Marketing Strategies of Apple Company - Essay Example

3. Methodology 3 Research Objective In the previous section, an introduction to the marketing strategy was presented, which included market segmentation and target selection, product positioning and marketing mix. In this section, the theory mentioned in the literature review will be verified and evaluated with regard to Apple Company. 3.1.1 Overall Objective The overall objective of this research is to recognize the marketing strategies of Apple Company from a variety of points of view. 3.1.2 Specific Objectives i. Identify the market segmentation and production of Apple Company ii. Define the marketing strategies that Apple Company uses iii. Evaluate the effects of Apple Company’s marketing strategy iv. Analyze the marketing strategy of Apple Company from the customer’s point of view 3.2 Methodology As described in the literature review, there is a value transfer process in marketing. The process includes many steps: research of the market, market segmentation, selection of target, positioning of products, marketing mix, and executive marketing strategy control (Kolter, 2004). The main objective of this research is to recognize the marketing strategy of Apple from the customer’s point of view. Therefore, the questionnaire design and data analysis in this study are focused on the elements of the marketing mix. In this research, descriptive studies will be used. Descriptive research is a research based on a set of methods and procedures which are used to describe variables, such as consumers’ attitudes, intentions and behaviors. Descriptive studies are mostly used in survey based researches, in which respondents are requested to fill survey questionnaires (Burns and Bush, 2006). There are several benefits of using descriptive research. Firstly, it could provide data for comparative analysis of competitive products. Secondly, new product performance can be evaluated through such a research. Lastly, it can develop profiles of types of customers and their preferences, which can greatly help the company. Questions about products, distribution, and marketing strategies will be asked in the research. The purpose of this design is to make this kind of research productive (Chisnall, 2005). The reason for using this type of research design is that it perfectly matches to the objective of this research, which is to evaluate the effect of marketing strategies on product performance from the customer’s point of view. 3.3 Research Methods 3.3.1 Secondary Research The research design and data analysis will be divided into several steps. First of all, secondary data will be scanned in order to find what existing literature has to say about the topic. Secondary data is data previously gathered by someone other than the researcher for some purpose other than the research project on hand (Burns and Bush, 2006). In this research, most of the secondary data will be accessed through the internet, which is a form of online research. Secondary data can be divided into two forms: internal and external. The word “internal data” refers to the data collected within the company (Webb, 2002). Since the research topic is about Apple Company, its official website will provide a lot of information about its products and pricing of its products worldwide. External data is the data which is obtained from sources outside the company: directories, computerized databases, government agencies and the internet (Webb, 2002). As regards Apple Company, there are some published sources such as professional organizations, magazines and companies from where external data can be gathered. There are several advantages of using secondary resources in the research. For example, the information can be obtained quickly, as using the internet to search for secondary information is quicker than primary research and no spending is involved in gathering secondary information (Wrenn, Stevens and Loudon, 2006). Also, secondary data is more convenient to use because it is always available. In addition, it can provide a backdrop to the primary research (Webb, 2002). However, there are also some disadvantages of using secondary data. First of all, the data used can be outdated as some secondary data is only published once and is not updated afterwards; therefore, it cannot always be applied to current situations (Struwig, Stead and Struwig, 2001). Also, in secondary data there is incompatibility when it comes to reporting units and measurement units. For example, there are many secondary sources about Apple Company that are published both in the US and UK, but reporting units and measurement units of the two countries are not compatible (Burns and Bush, 2006). 3.3.2 Primary Research After the secondary research, primary research will be carried out. There are two types of primary research: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research is a research that is not related to quantification or quantitative analysis (McDaniel and Gates, 1999). It includes collection, analysis, and interpretation of data (Burns and Bush, 2006). It can be done by focus group and in-depth interviews (McDaniel and Gates, 1999). Using qualitative research in this kind of study is normally cheaper than using quantitative research. Also, the researcher can see what consumers actually do instead of relying on their own accounts of what they think they do. In addition, it can improve the efficiency of quantitative research (McDaniel and Gates, 1999). However, the data observed may be subjective while using qualitative research (Burns and Bush, 2006). Moreover, qualitative research cannot distinguish small differences in marketing mix, whereas quantitative research does because of its large scale reach (McDaniel and Gates, 1999). Quantitative research is a research which involves the use of structured questions in which the response options are predetermined and a large number of respondents are involved through the use of survey questionnaires (Burns and Bush, 2006). A quantitative research can also be done through face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews or self-completion interviews (McDonald and Vangelder, 1998). In this primary research, only self-completion interviews will be carried out for the quantitative research. The reason for using self-completion interviews is that the costs are much lower as questionnaires will be distributed online for free. Also, a larger number of questionnaires can be sent, so more data can be collected as compared to face-to-face and telephone interviews (McDonald and Vangelder, 1998). There are also more advantages of using quantitative research to collect primary data. Firstly, survey provides standardization since all the respondents have to answer the questions that are identical and presented in the same order (Callaway, 2007). Secondly, survey is also easy to administer. As respondents will fill out the questionnaires themselves, it will be much easier and quicker to collect the data (Burns and Bush, 2006). Thirdly, survey is easy to analyze because when there is a large sample size, quick calculations, cross arrangements and other statistical analysis can be used easily. Lastly, survey reveals subgroup differences; for example, respondents can be split into different segment to compare and search for meaningful differences (Burns and Bush, 2006). Apart from the advantages that are mentioned above, time limitation is another reason for giving up the qualitative research. Qualitative research is time-consuming (Bamberger, 2000). As qualitative research requires a lot of time to prepare – to contact the interviewers and to prepare for asking questions – time constraint becomes the reason to give up qualitative research and to choose quantitative research. 3.4 Sampling The sample method chosen for this research is of convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is a kind of nonprobability sampling methods. This kind of sampling is drawn at the convenience of the interviewer (Malhotra and Birks, 2003). Therefore, the selection of the respondents is subjective instead of objective (Burns and Bush, 2006). The reason for using this sampling method is that the questionnaires will be distributed through the internet. As there are many websites that provide online survey tools, just typing the questions online can create a survey. After that, the link of the online questionnaire will be sent to researcher’s family member and friends; the amount of respondents is approximately 50 people. The respondents are chosen through nonprobability sampling. Another reason for using convenience sampling is because of the time limitation. As time for the primary research is limited, convenience sampling is the most convenient for the interviewers to collect data in short time, and, therefore, convenience sampling is chosen. There are several reasons of distributing questionnaires through the internet. First of all, it is faster compared to the postal survey, which can reduce the time used to collect data. Also, through the internet, contact can be made with the group consisting of regular users of the internet, which is also the target group of Apple (Malhotra and Birks, 2003). However, there is also a limitation as the questionnaire targets mainly those people who are close to the researcher: students, friends, and relatives among others. This is why there will be a narrow range of respondents. Reference list Wrenn, B., Stevens, R., and Loudon, D. (2006). Marketing Research: Text and Cases, Second Edition. London: Routledge Struwig, M., Stead, G., and Struwig, F. (2001). Planning, Reporting & Designing Research. Johannesburg: Pearson South Africa Callaway, P. (2007). The Relationship of Organizational Trust and Job Satisfaction: An Analysis in the U.S. Federal Work Force. London: Universal-Publisher Bamberger, M. (2000). Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Research in Development Projects. New York: World Bank Publications Read More