Fundamentals of Marketing - Apple iPad

SECTION-1

Target Segment of Apple I-Pad 9.7”

Segmentation can define as the process which includes bifurcating the group of potential customer according to their similar characteristics. This concept is needed to be targeted by the manufacturer in order to market its product or services in accordance to their choices and preferences by formulating strategies for promotion to attract them for buying their offerings.

For  Apple I-Pad 9.7” product, segment of  Business men are targeted for selling. As it is considered to be handy tool that facilitates all commercial activities because it can be fetched easily on devices like tablets which has eliminated the barrier of communication  as individual can contact anyone at  anywhere (Slater, 2015).

Attractiveness table for this segment

The segment which is selected has high growth a well as size because there is an enormous increase in business activities in the country and every person require to handle all operations in an easy an instant manner  which this product provides and technological devices has a wide scope for growth among business men. The structural attractiveness is high because the service which are served by Apple i-pad has created a brand loyalty and individuals are very familiar with this brand (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). Objective for the use of product is for important trade activities and the resources which are required for availing this product is more demanding  as the prices are very high and customer values the product  more instead of prices.

SECTION-2

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is a concept which include developing of an image in the mind et of buyers to gain competitive advantage over rival who are present in particular market. This strategy is considered to be very important as it tends to convinced the individuals which affects their choices and prefer them over other similar existing products (Wirtz, Tuzovic  and  Kuppelwieser, 2014).  Some strategies which are followed by Apple for creating an effective brand positioning among Business men are :

Development of Brand Personality-  They mostly focuses on the emotion of individual which tends to provide them a better experience.  The adoption of brand personality is all about relating it to adopting a lifestyle, innovation, imagination, dream, hopes as well as aspiration through with every individual wants to get connected with. This essence makes every high class level customer to buy it for attaining this particular sense.

Promoting through quality and individuality-  Apple promotes themselves as a brand which completely focuses on providing them most advanced and innovative technology to their customer for making their life better. This provides them an individuality from other brands which are available in market (Perreault, Cannon and McCarthy, 2015). They promote themselves for extra ordinary quality services from their product for every purpose.

Highly Featured Devices-  They have established themselves a the provider of highly featured devices such Apple I pad 9.7” which specially targets segment of business men that provides them various feature which facilitate their commercial  activities (Krush,  Sohi  and Saini, 2015). Every business  person can use this highly advanced tablet that features artificial intelligence which serves the user in different manner. As they can perform many function such as conference video call, effective schedule manager as well as reminder and many other function which are technologically advanced.

Point-of-Difference' of Apple I-pad are:

• Advanced Artificial Intelligence
• High Quality
• Unique Features
• Light Body Weight Devices
• Effective Brand Personality.

Some of the competitors of Apple such a Samsung and Sony has focused on the pricing strategy for the brand positioning which focuses on providing product at affordable prices with moderate features.

The positioning map for Apple I-pad is given below:           

SECTION -3

 Marketing Mix

There are various stages in the life cycle of product which include introductory, growth, maturity as well as declination. Apple I pad lies in the stage of maturity where it has established themselves in market and holding a huge base of consumers that mostly include Business individuals. In maturity stage, company focuses on improvement of product as it has already won the trust on consumer. Therefore, they tries to introduce new features in order to provide them more satisfaction with their excellency (McDonald  and Wilson, 2016). Apart from this, new strategies for promotion can be formulated in order to promote the product at completely new level such as more focus on social media techniques that will lead to provide an instant implementation of any promotional strategy. Apple I pads need to promote themselves as a very handy tool in order to target the segment of business men and persuading them for the suitability of its feature for making their business activities more effective.

Diffusion of Innovation is defined as using innovative strategies for attracting the target segment of  product.  For this, Apple is focusing on developing creative social media content which can attract Business Men segment of customers who are present around the world and will lead to provided effective approach to them.

Apple Ipad considered to be speciality consumer product a it is needed by the high class level of customers that includes business men for their commercial purpose.  The brand is very critical to name a it provides them a sense of privilege of using highly advanced technological devices that maintain their status as well as their business (Cant and Wiid, 2016). They are available at their own stores which are present across the world from where customer can buy them a well a end it for various other services or technical problem that might occur while using them. The prices of these products are very high as they target upper class level of customers through skimming pricing strategy as these types of customers tends to give more value to product in comparison to buyers. Advertisement of Apple I pad is done through personal selling in which it is sold at their own brand stores and customer can avail every information from their only.

