Integrated Marketing Communications Mix Strategy for Laptop Manufacturers: Apple vs Dell - Essay Example

? Comparative analysis of integrated marketing communications mix strategy for laptop manufacturers: Apple vs Dell Executive Summary The project talks about the integrated marketing communications of two well known brands Apple and Dell. Both the brads have made extensive use of the media to promote its product and brand and with effective marketing communication have been able to achieve the desired position. Market review about the laptop market along with the market review of Apple and Dell has been provided to determine the value of each brand. The literature review talks about the research done on marketing communication strategy and integrated communication mix followed with an analysis and discussion on the same. Finally a set of recommendation has been provide to Dell to make it achieve it the desired market position and compete with brands like HP and Apple. Contents Executive Summary 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Market Review 5 Literature Review 8 Critical Analysis and Discussion  10 Conclusions and Recommendation 13 14 14 Reference 15 Introduction Marketing communication is one of the most important tools used by organisations in promoting its product to the target customers. All firms tend to employ marketing communication to a certain degree as per the requirements and can be directed towards the consumers in day to day consumption activities or even on the customers of other business. Organisations over the years have handled sales promotion, advertising, point of purchase and other forms of communication as separate practise as different units in organisation tends to specialise in various aspect of marketing communication like advertising or public relation or promotion and others. Marketing is all about satisfying the needs and demand of the customers but the real key with respect to IMC is controlling and influencing the messages sent by to the target market. One important task of organisation is to create and nourish the stakeholders along with the profitable customers who are likely to contribute to long term profit. IMC includes planning to deliver a consistent message to the target customer. Effective IMC tends to encourage strong customer relationship but it takes place through effective planning to develop integrated communication program. Strategies which are used in order to build strong relationship with the target customers is an effective part of marketing plan and marketing communication should support the plan (Percy, 2012, p. 8). As stated earlier all organisation needs to perform communication program in order to attract the target market, similarly the project talks about the marketing communication strategy undertaken by two major laptop manufactures, Apple and Dell. Apple is among the most popular brand and known for its innovation and creativity. With its iPhones launched into the market, Apple has captured a majority of market share both in case of laptops and iPhones but due to its popularity consumers tends to prefer Apple product. Thus based on it the following research objectives has been set, Research Objectives To determine the slogans and marketing messages adopted by Apple To determine the type of media and marketing campaigns used to attract consumers To understand the brand image projected by Apple in comparison to Dell Market Review It has been analysed that the global economic turmoil has had a major impact on the PC market and tends to remain weak which has led to the launch of windows 8. Global shipment was estimated to be 207million indicating a growth rate of only 2.1% in 2011. Thus the breakdown in the shipment of notebook sector is expected to b in the ratio of 47:53 in the first and second half of the year. The penetration rate with respect to ultra book is expected to account for less than 5% in the fourth quarter while touch screen and notebook are estimated to account for even less than 1% of global shipments. Notebook with SSD factor is estimated to account for 7.1% but about 70% of the shipments are to be contributed by Apple and its product (Chien, 2012). According to reports, ultra books are forecasted to account 42.7% of the global PC shipment by 2015. In 2012, with the launch of Apple Mac Book, it is expected to a total of 8.4million devices and estimated sale of 4.2million ultra book in 2012 (Statista, n.d). Figure 1 shows the market share of ultra book with respect to shipment from 2011 to 2015, Figure 1: Ultra Book Market Share Figure 2 describes the market share of Apple Mac Book Air from 2011 to 2015 in the global ultra book market. Figure 2: Apple Mac Book Market share From the above figure it can be interpreted that Apple global market share with respect to ultra book was about 89% in 2011 which has declined in 2012 and stood at 46% and further is expected to decline by about 32% in 2013 (Statista, n.d). In comparison to Apple’s laptop, Dell was the global market leader in 2006 and over the maintained a second position till 2010. In 2011 the market share of Dell slipped and it now stood at the third position with 12.9% (O’Brien, 2012). As per reports Apple has the potential to dominate the laptop market. Apple with its next generation 15.4” Mac book Pro with 2880*1800 display screen and also the thickness of the laptop also was reduced by 25% and can be said to be hybrid of Mac book Air and Pro (Forbes, 2012). Dell in comparison to Apple Mac Book pro had launched Studio laptops. Apple remains at the third position in the US market behind HP and Dell but with its premium pricing the bottom line is expected to provide a significant boost (Reuters, 2012). Only introducing new product into the market will not lead the brand to achieve profits and brand recognition. It is essential to target the right market and make products according to the needs and requirements and effectively conduct marketing and positioning strategy to generate brand awareness. Dell and Apple are two well known brands in the global computer market and target both the consumers and the business section and manufactures products targeting both the consumer market and the business market. Apple has positioned itself as being the most innovative and creative brand and premium pricing strategy