International launch and marketing mix of Apple IPhone

Introduction:

Apple was established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on 1st April, 1976 in order to sell the Apple 1 Computer Kit that was built by Steve Wozniak. Due to innovative apple programmes, it was responsible for creating the desktop publishing market. Apple market share and stock prices decreased due to failure of some Apple features in between 1983 and 1996. While in 2001 the product was impressively successful, they introduced iPod portable audio player and within six years more 100 million were sold. Currently Apple I-phone one of leading phone in the cellular industry because they are offering many innovative features to their customers in the entire market. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Analyses of the international launch and marketing mix of Apple I-Phone:

Apple’s iPhone 4 was officially launched on 24th June 2010 internationally while the preorders were started on 15th June 2010. It was available on 24th June 2010 in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Japan, while it was also released in other 18 countries such as Australia, Japan, Austria, Canada, Finland, Italy, Hong Kong etc in July 2010. One month before launching of iPhone 4GS, Apple iPhone stores displayed the iPhone 4GS. Before launching the iPhone 4 they planned a massive TV campaign in order to promote the iPhone new features in the market. With the help of TV campaign, they successfully promoted the iPhone 4 in the market and they create a competitive advantage in the market which enabled the Apple iPhone to successfully launched the iPhone 4GS all over the world. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Launching a new brand into the market they advertised their brands on a regular basis to maintain general public awareness by using media advertisements TV, through iPhone official websites and also display the iPhone in their retailer stores to promote the new brands in the market.

Marketing Mix:

Marketing mix play significant role in the competition of the product because it enables the company to compete in its industry. It is very important for the company when marketing their products firms need to create a successful mix of the right product and sold at the right price. Company also needs to offer the product at the right place with the help of the appropriate promotion (Luther, W. M. (2001).

According to McDonald, M. (2007) to create the appropriate marketing mix companies have to fulfil the some conditions such as product has to offer the right features to work well and also look good. Firms also need to focus on the price of the product because consumer will buy in large numbers in order to generate a healthy profit. The goods must be in the right place at the right time making sure that the goods arrive when and where they are wanted is an important operation.

Marketing Mix of Apple I-phone:

Product:

Currently Apple I-phones are offering one year warranty and also optional three year Apple care warranty.

In 2008 they launched a cheaper version having less advanced features but it was good for professional use due to consist of advanced version. With the help of this version they attracted professional use customers.

Apple I-phone are offering innovative features such as large disk storage capacity, lower weight and offering 4G wireless, GPS, HD video recording and thinner device in their product which differentiate them from competitors’ products.

(www.brighthand.com)

Price:

Prices of Apple I-phone are very high in the market but on the other side customer are still interested in buying the Apple I-phone.

The price of New version iPhone 4GS 16GB is £499 while iPhone 3GS 16GB Black is £440.

Prices of iPhone 3G 8GB are much lower than the 3GS and 4GS and also depends in the network you want to buy it.

(http://www.iphone-prices.co.uk/iphone-3gs)

Place:

Retailers of Apple iPhone are available in most countries such as US, European countries and Asian countries etc, in other words they are largely rollout all over the world at all major retailers.

Apple websites and stores worldwide will dedicate themselves to the iPhone.

One month before launching the iPhone, Apple iPhone stores will have the iPhone on display. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Promotions:

Due to high competition in the industry Apple iPhone are more focusing on the promotions of their brands. Before launching the iPhone 4 they planned a massive TV campaign in order to promote the iPhone new features in the market.

They are advertising their brands on a regular basis to maintain general public awareness with the help of billboards in the public places, facebook, media advertisements, TV, display in their stores and also through iPhone official websites.

To promote their brands they differentiated the iPhone against others in the touch screen functionality.

(www.apple.com/iphone)

Analyses of different approaches to branding and positioning between Apple I-Phone and its main competitors:

Branding:

According to American Marketing Association (AMA) suggests that a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers”. To be successful in the branding the firm must needs to understand the demand of ‘your customers and prospects. To build a successful brand in the market firms must spend time, investing in research, defining and building your brand. (marketing.about.com)

Branding of Apple iPhone and its main competitors:

Apple iPhone are more focusing on their brands to make them more successful, in order to achieve it they are spending huge amount on the research department to produce innovative products in the market. Due to offering innovative products in the market differentiate the Apple iPhone from competitors’ products. For successful branding, Apple iPhone adopted differentiation strategy, with the help of this strategy Apple iPhone differentiate their products from competitors as a result to create a competitive advantage. They are also using promotional tools such advertisement through media, websites, TV etc to promote the brands of Apple iPhone in the market. Such as before launching the new version of iPhone 4GS they displayed the iPhone 4 in the retailers stores and also through official websites of Apple IPhone.

