How Marketing Strategy Impacts Corporate Performance - Case Study Example

It is evidently clear from the discussion that at the beginning of the 1980s, Apple was a dominant player in the US PC market, enjoying increase portions of the sector and yielding remarkable returns on the initial investment committed by the two founders. In the mid-1990s Apple experienced an overall decline attributed predominantly to the increased competition (especially from IBM) and which resulted in the company’s focus on niche markets, losing therefore both its competitiveness and its position form the market leadership.

In the early 2000s, Apple managed to pave its way back to the competitive arena by the introduction of its new innovative digital music player iPod as well as revolutions of its initial Mac conceptions, and a number of repositioning strategies which ultimately placed Apple in the rivalry scheme. Currently, Apple has managed to significantly improve its entire performance and experience growth in both profits and net earnings. In 2006, the company reported that its profits for the fourth quarter rose by 27% compared to the previous year and its revenues by 32% respectively.

In the PC market, Apple holds the fourth position (below Dell, HP and Gateway) with a share of 6.1%, while in the Digital music player (with its iPod products and peripherals), the company maintains the leading position controlling approximately 77% of the market (followed by SanDisk and Microsoft). With regards to the return on investment, as the case study suggests Apple experiences a growing ROI on a year to year basis. The mission of the company, as clearly stated in the case study, is to “bring the best personal computing and music experience to the customers through innovative hardware, software, peripherals, services and Internet offerings”.

Particularly, Apple aims to become a leading corporation that can offer integrated and complete solutions to its customers with regards to personal computers as well as digital portable devices.