the brand has been able to create a mind set of being a class in the electronics sector. As a result consumers wait for an Apple product and are ready to pay any price for the brand Apple. In case of Dell, it has also positioned itself as innovative brand catering to the needs and wants of the customers. As a part of its innovative strategy Dell with its Studio enabled the customer to make their laptops much more customised and has a range of about more than 200 designs to choose from. Dell has also been leveraging mobile technology in order to get a greater response from the consumers through email marketing. As part of their communication strategy, Apple communication strategy tends to be sober, simple, clever, minimalist and intriguing. Apple uses different modes of communication such as advertisements in televisions, publicity and PR to the highest level. Dell follows a unified communication strategy which takes into consideration all the solutions that are widely used such as IM, social computing, Presence, voice mail, interactive voice response, conferencing and others which enable the users to gather on one single platform and get the right information (Dell, 2012). Literature Review Communication strategies are tools which organisation chose to communicate with its target customers and also the stakeholders. Marketers can benefit from the study of marketing communication as it helps in decision making process and provide authentic judgement. The process usually begins with needs of the consumers and where the communication needs can be accomplished. The following figure describes the management of marketing communication, Figure 3: Marketing communication Management (Source: Varey, 2002, p. 2) Marketing communication strategies tends to include various sub strategies which are solely based on the tools of marketing communication such as advertising strategies, promotional strategies, public relation strategies and others. It also includes cross discipline like creative strategy and media strategy. It can be said that communication strategy requires keen knowledge in order to establish the target market, position the brand, the distribution channels and the competition among the brands and determine the strength and weakness of the competitors. The strategies adopted relate to the objectives of the organisation and thus the objective as well as the strategy tends to relate directly towards the marketing communication objectives and the strategies. Strategies of marketing communication are mostly customer oriented and do not focus on the media (Egan, 2007, p. 117). Different blends of marketing communication strategies includes the push and pull strategy. A push strategy is those strategies which are designed to influence the sellers and the re-sellers along with the intermediaries of trade channels like the dealers, wholesalers, agents and the retailers tends to promote a particular brand. Pull strategy is much more concerned in pulling the target customers to stores and motivates to pull the desired product from the shelf. Pull strategy includes promotions, buying allowances, advertising, point of sale. Retailers today want to be assured of the fact that the brad has marketing support such as through advertising. It can be said that pull strategy helps the push strategy as advertisements reassures the vendor that the stock will move in time enabling salesperson to push the stock in a easier way (Smith & Taylor,2004, p.13). Pull strategies influences the end customers and by driving the customers they are in a way pulling the merchandise through its distribution network. Pull strategies also includes consumer promotion, consumer competition and brand building. It has been seen that in the twentieth century the pull strategies adopted by the FMCG brands dominated mainly through mass media advertisements and also through promotion and competition. Budgets related to brand communication were reduced as the manufacture vied for shelf space with the competitors and retailers brand. Communication plans for both retailers and suppliers can be dovetailed in order to provide effective response (Egan, 2007, p. 118). Marketing Communication strategy which helps in the development of brand awareness where the consumers translate the information about the product into perception and position it in the market. Business also makes use of the marketing communication and retains the customer base. Marketing communication strategy in order to be effective is designed with components of communication mix. The process of communicating with all the people are known as “integrated marketing communication mix (IMC).” The concept of IMC is relatively new and has already gain popularity among the marketers. Individual who gets involved with the communication process have realised the need to integrate the communication functions and create a seamless, synergistic incorporation of the activities in the process of IMC. Thus in order to communicate with the consumers various tactics is generally used to communicate with the target market and also the retailers and is known as IMC mix. Therefore IMC mix is referred to all the communication activities which are undertaken in integrated marketing communication approach such as advertisements, personal selling, public relationship, sales promotion, direct marketing and others (Ogden, 2005, p. 355). Critical Analysis and Discussion  The laptop market has been able to distinguish itself as being one of the fastest growing sectors in the computer industry. In the process of its growth and development the computer industry has encountered many changes as per the needs and demands of the customers and in an effort to cater to the changing demands organisations such as Dell has been able to develop new product to satisfy the customer requirements. The laptop market is currently at the growth stage as compared to desktop computers and is highly driven by advances in technology and global integration in communication technology. Customers are demanding computers which are more mobile and communicate lives, smaller, lighter and can be used in an efficient and easy way (Pinegar, 2002, p. 3). This has lead to companies like Dell and Apple to innovate and bring about computers to suit the changing demands. It has been learned that over the