Evaluating Marketing Strategy and Recommendations Apple iPhones

Question: Discuss about theEvaluating Marketing Strategy and Recommendationsfor Apple iPhones. Answer: Introduction There are number of organisations all across the world who considers marketing mix as an important tool for effective marketing. One such company is Apple Inc. which has emphasised on the implementation of the marketing mix to a large extent that helps the company to alter the elements of the marketing mix effectively and also monitor the marketing strategy in order to get the best possible result from the marketing programs implemented by the organisation. The present study takes an opportunity to have a proper marketing audit which will mainly take into account the discussion of the 8 different Ps of marketing or the extended marketing mix with reference to the product Apple iPhone. The contemporary issues in marketing do have significant effect on the process of marketing nowadays and hence it becomes extremely important to discuss these contemporary issues and accordingly provide recommendations in order to improve the marketing mix of the organisation Apple. Application of Marketing Mix on Apple iPhone Apple Inc. is one of the leading IT companies in the world operating almost all across the world. The company is a major manufacturer of different Hi-Tech products mostly digital devices like music players, mobile phones and personal computers. The company has brought a revolution in the field of digital devices with coming of the age technology and excellent service. One of the most loved products of Apple is iPhone. The iPhone is considered as one of the classiest and stylish mobile phones available in the market nowadays. Effective and compact business strategy of the Apple Inc. leverages its unique design and helps to design its own operating system and hardware and application interfaces that helps the organisation to provide something new every time a new version of iPhone launches (Armstrong et al., 2012). Apple as an organisation faces significant competition in the Australian market with Samsung, Dell, Microsoft and some of the other IT companies who have enjoyed market shar e in the IT market. The launches of iPhone in the market by Apple in the Australian market have been effective for the company to attract interest of the consumers due to their effective marketing mix related to the product. The company focuses on having a compact marketing mix that allows understanding the needs and wants of a particular market targeted (Baker, 2014). The extended marketing mix helps the organisation to effectively understand the elements and apply them effectively in the context of Apple iPhone. The different elements of the marketing mix are products, price, place, promotion, partnership, people, process and physical evidence. These aspects are important for the organisation to effectively apply in the marketing process to get the best result from the marketing process implemented. While developing the concept of iPhone Apple had focused on the needs and wants of the consumers which has helped the company to provide not only the basic mobile services to the consumers but they have also been able to create the needed interest among the consumers which has helped the organisation to gain competitive advantage in the Australian IT market (Boone Kurtz, 2013). In order to keep the competitive advantage intact in the market it is important to discuss the extended marketing mix of Apple iPhone in the Australian market to gain effectiv e insights to improve the marketing mix of the product. Product: Product is one of the key elements of the marketing mix. Product could be defined as a tangible or intangible thing for which the consumers pay a certain price to get the services. Products come in different forms like convenience goods, shopping goods and specialty goods. It could be said that the shopping goods is one of the segments that the consumers are highly inclined to invest in. There are various kinds of shopping goods and the IT products are one of them. Most of the consumers nowadays are highly interested in buying expensive IT products like Computers, Mobiles et cetera. Apple iPhone is the product that has stirred interest in the market with its excellent style, great features and unparalleled service. Product is one of the key aspects of the marketing mix and hence it is important for the organisation to develop and implement innovation on its products effectively (Dominici, 2009). The product concept has three different levels namely core product, actual product and augmented product. The core product is focused on addressing the main problem of the consumers. In this case the iPhone is a Smartphone and when a person buys smart phone the main need of the person is communication. iPhone provides voice call services now on the Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) is a latest service which could be availed over the latest iPhones like iPhone 6, 6s and iPhone 7. Hence the core product of iPhone meets the needs of the consumers effectively. The second level is actual product which mainly tries to address the core customer value which is identified into an actual product. The actual product mainly involves developing features, designs and quality and brand name (Ferrell Hartline, 2012). The actual product of iPhone has been able to address the secondary needs of the consumers. IPhone comes in three different colors (Black, White and Golden), iPhone has features w hich are different from other products, and the packaging of the product is also different, design, the styling of the product gives upper hand to iPhone as a product. It is also important to mention that the brand name of Apple has also supported the product and have also kept the consumers interested to connect with the company. Finally the augmented product is an additional feature that comes with the product. The brand name that comes with iPhone and the additional features that could be used by the consumers are high internet services, video calling, emails