Competitive silence or personalization of products, the case of Apple Computer - Essay Example

The scenario has now changed as most managers understand the need to maintain a strategic grip on the information a company receives and disseminates. They can then use this information in not only managing the internal processes but also control external factors such as share price and market perceptions. There is a very important link between the trends of information leaked and corporate success. The main factor for the success of any business is sales. This is because the primary aim of doing business for every organization is to earn a profit.

There are two primary ways to increase over all monetary value of profit. The first way is to increase the gross profit margin on the products being offered in the market. This is the more difficult way for some products and at the end of the day it comes down to strategy. The product life cycle for example is major contributor to the decision of choosing the strategy of trying to increase gross margin. Products in the mature stage of their life cycle for example require extensive marketing efforts to increase gross margins.

On the other hand products in introductory stage find it much easier to charge higher gross margins. The bulk of products being offered in the market are in mature stage of their product life cycle, so the question arises as how to increase their profits? Even if extensive marketing efforts are undertaken they would although drive up sales but are much costly themselves. The alternative strategy is increasing the amount of sales rather than gross profit margin. There are many different ways of increasing sales none of which are easy to implement.

Moreover most methods are replicable e.g. IBM moves its focus from Asia to cheaper markets of Africa. If we look at this example it would be very easy for competitors of IBM such as DELL and Compaq to target Africa as well. The point here is that driving up sales in a mature market