While on the other hand competitors of Apple iPhone such as Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry are also offering innovative products at a reasonable prices but they cannot offer many features in a single device. Apple iPhone has the capability to offer many features in a single device which also differentiate the Apple iPhone from competitors’ products.

Positioning:

According to Kotler (1997:239) “positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct competitive position in the target customer’s mind.” Luther (2001) further suggests that positioning of your brand should be effective, surprise to the industry, to your customers and to the competition, and should also be unique, memorable, desirable and believable that will facilitates the company to attract customers.

Market segmentation:

Croft (1994) suggests that market segmentation is the classification of portions of the market that are different from one another. He further recommends that Segmentation enables the company to compete in the market and to better satisfy the needs of its potential customer.

Positioning of Apple iPhone and its main competitors:

By adopting product differentiation, positioning the iPhone as the versatile and convenient for their customers. They are also providing value-added device for personal and as well for professional use to differentiate their products from competitors. Apple iPhone are more focusing on the convenience of having one device for communication but on the other hand they are also focusing on the picture quality, video call and recording, music and most differentiate feature are the full internet access. The iPhone will be promoted as both professional and hip. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Main competitors of Apple iPhone are Nokia, Blackberry, HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericson. Apple iPhone competitors are offering innovative and convenient products to their customers at a reasonable price. Recently Nokia are offering high cost and lower cost products to their customers, they are attracting price conscious consumers which enable them to compete in the market. But on the other hand products offered by Nokia and other competitors not have many features in their mobile as compared to iPhone like iPhone have many features in one device that differentiate the iPhone from the competitors products.

Evaluate the future prospects and challenges facing by Apple I-Phone from a marketing perspective.

In order to achieve goals and objectives and overcome problems, practitioners suggest strategic tools in the form of porter’s forces and swot analysis. Porter’s forces are a strategic planning tool that helps in creating a competitive advantage in the market. SWOT is strategic planning tools that help identify external factors (i.e. opportunities and threats) that need to be planned for, and internal factors (i.e. strengths and weaknesses) that need to be considered for in determining where a business should be going in the future.

SWOT ANALYSIS:

In order to achieve the goals and objectives in a successful way, it was notice that the company should create a competitive advantage in the market by evaluating the SWOT analysis. Armstrong (1982) states that swot analysis is a strategic planning method very important to conduct, because it evaluates the position of an organisation with respect to strengths and weaknesses called internal factors and threats and opportunities called external factors available in the market. While Alison (2001) suggest that Swot analysis involves specifying the aims and objectives of the business and also classifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective.

SWOT Analysis of Apple iPhone:

Strengths:

Apple iPhone have many strengths such as innovative touch screen and most innovative strengths of iPhone has most functions of other competitor product all in a single device of iPhone. It also works with iTunes and other operating system tools which mean high potential for upgradeability. IPhone are very easy to ease because all-new touch screen interface recognizes multi finger gestures. (www.brighthand.com)

Brands of Apple iPhone are famous worldwide for cool essential gadgets such as iPod due to technological innovations.

They believe that iPhone would be sold at a reasonable price in the market due to offering quality products like scratch resistant screen, light metallic finish and their software has the ability to resistance computer viruses. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Opportunities:

There are many opportunities available to Apple iPhone such as expansion to a new target segment with the help of technological advancements like Apple can attract iPod consumers to upgrade to iPhone.

They can offer Bluetooth facility because data cannot be transferred from other mobile to iPhone.

Completions are increasing day by day in the industry which creates barriers for the companies; in order to overcome this barrier Apple can collaborate with mobile companies such as Nokia to flood the market with iPhone. By adopting this strategy they can reduces marketing and operational cost and can easily generate high profit. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Weaknesses:

Despite having many strengths of Apple iPhone but on the other side they have some weaknesses which are essential to overcome to create a competitive advantage in the market. They did not produce a lower price models to attract cost conscious customers.

Apple brands are not targeting business people and due to this weakness they have a very low reputation in the corporate world.

It has also been noticed that touch screen interfaces affect from the problem of gorilla arm. (www.apple.com/iphone)

Threats:

There are some threats to Apple brands such as smart phones are easier to make, currently Samsung are offering Samsung Galaxy S phone, Nokia are offering N97 and Sony Ericsson are offering Satio.

