Apple iWatch distribution channels and marketing strategy

Apple iWatch (New Product Launch)

Product / Service

Target Market

Apple iWatch (New Product Launch)

Apple iWatch (New Product Launch)

Marketing Channels

Apple Inc. uses both direct and indirect marketing channels for its product offerings including the Apple iWatch. The company uses three different direct marketing channels one of which is the Apple Online Store where the channels take the form of: Producer - Consumer. The second direct channel is using the different Apple Stores where only Apple Products are sold directly to the consumer, which also takes the similar form of Producer -Consumer. The third direct marketing channels takes the form of strategic channel alliances where Apple products are sold in a store within a store. The Apple personnel sell Apple products in a retail store within Comp USA. This marketing channel takes the form of: Producer-Retailer-Consumer (Mohr et al., 2010).

The indirect marketing channels take into account the wholesalers and retailers as marketing channels Producer-Wholesaler-Retailer-Consumer. In this case, the wholesaler and the retailer is the link between the producer and the consumer. The indirect sales uses online sales or catalog sales Producer-Retailer-Consumer. (Mohr et al., 2010). This product offering is more service dominant taking into account the different services offered by the iWatch.

2. According to Boone and Kurtz (2010), distribution decisions encompass distribution intensity. This takes into account the number of intermediaries or retail outlets through which a manufacturer or producer distributes its products and goods. The Apple iWatch, has exclusive distribution as the product goes hand-in-hand with the iPhone. Apple Inc. and AT&T have entered into an agreement that only the listed companies should provide phones to the consumers. This type of distribution may change the target market. This is to target the young consumers who experiment with different mobile networks and to reach to these target audience it is imperative to include other mobile networks. At the launch of iWatch its distribution was restricted to limited consumers

Product Lifecycle

The Apple iWatch product at the current moment uses premium pricing marketing strategy, where the price of the product offering is set at a high value amount to replicate its exclusiveness. Apple Inc. is known to have high priced products. However, consumers are drawn to the company's products and disregard the pricing levels because they believe that Apple products and services are exclusive. A number of modifications can be made to the pricing products to attract new target audience. This can be achieved by cost-based pricing. This will increase the consumer base and enable the company to reach maximum consumers. This strategy would generate a return to the company as it would have catered for all the costs incurred in production and distribution of services and products and thereafter set a markup. The final pricing set for the product would still generate a profit. More so, the company would experience a significant increase in its consumer base and increase in product sales. The changes mentioned in the aforementioned section, would change the lifecycle stage. This is because the institution of the other iPhone products such as iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s would take back the lifecycle stage to the introduction stage. This would mean the increase in capital and funds for the lifecycle marketing strategy. In particular, there would be need for advertisement and marketing funds to ensure that the consumers are aware of the new product extension in order to ensure sales.

Apple iWatch (New Product Launch) 1