Apple's Competitive Advantages - Essay Example

Marketing Discuss Apples history using no more than 150 words. Apple’s rise to prominence took place during the 1980; as time in which the personal computer was only beginning to be represented within the market. As such, Apple soon developed a prominent market share within this particular segment and went on to experience a rather high level of profitability during the 1980s and early 1990s. However, by 1996, poor strategy and product development, as well as the rapid growth of Microsoft and the PC market, left Apple nearly bankrupt. With Steve Jobs once again assuming leadership over the firm, a renewed level of profitability and growth was experience. As such, Jobs turned the focus of Apple towards producing and developing non-PC compliments and applications. This was so unbelievably effective that by 2010, over 60% of all of Apple’s revenue was derived from non-PC devices; such as the iPad and the wildly successful iPhone (Bland 58). 2- What, historically, have been Apples competitive advantages? Ultimately, the Apple brand has a litany of different competitive advantages. One of the first of these is with respect to the seamless level of integration that exists between the hardware and software that Apple provides to its consumers. Taking same song and/4 Microsoft as an example, it can quickly be seen that the designer of the hardware and the designer of the software are oftentimes two different entities; oftentimes creating a situation in which the level of integration between these two leaves something to be desired. However, due to the fact that iOS operates on a native platform utilizing hardware that was designed for no other function but to perform iOS, this represents a noted strength with respect to the degree and extent Apple continue to exert a competitive advantage on the market (Beech 47). Another noted competitive advantage is with respect to Apple’s youth and simplicity of use. Although it is true that competitors have come a long way in recent years in seeking to simplify and improve their interface, Apple has long represented an intuitive design that leaves hardly any room for confusion on the part of the user. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, it should be noted that Apple’s sleek and appealing design is one of the competitive advantages that has driven the firm to the level of success that had experienced over the past decade. Ultimately, if it were not for the fact that Apple’s products were sleek, appealing, and even “sexy”, it is doubtful that the company could experience anywhere near the degree of success that it has currently enjoy. Finally, another competitive advantage that Apple has been able to leverage over the past several years is with respect to the ease and integration of connectivity between their devices. Whereas it is true that firms such as Samsung and Microsoft have recently begun to catch up with respect to the degree in which different devices can “communicate with one another” and share information, Apple designed the iOS, for iPad, iMac, and iPhone so that they would seamlessly share and sink information that one device for another represented on an individual level. 3- Analyze the personal computer industry. Are the dynamic favorable or problematic for Apple? In terms of favorable dynamics or problematic dynamics for Apple with respect to the personal computer industry, it is the view of this particular analyst that the dynamics are unfavorable and problematic for Apple in the immediate future. The underlying reason for this has to do with the fact that firms such as Microsoft and Samsung, not to mention Google, have rapidly caught up with the innovations and “unique” factor that Apple once represented. Both in terms of sleekness of design and form and functionality, the market is currently flooded with personal computer offerings that mimic those which prompted Apple to such an early runaway level of success. Ultimately, this mimicry does not in and of itself spell the end of Apple’s reign of dominance. However, it does encourage the individual to recognize that in less Apple innovates and produces new and exciting design the immediate future, the ability of the firm to continue to exist and draw high levels of profitability is severely in question. 4- Discuss Apples brand elements. Support your answer with figures, pictures and examples. Brand elements are overall proposal or promise that an organization or a company makes to the consumer. The brand can be perceived as a personality, product, and a set of values that are put in a position to occupy the customers mind. Brand identity element is thus all that an organization or a company wants its product brand to be considered as, and differentiated from other products or brands. Apple has a plied the use of different brand elements to market itself, and this include: the brand name; the name apple is a sweet fruit that is liked by many people, therefore using such a name means that its products are as good as apple. As an allusive brand name, the company is associated with making products of very high quality using the latest technologies, creativity and imagination. The company has unique logo and symbol. The logo appears like a bitten apple, showing how its product is of high quality and should be used by everyone. In fact, when one sees a little Apple logo, he immediately recognizes that it is the logo of Apples Company. It is used in its entire product globally and has proven very effective to an extent that the company does not put their trademark (Lammertse 801). . Figure 1.0 A cursory review of the Apple brand reveals the fact that certain brand elements help to define Apples overall success. The first of these is with regard to the brand element of fashion that is so strongly marketed to potential consumers. Evidence of this can of course be seen with regard to the sleek and trendy/fashionably minded stores that Apple exhibits throughout the world. One of these such stores is exhibited