Assignment 1 - Apple's Marketing Mix

Task 1

Apple's Marketing Mix - the 7 P's...

Product

Wide and ever expanding range of products, used to create, communicate, inform and entertain.  

Apple iPhone New, 2017. Apple Products. [Online]
Available at: http://appleiphonenew.com/apple-products/#
[Accessed 05 08 2017].

Place

Apple’s own branded stores are well known and becoming commonplace around the world in the high streets and malls of major towns and cities. Apple currently have 498 stores in 22 countries.

Tryten, 2015. Apple Stores use Tryten to Secure Mac Minis. [Online]
Available at: https://www.tryten.co.uk/news/showcase/industries/apple-stores-use-tryten-to-secure-mac-minis/
[Accessed 05 08 2017]. 

Price

With the iPhone seen as the original smartphone, competitors can be seen as ‘followers’, with users prepared to pay a premium based on Apple’s position in the market.

Iyer, K., 2016. Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. Apple iPhone 7: Which one would be better?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.techworm.net/2016/01/samsung-galaxy-s7-vs-apple-iphone-7-which-one-is-better.html
[Accessed 07 08 2017].

Promotion

As a premium brand in the digital market, the expectation is for the brand to have high quality promotional material, not only through its digital channels, but in all aspects of its marketing. There should be no compromise on the quality of its brand presence.

Apple, 2017. Apple - iPhone. [Online]
Available at: https://www.apple.com/iphone/
[Accessed 07 08 2017].


People

Apple recruit only the best people excelling in their field, or showing the potential to.

polster2 / Apple, 2012. Apple's employee recruiting video. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9SK052cF3c
[Accessed 07 08 2017].

Physical Evidence

Although there are many Apple stores around the world, their style and branding is very consistent and instantly recognisable.

Bono, A., 2016. For Real Now: An Apple Store May Finally Be Opening in Buenos Aires. [Online]
Available at: http://www.thebubble.com/apple-store-buenos-aires/
[Accessed 07 08 2017].

Process

Apple is renowned for its Keynote presentations to launch new products. This provides the press, and the rest of the watching world, with an informative introduction to new products.

Ewan, 2014. Here’s the primer for Apple’s super-hot keynote (we can but hope). [Online]
Available at: http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2014/09/heres-the-primer-for-apple-keynote.html
[Accessed 07 08 2017].

Task 2

As the phrase goes, “A company is only as good as its people”. With Apple, this is certainly the case.  From top to bottom, the company employs only the best people in their chosen field, or those showing the potential to climb to the top. (polster2 / Apple, 2012)

This strive for excellence helps the company deliver market leading products and bring them to the market with marketing campaigns and branding that is the envy and benchmark of all other businesses.

Going back to the company’s roots, co-founder, Steve Jobs, was the driving force behind Apple’s success. Along with Apple’s other co-founder, Steve Wozniak, Jobs is recognised as one of the pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970’s and 1980’s. (Wikipedia, 2017)

Despite Wozniak being credited for Apple’s first ever computer in 1976, the Apple I, it is Jobs that is credited as the main lynchpin of Apple’s modern day success. After a few hit-and-miss products, Jobs was forced out of Apple following a power struggle in 1985. (Wikipedia, 2017)

Having moved on to found a computer platform development company, NeXT, Jobs also became involved in the visual effects industry when he invested in a computer graphics division of Lucasfilm in 1986, which was to become Pixar. (Wikipedia, 2017)

NeXT would then merge with Apple in 1997 and a few months later Jobs became the CEO of his former company, and is responsible for much of Apple’s current product line-up, having had the vision to design products with large cultural ramifications, including the iMac, iTunes and iTunes Store, Apple Store, iPod, iPhone, App Store and iPad. (Wikipedia, 2017)

This has formed the basis for what Apple is today, and its staff are not only ‘top of their game’, but together having the quest to keep driving Apple forward in memory of Steve Jobs, who sadly passed away following a pancreatic tumor in 2011.

While the ‘brains’ of the operations are locked away in the R&D department of Apple’s new hi-tech HQ based in ‘Silicon Valley’ - Cupertino, California – the customer facing staff are those employed in the current 498 Apple Stores around the world.

With Apple’s products demonstrating the latest trends and technology, the brand is considered creative, cool and trendy, and therefore appeals to many of the younger generation, who walk the streets listening to music on their iPhone, chill-out playing games on their iPad, or cutting together a video on their MacBook Pro.

It is therefore no surprise that there is a staff bias towards the younger generation when entering an Apple Store, not through age discrimination, but through the knowledge of such products that they are growing up with, and the cool and trendy kudos of working for a cool and trendy brand such as Apple.

The look and feel of the stores support these brand values, down to the ‘college campus’ style uniform.  The relaxed and informal outfit of a primary coloured t-shirt, jeans and baseball boots resonates with a large part of Apple’s target audience, and allows the staff to be approachable and a great representation of the brand.

As already touched upon, Apple Store staff are second to none when it comes to knowledge of the products. There is a general consumer confidence in not only the products, but also the customer service, and this is mainly credit to the ‘Genius Bar’ staff housed in each Apple Store, who seem able to deal with any hardware or software issue put in front of them.

Steve Jobs himself is quoted as once saying, “It’s not the tools you have faith in – tools are just tools – they work, or they don’t work. It’s the people you have faith in or not.” (Oyos, 2014)

When empowering staff, there are some other general rules for a motivated and happy workforce, and many can certainly be said of Apple.  Good customer service cannot be delivered through unhappy employees, and when you get the company culture right, everything else will follow, both of which I think are very true of Apple. (Oyos, 2014)

Apple are able to use the strengths of their people for great marketing effect. Their knowledge and ability, the processes they work to and the image they convey; the customer facing staff are some of the main touchpoints of the brand, and it is therefore a very important role they play in the marketing mix.

polster2 / Apple, 2012. Apple's employee recruiting video. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9SK052cF3c
[Accessed 07 08 2017].

Wikipedia, 2017. Wikipedia - Steve Jobs. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
[Accessed 09 08 2017].

Oyos, R., 2014. 10 Powerful Quotes from Industry Leaders that will Inspire You to Empower Your Employees. [Online]
Available at: http://transcosmos.co.uk/blog/10-quotes-employee-empowerment/
[Accessed 09 08 2017].