Business Internal Assessment. Marketing Mix. Due:

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1 Business Internal Assessment Marketing Mix Due: Product: The iphone 6 is a thin, powerful and power efficient smartphone. It has a smooth metal surface with a new 1334 x 750 resolution Retina HD display. The iphone 6 is developed with ultrafast wireless technologies, allowing users to connect to networks and surf the web in fast speeds all over the world. Target market: This smartphone is targeted at young and middle aged adults of both genders who have a medium to high income. This smartphone is priced quite highly which means it could be too costly for teenagers or adults with young families and a single income to buy this product. It could be a good product for university students to be more organized with these high tech features. Elderly people would most likely not be a target market of this product as they would not know how to function the high tech features in the iphone 6. Unique Selling Point One of this smartphone s unique selling points is the Touch ID technology. This allows users to securely access their iphone with their fingerprint as the password. This is a relatively new technology which only has been used twice after it was first introduced in the iphone 5s. Another eye catching feature improved from the iphone 5s is the increase in the display screen. The screen size of the Iphone 6 is 4.7 inch ( diagonal ) compared to 4 inch on the iphone 5s Packaging The packaging of the iphone 6 is not a important factor in the promotion of this product. This is because consumers looking for this product will find them on display at retail stores. Only buyers of this product will experience having the packaging of the iphone 6. The Apple iphone 6 is packaged in a small lightweight box made from biobased materials. Since this is really material efficient, it can allow 50 percent more units to be transported in an airline shipping container compared to the first generation iphone.

2 Development Stage The iphone 6 is in its growth stage as it still is making growing sales. The growth is not as much as what it was when it first got released on September 2014.The iphone 6 will start going into maturity stage as Samsung are soon releasing a competitive product (Samsung S6) that could possibly match up to the iphone 6. If Apple release a newer smartphone with higher technology features, the iphone 6 with start going into decline as many consumers will buy that smartphone instead of this. Alternatively if Apple want to boost the sales of the iphone 6 they can have a price drop, as this will allow for a larger target market. What products are the main competitors to your selected product? I think that the main competitors to the iphone 6 are the Samsung Galaxy S5, iphone 6 Plus and Sony Xperia Z3. These competitive products are also smart phones with the latest technologies. But these products may slightly be priced lower or higher as they have many different features compared to the iphone. iphone 6 Samsung Galaxy S5 iphone 6 plus Sony Xperia Z3 Price $999 $749 $1,149 $999

3 This graph shows three competitive smartphones to the iphone 6. The Apple iphone 6 is not the cheapest but also not the most expensive out of the four smartphones. The reason why there is a difference of $150 between the iphone 6 and iphone 6 Plus is because the iphone 6 Plus has more extended features such as a larger screen, longer streaming on the various features and higher resolution. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is priced $250 cheaper than the iphone 6 because when it was released last year in April, their sales were not as high as they intended. The reason for this could be because there weren t many unique features. Now the Samsung Galaxy S5 is priced at $749 to possibly get more sales before they release a newer product. Lastly the Sony Xperia Z3 is priced the same as the iphone 6. This is because both of these smartphones were released around the same date and the Sony Xperia Z3 is making good sales as they have not dropped their prices. The Xperia Z3 and iphone 6 are not major competitors for smartphones features as they have their own different unique features. Price: The Apple iphone 6 comes in three different storage space models. Apple iphone 6 16GB is priced at $999 ( New Zealand Dollar ).* Apple iphone 6 64GB is priced at $1149 ( New Zealand Dollar ).* Apple iphone 6 128GB is priced at $1299 ( New Zealand Dollar ).* * These prices are from the Apple Online Shop.

