Brand management unit , (apple) brand - Essay Example

In terms of market capitalization, the company represents the largest publicly traded corporation world over. Any company that designs and develops products of innovation is bound to receive threats from the market by other entrepreneurs; Apple, too, faces a large amount of competition from companies like Samsung, Nokia, as well as Google and Microsoft. These are some of its biggest competitors in the market, yet Apple remains the most admired company in the United States of America (surely, in other countries too), as stated by the Fortune magazine from 2008 to 2012.

A number of critics are of the idea that the biggest competitor that Apple has is itself because the company never fails to bring something new to the table. The software that it designs has a very high ease of use, thus, appealing to a large consumer market. The existing product line always poses a challenge to the company so as to bring something more innovative the next time. Every time that a product is launched, even if it is a subsequent generation of the previous one, it does not fail to surprise the customers.

The best part is also that consumers have an option of upgrading their existing software in the products that they already have and this makes it easier for them to remain in awe of the company. It may be said that Apple has one of the most unusually interesting fan followings in the world that any company has; it literally has a cult of people following it and buying the company’s products religiously. The customers that have once used Apple products remain loyal to the company for its excellent service as well as product sharpness.

When the company launches its new products, thousands and thousands of loyal customers flock to the stores the day before the opening with a view to be the first ones to buy the product. According to the Guardian, “People talk about technology, but Apple was a marketing company. It was the marketing company of the decade.” 1 Apple exudes a brilliant image to the world; over the years, it has attained a large amount of goodwill, mostly because of the hard work that Steve Jobs has put in the past decade.

The brand image that the company has mustered for itself has been through the efforts of the marketing and the advertising that it has done which have appealed to consumers so much that there are hundreds of pages on the internet dedicated to them. The marketing has been so innovative that customers feel the need to buy an Apple product in order to make their lives simpler and more convenient.2 The brand identity refers to the unique set of functional and mental associations that the brand aspires to create as well as maintain for itself in the eyes of the public.

These associations are an indication of what the brands stands to be in the minds of customers as well as the potential targeted customer base. This includes the logo and the slogans, not to forget the name. Over the years, Apple has changed its logo thrice – now it is a simple apple symbol which people all over the world recognize and associate with the company. It has some very interesting and simple slogans such as “Think Different” and “Say hello to the iPhone” that are so catchy that people immediately associate it with the company.

Apple has maintained these slogans to be the same over the years and the customers do not seem to mind it either. The idea behind