Apple Mini Business Case

Business Case Analysis

Apple's Winning Strategies

FedEx

Apple's Winning Strategies:

How has Apple developed extreme loyalty among customers that has resulted in an almost cult like following?

Apple operates in the high growth and highly dynamic information and technology industry. Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, the company's primary aim was of developing and selling personal computers. Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet are the products of the company that are the most well-known. It has been declared as the most valued brand in the world and is very cash rich.

According to Interbrand, the brand consultancy agency, Apple's brand was number one among all the brands in the world in October 2014 as Apple was announced to have a brand value of 118.9 billion dollars (Crum).

The company enjoys enormous popularity among the customers and its products create extremely loyal customers. One of the primary reasons for this is an innovation which is the key core capability of the company. The company produces products that are a step ahead of the market. Apple incorporates enough flexibility in terms of product diversification as is evident from the mission statement which is product oriented and the vision statement which is customer oriented. Thus, product innovation for the customer is the core strategy of Apple. Apple strives to provide unique content in terms of features and usability (King).

The company always believes in blue ocean market strategy new demand for new products are created by the company which helps in creating a new market for the products. One example is the iPad that essentially replaced the walkman creating a new and never before seen demand for small hand help personal music systems. The Apple Pad and the Apple Watch are other examples of unique products that have created new market demand.

Apple keeps adding new features to its products almost once every six months and hence customer loyalty is created as the company always provides something new.

The emotional appeal of Apple products is one other reason for the almost cult-like following of Apple amongst customers. The company has established its brand is such a manner that customers view its products as symbols of lifestyle that captures the imagination, regained freedom and innovation igniting emotions of passion, hopes, dreams and aspirations.

Apple's brand image oozes customer friendliness and quality trough innovation which tends to enhance the lifestyle and imagination of customers. This creates customer loyalty as customers continue to expect something in Apple products that they would not get in any other product of similar nature ("Forbes Welcome"). Quality and cutting-edge design brand image of Apple products create customer loyalty.

Thus, it can be concluded that the secret behind the extreme customer loyalty that Apple enjoys relates to its ability to innovate and create new products that are customer friendly. The marketing strategy of the company is such that customers tend to associate Apple products with the feelings and aspirations of their own ("Apple CEO Steve Jobs Holds Court On Earnings Day"). Customers also view Apple products as a symbol of enhanced lifestyle, quality and the products lend a sense of pride amongst the owners which they fail to associate with similar products of other companies. The secretive marketing strategy where Apple does not let out any information about its new product development until the day of the launch creates an acute sense of expectation among customers. They look forward to viewing and potentially owning a new product that would be innovative and different from similar products of other companies. This is a marketing strategy that has also contributed to the extreme customer loyalty for Apple products and the company.

FedEx

1) Evaluate the methods used by FedEx to grow domestically and internationally. Why do you think that the company initially had problems in its global operations?

The motto of FedEx has been the cornerstone of its business strategy and growth domestically in the U.S. and internationally. Its mission: "FedEx is not in the package and document transport business; rather, it delivers "certainty" by connecting the global economy with a wide range of transportation, information, and supply chain services" is also the business strategy of the company (Ferrell and Hartline).

The impressive domestic and international growth of the company has been attributed to its investments in building up its own logistics ("FedEx - FedEx - Mission & Goals"). The company manages to attain the high delivery rate as it a significantly large infrastructure of equipment and processes. There are more than 80,000 vehicles and 658 aircraft that operate in more than 375 airports across the globe for FedEx. To ensure timely delivery, the company also has its own weather-forecasting service which ensures that there is no more than a 15-minute delay in flights.

The impressive night airport operations of the company where they take virtual control of the Memphis International Airport at around 11 each night and use the runways for landing and departure of its cargo flights.

Direct services and independent contractor combination is used by the company for international deliveries. In the U.S. FedEx managed to rapidly expand after two 7-year service agreements that were renewed later with the U.S. Postal Service (Ferrell and Hartline).

Internationally the company has been expanding business by acquisitions. The most recent of its acquisitions include the takeover of ANC Holdings, a UK-based express transportation firm, Chinese firm Tianjin Datian Group, Prakash Air Freight, an Indian express company and Flying Cargo, a Hungarian express company. These deals have helped the company to gain access to significant regions of the global market and leveraged the company in comparison to its competitors.

FedEx also increased its reach and thus business by the purchasing valuable air routes for more than $880 million which gave it access to routes, airport facilities and expertise in European and . it also gained exclusive rights to fly its own craft into Russia which also helped it to increase international business (Viaene and De Hertogh).