Marketing Tips for Sale of iPhone SE from Apple - Business Plan Example

Keywords: Marketing Strategy, Marketing Mix, iPhone, Apple, Marketing plan

Executive Summary

The electronic industry and more so the phone industry is a rather competitive industry that has many players who can get ahead of other by the use of innovation and invention. The release of the iPhone SE was followed by other releases that meant to ensure that they compete with Apple for the market share. The first marketing objective for Apple is to be able to gain at least 30% of the global market share through the sale of the iPhone SE. To increase the general sales of the iPhone products by 50% by the year end. The market will be segmented into geographical. Behavioral and demographic. The marketing strategy will follow both the Ansoff’s and Porters generic strategies. The marketing mix will involve a detailed explanation of the 7Ps and how they will be used. Monthly checks will be done to ensure that the plan follows the specifications of the budget.

Current Market Situation

The electronic industry and more so the phone industry is a rather competitive industry that has many players who can get ahead of other by the use of innovation and inventions (Ernest and O`Connor 2014). As stated earlier, the marketing plan is for the sale Apple’s iPhone SE that is new in the market. The highest obstacle that the sale of the phone has to bypass is the competition that it faces from the other phone companies’ products. According to Wee (2016), the moment that Apple released the iPhone SE, Samsung also came up with a rival the Samsung S7 Galaxy Mini. The above reaction just shows how the market is shaped up when it comes to the phone industry and the electronic world at large. The fact that the product is a multinational franchise means that it will be in areas with the different political environment. However, the political situation at the moment in areas where Apple operates is favorable.

The economic front is tricky, as there are signs that may imply that there will be a replica of the great recession in the future. On the same note, customers may not be willing to spend more and as such, the marketing plan has to put the change into considerations. The current social situation makes the iPhone SE the better phone to use. The phone is a structure in a way that it appeals to the way the world is shaped up socially with the emergence of the social network and cloud technology. On the same note, the phone uses technology that is modern to rhyme with the constant development of technology. The environment factor should also be considered because twice or thrice a year the phone companies come up with new phones that are better than the previous. The situation may lead to dumping which is a concern for the environment.

Objectives of the Marketing Plan

Marketing Objectives

• The first marketing objective for Apple is to be able to gain at least 30% of the global market share through the sale of the iPhone SE. As stated earlier, the phone industry is competitive, and it also has a lot of sellers as such, gaining a 30% market share is a huge milestone for the company.
• To increase the general sales of the iPhone products by 50% by the year end. Correct marketing plan and skills will put Apple at the top of the list which will increase the sales. The target for the company is 50%.
• The company also aims to increase customer satisfaction and repeat customers service as the customer develop loyalty to the Apple products. The company seeks to expand its customer relations.

Communication Objectives

• Communication is a vital process in ensuring an effective marketing strategy (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 2011). On that regard, the organisation aims to ensure that it increases awareness about the abilities of the iPhone SE by at least 20%.
• To position the iPhone SE as the best phone of 2016
• To announce the previous sales of the previous iPhone versions and create awareness while building on the curiosity and needs of the consumers.
• To increase awareness about the friendly nature of the user’s interface of the new phone as compared to the previous versions.

The Target Market

The target market will determine if the marketing plan will be effective as it gives the platform for the marketing plan to take place and the eventual realization of the goals of marketing (Malhotra et al. 2004). The electronic world and more so in the phone industry the market can be segmented in different ways. Segments can be done in the form of geographical segments. Here, the brand and the price are differentiated in different regions. As stated earlier, Apple is a global franchise and as such, it transacts in more than one country. On that note, it may decide to charge different prices by the different regions due to one reason or the other. Demographics can also divide the phone market. Areas with a high population may have to charge more since the supply may not be enough. On the same note, the areas will receive more products compared to the other areas. Lastly, there is an element of the market that are loyal and do not need convincing they will buy as long as it is an Apple product. Then there is an element that needs convincing. Apple will need to separate the market regarding the behavior of the consumers.