Competitors can easily enter in the market and can offer the product at low cost which would a high threat for Apple iPhone.

Due to low interest of Apple brands in the Asia can create difficulties in the expansion of the Apple brands. (www.apple.com/iphone)

By analyzing the SWOT analysis of Apple iPhone it is quite clear that they have strengths in their products due to offering technological advancements and they are continuously producing new versions of iPhone which enable them to compete in the market. There are many opportunities available to Apple iPhone such as such as expansion to a new target segment with the help of technological advancements like Apple can attract iPod consumers to upgrade to iPhone. But on the other side they some weaknesses which are very important to overcome to be successful in the market to create a competitive advantage in the market such as they did not yet offered a lower price model of iPhone. Technological advancement are highly increasing which create high competition in the market and smart phones are easier to make, in this way competitors can offer smart phones at a lower prices than Apple iPhone that will highly affect Apple business.

Future Prospects of Apple iPhone:

Apple plans on focusing on satisfying personal consumer demands rather than merely fulfilling a demographic requirement as well as, improving performance and stability rather than introducing new features when releasing new versions of any product. Currently apple brands are focusing on the producing new features but there is a huge gap in improving performance and stability of their brands. It is quite significant to focus on the improving performance and stability of the brands when releasing the new versions. By improving the performance and stability of brand may the company to create a competitive advantage in the market.

Recommendations to brands which compete with Apple I-phone:

On the basis of above analysis there are few recommendations which enabled the Apple I-phone brand to compete in the market. According to Grants (2008) in strategy formulation the company’s resources and capabilities play a vital role in making the strategy competitive. Resources are the productive assets owned by the firm and capabilities are what the firm can do in better way. De Wit & Mayer (2004) suggest that resources can help the firm in creating a competitive advantage if they are difficult to imitate or substitute, valuable and rare.

To build a competitive advantage in the market Apple iPhone need to produce brands which cannot be imitated or substituted. In order to achieve this they need more focusing on the technological advancement because smart phones are easier to make due to technological advancement like currently some competitors are also offering mobile which are similar to iPhone such as Samsun Galaxy S and HTC desire Sony Ericson are offering Satio. Apple iPhone are introducing new feature in new versions of iPhone but they also need to focus on the performance and stability of their brand to compete in its industry, this will also differentiate Apple brands in the market which will enable them to create a competitive advantage in the market.

Due to high cost on the Apple iPhone brands they are not able to produce a lower price models to attract cost conscious customers. To sustain and build a competitive advantage in the market and reduce the cost on their products they need to adopt cost leadership strategy. By adopting this strategy Apple iPhone will able to produce a lower price model of iPhone, with the help of this they can easily attract cost conscious consumers and Apple iPhone brand will be able to compete in the market.

Due to high competition in the market, costs on the advertisement are increasing rapidly. In order to cut these costs Apple iPhone can collaborate with mobile companies such as Nokia. Apple iPhone will also be able to flood the market with iPhone and they can also reduce marketing and operational costs and can easily generate high profit.

Currently there is a low interest of Apple brands in the Asian countries which are creating difficulties in the expansion of the Apple brands to the Asian market. Some of the Asian countries are less developed and consumers in Asian countries do not have potential to buy a high price phone. To expand the Apple iPhone brand to the Asian market they need to offer lower price model of iPhone. They can offer lower price model by installing operational activities in the Asia which reduce the price because the labour costs are very cheap in Asian countries as compare to US and European countries.

Currently Apple iPhone have a very low reputation in the corporate world due to lack of targeting the business people. They can increase their reputation in the corporate world by targeting business people with the help of offering business features which attract them to buy iPhone brands.

According to telegraph 16th July, 2010, many customers were complaining regarding iPhone signals because they had also a problem with voice calls. This problem affect the selling power of iPhone 4GS as a result the iPhone customers were feeling hesitation in buying iPhone 4. Apple iPhone must need to focus on this problem to overcome in the future because this may affect their brand reputation in the market. (www.telegraph.co.uk)

Currently Apple iPhone are offering innovative products to their target customers, due to innovations there are some opportunities are available such as expansion to a new target segment by using technological advancements like Apple can attract iPod consumers to upgrade to iPhone. By achieving this opportunity Apple iPhone brand will be able to create a competitive advantage in the market and can give tough time to competitors in its industry.