iPhone Apple and Market Research Process

Market research process is a way for a business to understand a problem, determine research design, prepare and design research instrument, sample and collect data, and then communicate and visualize results. It is a clear way to plan, collect, and analyze data for the assessment of product quality and customer satisfaction. Apple Inc., is a company that has been seen as a company that does not perform market research, has been revealed in recent times to submit to the need for market research in order to increase customer satisfaction for their most popular products, the iPHONE. Market research enables effective undertaking of marketing and assists a business in handling market demand, changes in technology and consumer tastes, and changes in the competitor's product ranges.

Competitor's like Samsung have and continue to release phones like the Samsung Galaxy series in order to pull customers from Apple to Samsung. While Apple Inc. reigns supreme in the smart phone market, the company needs to continue to perform market research in order to stay ahead of its competitors year after year. One of the main purposes of market research is to help forecast future trends. This is very important as future trends will dictate consumer buying patterns. There are various kinds of market research.

These kinds relate to a business' marketing decision. Target markets require the type of research that deals with purchase behavior, website traffic, and customer satisfaction (Kotler, 2013). Pricing requires optimal price setting, price elasticity analysis, and discount options. Because Apple requires market research to help with customer satisfaction, the marketing decision connected to the type of research is target markets. Research target markets reduce risk, uncertainty, and helps create, refine, and assess potential marketing actions. By taking the first step and defining the problem, Apple Inc. is recognizing and identifying the problem/opportunity.

The problem/opportunity is how to provide a better overall consumer experience so customers will continue to buy iPhone's versus go to their competitors. Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have assumed the position as the bestselling smart phone for ten consecutive months claiming the top spot in the United States, China, and the international market. While the 2015-year has brought a slowdown since March and April, market research suggests the iPhone 6 retained its position as bestseller internationally through May and June. It's main rival, the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphones, lost steam quickly as their sales dropped steadily.

Overall, there is a consistent pattern of the iPhone topping lists during the first and fourth quarters of each year with Galaxy S topping the second and third quarters respectively (). However, since September of 2014, the list remained fronted by Apple and the iPhone for months. One of the reasons for Apple's success could be China's love for large screen devices, proving to be the iPhone 6 Plus' largest market. While Steve Jobs explained in the past that a company like Apple never performs market research, they merely create great products, there evidence that suggests they gather consumer data from monthly surveys frequently.

In fact, Apple's VP, Greg Joswiak attempted to seal information regarding Apple's market strategy and research. That is because each month iPhone buyers are surveyed by Apple and their answers are then translated to tracking studies. Joswiak wished to keep this information private to keep competitors from understanding which demographics receive the most satisfaction from Apple products. The market research process that seems to work the most for Apple, and has been working for years, is the monthly customer surveys. These surveys not only give feedback on what aspects of the iPhone users love, but also provides the company as to which demographics like the iPhone the most and buy the iPhone the most.

The market research process that would best serve Apple Inc., and increase sales of the iPhone 6 as well as the upcoming release of the iPhone 7 is target market research. By defining the research objective, which is the iPhone 6 or 6 plus selling more in China, the market, competitors, and customers can be identified. China is one of the biggest markets for the iPhone 6 Plus. This would be the market and customer base with Samsung Galaxy series being the competitors. In a survey, to be given to current iPhone customers, various questions would be asked such as age, gender, and so forth. Identifying the location of the majority of the customers is an important way to determine an ideal customer profile for the iPhone. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the competitor will also provide any insight into any ongoing objectives.

Through the monthly surveys, enough data will be gathered which can then lead to interpretation of findings. Here is where Apple will identify any major trends using mind-maps, tables, and diagrams to organize data. A crucial step in the market research process, interpretation of data helps a business uncover whatever insights they have gained from data collection in the previous step. After analysis of the information is complete, decisions and conclusions will be made in alignment with initial research and business objectives.

By going through the steps in a way that promotes collection and examination, proper decisions can be made in terms of marketing strategies. China's consumer data concerning the iPhone reveal the average Chinese iPhone customer enjoys big screens, propelling sales of the iPhone 6 Plus in China's smartphone market. By implementing surveys to see where in China consumers bought the iPhone 6 Plus more, Apple can then market specifically to those areas, reducing marketing/advertising costs, and enabling a focused marketing strategy to key areas. This is how Apple has managed to do so well in 2015 in both the American market and international market.

