Strategic Marketing Plan for Apple- iPhone4 - Assignment Example

Strategic Marketing Plan / Apple ( iPhone4 ) Executive Summary (150) This analysis has focused on the essential market objectives of Apple in its quest to increase its market scope through incorporation of the older demographics in Australia. A situational analysis has provided the hints for new market objectives which are analysed in details. The current market analysis provides the fundamental goals of the new objective. The market objective determined in this case is the introduction of a new iPhone to the market. The new iPhones will have business oriented features and hence lure the older demographic which the company has not yet captured. A comprehensive market positioning strategy has also been discussed based on the target market, a complete market mix cover which essentially forms the basis of competitor positioning response. The rationale for the competitor response analysis is to prevent market failure due to poor anticipation of the competitor’s counter actions. In response to this, an effective contingency plan has been identified in order to effectively respond to the competitors reactions as the product is being launched in the market. An effective market plan that entails, organizational preparedness, pilot taste and final market launch has been outlined in order to act as a benchmark for the company to utilize. Identification of potential barriers to the implementation process also provides an insight on problems that the company should anticipate inhibiting market failure. Table of Contents Executive Summary (150) i Fundamentals of plan model (200) iii Strategic Marketing objective iv Current market analysis v Strategic Marketing Plan vi Core Strategy vi Competitive Market Positioning Strategy vi Market Mix strategy viii Consideration of competitor response on positioning x Contingency plans for competitor response xi Implementation plan xii Preparing the organization xii Pilot test xiii Final preparation for launch xiv Potential barriers to implementation xiv Conclusion xv References xv Appendix xviii Personal Situation analysis xviii Introduction Because of the increased competition in the current market place, it is necessary for any company to ensure that its marker is constantly analysed for gap identification and potential market opportunities or threats. Poor anticipation of threats and opportunities could lead to market failure and hence failure of the company as well. Market changes is particularly enormous in the technology field, this is because of the ever increasing innovations and progress of technology. All the companies in the technology field are thus required to constantly improve their products in order to meet the ever demanding customer expectations. Apple has been successful in its market objective so far, it relies on its effective Research and Development department(R& D) and efficient distribution channel that are widespread. The company also enjoys a large market share of its exceptional products such as iPads, iPods and the current iPhone4. This analysis focuses on the SWOT analysis case study in order to realize new and essential marker objectives that Apple should develop in order to increase its grasp in the market by increasing the older demographic niche. Essential aspects covered in this analysis includes the strategic objective, strategic market plan, competitive positioning, competitor analysis and response and implementation plan together with potential barriers. Fundamentals of plan model (200) Apple’s mission is to bring the best computing experience to its consumers to every individual in the world. Apple has managed to take computing to another level with its innovative and excellent products since its inception in late 1970’s. The purposes and objectives of the company have been achieved through the focus and charisma of its CEO Steve Jobs and its team of dedicated employees coupled with an effective and innovative Research and Development department(R& D) (Skiba, 2008). Since its inception, the objectives of the company have significantly changed with the global changes of business needs and technological changes. It has now shifted its focus to the phone industry with multiple of innovative products such as iPad, iPhones and iPods. The current product that is still hot in the market is its iPhone4 which takes mobile experience to a new level with its innovative feature such as iTunes music, fast internet access and 5-megapixel camera among others (Reed-Woodard, 2010, February 12). The company however needs to re-think its market objectives in order to increase its market scope to a demographic of ages above 25 years of age. As proposed in this paper the introducing new iPhone with business suite features will make the company venture into a new market segment that it has not yet exploited. Strategic Marketing objective There are several aspects of the company that are of interest to this analysis because they present a potential for a new market opportunity. The strengths of the company like its efficient manufacturing and distribution channel is making the sales of iPhones soar in the market as compared to its competitors. The features of the iPhone4 have no equal in the current market. The 5 megapixel, the retina resolution with up to 960 by 640, dual-mic noise suppression, expandable memory capacity up to 32 GB coupled with video editing and photo editing features have made iPhone4 more attractive to the youth of ages 18 to 25 (Harris, 2009). These features of the iPhone4 have earned it an increased market share in Australia over the past two years. There is however other strategic market opportunities that the company should optimize in order to increase its sales even further. One of them is reducing the price of its products to strategically less than what is currently being sold in the market; this can be achieved by reducing the price from $299 to $289 for the 32GB expandable iPhone4. Expanding to other markets is also another option that Apple should implement in order to secure unexploited markets like developing countries given the developing telephony infrastructure that currently supports 3G in several countries. The third and most important strategic market objective that Apple should consider is increasing the features of the current iPhone4 to accommodate