Market Targeting
After a company has determined the market segments, it can enter one or many segments of the company’s choice market. Market targeting is the process of evaluating each market segment’s captivation and then selecting one or more segment which the firm wants to enter. A company should target segments in which it can generate the greatest customer value and therefore generating good and sustainable profit even though it can limit sales. Every company has its own target market which the firm decides to enter for its best income gain. We can notice that the Apple Inc. revealed a high-end iPhone with a fingerprint scanner that tried to achieve good and satisfactory profit in the crowded market. Apple did not disclose pricing in
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The first one is the Upper/ Middle market, which market shows that customers are willing to pay a bit more for a better user experience. The people who are from an upper/middle class market do not find it a huge deal to pay that difference if they have a decent income. Another characteristic is the people who like to have fun with technology. No other manufacturing firm offers as many options as the Apple Inc. The third characteristic of Apple’s target market is the Media and Design that are 2 groups that make part of a huge market. Apple’s market share and success will increase in the next decade because our Generation X and Y who have been exposed to the internet weren’t using computers much during the ‘compatibility’ …show more content…
From its latest release of the smart phone Samsung Galaxy SIV, it can be seen it had made advancements in its Smartphone technology to have an advantage on other competitive firms. Samsung offered more benefits to justify higher prices. Samsung has advanced its technology especially in the camera. The smart phone features the HDR characteristics for brighter and vivid captures, fast Auto Focus and Selective Focus to capture moments in detailed focus. In addition, it has introduced a new characteristic which helps position its market that is the Dust & Water Resistant where the SIV is resistant to rain, liquids, sweat, sand and dust. Also Samsung is promoting healthy living by supporting a healthier lifestyle including heart rate sensor and S Health (personal fitness tracker). Samsung has also introduced the same characteristics as the Apple feature in iPhone 5S that is the Finger Scanner where now you can unlock your smart phone and in addition to the feature of Apple, Samsung smart phone can secure payments via PayPal with your fingerprint instead of entering account passwords. Recently, Samsung has joined partnership with
market is a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve (Bethel, 2007). When identifying the target market it is important to know who buys your product and who your customers are. Smart targeting benefits the consumer as well as the company. It allows the company to be more efficient and effective by focusing effort toward that segment; therefore maintaining the most profitable outcome. The consumer is rewarded by receiving the product or service that is customized for them.
What is the meaning of targeting? It is where an enterprise evaluates every segment with an objective of identifying segments with promising business opportunities. Considering the nature of the product in question, it sufficed to mention that liquor-filled chocolates are to be sold to adults. As aforementioned, the product in question requires that adults be considered as the only market. This owes to the reality that the law prohibits the selling of alcohol and alcohol-related products to minors.
There are a range of segmentations that allows a company to target potential customers effectively.
This report will analyze and discuss the most important elements of the marketing environment for the launch of the iPhone, that is to say the main three levels of the marketing environment: the micro-environment through the customers, competitors and distributors, the macro-environment through technological, economical, social, political and environmental forces and finally the internal environment through the relation of Apple with its employees and its marketing philosophy. The analysis for the micro-environment is based on Porter’s 5 forces model and the one on the macro-environment is based on PEST analysis. The report will also give an interpretation for each of these aspects, a conclusion with a rating of the attractiveness of the UK current marketing environment in which the iPhone is launched.
The Apple brand name is a household name, the brand value of Apple, Inc. improved to $13,724 million in 2008 from $11,037 million in 2007 (Datamonitor PLC, 2009). Apple is different from its competitors because it produces high quality products, its products are also unique and attractive and this has helped to increase its market shares. Since Apple is known globally, 54% profits come from foreign markets (Datamonitor PLC, 2009). Apple products are easy to use and carry around, majority of its products are light, small and very easy to carry around and it has a major advantage of product diversity, there is something for every one of all ages.
