Integrated Marketing Communications in Apple Inc - Essay Example

Integrated marketing communications It appears to be a four-way battle between stiff competitors. As the economy rebounds and consumer-confidence, slowly returns to the market, all businesses are looking for methods to promote themselves back to the public. Given the main disciplines of communication available, marketing, public relations, advertising, and social media, business people are contemplating which avenue to pursue. In spite of that, one thing is clear; organizations must shift from one track mid to a mix of methods in today’s economy. Due to an increase in amount of impressions required in order to make an impact, businesses are struggling to find the best method of creating awareness about their brand (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel, 2011:41). The public seems oversaturated with messages in any one discipline. As such, businesses need to connect with their audience by use of multiple methods of communication. This paper will seek to address how Apple Inc. approaches its market and how it makes use of the integrated marketing communications concept. This multinational company, Apple Inc, deals with luxurious products such as a consumer electronics, computer software, and commercial servers. Its core product lines include Macintosh computer line-up and others. Apple is a company that demonstrates huge knowledge of the integrated market communication concepts. As such, the company is always able to introduce a new product and push sales drastically. As a result, consumers are always much aware of its products due to frequent reminders either through televising or radio. With respect to the elements of integrated market communication concepts, Apple is always in a position to attain huge volume of sales of particularly its new and upcoming products. According to Apple founder, Wozniak, the company, instead of making use of them singly, it concentrates on integrating the marketing concepts together since together they are strong. The company relies heavily on the best result oriented elements of marketing communications concepts that include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling. (Boone and Kurtz, 2009:490). Upon mentioning Apple, what come into people’s mind are their simplified campaigns of advertising that portray their products as exceptional. They apply their advertising in many mediums such as email, the web, television, billboards, and print ads that when combined have been highly successful in both marketing the new version of their new product but above all the new “smart cover” as an essential accessory. Apple’s public relations department is doing an excellent job at creating positive image for their newest product as both a business product and a family friendly product (Havalder, 2010:193). The company integrates diverse mediums of communicating with their prospects by targeting appealing marketing concepts. Most of its advertisements involve children using the product, family members connecting via Face time, or a possible kid-friendly application. Agreeably, all these integrated marketing communication methods are creating a positive image for Apple. Because Apple’s products are appealing, their newest product is receiving tremendous public attention due to its frequent media use. In addition, people are using it on television on news broadcasts and even by some prominent people as a display tool. In the world of promotions, Apple rarely partakes in any but, recent news has it that Best Buy is reserving Apple’s newest product for an upcoming promotion. This means that when a company increase the number of marketing channels in its strategy, it is more likely to reach more and new people. Hence, using a number of combined efforts to reach and communicate with your audience is the most effective in the current marketplace (Pride and Freel, 2006:316-17). However, it is worth noting that, it is crucial to use a technique like this especially during economic recovery. With reference to a research carried out by Penn State College of Business, a retail organization like Apple during an economic recession should never attempt to cutback marketing programs but rather increase marketing spending in order to achieve superior business performance. Portfolio wise, Apple initiates personal selling through internet advertising whereby prospective internet shoppers receive the most effective terms of sale. This shows that, it attains comprehensiveness through integration of marketing communications models. In this sense, in most cases, people recognize Apple recognize due to its success in communicating its message to its prospects. Furthermore, with interpersonal communication via its Apple stores and mass communication via its massive advertisements, Apple Inc reaffirms its message and achieves superior business performance (Kitchen and Pelsmecker, 2004:15-18). A word for the Apple founder Wozniak has it that, if you get in front of your audience in multiple ways, it reflects that you can reach more people and consequently evaluate trends that are working, which will help in planning for future projects. According to Apple, their integrated marketing communications concepts are helping the company products out do competitors in the same market field. Their mass communication efforts are very effective because they reduce the clutter and distractions, and convey a simple to the point message about each of their products. For instance, their newest product advertisement goes like, the iPad 2: Thinner’ Lighter, Faster. Hence, communicates the most important aspects of the product in a simple manner (Pape and Martin, 2011:154-55). Further explanation puts across that, when a company utilizes an integrated campaign, all forms of communication must function as one in order to be effective. This notion gives the clearest meaning of integrated marketing communications as practiced by Apple Inc since the basic idea is that each channel must reinforce the other’s message. When Apple launches a product promotion, it has three main objectives: inform, persuade, and remind. When a new product is coming, they need to inform the customer on the uses of the product. Once the consumer understands the product, they proceed to persuade them in order to make a purchase and see how the product will influence their life. Finally, Apple goes ahead to remind the consumers about the product even when they already know that it is available. This echoes the fact that, when you develop multiple methods with a cohesive strategy, you are increasing your chances of reaffirming your message. Therefore, it is always necessary to utilize marketing, advertising, public relations, as well as social media methods as one in order to educate your audience (Havalder, 2010:300). This pushes sales of the company and in so doing; the firm realizes maximum benefits together with lots of customers. As depicted by Apple, it is easy to see how public relations benefit a company through crisis management and media outreach. Public relations help meet both corporate and marketing objectives of a firm. Current trends also indicate that, nowadays consumers put company brands and corporate responsibility as well as company sustainability into consideration prior making a purchase decision. A report facilitated by Apple Inc established that, 79 per cent of adults are likely to switch from one brand to another upon hearing about a corporate charitable partnership (Shimp, 2008:71-74). This report shone light on another integrated market communications concept referred to as the internal marketing. This philosophy promotes the firm and its policies to employees since they are the internal customers of the firm. In summary, the concept of integrated marketing communications provides organizations with a holistic approach to promote buying and selling of its products in the today’s digital economy. Clearly, evolution of these concepts presented a platform whereby Apple and other organization are able to promote their products that in turn help achieve success. Promotional mix is an important tool for portraying an organization’s aim together with the unique image of the company’s products (Pride and Freel, 2006:488). With integrated marketing communications, firms are able to create synergy among different marketing elements in order to achieve short- and long-term returns. As elaborated above, other benefits that come because of integrated marketing communications include cost savings, greater consistency among the various communicated messages, as well as easier working relations among different departments. Bibliography Boone, L.E and Kurtz, D. L., 2009. Contemporary Marketing. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Havalder, 2010. Business Marketing: Text & Cases, 3E. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Kitchen, P.J. and Pelsmecker, P., 2004. Integrated marketing communications: a primer. New York: Routledge. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F. and McDaniel, C., 2011. Essentials of Marketing. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Pape, T. V. and Martin, C., 2011. Images in Mobile Communication: New Content, New Uses, New Perspectives. New York: Springer. Pride, W. M. and Freel, O. C., 2006. Marketing: concepts and strategies. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Shimp, T.A., 2008. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Ohio: Cengage Learning. Read More