in figure below. Figure 2.0 Another element of Apple’s fashionable marketing has to do with the way in which the product itself is presented to the customer (Lammertse 797). Packing on Apple’s devices is not merely meant as a means of delivering the product from the manufacturer to the end consumer, it is meant to evoke and emotional response and be indicative of an experience in and of itself. Evidence of this can be seen below with respect to the presentational element that is involved in the un-packaging process of any Apple product. Figure 2.0 illustrates this dynamic below. Figure 3.0 The Apple Company uses celebrities and other characters to endorse their brand. Characters have been used for a long time to link consumers with their brand awareness. These characters help to communicate the major products of the brand through advertising channels. For example Apple use of U2 and Coldplay in their commercials to push customers to buy iPods Another brand element is with respect to the color schemes that Apple has chosen to present to the market (Lusensky 58). Up until the past few months, Apple products were almost all represented in either black, white, or grey; seeking to illustrate a futuristic and fashionable approach to the consumer. Although this element has changed somewhat recently, Apple was first responsible for the focus on grayscale devices and the gradual shift away from more aggressive color schemes that other manufactures were integrating with. 5- Suggest a new brand element for Apple that may enhance its image in the global market. Apple Company should employ the use of jingles. A jingle is usually musical and is used by companies in their products so that people can easily recall the jingle and associate it with the product. The music can be monophonic or polyphonic and it should be unique and nice to hear. Therefore Apple Company should employ the use of jingles to market their products and make them unique at the long run. Several companies making phones and other software’s have employed the use of jingles. A pointing example is Microsoft Company, Nokia Company and Samsung Company. It is good to note that these companies use a monophonic type of jingle; therefore, Apple should be unique and introduce a lively polyphonic type of jingle. In addition, that shall make its brand have a leap ahead of the competitors Up until this point in time, Apple products have been defined with respect to their fashion, therefore, their functionality, and unfortunately there high price. However, as emerging markets exist throughout South America, Africa, and parts of Asia, it cannot be the sole tactic of the Apple brand to continue to promote high price, oftentimes exorbitantly expensive products to these potential consumers. As such, a brand element that Apple should consider is with respect to engaging alternative designs and functionality that could market to individuals within poorer regions. An example of this can be seen with respect to the way in which, a formally dynamic and powerful mobile handset provider, has sought to utilize emerging markets as a means of boosting its overall financial performance. Ultimately, have lost extraordinarily high levels of market share with respect to the smart phone industry and was considered by many as defunct and soon-to-be bankrupt. However, by realizing that a niche market existed with respect to low-cost handset that could be readily produced and consumed by an estimated 2.5 billion individuals around the world, noted experienced a rebirth in profitability. Although it is true that Apple is not currently in a crisis that found itself in the early 2000, it can nonetheless utilize this lesson as a means of expanding its overall target product offerings and seeking to engage with additional consumers outside wealthy nations. Despite the fact that Apple has continuously used to package its products in a sleek white package, the idea can be change to use different cool and appealing colors. The colors should be linked to certain products and brands. For example, the tablets should have a specific color of package as well as the iPods having another different color. This will make customers to identify the type of brand products that is in the package without reading the contents. Similarly, different people have different affection and feelings to different colors, therefore, having only one color may not go well with other customers who would have wished to buy a product packed in the color they love. Such a move will mostly aim to increase the customer’s satisfaction and improve sales of different types of products (Lusensky 67). . 6- Assess Apples brand resonance. During this technological age, if a company offers a product that is much problem-solving, superior and even life changing, the truth is that it will get several customers that love that company and its products. However, there is a twist when newer, more stylish and better products hit the market with less cost and have several features. The question that arises is how to keep customers on your brand while there are other much attractive options available. The trick to overcome such a kind of competition is to establish brand resonance. Brand resonance therefore involves introduction of la brand into the social sphere allowing it real consumer interaction (Lammertse 821). If properly done, then people will feel like the brand relates to them as individuals, and shall share the values that they possess then create an emotional bond with the product. Apple has by so far tried to make their products to be in a unique way compared to other competing brands. Very few companies globally have achieved the level of brand resonance and success that Apple is proud to have. Globally, Apple consumers are very loyal to the company’s products and always ready to spread the company news hype of any new products, and defend the company when any of its launch or feature goes awry. The company attained this level through combination of uncompromised values and free