years Apple has been one of the strongest competitor of Dell and is known for its innovation and creativity and is one of the most popular brands. Apple markets its product through advertisements and publicity is one of the main tools used in the marketing communication of Apple. With the introduction of Mc Book and Mac Book Pro, the super thin with “retina display” of 15” has created a huge buzz in the market and has attracted most of the customers mainly those who requires a slim laptop which can be carried easily, with good display and of course the brand which symbolise a status. Apple follows a strategy of customer driven and has loyal customers if not a large number but is loyal users of Apple. Apple tries to be innovative and is the core of its marketing strategy. Apple has created huge brand name and is known globally not only because of its innovation but also because of its high quality customer service which also acts as a strategy to communicate about the brand to the target market. Apple branding strategy tends to focus on emotions and brand personality focuses on imagination, lifestyle, innovation, hopes, passion, aspiration and dreams and also aims to be simple and remove complexity from people with the use of advanced technologies. Apple makes extensive use of media such as television through advertisements to promote its product and through PR activities such as press report before the launch of any product and so on which forms an integral part of its communication strategy. In case of Dell, it has mainly adopted the social media along with unified communication which takes into consideration the most commonly used solutions like social computing, IM, voice mail and others. According to the chairman of Dell, dell takes the initiative and communicates with its customers, employees and others in the process of strategy formulation. Dell does business in every corner of the world and tends to generate about 49 billion of annual sales and employees about 55000 employees. Dell business model, “Dell Direct” depicts its communication strategy and defines as to how the company tends to relates with the customer, employees, shareholders and also the competitors. Communication remains an essential part of the marketing strategy of Dell (Argenti et al, 2005). Dell target market includes corporate, individuals and also the public sector such as government and educational customers. Dell believes in making simplified technology for its target customers. Dells legacy lies in quality personal computer, storages, servers and services. The company is focused in making affordable information technology for millions of customers across the globe. Similar to Apple strategy Dell also focuses on providing the customer with high quality of service. Unlike Apple, Dell follows the strategy of direct sales and knows the end users and all the required information. Dell uses this information to offer add on product as well as services and helps the customers with its requirements. Dell recently has repositioned its strategy as it was experiencing low growth rate as compared to its rival HP and Apple. One of the main reasons was lack of innovation and to overcome this Dell recruited Ed Boyd as designer to design the products of Dell. Recognising the desire of its customer, Boyd introduced Design Studio where the customer can get certain designs on their laptops. Dell has introduced new model available at various colours even to the business segment and also introduced budget laptops at $839. In order to compete against Apple, the flashiest new models of Dell which are featured to be thin and light weight has helped Dell to regain its market share (Forbes-a, 2012). By comparing Apple Mac Book Pro and Dell Studio, Apple Mac Book pro are made up of metal whereas Dell Studio are made out of plastic which can translate into durability and aesthetic different for the customers. However despite Dell repositioning strategy Apple continues to dominate the ultra book market and enjoying the success. Dell do not make use of the media and nor does it makes use of PR activities unlike Apple. Dell in order to beat Apple should enhance its communication strategy and concentrate towards PR activities. The table above describes the various features of Dell Studio and Apple’s Mac Book Pro. Most of the features are quite similar to each other but price tends to differs showing Apple to be a costly brand than Dell. Conclusions and Recommendation To conclude it can be said that marketing communication and marketing strategy plays an important and essential role for the success of the brands. The various mix associated with IMC are equally important. As it has been learnt that both Dell and Apple makes extensive use of the media and promote its product through advertisements. Social media also plays a key role in determining the popularity of the brand. Apple makes use of PR activities to enhance the brand and hence can be said to be the most popular brand across the globe. Thus based on the strategy of Apple it can be recommended to Dell to reposition its commutation strategy and concentrate on PR activities. In addition, the brand Dell needs to be innovative as customers’ demands innovative product as Apple does. Apple and Dell are among the top brands in the laptop market and capture a majority of market share thus effective communication strategy will lead Dell to regain its market share and compete with Apple laptops. Apple brand name and value add on to the advantage and has created an image of social status as compared to Dell. Reference Argenti, P. A. et al., 2005. The Strategic Communication Imperative. [Pdf]. Available at: < https://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/communicators/fall08/reading/Sloan_MIT_Strat_Comm_Imp.pdf> [Accessed 7 December 2012]. Chien, J., 2012. 2H 2012 notebook market trends and shipment forecast. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.digitimes.com/Reports/Report.asp?datepublish=2012/7/27&pages=RS&seq=400> [Accessed 6 December 2012]. Dell, 2012. Dell Unified Communications Solution. [Online]. Available at: < http://content.dell.com/in/en/enterprise/by-service-type-it-consulting-communication-collaboration-unified-communications> [Accessed 6 December 2012]. Egan, J., 2007. 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