and other services that add value to the product and attract consumers to increase sales and revenue (Goi, 2009). Fig 1: Product in marketing mix (Source: Goi, 2015) Price: Price is another key element of the marketing mix. There is a very little discussion needed on the price aspect of iPhone. The company is very particular about its pricing. Right from the very beginning the company has targeted the premium niche market which allows the organisation to keep its pricing in the higher range. There are different ways of pricing a product namely premium pricing, penetration pricing, price skimming which are some of the common ways of choosing the pricing system of a product. Apple iPhone is mainly targeted for a niche market based on income and lifestyles choices of people and hence in order to reach this targeted market Apple uses the price skimming system to set the price of iPhones (Goi, 2015). In the Australian Market there are different similar products from Samsung, HTC, and Microsoft and hence Apple sets the price of the iPhones tad higher in order is different from the rest of the products. As Apple targets the executive class people it hel ps the organisation to set the price higher which also provides self satisfaction to the consumers. Another key aspect in the pricing system of the company is it doesnt provide any direct discount on the iPhone price which also gives sentimental value to the product (Goi, 2009). Place: Place could be considered as the way of distribution as well as could also be considered as the mode of presence of the organisation. Apple Inc. is a global business and available almost everywhere. In the present scenario the company focuses on the top cities of Australia namely Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth which are the top cities of the country. IStores as it has named the distribution outlets of the organisation to get immediate personal connect with the consumers could be found in almost all the shopping malls and the premium places around these cities. In the modern retail distribution centers and the individual retailers receive iPhones through carrying and forwarding agents and through distributors. Finally the IStores receives the products directly from the company which are given at the best possible rates. The IStores are located in the posh localities which are easily accessible to the consumers. The company also sales its products online through different e-commer ce sites which has also helped the organisation to gain market share in the online market (Hair Lukas, 2014). Promotions: Apple is known for its unique promotional ideas and plans. In Australia the launch of Apple iPhone is celebrated. The company launches their annual event of keynote where the invite the press, and developers and share the product live. The keynote stands to be an extremely effective promotional event for the organisation. Along with that the company also focuses on using the mass media promotions like the newspapers, TV, Radio, and also the social media platforms which helps to focus on improving the communication with the consumers as well as promotes the market wonderfully well. The company has its own YouTube channel and contains 3million subscribers and gets over 100 million views every time it launches its products. Within Australia the company follows the same method of promotion and it has around million people from Australia as subscribers in their Facebook page (Hollensen, 2015). Partnerships: Partnership is recently included in the concept of marketing mix. It is understood as the process of tying up with companies or agencies in order to expand the business and gain market share. In Australia Apple serves the consumers with the help of different Australian companies like NEC Australia is tied up with Apple who work as the authorised system integrators. The company has also tied up with one of the leading security firms in the country Australia that is MicroLatch for the improvement in the fingerprint technology. Apple has also collaborated with SAP the German Software developer giants to improve its native iOS applications and an SDK. Overall it could be said that the company has fruitful collaborations in Australia (Khan, 2014). Physical evidence: The Company aims to provide the best possible services to the consumers and this clearly reflects in the way they shape up the aspect of physical evidence in marketing mix. Apple understands that for effective customer satisfaction an overall development of marketing infrastructure is required and hence the company focuses on locating the outlets in the aesthetically beautiful areas that impresses the consumers. On the other hand the staffs of Apple are highly qualified in customer service and try to provide the best possible service to the consumers. Apart from this the company has a world class website which is completely clutter free, easily navigable and efficacious in customer interactions and this has helped the company to improve its market share (Kotler et al., 2014) . Process: The main aim of the company is to satisfy the consumers and for that the company follows a particular process. It makes sure that the staffs who are involved with the company are better at meeting consumer queries and do not focus on sales particularly, more sales staffs are involved in conversion of a customer, The website is more streamlined now and is also focused on meeting the needs of the consumers (Kotler et al., 2015). People: People are always key in the development of a business. Apple has a great policy of hiring from the host country to continue its business. The company has been able to hire efficient people to provide the visitors a great level of customer experience. The people involved with the company in Australia are highly qualified and have excellent interactive and management skills which help to give effective service to the Australian consumers (Luca Suggs, 2010). Contemporary Issues and Recommendations on the Improvement of Marketing Mix There are number of contemporary issues that Apple faces while marketing iPhones