Marketing in Practice 3

Marketing in Practice Project

About apple

1. Wants are the form human needs takes as they are shaped by culture and individual personality.

Human needs are states of felt deprivation. They include basic physical needs for food, clothing, warmth, and safety; social needs for belonging and affection;

and individual needs for knowledge and safe-expression.

So ipad as a product in order to fulfill the customers’ wants, having a lot of functions:

 IPad 2 mobility.

Apple has been very focused on iPad 2 mobility. iPad2 are thinner than the old version is about 33%, but also much lighter than the old version of the iPad, although these differences is not obvious, but enough to help Apple sell more of these products. Tablet PC with the mobility, is able to carry the equipment around lightly, more lightly if the device smaller, of course, the better, Apple seems to understand this and respect the iPad 2 under the foot work, as all this functions show ipad2 features.  The entertainment factor

At today's event, Apple spent a long time to introduce iPad 2 focus on entertainment features included. One major feature is that today's iPad 2 Tablet PC to support HDMI (high-definition output line) output function, which can output the user some video content to other devices on a higher resolution, such as TV sets. In addition, iPad 2 of the new operating system also has the AirPlay iOS 4.3 feature that allows users to enter the built-in slide show function. In addition, iPad 2 will also have iMovie and Garage Band functions, which they can help users edit video and audio content, so we will easily see, iPad 2 is already higher than the old version has been greatly improved.  The battery life

If the Tablet PC's battery life will soon be consumed dry, then this is certainly not a good thing. The longer battery life, the Tablet PC will more attractive. Apple's well known that, according to Apple's side said the new iPad 2 tablet computer battery can achieve 10 hours duration, while the standby time to about a month or even longer. All in all, iPad 2 will be an effective platform, consumers will be happy to hear this news.

 Built-in 3G capabilities can be connected to the network AT & T and

Verizon

IPad first one of the main problem is that it only allows users to connect AT & T's wireless network, if users want to connect to Verizon's network, it may still need to install additional products, such as MiFi 2200 Hotspot and so on. But the good news is that the new iPad 2 has been able to allow users to connect this product to AT & T's 3G network or Verizon's 3G networks is not need to install other add-on products, which may also be a lot of consumers’ wants iPad 2.

2. Describe the segment of market for iPad in China.

Through market segmentation, companies divide large, heterogeneous markets into smaller segments that can be reached more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their unique needs. So the segments of ipad in china are as follows:  Segmenting consumer markets in china Income(a month)RMB Students’ iPad Under$2000 Fashion seek for Lighter user myself Business’ iPad Loyal’ iPad $2000~$4000 $4000 and over ambition authoritarian Medium user Heavy user Psychographics User rates  Segmenting business markets in china

Business markets also use some additional variables, such as customer characteristics purchasing approaches, situational factors, and personal characteristics. And ipads’ business markets are as follows: a) Corporations,

For large corporate customers, the company offers a lot services, which including travel management services, and so on. b) Small business customers

For small business customers, the company offers many services, which including special usage rewards, and so on

3. Marketing intermediaries help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its products to final buyers; they include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries.

 Resellers are distribution firms help the company to stock and move goods

from their points of origin to their destinations.

 Physical distribution firms help the company to stock and move goods from

their points of origins to their destinations.

 Marketing services agencies are the marketing research firms, advertising

agencies, media firms, and marketing consulting firms that help the company target and promote its products to the right markets.

 Financial intermediaries include banks, credits companies, insurance

companies, and other businesses that help finance transactions or insure against the risks associated with the buying and selling of goods.

(b) A product’s position is the way the product is defined by consumers on

important attributes-the place the product occupies in consumers’ minds relatives to competing products.

The low price strategy of IPad

1400

Unit

Price 1000 (Dollars)

600

200

Performance

Orientation

Imac ipod touch

ipod classic

iphone

iPad

4. Demographic is the study of human population in terms of size, density,

location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other statistics. The Demographic environment is of major interest to marketers because it involves people, and people make up markets.

Population environment，which including population growth, population age structure, ethnic composition, educational level, family structure and

demographic migration. The case from iPad can be seen that the greatest impact on ipad’s marketing is the age composition of the population and the education level of population.

 From the population age structure, Apple is taking the product innovation

and its products to high performance, elegant design of the main. This is the object of many young people to follow, young people like innovation, like the good-looking designs. Ipad’s product innovation, fashion marketing strategy precisely fit the shape of a young consumer psychology. The elderly are less demanding for the appearance and performance requirements for the computer is not high. Therefore, ipad marketing in China mainly targeted at young people.