human communication with customers. Once brand resonance has been achieved, vigilant is always necessary to maintain the top position in the minds of customers who use the brand. Likewise, Apple’s brand resonance was, up until the past several months, all but ironclad. What is meant by this has to do with the fact that Apple had a large percentage of market share and was outperforming nearly each other competitor in the market. However, Apple’s brand residence has slowly begun to decline recently; due in part to the fact that very few new designs and/or products are further, decreasing brand residence can be partially blamed on the fact that Apple has out its new product offerings so long that individuals are slowly losing interest. For instance, the differential between an iPhone three and iPhone 4 and the differential between iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 outcomes of negligible that brand residence has come to be decreased while at the same time Apple’s competitors are continually releasing new products and innovations to the market. It should not be understood that Apple’s brand residence is all but dead. Instead, Apple continues to exhibit a diehard group of users that will purchase their products and continue to support the brand into the near future. However, as a means of engaging new Apple fanatics that will be loyal to the brand and interested in future products, development and extensive research and development must take place keep Apple on par with the other competitors that have already been mentioned within this analysis. 7- What are the prospects for Apples TV? And what actions do you suggest to increase the brand awareness and brand image of Apple in general and Apples TV in particular. The prospects for Apple TV are ultimately quite poor. The underlying reason for this has to do with the fact that other players dominate streaming media that currently exist within the market. Furthermore, Apple’s hardware and software approach to stream media create exorbitantly high expense for an individual that would seek to engage with their products and services. When one has the option to utilize Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Google TV, and a litany of others, is obvious why Apple TV is currently struggling and why the brand awareness is failing (Foroohar 20). As a means of increasing the brand awareness and brand image of Apple in general, it is necessary for the firm to focus extensive energies upon research, development, and designing new products and new approaches that can benefit existing consumer needs. Samsung and Microsoft have done an exceptional job of catching up with Apple and have performed so well with respect to research and development. It is Apple’s turn to reinvest some of the many billions in revenue function of staying relevant. Further, it should also be understood that it is necessary for Apple to show a legitimate strong differentials between the products that it chooses to release. Years ago, and Apple product release was something that individuals look forward to with great anticipation. However, as has been reference previously, the overall lack of differentiation between subsequent product releases as cause individuals to lose interest. However, much of this inference can be regained if Apple seeks to improve the changes and drastically modify the products that it seeks to promote for the consumer market. In terms of Apple TV, prescriptions for brand image and awareness that might be provided, it is the further view of this particular author that Apple TV might need to be phased out so that the Apple firm can focus on relevant sectors that could potentially affect higher growth and market share/profitability in the near/immediate future. Several people are still not aware on the existence of the Apple TV, and those who are aware there is poor and low response on buying the TV. A study conducted in U.K showed that only one in 10 adults currently own TV with smart features, and only 15% have plan to buy one come next year. The data can give us an insight on how slow the Apple TV is catching up and therefore this warrant an extensive marketing of the smart TV globally. Apple should step up its effort of marketing the smart TV; this can be achieved by extensively engaging the different stakeholders and bringing some of the unique features that other smart TV does not have. Apple is known to reach out its customers by providing them with stylish, sleek and unique features; it should us this brand resonance to quickly market of the new TV. The company should also produce different sizes of the TV sets; this will provide a wide variety of the products and leaving the customer to choose the one they want. Currently the Apple TV are 42 inch and they are expensive to buy, it therefore follows that many customers even if interested shall not get interested to know more of its features. Apple can as well get a medias publicity to market the TV, this can be achieved by restricting its sale so that many global media company get interested to know the reason why the TV sale is restricted to just few people, a method they applied in marketing the iPhone. Such method will provide free and global marketing of the smart TV globally. Works Cited Beech, Hannah, and Chengcheng Jiang. "The Cult Of Apple." Time 180.1 (2012): 44-49. Academic Search Complete.Web. 9 July 2014. Bland, Mike. "Finding More Than One Worm In The Apple." Communications Of The ACM 57.7 (2014): 58-64. Academic Search Complete.Web. 9 July 2014. Foroohar, Rana. "The Original Wolf Of Wall Street." Time 182.25 (2013): 20. Academic Search Complete.Web. 9 July 2014. Lammertse, Matthew. "Apple Vs. Android: Global Software Patentability And The Mobile Os Wars." Brooklyn Journal Of International Law 39.2 (2014): 793-827. Academic Search Complete.Web. 9 July 2014. Lusensky, Max Jakob."Did You Bite The Magic Apple?." Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche 8.1 (2014): 57-70. Academic Search Complete.Web. 9 July 2014. Read More