in Australia. It could be said that these contemporary issues could have significant negative impact on the business and hence it is essential for the organisation to focus on eliminating these issues from the operations and implement a clean marketing mix which would help the organisation to focus on providing the best possible services to the consumers. With Apple iPhone creating a craze in the market there are number of different contemporary issues that the company has had to face. The very first issue is the ethical concern of the labor rights that has allegedly being denied by the company. Just recently Apple has been accused of mistreating its labors and they have face work and pay problems and even physical atrocities (Mullins et al., 2012). This clearly is a negative marketing for the company as many ethical consumers will give up using Apple phone learning about these incidents. Another key pro blem that the company faced is about environmental concerns especially in Australia as there have been incidents where the company has not been able to properly dispose its wastes that create significant impact on the environment and also from the business vantage point this will advertise the organisation in a completely negative way. These contemporary issues have not only had direct environmental impacts but also human impacts which will affect the marketing strategy of the business (Roger, 2010). Until and unless the company addresses the issues of labor rights consumers will feel highly reluctant to buy iPhone not only in Australia but also in the other parts of world given the poor treatment of the labors. On the other hand explosions in the factory producing iPhones and iPads have been rebuked and show that Apple doesnt take significant steps to safeguard its employees and also has mere interest in safeguarding the environment. Improper waste removals in some of the factories in Australia have sent negative messages to the consumers and hence the marketing strategy of the company is to get negative response in the market (Sarker et al., 2012). In order to effectively make improvements the company should focus on making significant alterations in its marketing mix: Apple as an organisation has serious responsibilities towards the environment and the society and hence the company should focus more on using greener materials to manufacture its product iPhone. In the recent past Apple has faced increased competition as somehow its innovation in iPhones have stagnated and hence it is important for the organisation to make changes in the designs and also to make changes in the features of the phone which has remained the same and has just been modified. Price is the main factor that most of the consumers feel reluctant to buy Apple iPhone. Even though the company has a niche market but if the organisation decreases the price of the product and also alters the configuration of the iPhone it will experience significant increase of interest from the consumers which will lead to increase in the sales of the product (Singh, 2012). Based on the improvement in the pricing the company should focus on reaching different regions and open outlets to even B grade metropolitans in Australia which will see increased footfalls in the outlets. The company largely depends on the third party distribution in the online sale of products and hence it is important for the organisation to have effective own distribution channel for direct transactions with consumers (Kotler Armstrong, 2010). Apple should follow the complete promotional mix as so far it has largely depended on the press release and mass media campaigns for promotions, but focusing on the promotional mix will help the organisation to reach more and more customers with the help of sales promotion, direct marketing and quality advertisement campaigns (Thorat et al., 2013). Apple should emphasise more on collaborating with the government agencies in Australia in order to improve its services as well as to be on a friendly side with the government. This will also help to provide employment to people which will facilitate the organisation (Drummond et al., 2010). The company should completely make its services mobile and should make the complete transaction completely plastic. In order to support the environmental cause the company should completely deny receiving of paper currency and should encourage the transactions on different e-wallets and debit cards and credit cards in its stores. The stores should also set examples of using eco friendly materials and eco friendly energy like solar energy in its stores which will help the company to promote its thoughts towards environment (Mullins et al., 2012). Towards people Apple has significant responsibilities. The company should improve its audit system and should assess the problems of the employees as employees are the mainstay of the organisation. The company should continuously revise the pay structure of the employees and should provide them with suitable facilities which would help to improve internal interactions. The company should also develop quarterly training programs which would help the employees to learn the trade of customer service and technicalities of their field (Kotler et al., 2015). The company should start interacting more on the social level by organising different social events with the collaboration with the local authorities and along with the Australian government which would help to start communicating with the consumers and will help to understand their issues regarding ethics and other issues. The company should be more active in the social media which will help to understand the needs and preference of the consumers as well as their views towards the organisation (Hollensen, 2015). Conclusion To conclude it could be said that the marketing mix implementation is extremely important for the successful advertisement of Apple iPhone. The company should focus on developing the product and implementation of the suggested recommendations effectively. 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