 Also from the level of education, the major consumer groups of ipad are

the above white-collar workers or college students. Especially the senior staffs of the computer’s requirements are relatively high. They not only require a computer's performance, but also for the appearance of computers and match their status with the company. Ipad marketing strategy is that high-end line. While Apple's market share of Chinese students is not high, but most students are quite popular on the ipad. This part of the college students are ipad potential consumers, so this part of the market is needed for ipad.

5. The technological environment is perhaps the most dramatic force now

shaping our destiny. Technology has released such wonders as antibiotics, robotic surgery, miniaturized electronics, laptop computer, and the internet. So the there are some technological environment factors that affect the Product development of iPad as follows:

 The Mac OS systems are proprietary systems, under normal

circumstances can not be installed on a normal PC operating system. Apple MAC not only produced most of the hardware, even the MAC operating systems are used in the development of its own. Mac's operating system is Mac OS X, the UNIX-based core system enhances the system stability, performance and responsiveness. It through the full symmetric multi-processing advantages of a dual-processor, providing unparalleled 2D, 3D and multimedia graphics performance and a wide range of font support and integration of PDA (personal digital processing) functions.

 This technology is now Apple has a strong advantage. The current use of

ordinary PC, mostly developed by Microsoft WINDOWS or LINUX operating system, WINDOWS has a strong compatibility, LINUX humane of the graphical interface, and Mac OS operating system, both the advantages of both, such as compatibility with standard and aesthetic user interface, which makes Apple's Mac OS systems in the current technological environment is unique, has a strong competitive edge.  Apple computer technology the higher gold content, and rapid

technological innovation. However, the technology surrounding environment is constantly changing, these changes include accelerating changes in technology, opportunities for technological change, increased investment in research and development of regulations and technical innovations continue to increase. For example, the April 19, Lenovo Group announced yesterday that its business area from a traditional PC to the mobile Internet development. This is the largest in recent years, Lenovo Group, a business transformation, founder of Lenovo, Lenovo chairman Liu at an unprecedented high-profile propaganda, said, \"Lenovo will be desperate to put to stop the mobile Internet market,\" Financial News for NetEase The title of the \"determination and Lenovo Mobile Internet transition, Apple Last Stand\

Lenovo and Apple market share, while Lenovo's mobile Internet strategy is still faced with many challenges, but Apple will undoubtedly adversely affect the market.

 Because economic development is bound to promote technological

progress, technology innovation, made computer technology in innovation, as the domestic computer products and technology, Apple Computer technology in China will gradually lose the advantage, of course, it takes a long period of time, but in the long run, the domestic computer products, technical progress is an inevitable trend, which will certainly have future sales of Apple computers in China have an important impact.

6. (a) Using an Undifferentiated Marketing strategy, a firm might decide to ignore market segment differences and target the whole market with one offer. The Undifferentiated Marketing strategy focuses on what is in common in the needs of consumers rather than on what is different. The company designs a product and a marketing program that will appeal to the largest number of buyers. And the advantages and disadvantages of ipad use an Undifferentiated Marketing strategy.

Ipad use an Undifferentiated Marketing strategy.

 Undifferentiated Marketing strategy advantages is its low cost. Ipad’s

Single product line can produce the relative scale efficiency, storage and transport are also relatively convenient, advertising, logistics and other resources are concentrated in a product, it will help strengthen brand image.

 Also, Undifferentiated Marketing strategy has its own shortcomings and

deficiencies, it can not meet the diverse needs of consumers, there are

differences in some areas, no difference in the implementation of marketing, but companies ignore the objective is the existence of such differences can easily cause competitors find a breakthrough point, lose some customers. Therefore, an enterprise through a brand of a product to meet the diverse needs of consumers, it is almost impossible. Therefore, the enterprise was no difference in the choice of development strategy as the time to study its adaptability. In general, steel, cement and other businesses are more suited to this strategy.

(b) Using a differentiated Marketing strategy, a firm might decide to target several market segment and designs separate offers for each. and the advantages and disadvantages of ipad use an differentiated Marketing strategy.

 When ipad use an differentiated Marketing strategy, the advantages are

as follows:

Customers can better meet different needs, but also so that each

sub-markets to maximize the sales potential of the excavation, which will help to expand their market share. But also greatly reduce the operational risks; the failure of a sub-market will not cause trouble throughout the enterprise. Differentiated marketing strategy has greatly enhanced the competitiveness of enterprises, ipad set up several brands, companies can greatly increase consumer trust in products and purchase rates. A variety of advertising and multi-channel distribution, a variety of market research costs, management fees, are limited barriers to entry of small businesses, so, for the strong financial resources, robust technology, with high-quality products business, the difference of marketing is a good choice.

