Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Chapter 4 in MKTG5 deals with the external marketing environment, social factors, demographic trends, growing ethnic markets, economic factors, technological factors, political and legal factors, and competitive factors.

Apple has been successful in these last years because of the fresh, imaginative way to think and do its business. Apple has a winning combination of exceptional products, great style and design, great strategy, innovative marketing, sleek and enticing communications. Basically they know how to grab hold of the external marketing environment, such as the target market. According to MKTG5 book target market is “a defined group most likely to buy a firm’s product.”Apples target market includes attracting upper and middle class people; mostly music enthusiasts and fans ages 12-35, also professionals in media and design. They want people that will pay more money for a better computer. Recent example is set by the reveal of new iPhone 5; Apple Inc. has sold over 5 million iPhone 5 Smartphone in the three days since it came out. For iPhone 5 people are willing to pay a premium price for it. Apple’s marketing environment tends to always follow popular technology. For example, as technological advancements take place in the world, so do Apple’s products.

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

According to the MKTG 5 book “Ethics are the moral principles or values that generally govern the conduct of an individual or a group.” In my opinion ethics are has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.

Apple Inc. is a large company that is why they need to maintain their image as a good ethical Social responsible. According to Apple they are dedicated to ensuring that working conditions in Apple’s supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible. But “Apple has been frequently cited as the poster child of companies partnering with factories in China that are engaged in unethical and inhumane labor practices”. According to “VentureBeat report” On February 8, 2012 about 250,000 customers signed a petition that why Apple is using exploitative conditions, low pay, dangerous working conditions, and worker suicides at Apple’s Chinese supplier Foxconn to assemble their products such as the new iPhone5. Petitioners asked Apple to make the iPhone 5 its first product produced under entirely ethical working conditions. Now in September 2012, in response, more than 200,000 members of the SumOfUs.org community took action and called for Apple to take responsibility for improving working conditions in its Chinese supply chain. However, Independent reports, found that working conditions continue to get worse. Their responsibility is not only for their employees but also for the consumers and the community. They need to keep the environment and the people safe.

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

 

According to the book, MKTG 5, Strategic planning can be defined as the "process of creating and maintaining a fit between the organization's objectives and resources and the evolving market opportunities," and a company's competitive advantage are the factors that cause customers to buy their products and not the competition's.

For any company marketing plan is very important. According to the book, MKTG 5, marketing plan is "a written document that acts as a guidebook of marketing activities for the marketing managers". Marketing plan includes, Situational Analysis, SWOT Analysis and Marketing Objectives.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has been a vital part of the company's strategic planning. Apple has been very successful in these last years because of the fresh, imaginative way to think and do its business: a winning combination of excellent products, great style and design, great strategy, innovative marketing, sleek and desirable communications. Apples strategic planning include successful marketing objective. The objectives of Apple Inc. are to maximize profit and expand their sales to customers who have not yet own any Apple’s products. And to be the dominant high-tech brand in the whole world. They also want create products that will be useful, manageable, sleek and that will appeal to consumers all over the world, with a special focus on developed countries like Canada and the US, Europe, and the populous Asian countries like China, Japan, India and South Korea.

A company’s competitive advantage is when a firm has an advantage over its competitors, allowing it to gain greater sales margins and retain more customers than its competition.

       i.          One competitive advantage of Apple is the multiple Products That Integrate as One. The iPhone is obviously unique on its own qualities, a touch-screen, app-based product that clearly has advantages over the clunker, more dated Blackberry made by Research in Motion.

     ii.          Secondly Apple is also set separately from its competition by its combination of hardware and software, by the content gate-keeper strategy embodied in iTunes, and by their successful retail strategy.

SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for Apple.

Strengths:

1. Apple is the founder of advanced and high-tech quality products like iPod, iPhone, Ipad and Mac.

2. It has an internationally recognized brand name.

3. Strong existence in education sector.

4. It gained large segment of devoted customers of “Apple culture”.

5. Apple has Strong Research & Development Department.

6. It retail stores provide the eye-catching products and experience of Apple’s software.

Weaknesses:

1. The new Apple TV just got a small upgrade, in the form of live video streaming for MLB and NBA games

2. The loss of Steve Jobs the founder of Apple.

3. Failure of two notable products namely Mac Mini Apple TV.

Opportunities:

1. New technologies and strategic deals offer opportunities for Apple.

2. Growing market of “Green” and energy efficient.

3. Good relationship through joint venture with other big companies’ pair to bring out new “successes”.

5. Growing demand of online music and other applications like cloud based services.

Threats:

1. Shares of Apple have increased over $100, or close to 25%, just in 2012 alone. Yet it’s only good enough to rank it 45th in the S&P 500.

2. Expensive products as compared to other competitors such as Dell, Nokia, Microsoft.

3. Competition in technology with other vast PC industries like Dell, HP, Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Android.

Ch. 1 - Overview of Marketing (Brief History and Mission Statement)

Mission statement 

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world. It is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPod.

    

History of Apple

Apple was established on April 1^st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. It is an American corporation that designs and manufactures computer hardware, software and other consumer electronics. The company is best known for their Macintosh personal computer line, Mac OS X, extremely loyal user-base, iTunes media application and the iPod personal music player. The company headquarters is in Cupertino, California, CEO and co-founder is Steve Jobs and the company boasts 284 retail locations spanning 10 different countries.

What is marketing?

Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. Marketing actions and strategies result in making products accessible that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that present those products.

According to the book MKTG 5, 2012 Student Edition, 5th Edition, chapter 1; the marketing definition is “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” The book also discusses the exchange of products and the conditions for exchanging. Furthermore it states that The Four Marketing Management, Philosophies; which includes production orientation, sales orientation, market orientation, and societal orientation.

Before acknowledging the correct definition of marketing, I assumed marketing was only involved with advertising. But now I found out that it is all to do with assessing the wants and satisfaction of customers, Design and managing product offerings, determining prices and pricing policies, developing distribution strategies, and communicate with present and potential customers. After reading MKTG 5, 2012 Student Edition, 5th Edition, chapter 1 I found out that, marketing is all processes from creation of a good to consumption of that good by consumers. Without marketing, consumers would not get goods or receive them in lower quality at a maximum price. Marketing is what makes companies work proficiently. Without marketing, few companies would expand or even continue operating.

The MKTG book also explains the difference between Sales Orientations and Market Orientations. Basically a sales Orientation is when business will focus much more of its energy on selling. Also according to the MKTG book, a sales orientation is how successfully a business can use the sales techniques to gain maximum profit. The examples of sales techniques will include; discounts, buy-one-get-one-free promotions, free website banners when a customer buys a print ad or other means of 
stimulating sales. On the other hand market orientation means a business 
tactic or philosophy that focuses on recognizing and meeting the specified 
or unseen needs or wants of customers.

As a customer I would prefer businesses to emphasis on market orientation.
Because I desire a product that hasa good quality, for example I selected 
the company Apple Inc, since it’s been providing me products that  has 
an excellent quality and meets all my needs with iPhone 4 or any other gadgets.