more business features that fit demographics of 30 years and above. The rationale for the importance of this market objective is because, it is applicable to the existing market share and can be carried to other market share and fit both younger and the older generation of people. The preferred market objective that this analysis will target is the creation of office suite features and other business feature in order to increase the market scope of iPhones. This is because the current iPhones concentrate on a specific demographic (18-25 years) (McKiernan, 2010). Current market analysis The main customers of Apple’s iPhone4 in Australian currently are the youth of ages 18-25. This demographic have a preference to buying stylish phones and iPhone4 embodies a stylish design that is attractable to the youth (Tuunanen, 2010). Since the launch of Apple in the mid 2010, its success has soared in Australia mainly because of its features that many youth in the country prefer phones with feature that iPhone4 and its predecessor’s delivers. The iPhone4 being a 3G enabled handset enables young people to access internet through (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM evolution) EDGE or (High Speed Data Personal Assistant)HSDPA networks and it has a capability of multimedia messaging making it a must item to buy for the young in Sydney. The iPhones market in 2009 quarter to 2010 was about 10 % and it increased to 40.3 % this was a tremendous increase in market share and it thus commanded a larger market share in Australia by 2010. Its competitor Nokia in the same quarter experienced a considerable drop in market share from 66.6% to 45.2 %. Currently in 2011, iPhone has a dominant market share despite the presence of Google Android phone which is also popular among the Aussies (Haubenreich, 2008). The potential market option for Apple iPhone is the incorporating the demographic age of 35-5 0 years in Australia. The rationale for this is because other Smartphone companies are optimizing on office or business suite features that iPhone has not concentrated in. More business suite is required for iPhone 4 in order to outsmart its competitors in the market. The major strength of the Apple is its efficient manufacturing and distribution mechanism, it is has been reported that iPhones manufacturing is as fast as its sales in the market and this is one of the Apples strong point in the market. The vision of the Apple founder Steve Jobs and his charisma is also another strong point that the company needs to optimize in its tenure in order to increase the sales revenues of Apple. Strategic Marketing Plan Core Strategy The core strategy of Apple has been based on customer focus approach with an aim of delivering market oriented products that meets and even exceeds the expectations of the market. It also has an efficient market distribution channel which ensures that the rate of manufacturing is almost as par with the rate of market demand. With these resources, Apple is in a position to expand its customer focus and concentre on the proposed features in order to incorporate and even wider demographic to its products. Apple has the resources and capabilities adequate to ensure that it delivers business suit in new Smartphone’s. Competitive Market Positioning Strategy As a primary requirement for an effective marketing strategy, positioning of the new product is an essential consideration and Apple will have to find ways of positioning the product better in its market in order to minimize competitors’ effects. Since the target market for the new market objective which is to include a wider scope of demographic consideration, the position of the new product must be well defined in the following ways. The initial and fundamental way of ensuring that the desired demographic is captured is through an effective integration of the new features with the current features of the iPhone4 in order to incorporate the desired age group which is the target market(Lanza, 2010). Market Mix strategy Product The product will thus have integrated features that suites an business office phone, some of the essential features that will be considered includes, mails (synchronization of mails) such as yahoo and Gmail. Synchronization of contacts in office outlook, ability to use all the office features such as document viewers and editors like Ms Word, Ms Excel, Ms Access, Ms Publisher, Ms power point among others, essential file readers like adobe and its editor will also suite a business phone. Other features includes the ability to automatically back-up all the phone data and forward them to online to back them up in case the phone gets lost. The phone should then be able to automatically erase itself and thus preventing leakage of any essential personal information (Martinez, 2009). Latitudes, maps and position locators and directors should also be integrated into the new product. Ability to act to receive a wireless connection and be in a position to pair with devices like a PC is an important feature in the new product that will enable easy in business sense. Another essential aspect is the ability of the phone to act as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can tether with any device with Wi-Fi capability and thus create a group work or a WLAN. The last aspect that the product should have is long life battery in order to minimize the inconvenience of power given the many features of the phone. These are the essential features that should be added to iPhones in order to accommodate an older demographic. Apple as a company has the ability and the resources to design and manufacture a phone that meets and even exceed these features. Its R & D is a clear market leader in Europe and even worldwide through its compelling and quality products that it has managed to manufacture over the past years since its launch as one of the computer pioneer company. Pricing This is an essential factor because other Smartphone companies will take advantage of the high pricing of iPhones. The essential factors in this case is to ensure that the pricing is at par with other phones like Nokia and HTC windows phone 7 that has the features of a business oriented and data oriented Smartphone. Just like for the case of iPhone4 which was priced at $299 in Australia for the 32 GB expandable, such a psychological and competitive