APPLE ANALYSIS 苹果公司分析报告

Summary

The market value of Apple Inc. Outnumbers that of the Microsoft Inc. almost 1,000,000,000,000, which is equal to the market value of HP Inc. Why does Apple can reach such high profits? One of the significant determinants is the marketing strategy of Apple. The purpose of the research is to identify the marketing strategy of Apple Inc. and to propose our suggestions to Apple Inc. The marketing strategies of Apple are various and numerous. The report would show and express in detail the three main and special strategies of Apple: the experiential marketing, the hunger-style marketing, the word of mouse marketing and the bundled marketing.

Contents

1. Company introduction (1)

2. Experiential marketing (2)

2.1 Location (1)

2.2 Area (1)

2.3 Product (1)

2.4 Design (1)

3. Hunger-style marketing (1)

3.1 Exclusive (1)

3.2 Mystery (1)

3.3 Fanfare (1)

3.4 Entertainment (1)

3.5 Play tricks (1)

4. Bundled marketing (1)

4.1 The iTunes Store: I’m the pied piper (1)

4.2 App store (1)

5. Conclusions (1)

1. Company introduction

2. Experiential marketing

The most companies are based on "customer first", however, “unless we could find the ways to get our message to customers at the store, we were screwed.” Jobs said.

Jobs hated to cede control of anything, especially when it might affect the customer experience. But he faced a problem. There was one part of the process he didn't control: the experience of buying an Apple product in a store.

The days of the Byte Shop were over. Industry sales were shifting from local computer specialty shops to mega-chais and big box stores, where most clerks had neither the knowledge nor the incentive to explain the distinctive nature of Apple products. "All that the salesman cared about was a $50 spiff", Jobs said. Other computers were pretty generic, but Apple's had innovative features and a higher price tag. He didn't want an iMac to sit on a shelf between a Dell and a Compaq while an uninformed clerk recited the specs of each. "Unless we could find ways to get our message to customers at the store, we were screwed."

Then there are some elements of Apple retail stores.

2.1 Location: Apple stores should be in malls and on Main Streets--in areas with a lot of foot traffic, no matter how expensive. "We may not be able to get them to drive ten miles to check out our products, but we can get them to walk ten feet," he said.

2.2 Area:The size of a store signaled the importance of the brand. A good company must "impute"--it must convey its values and importance in everything it does, from packaging to marketing. The store will become the most powerful physical expression of the brand," he predicted. The store must be big enough, Otherwise you won't be relevant.

2.3 Product: There weren't many, not enough to fill the shelves of a conventional store, but that was an advantage. The type of store they would build, they decided, would benefit from having few products. It would be minimalist and airy and offer a lot of places for people to try our things. People think of Apple as a cult. You want to move from a cult to something cool, and having an awesome store where people can try things with help that. The stores would impute the ethos of Apple products: playful, easy, creative, and on the bright side of the line between hip and intimidating.

2.4 Design: Jobs particularly focused on the staircases. When he visited a store as it was being constructed, he invariably suggested changes to the staircase. His name is listed as the lead inventor on two patent applications on the staircases.

In July 2011, a decade after the first ones opened, there were 326 Apple stores. The biggest was in London's Covent Garden, the tallest in Tokyo's Ginza. The average annual revenue per store