Apple's international marketing strategy and expansion into emerging markets

Marketing SLP

Target Market

Brand Image

Competitor Analysis

Environmental Analysis

Porters Five Force Model

Current Rivalry

Threat of New Entrants

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Threat of Substitute Products

Apple has had an exceptional growth streak over the last decade and represents a suitable target for a marketing analysis. Apple has seen sales and revenue peeks in the last few years which is at least due to the fact that sales in China have ballooned. China, which is the company's second-largest market, accounted for 16% of Apple's sales during the past quarter (Q4, 2011), with $4.5 billion in revenue, a year-over-year increase of 270% (Gannes, 2011). The new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c was launched in September, 2013 and was highly anticipated by Apple for the response in China in the iPhone's global debut. This was the first time an iPhone version was marketed on a global level. The financial data states that the investment is paying off and may have even been able outpace the ZTE Corp. And Xiaomi Corp., to capture fifth position in the world's largest smartphone market in the third quarter (Bora, 2013).

In regards to the international marketing strategy, China is generally the focus because it is the world's largest smartphone market. Yet at the same time, there is a lot of opportunity in other international counties. The new CEO Tim Cook provided some insights into Apple's targets for emerging markets; Brazil was up 118% year over year, Russia looks "promising" and the Middle East should be a "significant opportunity. (Bora, 2013)." Furthermore, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said Apple had planned to open 40 new stores in fiscal 2012, with three quarters of them outside the United States.

One of the main themes in the marketing plan with Apple, is that their biggest opportunity is now in international markets, with the U.S. market being relatively saturated. However, the international marketing strategy will be a key component for the Apple in its future growth strategy. Apple will have to overcome a host of challenges as it learns to market to different cultures and languages. This marketing plan for Apple will try to deliver a strategy for its international marketing campaign. It is further recommended that Apple uses an independently derived marketing plan for each geographic region but with the central themes from marketing carrying over in each segment. This hybrid strategy for the international markets will give some flexibility to the regional areas will keeping Apple's brand imaging constant as well as generating efficiencies for recycling as much as the brand image as possible.

II. Goals and Objectives

Goal One

Create an international marketing campaign that promotes the brand in the most efficient way possible.

Objective One

Keep Apple's brand consistent throughout the globe.

Objective Two

Allow some flexible to cater to regional cultures and languages.

III. Target Market

Apple's target market is generally focused on the younger demographics that are tech savvy and have a significant amount of disposable income. Many among the target market are on the cutting edge of technology and are the type of people that pre-order the upcoming latest rounds of Apple gear.

IV. Brand Image

Maintaining the brand image across different regions and different demographics will be difficult. Apple must decide what its core values are and still to reproduce these in a variety of formats.

Strengths

Strong Brand

Innovation

Heavily Capitalized

Customer Loyalty

Weaknesses

Environmental Supply Chain Issues

Human Rights Issues in the Supply Chain

Internal Management Issues

Opportunities

Grow Market Share

Find New Product Niches

Continue to Diversify Current Product Mix

Threats

Competitive Industry Pressures

Negative Publicity

Imitation

Current Rivalry

Apple's currently rivalry is significantly high; both with the most recently Android-Based phones and the PC world with the introduction of the Windows 8 brand tablets, smartphones, and PCs. With regard to the PC industry, price competition has become one of the dominant factors which makes Apple vulnerable since it is more of a luxury item.

Threat of New Entrants

Apple operates on so many different fronts that the threat of entrants is pretty high; although Apple barely ever knows from which direction. There are many high-tech firms that are constantly innovating and putting pressure on Apple's product mix.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Apple's bargaining power with suppliers is relatively high. Apple's current suppliers are behooved to Apple for a core of its business. Therefore, Apple can virtually dictate terms to its suppliers.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

The bargaining power of buyers is high with the exception of those that are locked-in to the Apple platform. The switching costs to some consumers that are only familiar with the Apple platform might prevent them from considering substitute products.

Threat of Substitute Products

Apple's products are very well differentiated from the rest of the market and this is their niche. However, Apple must continue to perpetually innovate to be able to maintain this niche.

VII. Conclusion

Apple is definitely one of the world's premier brands. Its international marketing program will represent the success or failure of it continued growth as its domestic market has become well saturated. Apple must maintain a unified message across cultural boundaries yet offer some flexibility to appeal to regional preferences. However, Apple's appeal, through differentiation, is pretty universal and there should not have to be much customization in the international marketing plan.