successful through innovation. Apple is successful because it makes products that are easy to use, manufactures the products for everyone, treats all markets equally, keep things simple and provides a unique desisgn with every product released.

Ch. 11- Developing and Managing Products

  The secret behind Apple's success is their ability to keep on innovating the market with their new products. Apple is a company that never stops coming out with new ideas of how to make their products better and more efficient. . The ambition of the Apple is to spread their new—featured products around the world, to improve the lifestyles. The process of which Apple does this is thru managing and developing products. 
 

according to an Artticle on tnw news "Every product at Apple starts with design. Designers are treated like royalty at Apple, where the entire product conforms to their vision. This the polar opposite of the way it works at other companies. Instead of the design being beholden to the manufacturing, finance or manufacturing departments, these all conform to the will of the design department headed by Jony Ive". Design is what drives Apples succes and therefor Apple lets its designer do what ever they need to do in order to make the best possible product. For example the design on my product which is the iPhone 6 is an innovative design that actually isnt inovative at all due to the fact that samsung had already applied the big screen to their product first. But with the gold an silver skin on the Iphone 6 Apple has added a luxury look to the product making it desrible and adding to the importance of design. The iphone 6 is in its growth stage as per definition and will continue to grow due to its fasinating design. TNW news states "Designers at Apple have literally no contact with the finance departments at all and are considered to be unlimited in terms of the costs or manufacturing practicality of the materials used. The Industrial Design studio is the womb of all Apple products. It is where they are first generated and it is only accessible to a small number of Apple employees including Jonathan Ive."  This further supports the fact that Apple focuses its efforts on design and that if weren't for design the iphone 6 will not be as successful as it is.

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Apple is a company who has a reputation of success In the market, how do they do it? Part of that success has to do with how Apple Segments and Targets its markets. As we all know without segmenting and targeting a particular market it is impossible for a company to succeed because  the company would not know what are the needs, desires and interests of that market, also the company would not know the cultural preferences, the demographics, the beliefs and so on of that particular market.


In order for Apple to meet the needs of its target markets, it has to first successfully divide the specific market into meaningful, relatively similar and identifiable segments or groups. One of the strategies that Apple is using to segment its markets is referred as geographic segmentation. Apple, in the USA, locates its retail stores based on the population and the density of each state. For example, in  California, the most populated state in the US, Apple currently hosts 52 retail stores, whereas in less populated states such as Maine, Apple hosts as little as one store.


Two additional strategies that Apple uses to further segment its markets are known as demographic and psychographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation is of great importance for a company because it targets groups of people based on their age, gender, income, ethnic background and family life cycle. Every segment of this subgroup has different interests and needs which poses great challenges for Apple's marketing managers to effectively create a marketing mix that meets the needs of this segment.  But, it is the psychographic segmentation that is based on the personality, motives and lifestyles of a group that paves the road of success for Apple. Apple, is known for its efforts in creating stylish, elegant and upscale products, such as the elegant and thin iPhone 6, which besides having a large variety of features satisfying every personality regardless of its motives or needs. It also allows the user to access more powerful apps and allows the user to do more work play more games due to the newly inserted A8 Chip and 64-bit processor which allows the device to perform much better. Apple in this segmentation is trying to appeal to low or high income groups, teens, adults and baby boomers and ultimately improve every lifestyle, no matter its diversity.


According to an article on CBS news the new features and design has expanded Apple's target market to the more "professional users and Phablet users". This means that due to the bigger screen, new design and features on the iPhone 6 the company has now added the target market of big screen and technology loving users, users that were stuck with competitor Samsung because of the bigger screens, designs, and technology of their Samsung galaxy S smartphones.

Ch. 15- Marketing Communications

  Apple's marketing communication has abroad with knowledge and enticing customers every time. Apple's communication is intriguing, simple, clear and clever. Their strategy is broadcasting in TV ads, in print ads, billboard ads, and online ads to attract customers. Its communication process within all Apple's promotion mix; advertising, public relation and encoding the message of Apple's mission has helped boosts sales, but enhances the brand value as well.





 Apple's promotion strategy begins by introducing their new products to a group of people in conferences and then advertising through ads. Apple's promotional goals are to bring more customers and increase sales by promotions, discounts and much more. Also the AIDA ( Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) concept is used by Apple in their strategy plan. As we all know the only way many people find out about new products are through Advertisements and sometimes a firm cannot reach their sales goals if their target market is not aware of the good or service that exists. Apple uses mass communications as one of its communication strategies to create AIDA, what is mass communications? Mass communications is the communication of a concept or message to a large audience.


 





 When Apple introduced the iPhone 6, Apple had to advertise and promote it extensively through ads on TV, news papers, billboards and on the internet to create attention (A) and awareness for the new product. After the target market was aware of the product it was time to create interest ( I ), it was by demonstrating to the public the products features on hands in Apple's stores, videos on you tube and  through authorized phone retailing companies like AT&T.  Apple faces competition based of desire (D)on other brands. They need to convince potential customers that iPhone 6 is the best solution to meet their desires by adding special features such as, extended-life battery, photo-video storage and HD video and camera, touch id scan, Apple pay, a built in monitor that keeps track of your fitness on a daily basis, A 64-bit processor along with the A8 Chip for better performance  and other features. As a result of convincing the target market to choose Apple's iPhone 6 the most important part was Action (A) to purchase the item, Apple continued advertising to communicate the features and benefits with the use of promotions, personal selling and channels like radio, news papers, you tube, and TV and the strategies have worked to perfection. The company made billions of dollars in revenue In 2014 and continues to profit to this day. The two videos below are Apple's advertisements on the new apple watch and the features of the IPhone 6.