Apple iPhone Marketing Plan

• Technological Situation

Level of technology in the world is increasing.

Internet level of awareness & usage for individuals & industrial aspect are increasing worldwide

Fixed phone lines capacity and development attempts.

New technologies in the cell phones are increasing.

Future plans for technological linkage between cities, universities, colleges, hospitals and other institutes are increasing and can be connected to cell phones

Levels of usage of the E- Technology (online bidding, billing, complaints, blogging etc) are high and trendy.

• Competition Situation

There are 19260 cell phone producers in the world, but there are more than 15 big companies competing at the world level Market

• Environmental Situation

The global concern of the Global Warming issue & other pollution effects concerning the packaging material and radiation of the cellphones

The demand of the international environmental approvals is a must(if there is any)

• Sales Situation

Cell phones industries are one of the most profitable industries everywhere and the Market is increasing

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Apple iphone SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Innovative: The iPhone has an innovative touch screen. It also has many functions of other mobile products all in one device

Compatibility: The phone will work with iTunes and with other Mac/Apple products and OS software tools which means limitless potential for upgrade-ability.

Ease-of-Use: The all-new touch screen interface recognizes multi finger gestures, just as the human hand normally behaves

Brand awareness: Apple is well known for cool essential gadgets like the iPods along great technological innovations like the original Macintosh.

Price: iPhone would be sold at a reasonable price for its value.

Quality: Scratch resistant screen – durable and light metallic finish – software suite resistance to computer viruses.

Opportunities

Increasing demand and expansion to a new target segment: As technology advances and smart phones get cheaper Apple will attract consumers and get iPod users to upgrade to iPhones.

Upgradeable: iPhone software allows new exciting features to be brought in which take advantage of the touch screen ability. Future versions will also be hardware upgrade able.

Partnerships: Apple can collaborate with many powerful global mobile phone companies to flood the market with iPhones, which reduces costs in marketing and increases revenue through long-term agreement deals

Weaknesses

Image: The Apple brand is not targeted towards business people and does not have a reputation as being compatible with the corporate world.

Price: Apple does not yet offer lower priced models for more cost conscious consumers.

User Interface: Touch screen interfaces suffer from the problem of “gorilla arm”*

Threats

Increased competition: Smart phones are easier to make now more than ever. More companies may enter the market, and competitors or even Apple contractors can maneuver around patents to create similar devices.

Downward pricing pressure: The iPhone is marketed as a high-end phone, but phone prices are almost certainly going to fall when other companies undercut the price of iPhones.

Difficulty expanding into Asian market: There is less hype and interest in Asia since smart phones are better known and already widely used

Competition (Palm): Palm has the longest history in PDA market and has experience-developing software for mobile devices. It is also a well-known brand for business people. Existing software is well established and compatible with many products for this market. The market is familiar with Palm products; significant switching costs are involved in going to an iPhone. Palm can add many similar capabilities to their products that match the iPhone and expand to a wider market through lower cost and higher-power products

Apple iphone Marketing Objectives

• Set an aggressive buy achievable objective for the first and second years of market
• First-year Objectives – We are aiming for a 2 percent share of the U.S and U.K. PDA/Phone market through unit sales volume of 445,000.2. Second-year Objectives – are to achieve a 10 percent share based on sales
• Extend on the Apple brand name and link to the established meaningful positioning.
• Extend on Apples image of innovation, quality, and value.
• Measure the awareness and response in order to make adjustments to the marketing campaigns as necessary.

Apple iphone Target Market

• Differentiate the iPhone from other PDA’s on the market.
• Primary customer targets is the middle-upper income professional to coordinate their busy schedules and communicate with colleagues, friends and family.
• Secondary consumer targets are high school, college and graduate students who need one portable multi function device.
• Primary business target is to partner with:
  • large cell phone service providers, AT&T, Verizon,Sprint and Cellular One
  • large enterprise software firms where information is critical to the end user.

• Secondary business target is mid-to mid-size corporations that want to help managers and employees stay in communication or access critical data on the go.
• Market segment will consist of companies with $10-$50 million in annual sales.

