International Marketing by Apple – Marketing Essay
Advertise. Webster defines it to “make publicly and generally known: to call public attention to especially by emphasizing desirable qualities so as to arouse a desire to buy or patronize.” The advertisement business has
reached extreme highs in the last decade thanks to the extended communication we now have through technology. It has now become so simple, even to the average individual to promote what ever is desired. If this task has become so effortless for a single person, then why would a huge corporation not be able to do this? Apple Computer, a competitor in today’s world of PC’s, has not succeeded in advertising their product as well as their opponents such as Gateway, Hewlett Packard and their oldest rival, IBM.
Despite disastrous losses in the 80s and 90s to their main competitor, IBM, Apple recently re-vamped the entire company. They have focused on marketing and product development. They even introduced the iMac in 1998, which turned out to be the most successful personal computer launch ever. Despite this success, the rapid rate of development within the computer industry indicated that Apple must analyze their previous marketing techniques in order to maintain the high level of success and to keep up with the competition.
In order for a product to be successful, especially on the scale of PC’s, people around the world must have it on their mind. People need to be exposed to the idea in many different ways. There are several methods to accomplishing this. The internet, television, movies, radio, billboards, ads and countless other ways are all roads into the advertisement world. Compaq, HP, Gateway and Dell have dominated these fields for years, and Apple has just now in the last couple of years been able to scrape the surface of these ideas. In the last year, cable has been able to televise the first successful set of Apple commercials which showed them to be better and more efficient than their competitors. Capitalizing on major opportunities, Apple stepped up and took over the movie world too. In any movie coming from Hollywood, the only PC logo that is now seen is Apple, whether it is on a laptop or desktop computer, software, iPod or even a sticker. By doing this they have successfully promoted high level of graphics and “easy use.” Apple strove for beauty this year and they achieved this through the iMac and iPod. The iMac is an affordable, hassle free, plug and surf, personal computer that competes with other firms in the market. Another part of the marketing technique Apple used for the iMac was through the individuality of people. They produced the computer in different colors. People were able to customize their personal computers for the first time in any way they wanted. They extended this idea to the iPod products. Once again, this method of reaching out to the people’s individuality caused a boom in sales across the world.
Their updated software has been another step in the business world for Apple. MacOS and MacOSX has been a wonderful transition for people use to using the Windows operating system. It has proven to be much faster and easier to use. Tthe new MacOS is equipped with one feature that no other operating system has, and that is speech recognition. An addition to the great new technologies being introduced and supported is the continued excellence for the graphics in the industry. These Apple produced computers are the fastest personal computers on the market today, beating other computers such as the Gateway 550-MHz Pentium III PC. Finally, the new Macintosh operating systems are showing great support for the futurist programming language of Java. This is a wireless networking system that lets you travel up to 150 feet away from the base station.
Apple’s ad campaign is based on the two words of “Think Different”, and I believe they are beginning to take their own advice. Apple has always supported graphical software and hardware but the continued vision of where the industry is going with software titles like Adobe PhotoShop and Apple’s new FinalCut Pro surpasses anything the rest of the other computer and software makers have to offer. With this, I believe Apple is likely to become a major player, again, in the industry of personal computing.
I personally have only used an Apple computer, such as the iMac, for small assignments before, but enjoyed what I saw. The graphics that were produced were very clear and crisp. The iPod on the other hand, I have been able to use for several things. It is capable to hold thousands of songs, pictures and other data. It is very convenient. I do believe though that in order for Apple to continue to produce such products they will have to step it up even more to get their name out. I’m sure that the computers produced by this company are worth the price people pay for them, which can range from $800 to over $3000, but they may be more successful in advertisement if they offered a low-end computer that would be able to compete with Dell’s low-end computer of $299.
In past years, Apple was on a downward spiral, but now the Mac is back on the right track. The interim CEO Steve Jobs has brought them from expected quarterly loses to now, first quarter net income of some 150 millions dollars. The question still remains, is Apple back to stay? With the Windows driven world of today, can Apple assert them self to claim market share? Apple’s stunning new hardware, user-friendly operating system, and drive for incredible new technology, will not only compare Apple to traditional PC and software maker but will stun the rest of the computer world along the way.