Channel and Pricing Strategies, and Environmental Issues - Essay Example

This paper illustrates that Apple Inc. is an iconic American consumer electronics company. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, California, USA. The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the year of 1976. The company specializes in manufacturing products like iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh computers and many more. The company has planned to launch Apple iDesk (a new product that is an iPad with the size of a desktop and can be mounted on a desk for a computer lab like setting).

The company has selected three cities (NYC, Tokyo, and Stanford, CA) to launch the product in the initial stage. Apple Inc. has selected three different colleges (New York Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Tokyo Institute of Technology) as a test market for iDesk. This channel may vary in length and number of stages involved in the whole process. The company can sell iDesk via online stores or customer can buy iDesk from authorized Apple retail stores. Apple has complete control over the retailers of authorized stores in terms of pricing, product availability and promotional support.

The company has more than 300 retail stores across the world. A majority (almost 70%) of the Apple Stores are located in the USA. The company has made the contractual agreement with few big players (like Wal-Mart, AT&T, and Best Buy) to distribute a product. The company preferred Joint venture and direct investment model to enter the international market. Organizations set a price of a product higher than any other competitor’s product and with this strategy, they try to indicate a quality of the product.

This is known as premium pricing policy. Apple Inc. has positioned itself as the marketer of quality products unique in design and applications. Customers are ready to pay the high price for products manufactured by the company. Apple should follow the premium pricing strategy for iDesk