By the objectives of the marketing plan, the behavioral segment, and the demographic segment will be targeted the most followed by the geographical segment. The main reason is that the latter can also fall into the categories of the former segments. The product will be positioned with the favorable segments having to pay high prices but receiving trendy phones. The others will receive the most traditional specs of the phones but at lower prices. The positional map is illustrated below:

Marketing Strategies

Strategies adopted from the Porters generic model

The generic porter strategy takes advantage of three aspects of strategy that are vital they are, the segmentation strategy, the cost leadership strategy and the differentiation strategy (Tanwar 2013). Market segmentation has been dealt with in the above section. As such the following section will look into cost leadership and the differentiation strategy. First and foremost, cost leadership is all about producing high-quality products in high volumes. The concept is best suited for products that have a high customer base. Apple can be able to use this marketing strategy since, as much as the industry has many sellers, it also boast of many buyers, hence a large customers base. Through the sale of the iPhone SE, Apple can produce many phones in expectation of high sales considering the large market customer base. One thing that Apple has been able to enjoy the years is brand loyalty and a considerable market share. As such, it will be easy for the organisation to be able to deal with the cost leadership strategy. In marketing the success of a product’s sales rewards may depend on how it is differentiated from the products of the competitors (Kumar et al. 2002). The porter’s generic model puts more emphasis on differentiation as a method of ensuring effective marketing strategy. Apple will also benefit from using the strategy as it will be easy for customers to identify the iPhone SE and as such, buy the commodity.

Strategies Adopted from the Ansoff Growth Strategies

The organisation will also use the Ansoff model of growth and marketing to ensure that the marketing plan goes according to the plan. The first aspect of Ansoff’s model is market penetration. There are many ways to ensure that an organisation penetrates further in the market through the sale of its products. The iPhone SE is an updated iPhone series as such; it may bring more customers from the other phone companies. Through the capture of new customers, Apple will be able to penetrate further into the market (Verganti 2013). The increase in sales will help in the achievement of the first objective of the marketing plan. The second aspect of the Ansoff’s model is essential for the marketing plan at hand. It entails the development and growth of new products (Al-Azzam et al. 2016). As stated earlier, the marketing strategy is a new product in the market from Apple known as iPhone SE. Through the development of new products, an organisation can gain more sales. The gain of more sales will be in line with one of the objectives of the marketing strategy. As such, the marketing plan will follow the model of Ansoff in ensuring that it develops the new product to increase the sales revenue of the organisation.

The organisation to ensure that it meets the majority of the objectives of the marketing plan will look for new markets to sell the product. The new markets may be looked at regarding geographical locations, brand loyalty, or regarding demographics. Through the capture of new markets, the firm will ensure that it grows, and it also meets the objectives of the marketing plan. Lastly, according to the position map above, the firm also seeks to capture those who like the more traditional phone with less trendy specifications. As such, the company will be going against the norm of the industry of trendy characteristics that are associated with the new line of phones. Through promotion, the company will make that communication available to the customers who will help in attaining some of the communication goals of the marketing strategy.

Marketing Programmes

The marketing programme will entail the marketing mix that the organisation will take in its marketing strategy;

Product – The product is the first category of the 7Ps of marketing. According to Boonpradub (2015), the product aspect of the marketing mix deals with the brand of the products, what differentiates the product from the rest and if it a new product what will be done to develop the product. In our case, the iPhone SE is a new product in the market that is easily differentiated from competitor products due to its branding nature. Through the use of advertisement and new innovative technique, the product will be able to reach as many customers as possible.

Price – The price of a commodity will determine the sales revenue and automatically the number of sales that a seller will make out of the product. In fact, the demand for a product varies inversely with the price with other factors constant (Larashati and Hudrasya 2012). As such, for effective marketing of a product, the organisation must be aware of the effect of the price they set for the product on the sales of the product. As stated earlier, Apple will charge different prices for the different categories of the iPhone SE. Additionally, it will ensure that it charges relatively lower prices compared to the main competitors.

Place – The place aspect of the marketing mix will not be a major problem as the distributions channel for the previous versions will be followed with new channels being formed for new geographical markets. Apple will just ensure they follow the principle by Khanchandani and Kumar (2014) of ensuring that the goods should be at the right place at the right time.

