Ch. 16 -Integrated Marketing Communications

According to MKTG 5 promotion is “communication by marketers that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers of a product in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response.”  Apple uses promotional and advertising tactics to capture the attention, interest, and desire of the consumer. Apple captures our mind and interest through innovating and sleek descriptions of their products on Apple's official website as well as keynotes and other publication. For example, just prior to the highly anticipated IPhone 5 being release, it received a great amount of advertising that captured many potential customers attention.  

Our interest and desire is fulfilled by the "new features" on the IPhone 5 that is appealing to our needs and wants.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

According to MKTG 5 a “product is everything both favorable and unfavorable, that a person receives in an exchange.” When it comes to Apples products they are very precise. They have variety of products available for consumers. Apple focuses on the needs of their consumers and their wants that they cannot get from other products. Apple has created a well developed brand name, which is very favorable for its products.

Apple can be classified as a business product, consumer product and specialty product. Apples business products include iPhone in Business, iPad in Business and Mac in Business. It has designed iPhone for business us, iPhone is the business standard with powerful out-of-the-box features and apps. Apple provides apps for business use, which can be used on iPhone, ipad, and Mac. An Apple product can be called a shopping product, because it is "more expensive than a convenience product and found in few stores," however Apple products benefit from the status of specialty products.

Apple also offers a warranty. When you buy Apple's products, they have an option for consumers to get warranty. The warranty prices ranges. It also can be free. For example, if you buy an iPhone Apple will provide a year free of warranty. But for instance if your iPhone screen gets cracked, in order to get a new screen it would cost close to the amount that you would originally pay for an iPhone with warranty. Apple has a 24 hours genius bar for all the technical help.  Apple’s website provides all the detail for the products warranty is available. Below is the link to Apples hardware warranties:

http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/

Branding:

A company's brand name is often its most valuable asset. The benefits to Apple as company for this superior branding strategy are huge. It provides a fantastic platform for future new products. Consumers continuously seek out their new products and view them as the next generation with a cool image and technological dominance; it will also provide them with superior pricing power over the long term.  Apple is dynamically protecting and expanding the trademarks around the iPhone. The link below provides all the trademarks used by Apple:

 http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html

Packaging:

Apple has set standards even for packaging; its packaging is extremely impressive anyone who's purchased anything from Apple in the last decade knows how beautiful an experience unboxing their products is. In fact, there's a small team at Apple who take the subject very seriously.

Ch. 18 - Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

According to MKTG 5 “Sales Promotion is marketing communication activities, other than advertising, personal selling, and public relations, in which a short-term incentives motivates consumers or members of the distribution channel to purchase a good or service immediately, either by lowering the price or by adding value.”

Apple uses promotional techniques using special short-term method to convince members of a target market to react or accept their products. Examples of certain methods Apple uses for sales promotions are money back guarantees, lower purchase price and rebates. “A Rebate is a cash refund given for the purchase of a product during a specific period.”

Through special consumer promotions, Apple has its defined tests in which they target directly. For example during the month of July to September 1st, Apples promotes their Mac book laptops for college students. When students show their school I.D, they pay for a Mac book and get any free iPod they desire and a free printer. This is a wonderful way to convince students to use Apple goods. If they feel comfortable with the product, they are probably more likely to become faithful customers in the future.  According to www.apple.com “Buy a Mac for college and get $100 to spend on apps. Or buy an iPod and get $50 for apps.”