Strategic management and marketing in Apple

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Strategic management is a dynamic process that changes course with change in a number of factors to ensure that the corporate’s mission is achieved best. It entails analysis, decision making and taking an action towards the achievement of the firm’s objectives. A strategy is a plan that is adopted by an organization especially in a competitive environment that enables it to enjoy an advantage over the other rival firms. A marketing strategy is therefore a plan by a firm which is adopted by a firm after a close analysis of the market and their resources which enables them to increase their sales and on the other hand maintain a competitive advantage over their rival firms in the market.

Before any firm ventures into the manufacture of any product it has in mind the prospective market (Kottler and Keller, 2005, 465). A single market may have numerous firms producing close substitute product but there may be variance in the price and quality of the products. Various firms serve a different proportion of the market. Some firms control and occupy a larger share of the market while others occupy a negligible part of the market. For a company to maintain or improve on its market share, some sound strategies have to be formulated by the firm. A company may experience market growth depending on the strategies used.

The Apple Inc. is a renowned manufacture of technological products. It is a multinational company based in the United States of America and its products are sold all over the world. It sells a number of consumer electronics which include; computer hardware, computer software and personal computers. Their brand names includes; the iPod music player, iPhone smart phone, the iPad tablet handheld personal computer, the OS x and iOS computer operating systems, the safari web browser and the iTunes. The company was founded in 1979 and boasts to be the world’s second largest information technology company and is among the top most sellers of mobile devices. The apple brand has been admired all over the world. The company has experienced a rapid market growth in the last span of ten years and now boasts a large market share in the world’s information communication technology market.

In developing a marketing strategy for the jumbo Apple Company the company has to consider internal as well as external factors in respect to the market situation. The strategies should change from time to time depending on the market environment (Jobber and Chadwick, 2012, 234). The company can employ marketing growth as well as the market share to develop a strategy.

Marketing growth strategies involves employment of the market behavior knowledge. Being a large company with numerous resources, use of market growth to develop a marketing strategy is highly achievable. This chiefly entails marching the marketing opportunities and the company’s resources without forgetting the company’s objectives. Market growth can be defined as a bid to increase the sales of a firm in the existing markets and the introduction of the products into new markets (John and David, 2012, 473). Market growth also involves creation of new products or tailoring of existing products to get new uses in a bid to encroach the market.

To ensure that the market development is used to build new strategies a number of factors have to be put into consideration (Morden, 2007, 174). One of these factors is the attractiveness of the new market the Apple Company wants to encroach. Investing in creating markets in some geographical areas would be a waste of resources (Simerson, 2010, 278). Not all regions have adopted sophistication in terms of communication. Some areas especially in the poverty stricken continents still use low quality cheap products in communication or no mobile devices at all. It would sound ironical if the Apple Inc. tried to expand its market in Africa by intensifying its marketing strategies in the sub-Saharan Africa. There are countries in which the Apple Company has not deepened their market in them. These countries may however have a great potential of purchasing their products. This includes the Middle East. This is an attractive new market which has a potential of increasing their total annual sales by a great deal. Therefore it is advisable that they consider first the attractiveness of the new market.

The second factor that the company should put into consideration before using market development to create a strategy should be the availability of resources and their willingness of the company to commit them. Some market expansion plans may require intensive capital expenditure to achieve. Expansion of the market requires capital resources as well as human resources (Simerson, 2010, 295). Therefore it would be of great importance for the company to evaluate first the kind of market being intruded, the resources required and the power of the company in respect to the requirements. For example some regions would require intensive advertising and promotion before they would purchase the products while other would call for less advertisement and less product promotion before purchase

The third factor the Apple Inc. would have to consider is any modifications or rather adaptations that would be necessary for the company in covering new markets. Entering into new markets would have some obstacles. It would be necessary if the company evaluated if it had the time and the power to overcome any obstacles encountered (Morden, 2007, 234). The Apple Inc. is a multinational firm however some obstacles which include government regulations in different continents and countries would be a barrier to their activity especially in development of new markets. Some countries may enact legislation to protect their young information technology industries.

The fourth factor to put into consideration is the competitive advantage in the new markets. A competitive advantage is an advantage that accrues to the firm over other firms that may be as a result of better quality and better pricing (Jobber and Chadwick, 2012, 463). Therefore it would be necessary for the Apple Inc. to evaluate the new prospective market’s status, evaluate the other technological products in that market, their market price, quality and their utility to the consumers. This would enable the company to establish possible modification of their products or revision of their prices. Competitive advantage is of great importance in a multiple seller market. It ensures that one firm is ahead of the others in sales and preference by the consumers.

Reference

John, F and David, J. (2012). Foundations of marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Jobber, D and Chadwick, F. (2012). Principles and practice of marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Kottler, P and Keller, K. (2005). Marketing Management (14th edition). New York: Prentice Hall Pearson.

Morden, T. (2007). Principles of strategic management. New Jersey: Ashgate Publishing.

Simerson, K. (2010). Strategic planning. New Jersey: Ashgate publishing LTD.