Apple’s Marketing Mix

Introduction

Product is the most important element to the marketing mix because if you have no product you instantly have no business. It’s important to be able to develop a successful product for your business to succeed, Apple is a good example of this. 60% of all businesses fail in the first three years. (DCI, n.d.). To have a successful product it must meet the customer’s needs, wants and demands.

An overview of Apples products

Apple first came about in 1974 based in California, they started off just selling computers by the founder Steve Jobs. Today they have a family of products ranging from Phones to watches and earphones which are being sold worldwide in over 500 stores (Macrumors.com, 2019). They are best known for selling iPhone with a new one coming out yearly to keep the customers engaged with the company. When the brand releases a new product, it is always made into a big deal which is one way they like to market the products and it grabs the attention of the customers. All packaging is similar with white box and a picture of the product. Customers find the packaging very simple and minimalistic, which they like as some packaging can be too overpowering and look bad on the company. The packaging mirrored how the products are designed to make the brand look professional and eye catching.

How effective is it?

Apple is part of one of the biggest marketplaces, it is in competitions with other big brands such as Samsung, HTC and Huawei. This is known as industry rivalry where the more competitors there are the higher the rivalry. Apple are one of the biggest brands in the world for their iconic look and by making bigger and bigger profits each year. Apples success allows them to keep bring new and improved products to the marketplace each year so in that aspect it is very effective. Apple have a impressive net worth of $2 trillion. (Celebrity Net Worth, 2012). An average American household own more than 2 apple products (Liesman, 2017). However, on the other hand Apple keeps increasing its prices of their products using the skimming method. Customers may see that as a negative because they will eventually stop spending huge amount of money and just keeping their current phone. This could mean Apples profits could see a drop, but could their reputation save them. Overall, I believe Apples Products are really effective and the symbolic brand makes them easy to use and the products meets the customers needs. I am confidence that Apples products would not stop being attractive enough to stop customers buying them. The brand has ticked all the boxes to make a successful family of products and it continues to give them great rewards.

How it has changed over time?

Apple have kept up with the changes in technology and are often a field leader, as Apple regularly change their products and inventing new aspects. Throughout the changes they have still kept their simple design to maintain their unique look. From present to finish the main change is that they have become thinner and bigger. The change in style with the different models for example introduces coloured phones when the iPhone 5 came out, you got a choice of colours from pink to yellow. The main technical change was each model had a better camera which is important to allow customers to capture important moments. Apple was the first phone to be waterproof with the iPhone 7. Today the biggest change is that the new iPhone 12 has a new feature of 5G.

Conclusion

It is very easy to see why their product strategy is successful, because their customers’ needs are met and they make enough profit to allow them to make better products to keep customers interested with brand new products and get them wanting to queue outside for the products. Apples concept ensures the company continues to be successful and profitable.

Product- This image shows the family of products apples have to offer. Technology is changing over time and is still very attractive to the audience, and there are still in such high demand. However in this image they only showing one colour when they offer variety of colours.

Place- This store is based in San Diego in California. You are abke to see how simple and basic the stores are, which is very similar to their pacakaging. Looking through the glass windows you can see how organised the store is. This looks give the brand an professional and trustworthy look.

Price- This image shows one of Apples marketing strategy, price skimming where when a new phone is released it more expensive than the last one. However it may be effective at the moment but eventually people will stop spending the amount of money and keeping their old phone.

Promotion- This is an example of outbound marketing, to help advertise to a larger auidence.

People- This is the man behind who started Apple with just selling computers. He was the first person who believed Apple would be a success, he was the one who chose who he wanted to help make the company a success back in 1976.

Physical Evidence- This shows apples website. Customers like easy and simple website to use or they will just give up trying to use and won’t buy their products; Apple’s website is an excellent example of this.

Process- This image is showing someone in the process of purchasing a product from Apple. This process leads to an outcome, the outcome is profit the more people buying products more profit. This profit will go towards improving the iPhone so more customers will want it as it getting more and more advanced. This will happen for all their products ad they like to introduce new ones regularly. When the customers has brought a product the customer becomes satisfied.

References-

MacRumors. (n.d.). Apple’s Work on New Upcoming Products Progressing Normally as Employees Adjust to Telecommuting. [online] Available at: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/03/30/apple-work-from-home-new-products/

VentureBeat. (2020). Apple’s choice to keep stores closed is a smart call during stupid times. [online] Available at: https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/03/apples-choice-to-keep-stores-closed-is-a-smart-call-during-stupid-times/

Poletti, T. (2019). Apple iPhone event reveals a dramatic change in strategy. [online] MarketWatch. Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-iphone-event-reveals-a-dramatic-change-in-strategy-2019-09-10.

Dailybillboardblog.com. (2019). Apple iPhone 11 Pro billboards… [online] Available at: https://www.dailybillboardblog.com/2019/10/apple-iphone-11-pro-billboards.html.

Mac, R. (2018). An Apple a Day — Why Steve Jobs REALLY Died. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/skeptikai/an-apple-a-day-why-steve-jobs-really-died-cf2e2de20f4d

abilitynet.org.uk. (n.d.). How to learn from Apple’s mistakes on website accessibility | AbilityNet. [online] Available at: https://abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/how-learn-apples-mistakes-website-accessibility

•Figure 21- Jess-bolluyt (2017). 10 Reasons People Buy iPhones Instead of Android Phones. [online] Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Available at: https://www.cheatsheet.com/gear-style/reasons-people-buy-iphones-instead-of-android-phones.html/.