Promotion – This may be argued out to be the main part of the marketing mix and the marketing strategy at large. It sets out the success rate or failure rate of the marketing strategy (Vaseduvan and Kumar 2014). The promotion will take a pull strategy as we aim to ensure that the customers of Apple are pulled (Magloff, 2014) in to buy due to our extensive promotional skills.

Advertising

We will use advertisement as it is the main form of ensuring that the firm can reach a majority of its users. According to Freeman and Kennewick (2015), it is easy to reach the end users of the products by the use of advertisement. As such, the best part of promotion will be dedicated to the use of the different forms of advertisement to create awareness on the part of the customers and also to bring in new customers. Most of the advertisement will, however, be centered mostly on the areas of the market that are not yet captured by Apple so as to ensure that the marketing plan meets its objectives.

Social media

The social media will be used for advertisement, communication and as a medium of relaying more information about the iPhone SE. The phone has been designed in a way to make social media communication easy and fun. On that note, we will ensure that customers are aware of that aspect of the new phone from Apple. Since Apple is a multinational, some of the personal selling of the phone will also be done via the internet through the many social media pages that Apple has to make sure that it creates a great communication experience with the consumers. Information about sponsorships and public relations will also be contained in the social media platform.

Sales promotion

Sales promotion is the main catalyst of ensuring that customers can buy commodities (Bagdare and Jain 2013). We will ensure that we create different teams in the different countries of operations to do extensive sales promotions for the iPhone SE.

Services

There will be an extensive use of manpower in ensuring that the product can meet the different objectives that have been set. Lovelock et al. (2014), argues out that, the marketing plan without the necessary people to make things works is obsolete. As such we will have to recruit and train people on the uses and the main specifications of the phones as they go to perform sales promotion and advertisements. Detailed processes are needed to ensure that our plan can meet its objectives. First and foremost, the advertisement and sales promotion together with social media must be in sync to achieve maximum profits. There is a lot of physical evidence to show the sales of Apple products in the last few years and how it has expanded plus the customer satisfaction rate (See Appendix).

Resources and Budgets

As stated in the above section there will be a need for manpower and as such, there will need to ensure that there is extensive recruitment for the sales promoters and trainers. The company will have to spend a considerable amount to ensure that they can deal with the issue of recruitment of the desired personnel for sales promotions. On the same note, new products may receive a lot of inquiries as such; Apple will have to ensure they add more on their customer care department regarding personnel to ensure that the inquiries are dealt with as soon as they arise. There will be cost for hiring and training them effectively. Since Apple is global, it will have to outsource the employees so as to increase efficiency. Lastly, for the company to no more about effective market segmentation and new markets, it will have to contract effective researchers who will be able to bring in the needed information.

Projected Budget for the Marketing Plan for 2016

Item

Amount $

Amount $

Sales Projections

1,000,000

Research and Studies

80,000

Advertisement

110,000

Sales promotion recruitment and training

100,000

Customer cares recruitment and training

70,000

Distributions

70,000

(430,000)

Surplus

570,000

Implementation, Monitoring, and Control

After the marketing plan has started working, there are different methods that will be used to ensure that the marketing plan is effective. Hair et al. (2008), views the implementation plan as the most crucial stage of a marketing plan. In our case, we will ensure that we put monthly checks to see the advancement of the plan and the percentage at which the plan has met the objectives that were set for it in the period that it has been in running. Through monthly checks, we will be able to state if the marketing plan is going according to plan and if there are aspects of the plan that need to be changed. On that note, we have suggested to the management to put aside a 10% of the value of the marketing plan aside for contingencies in case some aspects of the plans need to be changed. The monthly checks will not only be about how the plan is fairing on and the objectives, but also how much gain the plan has brought into the organisation. In that then profitability nature of the strategy will be measured on a monthly basis. Advertisement and sales promotions will be measured by their effect on the orders and sales. The order will determine how much the promotional tools are effective and if something should be done to make them more effective.