Kindle Fire: Marketing Strengths and Weaknesses - Research Paper Example

?KINDLE FIRE Market leader and its strengths and weaknesses Proving that Apple Inc is the market leader in the tablet computer industry is easier than pretending that they are not (Schut and Hassink, 2002). This is because of the market size that apple Inc commands and the rate of shareholder profits that the company returns. Critically, Apple Inc’s iPad computer as a competitor to the Kindle Fire comes with a number of strengths and weaknesses, which have been briefly discussed below. Strengths Brand equity: As a company and as a product, the iPad enjoys an advantage as being a long competitor on the market. Indeed, there is no denying the fact that the name of Apple’s tablet computer, which is the iPad has come to replace what every other tablet computer should be called. There are hardly people who know that iPad is only a registered brand of Apple’s tablet computer because they think that is what every other tablet computer is called. Such popularity is a major brand equity that brings about massive profits for companies involved (Prosser and Wittenberg, 2007). If for nothing at all, consumers of tablet computers who have no relevance to the brand of a company’s product may just go to the shop and say they want to buy an iPad and it is apple’s tablet PC that they will be given. Stratified marketing: Another major advantage or strength that Apple Inc and their iPad have over the Kindle Fire is that the company operates a multi-stratified market. What this means is that the computer is not only into the production of table computers. Subsequently, the company is always assured of a means of gaining revenue and raising expenditure to cover up for the key account expenses of its product. To this end, it becomes almost unthinkable that the company would run out of fund to promote its products. Another thing about the stratified market is that the perceived performance and quality of Apple’s other products may be directly related to its tablet computer and this may be a major competitive advantage. Weaknesses Costing : Regard of the major advantages that have been looked at, there remain some key weaknesses that Apple Inc and its iPad suffers. Typical among these is the fact that Apple’s iPad are one of the most expensive on the market (Porter, 2010). Even though the company may have some justification for this by citing issues of the fact that their products are filled with sophisticated software and applications and the fact that the products are of high quality, it remains a fact that there continues to be a large proportion of the consumer market, whose major selection criteria for any product is the price or cost of the product. This is a weakness to iPad, which may well come as an advantage and strength to the Kindle Fire. Stagnated market syndrome: Analysts have said that until the Apple Company comes to realize the importance and need to take advantage of what they call abandoned market, the company may hardly maximize its full financial potency (Introduction to Evaluation, n.d). Currently, Apple concentrates on North America, Asia and Europe as its major market destinations. To this end, there has been a stagnated market syndrome whereby virtually no new customers are being added. As the Kindle Fire roots for the African and Southern American markets, the stagnated market syndrome would continue to be a major disadvantage to Apple. Support services buyers of product want and need Technical specification support: Most consumers and customers of the Kindle Fire get hooked to the product not because they are people with technical expertise of the functioning and regulation of a tablet computer. Rather, they buy the products because they have fair knowledge of the advantages that owning a table computer comes with. To this end, there have often arisen situations where buyers have needed technical specification support. In a recent survey, it was said that more than 56% of users of the Kindle Fire do not use up to 90% of the functioning and specifications of the product (Creswell, 2009). This is because they often lack knowledge of the total functionality of the product. It is to this end that the support service of the product should always be on the look out to give support to buyers on the technical specification of the product. It is worth noting that if careful technical specification support is given and users become more familiarized with the product, they appreciate the relevance and usefulness of the product better and always wish to be users of the product. Online purchasing support: There also remain a large proportion of the buyers whose major concerns with support on the product have had to do with how to make online purchases and online enquiries. As globalization makes the world a small village, people want to take advantage of computers and the power of the internet to make purchases from far and near without the need to travel. To this end, they would want to make purchases online and make other enquiries of ways of owning the product and having refunds. These same buyers would want to have a fair knowledge of the kind of requirements that they have to produce to qualify them to make purchases. Moreover, online purchasing support comes with support on assurances for guarantee that purchases that are made without face to face interactions would be secured and