Organization

In its infancy, the iPhone represented a reinvention of the phone. As Steve Jobs released a new wide-screen iPod as a revolutionary mobile on January 9th 2007, the whole world got a taste of what the mobile phone can become, in all in one product that customers can use to talk on the phone and use the internet. The multi-tasking feature of the iPhone, coupled with the removal of a physical keyboard, led to a level of innovation that the world never saw before.

First, he set up and knocked down the physical keyboard and the stylus, features that dominated the BlackBerry, Motorola, and Palm smartphones of the day. Then Jobs introduced the multitouch interface that let the iPhone smoothly pinch-to-zoom, the physics-based interactivity that included inertial scrolling and rubber banding, and the multitasking that let him move seamlessly from music to call to web to email and back (Ritchie, 2015).

Innovation is something Apple have been leaders of since the personal computer facelift of the early millennium. However, as competitors began updating their smartphone lines and increasing things like screen size, iPhone began to change, adapting to consumer demand.

As previously stated, consumers, especially in the Chinese market, like large screens. The Samsung Galaxy series has large screens. In order to meet consumer demand for large screens, Apple Inc., released along with the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 Plus not only has a bigger screen than the iPhone 6, but it also is bigger in size, comparable to the size of the Samsung Galaxy series. This move from regular sized iPhones to larger sized iPhones with bigger screens could very well have placed Apple in the position it saw in 2015, which was 10 consecutive months as the top smartphone seller in all smartphone markets, especially China.

Market

Apple has several markets it advertises for with China being one of its biggest in relation to consumer demand for iPhone and recently iPhone 6 Plus. "In the first nine months of Apple's fiscal year, the company had more than $46 billion in sales came from Greater China (the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan) or more than 25% of its overall sales ($182.2 billion)" (CNBC, 2015). Being the country that has the largest demand for the iPhone in the world, surpassing consumer demand in the United States, China can be considered a main market for Apple, namely in the smartphone category. China is also considered an important area for advertising in regards to specific regions like the mainland and outside of the mainland like Hong Kong.

Overall, China is the largest international smartphone market, representing a third of the total smartphone shipments in 2015. Even with an expected shrink in smartphone shipments, thanks to the innovations of the iPhone with the iPhone Plus and the Samsung Galaxy series, the Chinese market continued to promote strong numbers in smartphone sales. The other big market that Apple pays attention to and makes a large amount of sales for Apple is the American market.

While Apple still has competition with Samsung along with HTC and LG in the United States, American markets appear to hold the iPhone as the leading smartphone product. With almost a 45% market share among aged 13 or older U.S. smartphone subscribers, sales for Apple in the smartphone share continue to remain the same or increase. Their closest competitors, Samsung, only holds a 27% market share as of 2015 figures. With the United States and China being the main markets for Apple Inc., its market research must focus and target populations within these two countries.

Customer Base

The customer base for the iPhone consists of several key identifiers. Age, gender, and location. As previously mentioned, the two largest markets for Apple and the iPhone are the United States and China. Therefore many of Apple's customers are American and Chinese. Then going into key distinctions of iPhone users, information points towards iPhone users being more educated and having a higher income. This is clearly seen in social media with many celebrities sporting an iPhone over other phones.

In terms of age, there are no major populations within the customer base. iPhone customers seem to spread out among all age ranges. When it comes to occupation, many iPhone customers are business people and professionals. Another important bit of information from the customer base is that iPhone users appear addicted to digital services in that they are more heavy users than for example Android users.

Overall iPhone's customer base appears to be higher up on the socio-economic scale. That means they generally tend to have higher education, higher income, and higher representation within managerial and professional jobs. Many are tech enthusiasts, show signs of digital device addition and crave upgrades and app usage. The customer base not only shows how Apple Inc. should spend its money in regards to advertising, but also reveals where Apple should focus its market research on.

If customers are addicted to digital services, in order to improve customer satisfaction, market research should aim on identifying what kind of services iPhone customers enjoy the most or want to see the most improvements on. That will allow Apple to identify which services customers like and Apple can then tweak and upgrade. It will also allow Apple to identify which digital services customers do not like and can then remove from any future version of the iPhone.

Recommendations

One of the reasons Apple Inc. remains successful has to do with its perceived quality and universal appeal. People like the iPhone because it symbolizes style and simplicity as well as offers unique and fun apps to use each day. Its interface is seamless and easy to use. Not only that, but the iPhone acts a status symbol. People associate wealth and affluence with the use of an iPhone. With celebrities constantly showing off their iPhone in mirrored selfies and enjoying their phones while using social media, the iPhone has become deeply engrained in the American and Chinese markets.