Marketing Apple Fanatics : Self Identity

Apple is an American multinational technology company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Their best-known hardware products are the Mac computers, the iPod, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computers. They represent a form of change in this time period, not only because they look good but also because they represent a symbol of social status. Although, they are other products out there, consumers would choose Apple products because they seem more valuable and also due to the fact that they have much more to offer. In our era, Appearances could also play a huge role in choosing the products people buy referring to technology. For example, Apple uses sleek, slim and edgy designs to attract their buyers. Even though some people uses other products, Apple gadgets stand out the

The concept of cool has changed over time and is still changing in today's society. The youth is constantly altering what their idea of cool is by following the hot celebrities, and large name brands in fashion and products. It is because of this that one company in particular has developed so drastically over the past years and is continuously growing. Founded by Steve Jobs, Apple Inc has grown to be one of the most successful companies since the launch of the Macintosh in 1984. We are now in the year 2015 and Apple products can be seen being used by almost everyone no matter where it is you are. Apple Inc is the second largest information technology companies and the world's third largest mobile phone maker. This company has taken its technology to whole other extremes creating the portable iPod, MacBook, iPhone, Apple TV, etc. Jobs made it his initiative to understand what it is his consumers wanted

The symbolism of the giant man on the screen represented IBM, and the thousands of skinheads were mindless consumers. Apple was the young athletic woman who broke the screen and freed the thousands of skinheads from a life of monotony with PCs. This new commercial “broke all the rules, and the reaction has been, in a word, unprecedented,” as stated by Steve Hayden in the San Francisco Chronicle, 1984. This commercial was one of the most significant pieces of advertisement that Apple could show, because it explained their philosophy in one fell swoop. This commercial informed the public about what Apple really stood for—rebellion.

Apple has researched the uncontrollable social environment so effectively that they perhaps border on controlling it. There ability to adapt to changes in social pop-culture, and appeal to the current times and trends have earned them the sales they most definitely deserve. One cannot not deny the

Apple can go from being a business to being a religion largely due to the hype the company receives when they release a new product. As the loyal Apple consumers demand to hear more about what the company has to offer, they become increasingly obsessive. Apple is a well- known, successful company, and subsequently they are able to advertise themselves everywhere. Consumers give products power as the public denotes what is trending in society.

Apple has created a culture associated with its products (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Owning the latest iPhone is as much to do with image as it is the product (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Accordingly, customers with a high need for conformity to a group held in esteem are willing to pay more certain products (Labrecque et al., 2011). Consequently, Apple has been a success commanding higher sales prices than its competitors (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014).

People often wonder why would one still pay the higher price for such products. Some people are convinced and others aren’t and still consider Apple consumers to be “sheeple”. Our research suggests reasons why Apple has remained one of the top companies of all time. Apple’s customer service, quality of products, software, design, security and overall branding makes them stand out to consumers.

Apple Inc.’s has a loyal customer base because of their wide variety of products that are available to their customers. Apple Inc. constantly has to maintain commands among tech-savvy users at the high end of the market in order to maintain their high success rates. So far, Apple has won the contest for consumer loyalty. Even as Google Inc.’s Android widens its lead in the smartphone market, Apple’s iPhone poaches one in five of its customers from users of the rival operating system, according to a survey, released last week by Consumer Intelligence. Samsung, the top seller of Android handsets, only received 7% of its customers from Apple’s iOS (Schectman 2013). In a society that seems to be dependent on technology and social media, Apple is continuously growing with each existing and developing brands they offer to their customers, and with each new development there’s an excitement created by their customers causing lines at stores and preorders of products. In today’s constantly changing technological society Apple Inc. has to differentiate themselves and their products from other companies. Apple Inc. differentiates themselves by thinking differently, their management style, and

The Past – Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne established Apple on April 1, 1976 in order to sell the Apple 1 Computer Kit that was hand built by Steve Wozniak. The Apple 1 was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM and basic textual video chips) – less than what is considered a personal computer today. Apple was responsible for creating the desktop publishing market due to their innovative programmes, PageMaker and LaserWriter. Between 1983 and 1996 Apple experimented with a number of failed consumer target products including digital cameras, portable CD players, speakers, video consoles and TV appliances. Market share and stock prices decreased. In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod portable digital audio player.

Apple’s core competence focuses on delivering exceptional experience of the consumer through its great user interfaces wherein all its apple products like iPhone, iPad, Mac, iCloud, iTunes and Apps Store are all playing key roles, wherein the distinctive feature of each apple products are the ease of use. Marketing Mind mentioned that Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions as to how the Apple products make you feel. It was mentioned that the brand Apple is about lifestyle, imagination, innovation, passion, power-to-the people technology. It is also about simplicity and people-driven product design as the technology itself creates a connection with its customers/users.

Market segmentation strategy involves dividing the market into groups, where individuals have similar needs and wants for services and products. It could also be a segmentation of people on the basis of behavior, culture and economic status. To get a clearer picture of what is market segmentation, one can always look into the definition provided by business dictionary.com, market segmentation is defined as, "Process of defining and sub-dividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics" (Meadows, 2008).

With Samsung doing so well in the cellphone market, Apple is going to have to step up its’ game in order to ensure that it stays right there with them at the top. Although Apple is constantly advertising worldwide and finding new and impressive ways to get its name out there, it is still in need of something that will send it flying ahead of Samsung. For Apple’s corporate strategy, it already uses a close-related diversification strategy. This strategy has assisted the company in finding out exactly what consumers want in this day in time. In a way, this gives an explanation as to why there are always constant updates and additions to the Apple IPhone. With the close-related diversification strategy, Apple has the ability to change its

A brand serves to add dimensions to a product to differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same needs. The strength of brands is measured by the price differential that consumers are willing to pay over other products in the same category (Keller, 2012). For many young people, it is not buying a pair of jeans, but buying GAP or Tommy Hilfiger or Levis. As per the article in Business Week (Wechsler, 1997, p. 64) this “barrages of brand names offers the irresistible promise of instant cool.”

By means of grounded theory methodology the research paper will theorize a consumer’s response and reaction to brand-named products versus generic products that have been examined and studied for many years. For many years, researchers have questioned the reason that a consumer grows attached and likes vs. dislikes certain branded products, the answer remains open-ended. Many things can interfere with the consumer’s resistance to new products being introduced into the marketplace; such as packaging, limited advertising and marketing, name association and mass appeal. This paper will study whether

If the marketing of non-branded products were to receive specialized equivalent advertising, the demand for brand named products will decrease. The term “Brand Love” is a connection and emotional attachment to a brand of products because of the pleasures, satisfaction and feelings that it gives the consumers. As discussed in the Marketing Science Institute article, “it might be explained with reference to the psychological literature on interpersonal love. But the deep sense of fit between customers and brands like Apple, Harley, and Starbucks.” (MSI 2012).