Question

Apple markets several lines of personal electronic devices, including computers, smartphones, and tablets. Spend some time on Apple’s website and learn more about its products, and then think like a marketing manager to answer the following questions.

Questions

1. Which of Apple’s products are its stars, cash cows, question marks, and dogs?

2. Which of the four market growth strategies in the product–market expansion grid have you observed Apple using?

3. How does Apple employ the elements of the marketing mix—product, price, place (distribution), and promotion?

4. The iPhone was available in the United States in June 2007 but was not available in Canada until a year later. Similarly, although Apple released the iPad in the United States in April 2010, international consumers, who were able to “pre-order” the product in May, were told that availability in their country had not yet been determined. Research what happened with the Apple Watch, and any other new Apple products. What can you infer about Apple’s international growth strategy?

Answer 1

A. BCG matrix of Apple:

1. Cash Cows: These products and services that occupy high market share in a low growth markets. Two Apple products fall under Cash Cows category i.e., Apple iTunes, Apple Smartwatch, Apple iPad and Apple Macbook.

2. Stars: These products and services gain high market shares in high growth markets. Apple iPhone is the star product of the Apple. The sales of Apple iPhone touch new heights with the launch of every new version of iPhone.

3. Question Marks: These products and services currently has low market share in a high growth market. Such products and services also do not have potential of high market share in the near future. The Apple TV falls under question marks category as it does not exhibit high market share in the high growth market.

4. Dogs: These products and services has low market share or market growth. Apple iPods come under the Dogs category as these occupy less market share and do not any prospects of high market growth.

B. Apple employs four market growth strategies to expand market base for its products. These are product differentiation, product innovation, market penetration and market development. The product differentiation is one of the marketing strategies of Apple under which Apple designs a product that is completely unique with other Apple products. To achieve the product differentiation strategy, Apple intensively utilize research and development program.

Product innovation is the part of integrated marketing strategies of Apple. Apple continuously brings new changes in the designs and functionality of its existing products.

Market penetration involves capturing more market share by a company. Apple continuously focus on increasing sales of its existing products to gain large market share.

Market development strategy of Apple is pushing up Apple products in a new market. Apple identify and select distributors and sellers in the new markets who works as an agent of Apple and sells the Apple products in local markets. The Apple products such as Apple Macbooks and Apple iPhones are comparatively more expensive than Windows and Android computing devices. But due to enhanced features and attractive designs, Apple Mac books and Apple iPhones are still popular among certain consumer groups.

C. Apple watch was officially released in April 24, 2015 by company CEO Tim Cook. The development of Apple watch actually begun in 2011 and Apple employed many smart sensor experts for development of this sleek device. But still after three years of its launch, Apple watch still has not been able to attract large number of customers. In comparison to the sales of Apple's iPhones, Apple watch is not a very successful experiment for the company. But with continued product innovation and added features, Apple can expect similar market growth for its Apple watches.

D. Apple use four marketing strategies to boost sales of its products in international market. These are :

• Maintain a consistent brand in different regions
• Use localization for offering maximum customer satisfaction
• Use customized features that suits diverse customer requirements
• Trans-creation for translation of contents in local language of a region