International Marketing of the Apple Company - Case Study Example

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING NAME: INSTITUTION OF AFFILLIATION: Introduction International marketing is the trading of goods and services between different countries to satisfy the needs of individual customers or organization (Lanier, 2008). People carrying out marketing should understand that different countries have different customers with different needs, and therefore, there should be a good marketing plan. An example of global product is apple products. Apple has a very big potential in the business world, however, there are factors that hinder its success. These factors can be handled only by proper planning. Economic environment Due to availability of different products on the world business, people have shifted from quality to products which are less expensive. The Apple Company which is popular because of its quality and brand has been wrongly placed due to its high pricing position and this makes their competitors to produce goods that are of low quality and less expensive. Expanding of the economy of the country increases the labour wages, which leads to high buying power of the innovative apple products. The economic condition affects the business process of the Apple products. During inflation the price of the products decreases and this affects the Apple business. Political environment Global warming is one of the major problems to the potential environment. Several ways have been used to reduce the global warming. The companies should manufacture products that have low carbon dioxide emission so as to control the environment. Countries with good policies and low manufacturing costs tend to attract more investors than countries with poor policies (Kelly, 2011).Good government policies favours the investors ,example China has good policies that favour investors. That is why Apple manufactures their products in China. Political environment plays a vital role in the decision making of the company. Apple has opened many retail stores in major cities of the countries they operate in and this has reduced the operating costs of the company. Bad relationship between countries, wars and terrorism has a negative impact towards the Apple Company. Cultural and social environment The increasing demand for the wireless gadgets makes Apple to be on the forefront of the wireless transition, and this is because of the portability and accessibility. Portable gadgets like tablet computer and smart phones allows the users to perform several functions through the internet. The technology of wireless has been spread worldwide by the Apple. The lifestyle of the people is one of the social factors that affect the Apple marketing process. Today having an Apple product you are associated with being the modern individual. Apple experiences cultural and social differences in the countries they operate and this comes in form of language and attitude. The language makes the communication to be very difficult hence making the Apples business process very difficult (Kane, 2010). Technological environment Apple has made a fundamental change of the analogue music system through the creation of the iPod. Through the research the Apple came up with the iPhone. The world mobile technology is 3G but Apple is ahead of all other companies by launching the 4G.This makes the Apple to be a leader in the innovation. Apple believes that research is one of the main reasons for its success. Competitor Technology has made the electronic industry to be ahead of other manufacturing industries. Most people nowadays prefer the buying of the device rather than the performance. The providing of the devices at a lower price may not satisfy the demands of the users. Provides such as Dell, Samsung and Hp provides customers with various options for different prices. Apple offers high quality products at a high price. The company’s competitors are the Microsoft, dell and Hewlett Packard. Apple has been very successful because of providing the desired customer satisfaction Supplier A supplier is a manufacturer who uses tools and labour to make things for sale. Apple suppliers produce the best inputs which is very trick to the competitors. All industries have buyers who have the great influence to the product manufactured. Each buyer has their own demands of the product needs. This makes the company to produce a variety of products to meet the demands of all their customers on the market. The customer has the influence on the quality, and price of the product to be manufactured. Every business has a problem of new entrants (Samuel, 2009). The computer field leads in the possibility of having new entrants. Apple has been stable because of its recognition and innovative technology. Apple maintains the high price of their products which makes it difficult for the new entrants. Threat of substitutes Many features and functionality of the computer has been replaced by the tablet or the Smartphone. Apple has introduced the iPhone and the iPad to satisfy the customers who are in search of the new technology. Apples highly innovative ideas and well-known brand makes the company to be competitive as compared to other companies. Apple has set all its strategies right to withstand the high position in the competitive environment. Apple avoids the usage of chemicals in the manufacturing of its products. The transportation of the products plays an important role in the emission of carbon dioxide (Thakkar, 2007). To reduce the carbon dioxide emission the Apple considers portable packaging which result in less combustion. Financial position The financial structure of Apple makes it to run the business efficiently without relying on the creditors. Apple picks their employees based on their innovative skills. It aims more on experienced professionals rather than by trainees. Apple motivates its employees by giving them high benefits. Distribution and promotion The Apple company has many retail stores in major cities which helps distribute the products to the customer in the simplest ways instead of having the product to be shipped to main office which is in United