Annual Report About Apple Company Analysis - Essay Example

? APPLE COMPANY Apple Company Apple Inc. is one of the largest technological companies in the world with the company’s products available in many parts of the world. The company has developed various approaches that ensure that the products are adopted by various users across the world. In line with this, the company focuses on a strategy that offers users the best experience when using a product in a way that ensures the consumer will buy other products associated with the company. Hence, the company focuses on enhancing the user experiences by providing differentiated products that are unique in comparison to what the competition offers the market. In order to provide differentiated and unique products, the company engages in innovation each year providing their consumers with products that use groundbreaking technology whose introduction to the market is backed by an effective marketing and advertisement strategy. Consequently, a combination of these approaches ensures that Apple Inc’s products become synonymous with cult-brands. Nonetheless, it is important to identify the objectives of the company in order to understand the marketing and advertisement strategy that the company uses to promote its products. Through providing innovative hardware, software, services, and peripherals, the company’s objective is to bring out the best user experiences by providing differentiated and unique products in terms of design and the operating systems, which sets them apart from the competitors (Apple Inc. 2012). For this reason, the innovation the company engages in provides consumers with new products and services that are superior in quality while being easy to use, provide seamless integration, and provide innovative designs. In effect, innovation has helped the company gain competitive advantage in the industry since its strategic approach ensures that the company produces differentiated products that provide it with a competitive edge whose innovations are not as unique and differentiated as Apple products. In the contemporary society, it is evident that information and technological innovations keep on evolving with various companies frequently producing new product offering. For this reason, companies operating in this sector face stiff competition due to these new products and services on offer. Nonetheless, a good marketing strategy ensures that Apple Inc. is able to compete effectively in the competitive business environment while also maintaining a competitive edge over its competitors. In order to effectively position the company to consumers in this competitive sector, the company has focused their marketing strategy by providing products with appealing designs, focused their product offering, and provided designs and products that are easy to use for their consumers (McDonald and Keegan 2002). Other than offering differentiated products, Apple Inc. practice market segmentation by dividing their marketing offering into five distinct segments. These segments are the consumer segment, Small and Medium-sized Business segment, education segment, enterprise segment, and government segment with each market segment provided with unique products from the company that meet the needs and preferences of consumers in each segment (Apple Inc. 2012). Under the education segment, the company offers products to consumers in educational institutions with the products on offer providing them with the requisite knowledge and set of skills that enhance their learning. In addition, the company offers special pricing for consumers in this category. On the other hand, government agencies also offer various products and services that specifically meet their needs and objectives of offering services to the public in a seamless approach. Similarly, other segments of the markets that the company offers are unique to the company seeking to provide products meant for each market segment with these products meeting the specific needs of the customers under each segment. Other than market segmentation as a strategy, the company engages in various marketing and advertising strategies. In line with this, the company utilizes indirect and direct distribution channels of its products that include the use of physical stores and online stores, third-parties such as cell phone companies, retailers, resellers, and direct sales to clients (Apple Inc. 2012). Despite engaging these different channels, the company ensures that using knowledgeable channels and salespeople, who are able to convey and explain the functionalities of the products while demonstrating its use and advantages over the competitors, is essential ensuring that the company obtained a competitive advantage over its competitors. This strategy is also crucial in ensuring that the company achieved its objective of ensuring customer loyalty, which is a competitive advantage over its competitors since customers tend to purchase products from brands that they are loyal to (Schneiders 2011). Creative campaigns for Apple products have become a common occurrence every time that the company is launching a new product to the market. The objective of these campaigns is to depict Apple products as products that promote the overall image of the consumer by providing them with an identity that improves their reputation (Drewniany and Jewler 2010). In addition, the advertisement campaigns that the company runs resonate well with the global market with the company only making changes that that reflect on the cultural differences and tastes of the target market in the world (Drewniany and Jewler 2010). Nonetheless, the campaigns depict the products offered by Apple as ones that improve the personality of an individual and their general appearance. From the logo, colours, taglines, and the design of the products, the company’s campaigns combine these elements as a whole to promote the products as unique and differentiated. From the foregoing, it is evident that Apple Inc. has been able to obtain a competitive edge in the highly competitive industry of its operations. With an objective of providing the best user experiences to its clients, the company has been to use various marketing and advertisement strategies that has helped the company to position its products in a favourable position to the clients. In this case, the company has continuously offered the market products that are unique and differentiated. In addition, the company engages various marketing strategies that offer either direct or indirect distribution channels, although the company ensures that the salespeople are aware and knowledgeable of the functionality of the products that they sell to the customers. In this case, a demonstration of the operation of the product ensures that the company maintains a competitive edge over its competitors. Bibliography List. Apple Inc. 2012. Annual Report for the fiscal year ended September, 2012. [online] Available at: [Accessed on 6 May 2013]. Drewniany, B. L. and Jewler, A. J. 2010. Creative Strategy in Advertising. 10th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning. McDonald, M H. B. and Keegan, W. J. 2002. Marketing Plans that Work. Woburn: Butterworth-Heinemann. Schneiders, S. 2011. Apple's Secret Of Success - Traditional Marketing Vs. Cult Marketing. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag GhbH. Read More