Product- The core product concept should be adopted by Apple I pad because it persuades the customer regarding the convenience which the customer should buy or prefer it over other brand. A there are many features which can facilitate their trade related activity therefore this should be reason for its preference over other products.

Place- Presently, these products are exclusively present at Apple store which are situated at every city. They have a strong presence around the world but  it should be present at online stores to make it convenient for every business men which can lead to save their time which  involves in  processing of buying or exploring any new product. There should be apps which can tend to regulate every services regarding it (Singh, 2018). The distribution channel which should be adopted by them is direct which involves no middle man for  selling their prod cuts.

Promotion-  Currently, it is focusing on broadcasting themselves through television in the form of advertisement. They can use the message such as 'Business with innovation' to make it relatable with purpose. But they should grab the opportunity of the increasing trend of social media trends. Some of the strategies of the promotion which they can use are

Social Media Techniques-  It involves the use of various social media platform which can be use for targeting the market segment as it is very instantaneous and provides an effective approach, to larger audience which can be very beneficial for them.

Email Marketing- As these business individual are mostly engaged with emailing various other person for trade purpose. There it can a good opportunity to attract the through sending advertisement emails to them providing every information regarding the product and its benefit which can attract them.

Sales Promotion- It can be one of the effective strategy in which various offers can be introduced which will lead to increase their sales for a particular time period.

Price-  The strategy which is used by them for pricing is skimming strategy in which they keep the price of their product very high (Babin  and Zikmund,  2015). But they should follow semi skimming strategy by making their price more affordable and can attract business men of middle as well as higher class. 

SECTION-4

CONCLUSION

It has been concluded that marketing mix which should be followed by Apple for their I pad product should use the core concept of product which will persuade the target segment to focus on convenience for which the product should be used in order to provide them various facilities for accomplishment of their several business activities apart from that  the places from where product will be available is their brand store, apart from which online availability of the product should be there which will lead the to provide an easy access that will benefit them indirectly. Apart from this, pricing strategies which should be used is semi skimming pricing strategy in which  prices must be reduced to some extent that will lead to provide other business men from middle class level to buy it for their own fulfilment.  Promotion must be done through social media technique that will lead reduce their efforts which are used for other promotional activities; Email marketing can be one of the effective promotional strategies where all  advertisements are through sending email which can b easily accessed by them during work. Sales promotion will lead them to provide them an opportunity to buy product at lesser prices that will definitely lead to increase sale for a particular time period.

REFERENCES

• Datta, H., Ailawadi, K. L. and van Heerde, H. J., 2017. How well does consumer-based brand equity align with sales-based brand equity and marketing-mix response?. Journal of Marketing. 81(3). pp.1-20.
• Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E., 2014. How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer, New York, NY.
• Perreault, W. D., Cannon, J. P. and McCarthy, E. J., 2015. Essentials of marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach. McGraw-Hill Education.
• McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016.Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from them. John Wiley & Sons.
• Singh, S.K., 2018. Relationship Marketing In Competitive World an Essential Strategy. GST Simplified Tax System: Challenges and Remedies. 1(1). pp.390-349.
• Babin, B. J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015.Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.
• Cant, M.C. and Wiid, J.A., 2016. The use of traditional marketing tools by SMEs in an emerging economy: a South African perspective.Problems and perspective Management. 14(1). pp.64-70.
• Krush, M. T., Sohi, R. S. and Saini, A., 2015. Dispersion of marketing capabilities: impact on marketing’s influence and business unit outcomes. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 43(1). pp.32-51.
• Slater, S. P., 2015. The Tasks of Strategic Market Management: The Role of Marketing. In Proceedings of the 1989 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference(pp. 667-667). Springer, Cham.
• Wirtz, J., Tuzovic, S. and G. Kuppelwieser, V., 2014. The role of marketing in today's enterprises.Journal of Service Management. 25(2). pp. 171-194.
• Product Life Cycle Stages. 2018. [online]. Available Through<http://productlifecyclestages.com/>
• Diffusion Model. 2018. [online]. Available Through<https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/diffusion-innovation-model/>

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