is yet to reach its maximum potential. Truly a unique entity in its accomplishments and organization, apple through the conviction and leadership of Steve Jobs its founder and then CEO; have pioneered the revolution of mobile technology. When it comes to strength, apple Inc, has a great marketing team with great marketing and advertisement capabilities, strong brand awareness, a strong and extensive distribution channel, and most of all a vertical integration and the most obvious which is customer loyalty. With the acquisition of valuable companies such as Beats, WhatsApp, mobile payment systems with the IPhone 6, wearable gadgets like the IWatch, apple uses these opportunities to satisfy its loyal
Apple can adopt the strategy to portray a picture of a not so conducive less profitable market, which could discourage new entrants from picking that path as they will be demotivated by the low return on investment resulting from low profitability levels. In order for apple to create a niche for t numerous products, it needs to adopt and implement such bold strategies of defense to protect their interests and continue to be profitable and successful (Ideavist, 2011). Entry of a new company into the technology sector would spell doom for most companies already struggling for market share as better priced and reliable products could imply consumers would shift their preference to the new entrant leading to a negative volume of sales stir for most already established companies. Another strategy that could be employed as part of Apple’s defense could be the pre-entry strategies that make it even harder for new entrants to compete and enter into the sector and this involve continuous improvement for their products, covering
Market segmentation means dividing the market into distinct groups that have common needs and will respond similarly to marketing action. Each segment must be unique, have common needs, and respond in a similar manner to marketing efforts. Target market is the group of potential customer that has been selected by business to focus its marketing efforts towards. This is the group the business wants to sell its products/services to. Positioning refers to the image created in the minds of customer of its product or brand. It is a perception created in the minds of the consumer relative to that of its competitors.
Once a business has successfully completed segmentation based on the market into various groups the targets will be chosen. As we all know no one unique strategy will be able to appeal to all consumer segments therefore being able to come up with different strategies for specific targets are a vital aspect of marketing.
Segmentation, Target Markets, and Positioning. ANALYSIS: Apply segmentation concepts to your product/firm. How can the market for your product/service be segmented (geographically, demographically, psychographically, and buying situations)? Who are the firm’s current customers (i.e., target market)? Make a detailed profile of the current customers using the segmentation variables.
The target and positioning strategies of Apple are different as well because most of its strategies are related to cult branding. A cult brand has committed users that want to be a part of the unique brand (Acosta and Asagayam, 2010, p. 165 ) because the brand creates an exclusive image from scratch. To create this appeal, Apple invests a great amount of money into its branding so that customers have the connection with this brand only. Moreover, the positioning is done in such a way that Apple customers prefer form over functioning. The type of products Apple has introduced in the market have created a premium image of the brand. This also shows that Apple has offered a limited number of products in the market, which if diversified would damage the upscale image of the company. On the contrary, companies and competitors like Samsung have extended product line that cater to all types of customers, from lower to high-income levels. Apple has maintained its image of being an innovator by giving extra importance to the minute details of consumer usage experiences so that their preferences are examined closely.
Apple’s products are now an indispensable part of people’s lives. Despite other competitors have longer history and outstanding performance, such as General Electronic Corporation (GEC) and Sony Corporation, Apple’s constant innovation makes it become a pioneer in business market.
...This frontier has reaped major benefits for their competitors in the Android market with a wide range of products targeting all income groups. Apple has begun the foray into developing products for lower income groups with the production of the iPhone 5c which is priced cheaper than it’s flagship product the iPhone 5s. A further advancement in that direction would reap major benefits for Apple. This second concern deals with a mixture of place and product in the marketing mix. Apple offers its operating system exclusively to Apple products and its unquestioned the success of that strategy, however, it must be said there exists a potential and real prospect of complete Apple domination of the software industry if it were to allow its operating system to float onto to other hardware providers in much the similar manner in which Microsoft has benefited greatly from.
Under the circumstance that the mobile phone industry entered the 3rd generation, Nokia faced competition from both macro level and industry level. For the macro level, the government encouraged competition among the operators and handset manufacturers by giving digital licenses to new entrants. As a result, the mobile phones became more sophisticated, for example, the cameras and the games in the mobile phone. For the industry level, which can be analyzed by the Porter’s Five Forces, (lecture )Nokia was facing threat of new entrants, competitive rivalry and the bargaining power of buyers is increasing as well. As the government encourage completion between the handset manufacturers, there are several new entrants from different countries enter this industry, such as Apple from USA, Samsung from Korea. These new entrants compete with Nokia in both smartphone segment and basic phone segment. Some of them even constructed “ecosystems”, which they could integrate the services and applications quickly, in order to produce the phone in just two days. For the bargaining power of buyers’ aspect, they do not need to rely on the only operating system Symbian. They can choose Windows mobile launched by Microsoft, Android launched by Google and Ios launched by Apple, in addition, basically all of them are better than Symbian (Amiya, 2010). The buyers could choose any
Apple keeps product SKUs simple, the salespeople inside the stores have the in depth knowledge of the products. Just think that when you enter an Apple store and one of the sales staff greets you, you’re not asked, “How can I help you?” Rather they ask, “What would you like to do today?” They satisfy you by going to the heart of any technology user’s question, any question related to the technologyand the user is interested in.