iphone

Apple uses marketing planning while producing new products for their current target markets. By having a marketing planning it helps Apple stay organised and make quick decisions. It also helps the brand meet their tasks and deadlines and it also helps them create everything.

Understanding customers:

Understanding customers is important for a business, this is because they are the people who are buying the products from a brand and they are the reason behind why a business becomes successful.

Apple understanding Customers:

Apple understands their customers by getting customer feedback and by getting customer feedback they get the opportunity to improve their products by releasing a new product or by updating their IOS. So by making changes on their products Apple understands their customers’ needs as they adapt to their needs and wants which attracts more new customers into their store. If Apple did not listen to the feedback and suggestions from the customers then the customers would not purchase their products which would create a big loss for the business as they wouldn’t be making any money if customers didn’t purchase their products. This is why it is important to understand the research from the market research so they would be making much more money as a company.

Understanding competitors:

Understanding competitors is also important for the business. This is so they can compete with their competitor’s price wise and software wise to make sure that they are the best company within the category which in this case is Apple.

Apple understanding their competitors:

Apple competes with brands like Samsung. Apple and Samsung both look at each other’s sales and the products that they launch. They both try to compete each other by having similar price ranges and getting out similar products. For example Apple and Samsung both have a smart watch. The Apple one is known as the ‘Apple Watch’ and the Samsung one is known as the ‘Samsung Gear S3’

Understanding market environment:

Understanding the market environment is also important as it would help businesses during the market research. During market research businesses have to analyse its external environments. A useful way to do this is by using a SWOT Analysis. This analysis observes the relationship between a business and as well as its marketing environment.

SWOT analysis stands for:

Strength: This refers to the advantages of the business and also the internal features of the business/organisation. This could be the location of the business or how well a business advertises their products.

Weakness: This refers to the disadvantages of the business and also the internal aspects of the business/organisation. This could be the amount of sales a business is making or the poor quality of products and services that a business have launched or produced.

Opportunities: This focuses on the developments of an organisation. This could include the business moving into a new market segments or new territories for a service or product.

Threats: This refers to the competitors which may be affecting a certain business as they may not be doing well with selling their products as their competitors are taking away their customers as they may have good price ranges and good offers available for customers. Threats refers to the damage in a business or organisation. This could include taxation which may be introduced on a product or service or a competitor has a new product or service.

Apples Market Environment:

Apple SWOT analysis:

Apple’s Strengths– Apple has launched many different products such as IPhone, IPad, IPod, MacBook and even an Apple watch ‘IWatch’ they have given many opportunities for their customers as there are a variety of different products for the customers to purchase. The have come up with everything a person may want and desire.

Apple is one of the most valued brand in the world. Their brand value in 2016 was $228.46 billion whereas now in 2017 the brand value is $234.67 billion. This shows that their brand value has increased by 6.21 % within one year.

Whenever Apple always designs its products they focus on their consumers. By getting feedback from them they are always relating back to their consumers and how they’d prefer their new products. This is why Apple has become successful as they are always thinking about their customers and are always caring about their happiness. Customers like to be satisfied with products which Apple certainly does do as they get a lot of customers purchasing from them.

Apple has also branded and advertised their company well. Apple is one of the most well-known brand world-wide which shows that they have caught everyone’s attention and have advertised their brand very well. If Apple didn’t advertise themselves properly then they wouldn’t be as successful and popular as they are currently.

Apple’s Weakness– One of Apples weakness is that their prices for their phones are much more expensive than their competitor Samsung. Apples latest IPhone 8 64GB is £699.00 and the IPhone 8 Plus 64GB is £799.00. Whereas the Samsung’s latest phone which is the Samsung S8 64GB is £669.00 and Samsung S8+ 64 GB is £779.00. This shows that the Samsung’s phone price ranges are cheaper and much more affordable than Apple, this is a weakness for Apple as not everyone likes to spend a lot of money which makes them step back when it comes to purchasing an IPhone.

Apple’s Opportunities– since Apple has become very popular and successful over the years the company now want to expand even more by launching their own car line. They think that they are almost ready to start something completely new which will get new customers into their company. This will attract people who are interested in cars and who are also looking into buying a new car. Apple now is hooked on ‘Apple Car’ which is supposed to be launching in 2020. Just how Apple are doing well by selling Iphones, IPad, IPod and MacBook’s Apple also thinks that they will do well or are hoping to do well when launching their own car line.

Apple’s Threats– Apples laptop MacBook has competition between Dell, Sony and Lenovo. This is because they are all very successful and popular laptop companies which are used and purchased by many different consumers. Apple does try their best to keep ahead of the game by launching different MacBook’s to get more customers as it is a popular laptop in terms of Apple but so does Dell, Sony and Lenovo. They all also get out new versions of their laptops just as Apple does with their MacBook’s. This is a threat for Apple because sometimes when they try to be ahead of the game other brands such as Dell, Sony and Lenovo end up being on the same level as Apple which makes it difficult for Apple to compete with them and be ahead.

This also goes for their IPhones as IPhones are the only phones which are from Apple whereas Samsung, HTC and Sony are from Android. Apple tries their best to stay unique and beat Android by coming out with new software’s but when Android see that Apple has come out with a new Software they also end up creating a similar and try to create a better software than Apple. This again is another threat to Apple as they want to compete with Android.