Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

Apple Inc has become very famous for its advertisements since 1980s. 
Its most significant ad campaigns include the super bowl commercial in 1984, the 1990s The think different campaign, and the "iPod people" of the 2000s.

The "think different" campaign is 

one of the most successful campaigns in the history of advertising.During the 90's, Apple was in a crisis and with only one campaign, they were doing better. The campaign consisted of two main parts : the black and white television commercial and a print campaign. 

Steve Jobs said: “It only took 15 . . . 30 . . . maybe 60 seconds to re-establish Apple’s counter-culture image that it had lost during the 90s”.

When it comes to sales promotion, apple knows best. Apple uses short-term techniques to persuade their target market to buy their products. Some examples of promotion sales are : the money back guarantees, rebates etc. The apple stores are very distinct and captivating because they expose all their products for consumers and they allow them for example to surf on the web from any computer or lister to music on ipods and experience the iPhone and its features. This lets consumers to be more comfortable with the product and familiarize themselves with them. 

Another example of Sales promotion is when college students buy the Macbook during summer they can get any free iPod they want and a free printer. This promotion will highly increase the sales of the Macbooks. When you purchase a concet ticket through Ticketmaster, you can purchase the corresponding artist's album for $1 off the iTunes Store price.

Ch-14 Marketing Channels and Retailing

Apple is one of the world's most successful retailers. Apple operates nearly 400 retail stores all over the world with 42 000 employees  and with more than  a million visitors every day.  It is estimated that Apple’s Fifth Avenue store generates over $35,000 per square foot making it the highest grossing retailer in New York - ever. 
Apples annual retail sales per square foot are approximately $6000( excluding online sales ) and this is more than the annual sales per square foot of Tiffany & Co and Best Buy. 

Apple's retail success is dued to a large demand for the company's products. Apple had to think different about retail and make their stores more than just a place for people to go and buy products. The job of the Apple store employees is to not to sell, but to help the costumers and to understand all of their needs. Also to approach customers with personalized warm welcome, and at the end, an invitation to return if they need something.  "People don't just want to buy personal computers anymore, they want to know what they can do with them," said Mr. Jobs. 

Apple have direct and indirect channel. Direct channels are when they sell products directly to consumers. In order for Apple to expand their sales,they use also indirect distribution channel, they have been slowly adding  distribution channels with high sales such as AT&T,Sprint, t-mobile, Verizon, Best Buy and Walmart. 

Ch 6 - Consumer decision making

The apple store is one of the successful products of Apple inc. Thousands of applications are submitted and downloaded  every day. Applications are developed according to the need and interest of the consumers. Those applications can be purchased or downloaded from the desktop iTunes App store and the mobile App Store on the iOS devices such as iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
Consumers on the App store are behaving differently depending on the unit they are using.
Young consumers with lower income purchase apps more frequently than those with higher income.
While buying the apps, consumers consider also the screenshots, the description and the rating of the apps. Consumers are attracted by visual elements that they are already familiar with, like famous logos, fonts, names and colors.  Most of the consumers found the iTunes app store messy and confusing. They prefer using the App store because they found found it to be a good mixture of both iTunes and iPhone app store but also because it has a lot of options to consider.

  

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Apple is an international corporation currently operating and expanding its service available over 96 countries building overseas presence with Apple stores.Apple opened its first retail stores on May 19, 2001, one in Virginia and the other in California. 

The Apple Store in London was the first to open in Europe in November 2004, and is the most profitable shop in London with the highest sales. 

 Apple has developed a well understanding in the global vision, by providing well customer experience, providing products with the own country language and having people feel more comfortable with the products, and getting familiar with local culture, also establishing its branch in well developed countries.

Apple international strategy is a Global strategy of a standardized products.  The only modification Apple alters in their products is the power source because of the different power voltage in different countries.  Other than this, Apple products are precisely standardized throughout international markets.   Apple’s engineering, design, and manufacturing is controlled by one source, which is why it differentiates from other computer makers.  If Apple followed a multi-domestic strategy, they would have excess overhead and management would loose control of the company, more importantly the image of cutting edge and advanced technology, products, and marketing can be damaged.