pricing should be used for the new business oriented Smartphone in order to capture the market ahead of the other competitors (Bar-Gill, 2009). Placement This is another essential requirement for the new business oriented phone; in essence being at the right place at the right time is an important factor. Apple has the ability to ensure that this is accomplished and that it is at the right place in its market niche given that this is an essential aspect of increasing purchase chances. Given that Apple is well focused in terms of distribution channel, it should thus optimize this strength to ensure that the new phone which is market oriented is introduced into the market and immediately pick up on sales the way in which iPhone4 was able to pick on its market. Promotion In order for the new product to be successful, promotion of the product is essential because its promotion will create anticipation even before the product is launched in the market. Apple has the capabilities and the resources of ensuring that this is achieved. For instance, if it optimizes on its brand strength to create anticipation as soon as the product is launched, it will sweep through the market and earn it a considerable market share. From an historical point of view, Apple has been dominant in terms of placement. As an example its movies products made an appearance of 10 to 30 % of the movies that became the number one in the boss office. More so, the BrandChannel that has been noted since 2001 to 2010 revealed that 112 of 334 films that features as number one in the box office in America focused on Apple products( Gordon, 2008). This promotional campaign has lifted the status of Apple as a brand in its US, European and Australian market. Given these Apple’s advantages, it is much easier to create and anticipation of the new business suite phone that targets and older demographic. Consideration of competitor response on positioning Based on the market positioning that the new product has assumed, there is a higher likelihood of competitors producing an equally superior product or even a better integrated Smartphone that will aim at decreasing the market surge of the new business suite iPhone. It is anticipated that the competitors will produce a product with similar features and with lower prices. As an example, Google Android phone already have a version of Smartphone that has many of the capabilities that the new iPhone wants to launch (Godwin-Jones, 2008). It will thus be easier for the company to increase the features of the product and lower the cost to let say $200 in Australian market. This will be much affordable and thus significantly impair the market scope of the new iPhone (McKiernan, 2010). Upon the start of the new iPhone promotion, the competitor will get time to structure their counter action. It is anticipated that they will mainly concentrate on the weaknesses of the phone given the information and the samples that will be released into the market during the campaign period. They will also assess the financial implication of the new phone to the company and consider the strengths and the weaknesses of the company before deciding on their course of action. The leading factors that are likely to motivate the competitors are the pricing of the new product and the features of the new product and specifically the weaknesses of the new product as it will create a suitable ground for counter attack. It also expected the competitors may merge in order to produce an even higher quality product that consist and even exceeds the features of the iPhone being launched. Contingency plans for competitor response As true in physics that in every actions there must be an equal but opposite reaction. Apple should be in a position to respond to competitors opposing actions in order to avoid a premature market failure. Given these competitor response expectations, it is essential for Apple to create a counter market plan. The counter plan will be based on anticipation of competitors in the market. The initial counter action if other competitors develop the same phone or enhance the already available Smartphone’s such as HTC windows phone 7 and Google Android Apple should optimize on the company’s superior marketing strategies, distribution strategies given that it is the leader in terms of its distribution efficiency. This counter action is actually optimization of the company’s strengths and thus neutralizes the anticipated actions of the competitors (Miller, 2008). If the competitors manage to convince the market through their superior products, other aspects of consumer behaviour such as loyalty to brand image, guarantees for a longer period if they buy the products and creation of more compatibility with third parties will strengthen the new products grasp in the market. As Clay (2009) states the R & D should also be well instructed to consider the features of the competitor’s products and be able to critically and quickly determine its strengths and weaknesses. The marketing department should then focus on the competitor’s weaknesses while marketing the new product while neutralizing its strengths through its brand image and its superior marketing schemes. If the competing companies decide to merge and focus their resources towards marketing and production of quality products, Apple should structure its move by also focusing on its strong financial status, its effective distribution and marketing system (Ferrazzi, 2002, April 23). Mergers with other companies which like Microsoft should be considered in order to enhance the perception of the product because of the superior Microsoft image in the computing world. Microsoft will also provide a strong base of software development since it is the most widely used Software Company in both computers and developing Smartphone (McKlernan, 2010). This will also be an important step as it will increase the existing Apples software competency. All these counter strategies must be consciously and systematically considered in order to avoid another counter attack. Optimizing on the market niche by increasing manufacturing and distribution will shoot sales higher and hence reduce casualties of competitor response. Supplying variety of the same product will also help not only in increasing sales but also in creating customer loyalty. As advised by Baker (2008) Apple should thus act