warranted. Again, the support service ought to see this as an advantage for offering credible service to buyers and subsequently winning the hearts of the customers to the company as a company they can trust for reliability. Access to application support: after successfully purchasing products of the Kindle Fire from sellers, customers most seek support and enquiries about how they can upload various applications unto the tablet and how they can operate these applications. It would be noted that the beauty of using tablet computers as against other forms of mobile devices is the ability of the tablet computers to handle various forms of applications. But because it is not all the applications that the tablet computer can handle that are uploaded directly unto the tablet at the time of purchasing, customers often seek support as to how they can upload applications. Still on the applications, there are a good number of customers who would also want support as to the kind of applications that are compatible with the device and those that are not. As support service agents, giving support to these customers to enhance the outlook and operations of their devices should be a means of appreciating the need for making them receive the best of services and enhancing the totality of performance of the Kindle Fire (Creswell, 2009). Use of social media in marketing product The use of social media networks in marketing the Kindle Fire comes with several advantages and some few disadvantages. It would be noted that the use of social media network is fast becoming the order of the day in the total use of the internet. Today, it is virtually unthinkable to reason that any other component of internet use could overcome the social media in terms of interactivity, socialization, access and usage. It is not surprising therefore that a social media network site like Facebook remains one of the most visited sites on the internet. In terms of marketing, the Kindle Fire benefits and suffers in a couple of ways as discussed below. Strength as in cheap publicity: One major advantage that is associated with the use of social media in modern marketing of the Kindle Fire has to do with the fact that it allows for a cheaper option to doing marketing. This is because apart from the internet charges that a person may pay in accessing or using social media networks, it is virtually free to use social media to promote one’s products. Even in cases where specialized advertisements may be placed, it is still on record that the fees or amounts that patrons are often required, to pay for getting their adverts running on social media pages remain one of the cheapest in the world (Porter, 2010). Strength as in wider coverage: What is more, because the enactment of social media is influenced by the power of the internet, social media allows for the widest coverage that any person at all could get on his or her product, including the Kindle Fire. Taking comparative study between using social media to other forms of marketing and publicity like newspapers, it would be noted that most newspapers are confined to small readership scope. To this end, only a few people are impacted with newspaper marketing. The same is true for radio and television advertisements but with internet based marketing such as the use of social media, one cannot predict the vastness and extent to which the advertisement may travel. Strength as in interactivity: Another aspect of using social media that comes with so much advantage for marketing the Kindle Fire has to do with the fact that the social media makes marketing and promotion interactive. Most often than not, prospective users have questions that they would want to raise about a product. But other forms of advertisements such as the use of television, radio and newspapers exclude an interactive segment where patrons can ask questions after viewing a particular advertisement. But with a social media advert, it is always possible that viewers would post their questions and comments and get prompt feedback from host of the adverts. This is of course a major way of carrying out customer support to customers, whiles combining marketing. Weakness as in proliferation of information: Having discussed all the positive aspects, it can be said that the use of social media could also have a weakness of the proliferation of false information. It is for example not possible to track down on a customer who would persistently want to post false information about one’s product just because the person belongs to an opposing side. As marketers benefit from the luxury of cheap marketing and accessible publicity, they would also want to look at ways of fighting this common menace. REFERENCE LIST Creswell, J. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). New York: Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications Introduction to Evaluation.(n.d.).Social Research Methods. Retrieved August 16, 2012, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/intreval.phpS Porter, M. E. (2000). Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. New York: The Free Press. Prosser, L. A., & Wittenberg, E. (2007). Do Risk Attitudes Differ Across Domains and Respondent Types. Medical Decision Making, 27(3), 281-287. Schut, F. T., & Hassink, W. H. J. Managed competition and consumer price sensitivity in social health insurance. Journal of Health Economics, 21(6), 2002. 1009-1029. Read More