Positioning

• Using product differentiation, positioning the iPhone as the versatile,convenient, value-added device for personal and professional use.
• Focus on the convenience of having one device for communication, but also music, pictures, and video, and full Internet access.
• The iPhone will be promoted as both professional and hip

Apple iphone Marketing Mix Strategy

Product

• Full year warranty along with an optional three-year Apple Care warranty
• Same taste as all other Apple products
• Special edition version to be launched (including the iPhone Beatles edition celebrating their 40th anniversary)
• Launching a cheaper version in 2008 with less advanced features along with a more advanced version for professional use
• Adding the following features to the iphone (large disk storage capacity, lower weight,thinner device, long battery life, 4G wireless,GPS and improved camera)

Price

• Set the base model at a cheap price of $349
• A more advanced model for $399
• Special limited edition Beatles iPhone for special prices
• Generally lower our prices to ensure we establish market dominance in as short of time as possible

Place

• Massive rollout worldwide at all reputable major retailers
• Massive rollout Online, Showrooms and in all cell phone providers
• All Apple Stores the Apple website will dedicate themselves to the iPhone
• Eye catching displays will be found at all physical stores featuring the iPhone to make the product stand out from the pack
• Apple Stores will have the iPhone on display a full month before its worldwide release

Promotion

• Integrate Apple message of revolutionary communications and audio/visual experience together in all media advertisements
• Differentiate the iPhone against others is the touch screen functionality
• Emphasize Apple brand prominently and associate the iPhone with the iPod’s groundbreaking lineage
• Original but tasteful advertisements at the same time
• A massive TV campaign is planned before launching the iPhone featuring a soon to be legendary ad to be the talk of the country
• Advertising will be appearing on a regular basis to maintain general public awareness

Apple iphone Marketing Research

• Four age groups will be targeted: 15-20 years, 20-25 years, 25-45years, and 45 years and up •High School and College aged people will demonstrate social uses •The 25-45 years group will be used to determine business application and social/personal use •The 45 years and above will give us a plan to market to more senior well-refined group

• This research will be done through surveys (via email campaign through portals such as, iTunes and other on-line application developed for the iPhone) and interviews (in Apple stores) with the same age groups listed before•To bring the iPhone to the front of the business world it is important to research different ways to grow the 15-25 year old group into business uses of the product

• Brand awareness will be an important tool in taking the Apple brand from “social cool” to “business cool”.

• We will ask for feedback on iPhone features, and implement those changes most important to the end user in the next generation iPhone •We will allow users themselves to design their own ideal iPhone on-line and use any useful ideas to further refine future iPhone models •We will continuously scour the Apple fan websites to understand what the Mac faithful are saying, as they are our best customers.

Implementation

Compensation system

• workers $5 incentive pay for every non reject phone they produce •$10 per phone six sigma quality program •each worker $5000 each year for best practice training use control measures to closely monitor quality and customer service satisfaction consumers can contact the main headquarters about any possible technical problems by using Apple Customer Service Bar and a customer service phone number stored in the phone book

In case of slow sales

• Offer iPhone to customers who have purchased other Apple products$10 per phone six sigma quality program, which will lead to:•demonstrate the product for consumers, it will promote synergy and lure buyers. •develop deep relationships with two very different segments:those who have it and those who aspire

Budget

• Our break-even analysis assumes wholesale revenue of $500 per unit variable cost of $250 per unit and est. fixed cost of $50 million. Base  on these assumptions the break-even calculation is $50 million divided by $500 minus $250 equals 200,000 units sold. •Break-even calculations indicate that Apple will become profitable after the sales volume exceeds 200k. After the first year Apple will make a profit of 1.25 billion minus 50 million in fixed costs.
• Recommended price is $350. The markup is 40 percent.
• It is predicted that sales volume will increase at least 60 percent from this change; this will decrease the impact of fixed costs and improve opportunities to increase our production scale, which will further improve profits in the long run

Control

To plan our strategy we will meet monthly with the board of Apple, present our information, and make a proposal for continued marketing efforts. Before each meeting our team will meet in private, with each person presenting their own proposal based on the information they have learned. After the initial proposals, we will vote on the best one or come to a compromise. The final proposal sent before Apple is the result of that meeting.

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References;

• https://www.scribd.com/alfagr/d/21275028-Apple-iPhone-Marketing-Plan
• https://www.techlahore.com/2008/07/23/pakistan-goes-from-300000-to-90-million-cell-phone-users-in-under-8-years/
• https://www.bluechipmag.com/bc/content_detail.php?content=136
• https://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/business/27-May-2009/Mobile-phone-techonology-fast-growing-in-Pakistan-WB