with greater assurance in order to effectively neutralize the competitor’s response. Implementation plan Preparing the organization This stage will involve the convergence of all the stakeholders, the management and the marketing department. This stage will be focused on strategising better ways of pulling up all the resources, formulating launching of the new product and brainstorming all the possible challenges that the implementation plan will consist (Baker, 2008). Some fundamental considerations in this phase are market segment identity, the rationale for the selected market segment which is Australian in this case and the desired exchanges. The other element of discussion in this stage will the marketing strategies that will be adopted for use when entering the market, these will includes, how to penetrate the market, develop the market, service and program development and diversification (Reed-Woodard, 2010, February 12). Target group will also be identified and promotional strategies that target them carefully evaluated at this stage. Lastly in order to ensure that the progress is well monitored, the marketing department will be mandated the task of delivering a progress report in a timely manner which also measures the outcome of the development (Ashok, 2006). Pilot test The rationale for the pilot taste is to establish the loopholes in the marketing plan. This will be done by the delegated marketing team that will ensure that all the spheres of the plan are tested to find out their effectiveness before a complete launch of the plan is put in place. A pilot test will concentrate on the core marketing plan strategies in order to minimize errors while at the same time establish the adjustments necessary in order to ensure that the process works efficiently (Drummond, 2007). In essence, one will be in a position to realise the strengths and the weaknesses by evaluating the major elements of the plan and selective and effective performance metrics. This test will enable the marketing department to minimize errors and align all important factors in order to achieve the market objective. Final preparation for launch The final launch will then follow the pilot test; this will be the mandate of the marketing department of Apple in Australia. This phase will require finalization of the fundamental set of systems and necessary structures required for a successful implementation process. The important variables established in the pilot test will came in handy at this point since the implementation process requires accurate and effective process that will ensure a successful implementation process. Given the Apple’s strong and effective distribution channel in Europe and Australia, the implementation process or the launch of the new product is thus expected to cause less challenges in the target Australian market niche (McDonald, 2007). Potential barriers to implementation The potential barriers to the implementation process are the cost of the implementation process. This may affect the product launch because of the expected market expenditure that cannot be fully accounted for. Competition can also easily alter the initial plan and hence increasing the cost of the implementation process (Tscherning, 2010). The loopholes that were not determined ion the pilot test will also be a potential barrier of the implementation process. Some foreseeable implementation barriers are foreign restriction that are usually influenced by political changes of the country, this has proven to be a major barrier in many countries and thus a potential barrier. Global financial recession especially after the Japan’s Tsunami can alter buyer’s behaviour and hence leading to low sales of the products perceived as unnecessary by the consumers. Conclusion This analysis has provides an analysis of Apples current market based on the case study and thereafter proposed new market objective that the company should undertake in order to increase its market presence in Australia. Since the demographic age that is above 30 years has not been attracted to iPhone because of its features that mainly target the youth. A new market objective has been derived from the market analysis and a business suite phone with the features of a business phone indentified as a suitable product to be introduced into the market. In order to accomplish this, the core strategy of the company has been clearly indentified. Competitive market positioning that focuses on the new product has also been indentified and discussed together with the target market, market mix consideration and a full analysis of competitor response. A contingency plan has also been established in order to neutralize the reactions of the competitors in the market. Lastly the implementation plan which includes organization preparedness, pilot test and final launch has been discussed based on the fundamental requirements of an effective market plan. References Ashok, R., &Marandi, E.(2006). CIM Coursebook 06/07 Strategic Marketing in Practice. Michigan, MA: Butterworth-Heineman. Baker, M. (2008). The Strategic Marketing Plan Audit. 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Technology Education Perspectives, 29(1), 21-26. Tscherning, H., & Mathiassen, L. (2010). Early Adoption of Mobile Devices-a Social Network Perspective. JITTA : Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, 11(1), 66-68. Tuunanen, T. (2010). Editorial: Value of Mobile Applications and Services for Users. JITTA: Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, 11, 1-4. Appendix Personal Situation analysis The potential market option for Apple iPhone is the incorporating the demographic age of 35-5 0 years in Australia. The rationale for this is because other Smartphone companies are optimizing on office or business suite features that iPhone has not concentrated in. More business suite is required for iPhone 4 in order to outsmart its competitors in the market. The major strength of the Apple is its efficient manufacturing and distribution mechanism, it is has been reported that iPhones manufacturing is as fast as its sales in the market and this is one of the Apples strong point in the market. The vision of the Apple founder Steve Jobs and his charisma is also another strong point that the company needs to optimize in its tenure in order to increase the sales revenues of Apple. Read More