 When ipad use an differentiated Marketing strategy,the disadvantages

are as follows:

Meanwhile, there are differences of their own limitations, the biggest drawback is the high cost of marketing, and production is generally small quantities, so that the relative increase in the cost per unit of product, non-economic. In addition, market research, sales analysis, marketing plans, channel

establishment, advertising, and many other aspects of logistics and distribution costs will no doubt increase substantially. This is why many companies do marketing differentiation, market share expansion, and sales increased, profits decreased the reason.

(c)Concentrated Marketing

Using a concentrated Marketing strategy, instead of going after a small share of a large market, the firm goes after a large share of one or a few smaller segments or niches.

 The advantages of ipad use a concentrated Marketing strategy. first the

ipad can achieves a strong market position because of its greater knowledge of consumers needs in the niches it serves and the special reputation it requires. Second it can market more effectively by fine-tuning its products, prices, and program to the needs of carefully defined segments. Third it can also market more efficiently, targeting its products or services, channels, and communication programs toward only consumers that it can serve best and most profitably.

 The disadvantages of iPad use a concentrated Marketing strategy. first

owing to the segments are fairly large and normally attract several competitors, niches are smaller and may attract only or a few

competitors. Many companies start as nicher that may be unimportant to or overlooked by larger competitors. So iPad will have a lot of potential competitors.

7. Describe some of the actions taken by Apple to build a brand for the Company’s product in the following areas: (a) Brand positioning

Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target customers’ minds. They can position brands at any of three levels. At the lowest level, they can position the brand on products’ attributes. And a brand can be better

Positioned by associating its name with a desirable benefit. And the strongest brands go beyond attribute or benefit positioning; they are positioned on strong beliefs and values. 、个性、与众不同、创新

电脑产品有很多，它们是同质化的商品，但苹果不是，它的个性风格太强烈了，一眼就能识别，品牌忠诚度很高。当别的电脑被淹没在众多差不多的外观、差不多的价格、差不多的使用方式、差不多的参数的电脑海洋中时，苹果超然其上。

2、完美的工业设计，优雅时尚 笔记本最有名的两个系列分别是“小黑”Thinkpad和“小白”Macbook。苹果就靠这样艺术品一样的设计抓住无数消费者的心，就算兼容性不佳、软件不够用，只要摆着一台苹果电脑，它的外观就能让你的目光反复流连，爱不释手。

3、简单易用，富人性化

从苹果电脑诞生开始，它就以做出了适合个人使用的电脑而闻名，Macintosh的图形界面更是让Microsoft只能亦步亦趋的在后面追赶，直到Microsoft痛下决心推出硬件消耗巨大的vista之前，PC用户还以模拟Mac OS的界面为荣。不过苹果的这个定位和专业另类的定位有点错位，专业人士不是很需要易用的界面，普通人可能又觉得苹果离他太远。

4、性能强大、专业、高端

苹果80年代末以来成功的与几家排版、制图软件商的合作使苹果成了图像设计与排版的专用电脑，苹果的Power CPU也算性能不俗。不过Adobe和苹果正在渐行渐远，Adode向PC发展，Mac也变成了Intel CPU的，专业不起来了。

(b) Brand name selection

A good name can add add greatly to a product’s success .however, finding the best brand name is a difficult task. It begins with a careful review of the product and its benefits, the target market, and proposed marketing strategies. After that, naming a brand becomes part science, part art, and a measure of instinct. Desirable qualities for a brand name of ipad are including:  The ipad product’s benefits and qualities.

 The name of ipad is easy pronounced, recognize, and remember.  The brand name of ipad is distinctive

 The brand name of ipad is extendable

 The name of ipad translates easily into foreign languages.  The name of ipad is capable of registration and legal protection.

8. The price the company charges will fall somewhere between one that is too high to produce any demand and one that is too low to produce a profit. And the figure below will summarizes the major consideration in setting price for ipad. Customer Product Other internal and perceptions of costs external considerations value Marketing strategy, objectives and mix Nature of the market and demand Price ceiling Competitors ’ strategies price floor No demand above this price and prices No profits below this price Customer perception of the ipad value set the ceiling for prices. If customers perceive that the price is greater than the ipad’s value, they will not buy the ipad. Ipad’s costs set the floor for prices. If the company prices the ipad below its costs, the ipads’company profits will suffer. In setting its price between these two extremes, the ipads’ company must consider a number of other internal factors, including its overall marketing strategy and mix, the nature of the ipad market and demand, and competitors’ strategies and prices.