States. This approach reduces the operating costs of the Apple Company. Apple plays a vital role in the employee satisfaction. The employees provide the full support to the company by providing their innovative skills. Technological advancement Apple believes that its success is due to its consecutive research and development. Apple spends huge money on research and development. Apple maintains a good relationship with the suppliers since it manufactures its product based on high quality and low costs. It spends its profit on research and development. The company also updates its new technology to the supplies in form of short courses. Apple has its manufacturing section in China. The goods are transferred to various countries from China rather bringing the goods to the head office which is in United States. This results in the reduction of the transportation costs and the storage costs. Apple uses its name as a brand to compete with other products. Apple brand has undergone various evolutions that still keep the initial promises it had to the customers. The Apple brand maintains simplicity and makes the life of people simple by removing the complexity. Apple has opened many retail shops in major cities around the world and this makes the distribution of the products to the customer in an easy way. Good marketing needs the willingness to reduce the sales volume. Apple has done this by dropping the most popular iPod to introduce the Nano. With the increasing technology the competition becomes tough and harder. Apple upgrades their products so as to outdo the competitors in an easy manner (Warren, 2013). Promotion of the Apple products Apple has had many advertisements that focus on revealing how the product is used and not concentrating on telling the customers about the product. Apple uses the print advertisement to promote the selling of their products. This is where the company’s products feature in the weekly magazines. Apple has promoted the iPod through the television. This is done by using well known artists featuring in television programs using the product, hence making the viewers to have a strong feeling of the product. Marketing Apple uses television to advertise for their products. Television advertisement is used by Apple as a marketing strategy where it compares its features and uses of the product to its competitive product. The Apple reveals the new product which acts as an indirect way of marketing the product. Apple provides warranty of the product to the customers for three months. The reason to why the Apple is on the top of other companies is because of their design standards .Apple has used the following principles to become the most known company in the world and with the most known brands. Apple understands the customer demands better than other manufacturing companies. Apple focuses to do good work for the things they decide to do. Apple makes products that are outstanding and that meet the customer needs. The employees of the Apple understand what the customers want and they are committed to meeting their demands. Apple spends more time on researching on customer. It then puts what customer wants into design and development of the product. Market selection Target markets for the Apple is mainly teenagers, because teenagers use products like iPod to socialise and listen to latest music. Apple also targets the university and college students because they use the iPod and Mac Book to study. Apple products are also useful to young kids. The apple products are useful to young kids because they are easy to use because of the quality of the touch screen. College students use the Apple products to keep their notes in an organised manner. Since the products are portable it makes it easy to walk around the College with devices as they use. The business people use the Apple gadgets to complete their work very fast and communicate with their customers in an efficient way. It also helps the business people to send documents in an easy way and in the organized manner. Apple products useful generally because of the everyday needs like making phone calls, browsing and camera .Also carrying of the small devices makes life easier for many people. The websites of the Apple allows the user to buy their products directly. Business opportunities for international markets pose risks which a company entering the international business should know. Apple employs very many strategies that make it successful. One of the strategies involves importing and exporting. Apple Company imports its parts from different regions so as to manufacture their own product. It only assembles a few of its products in United States but most of the products are manufactured and assembled in Japan, China and Taiwan Pricing of apple products The company maintains the price of the product that makes it popular. Apple gives small wholesale discounts on its products. The price maintenance approach is very important tool that the Apple Company uses .This strategy is important to Apple in a number of ways. First the company makes a lot of money on sales of the products. Apple sells more products than other retailer. The pricing approach that Apple Company uses is the price maintenance approach this approach makes the Apple products to stand out on the global markets. Conclusion and recommendation The Apple Company should make products that meet the requirement of the customer at the lowest cost. The company should purchase the foreign exchange so as to minimise the effect of inflation. The company should maintain their strategy of marketing in order to be the biggest company in the global world. The company should also maintain their pricing strategy so as to make their products unique on the global market. Reference Warren, J., (2013). Global Marketing management. Prentice hall publisher, London. Michael, R., (2009).International Marketing. Cengage learning publisher, UK. Samuel, C., (2010). International marketing research. Wiley publisher, Essex. Tong, H., & Taylor, R. J. (2008). Marketing lessons that will help shape the future. Journal of Marketing, 33 (2), 189‐196. Thakkar, M. 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