4 Pricing Strategies: Price Skimming : Price Skimming is when a product is set a relatively high price to boost profits. Often is used by well known businesses who target a specific group of wealthy consumers who are willing to pay a higher price for the product than the majority of the market is prepared to pay. Premium Pricing: Premium pricing is about using a high price where there is a uniqueness about the product. Premium pricing can be efficient as not only can it maximize profits but also the consumers will feel they are paying a good price for the product. Price Skimming and Premium Pricing: Pricing Strategy 1 (Price Skimming): The Apple iphone 6 is priced from $999. The iphone 6 is a new high quality product, which means Apple would want to set a relatively high price, so they could boost their profits and increase the perception created by high price equally high quality. The life cycle of the iphone 6 is not long as Apple will release a newer model iphone before the iphone 6 starts going into decline. That is why they would want to make as much profit as they possibly can before a newer product is released into the market. Pricing Strategy 2 (Premium Pricing): The iphone 6 can also use Premium Pricing. Apple would want to set the price quite high as there are many unique features in the iphone 6 such as the Touch ID technology, larger screen and high speed wifi. This is a way consumers will be happy to buy a higher priced product which has more special features compared to other smartphones which are lower priced. Premium Pricing is also effective because many consumers are brand loyal and they will only buy products from the Apple brand, by keeping the price high they are also indicating that it is high quality. Place: There are two types of place where customers can buy a Apple iphone 6. The first one is telecommunication service providers such as Spark and Vodafone. The second one is specialist electronics retailers such as JB hi fi and Noel Leeming. The iphone 6 is high tech, which means it would not be available in local shops. Also it would require specialist technology knowledge from salespeople in order to explain the product to the customers. Another way for customers to buy the iphone 6 is through the Apple online store. This online store allows customers to browse through the various Apple products. Customers have the option to choose which iphone 6 colour or size they want. The channel distribution used for this way of selling is from Producer to consumer. Customers may think that buying the iphone 6 directly will save them money but the price is the same as at retailers. Distribution Channels

5 The distribution channel used for the iphone 6 is from producer to retailer and then to consumer also known as Modern Distribution Channel. The producer of the iphone 6 is mostly China. From these producers the iphone gets transported normally through airlines to different retailers. This channel of distribution allows large retailers to order the product by bulk buying. The advantages of bulk buying is that large retailers can stock the product at large warehouses or regional distribution centres and then distribute the product to retail stores. By doing this it means a lower average unit cost for both the manufacturer and retailer, which could lead to high profitability and also pass on lower prices to consumers. The retailers for this product include JB hi fi, Noel Leeming, Spark and Vodafone. This distribution channel is useful as it allows consumers to get to the product quickly. The cost for the iphone 6 using the modern distribution channel is $999. The alternative to the the above distribution channel is a distribution that goes from the producer to the consumers this is known as direct distribution channel. This distribution channel allows consumers to buy the iphone 6 straight from the Apple online store. Even though this way of selling the product does not include the cost that is incurred by retailers needing to add their markup, the price of the iphone 6 could be more on top of the $999 for the iphone 6, because consumers will also have to pay postage costs depending on where they live. Promotion: What is your products promotion strategy? Advertisements: A promotion strategy used for the iphone 6 is advertisements. Many retailers such as Noel Leeming or Vodafone who will promote the product through flyers and television advertisements. Television advertisements can be viewed by mass numbers of people, which means a higher chance for the target market to see it. Television commercials can often be an expensive strategy for advertising and are not targeted just at potential iphone consumers. Social Media: One of the biggest promotion strategy Apple uses to promote the iphone 6 is through Social Media. This can be an effective promotional strategy because the target market of the iphone 6 are mostly medium to high earning adults and also many young adults. Most young adults have many social media accounts. This means there is a higher chance for the target market to see the iphone 6. Rumours are often spread before the release of this product, this can be positive for the sales of the iphone 6 as many consumers will already know about the product before it is released. This could lead to a fast growth stage in the product life cycle.

6 Personal selling: When customers come into the retail stores, the retailers can promote and suggest the iphone 6 and all its features to someone that is looking to buy a new phone. This strategy can be effective as customers will get to know more features about iphone 6 and can compare it to other smartphones. Also by using this promotion strategy it allows potential consumers to get a feel of the iphone 6 in person, which means it could change their thoughts about the iphone 6. This strategy could have an either a positive or negative impact to the sales of the iphone 6 as the positive would be that many consumers would be more interested in the product after having a feel of it in person. But the negative would be is that if consumers have already had a look at this product online and went to a retailers to buy the product, they may not like this product or maybe another smartphone could appeal to them. References: