Free Report About Advertising Strategy For Apple Watch

Introduction of the company

Apple Inc. is an American corporation and it manufactures and designs consumer electronics and computer software products. The most prominent products include the Macintosh Computers, iPhone and iPod and the software range includes Mac OS X operating system, iTunes media browser, Final Cut Studio, and many more. The company has more than 250 retail store under its name in nine countries and it also manages an online store for software and hardware. (Forbes, 2013). It is now expanding into a new product category that is a smart watch.
Apple Inc. was established in California in 1976 and it was called Apple Computer, Inc. in its first 30years, but the word computer was eliminated in 2007 since it expanded into the consumer electronics .It has annual sales of roughly around US£ 32.48 billion (Mirabal, 2009).
The basic objective of Apple Inc. was summarized in its mission statement, which was to design Mac as the best personal computer, design OS X, iLife and iWork software for professionals and to lead the digital music market by bringing a revolution. Revolution is a key objective Apple Inc. has and which is integrated in its business strategy as well.

Introduction to the product

Apple’s smart watch is known as the Apple Watch, and it is the new product since their last launched product iPad. The device features include apps, fitness trackers and it synchronizes the activities with iPhone. The product is a different one from what the company has been offering, and it is the first product after the death of Steve Jobs, which makes the product gain huge attraction in the media (Forbes, 2013).

Key Advertising Objectives

Advertising is used as a major component of the marketing strategy for any product. Following are some of the advertising objects for the product that Apple is launching in the market. Keeping in mind that this is Apple’s first product after Tim Cook became the CEO, that means that a lot of attention is given to this particular product in terms of performance and the standard and expectations are set by the previous successful products. To advertise this, it has to reach in consumer’s mind as an equally advanced product. Following are the key advertising objectives for Apple Watch (Miguel, 2003).

Increasing Sales and Profits

One of the major objectives of any advertising campaign is to increase the market share by increasing sales and earnings revenues through it. Apple needs to advertise by keeping the objective of advertising actively to earn profits by attracting sales. The advertising campaign therefore, has to be based on a theme which attracts people to buy it as it means more sales for the company. The advertising has to be persuasive and the objective should be clear: to sell.

Encourage Trial and Usage

As it is a new product, most of the people would be unaware hence unsure about the usage of the product and may be unwilling to spend a large sum of money for an Apple watch. Advertising usage in this case should be to encourage people to try the product. It can be used by linking success to the previous products which the company has offered. To encourage trial and usage a number of companies offer information to public for example from where to buy and some special incentives. For instance, an advertisement for a fast food restaurant may offer consumers £2 off on a new £5 meal. In the same way, consumer products companies use advertisement for the objective of encouraging people to try their product.

Reminder Advertising

An objective of the advertisement may be reminding the people about the product and to make them recall the satisfaction they derived from consuming it before. In this case, as the product is new, reminder technique can be used by reminding consumers the success of iPhone and iPad and how consumers can link the products to Apple watch.

Follow-Up

It is also a major objective of advertising. Companies make a promise to consumers and must deliver what they’ve promised. Advertisements can serve the objective of reminding consumers that the company remembers them (Miguel, 2003).

Win-Over Competition

A major focus of the advertising campaign is to win over the audience and tell people that Apple still stands for innovation and providing the best as it did in the days of Steve Job. Apple is at a very crucial stage ever since the new CEO has been appointed and has a huge responsibility of maintain the position in consumer’s mind.

Key Messages in Advertising Campaigns

The key message in Apple’s advertisement has always been how it stands out from the rest of the product in the market. It focuses on its USP in its advertisement as we can see from the previous television commercials. Apple’s campaigns have always been powerful and the tagline says “you are more powerful than you think”. Apple responds to smartphones as competitors for iPhone, and PCs by Dell and HP as competitors for Macintosh. Apple has always focused on aggressive campaign, which appeals to emotive and empowering aspects. For example the message is that you can achieve your dream by using Apple. Apple gives aspiration to human beings for larger than life products. The key message in the advertising campaign should be on the same line by giving a message of aspiration, and belongingness to Apple users.

Overview of Key Segments and Targets

Analyzing apple’s strategy and target will gives the impression that it uses a broad differentiation strategy to achieve the competitive advantage. It differentiates on the basis of high quality, exceptional and innovative designs and experience of personalized services for the consumers. For value creation they outsource their basic production for cost saving. Therefore, it targets high end customers.
 Apple’s recent records for third quarter show that revenue has gone up by 82% and profits have gone up by 125%. It is on its way to become larger than IBM, and the most remarkable fact is that this was considered unthinkable a few years ago.
A distinctive feature about Apple’s competitiveness is that it holds a unique and limited product range compared to a wide variety provided by the competitors. It says no to the volume and makes a difference in its current product line, even in the lean years. This approach of Apple has proved to be highly profitable. Secondly, Apple has organized itself differently from the competitors. The consumer electronics are organized in the business units and they are fully integrated with the research and development departments. The result is obvious, the business units themselves are in competition with each other, and every product is compatible with one another because they share a central R&D and they create a combined experience for their customers. The accessories can be used on more than one product and consumers enjoy a brand experience with Apple (Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre, 2009). This helps it earn the trust of its customers and the trust is so high that everyone runs to grab an Apple product even before it is launched.
Most Consumer Electronics (CE) organizations have divided P&L into diverse classifications, so every item's promotion as a rate of its sales for the most part is rather low since Consumer Electronics is a low edge industry. An item is started, and just assuming that it rapidly produces a lot of deals, is it set to have a continued and generous advertising. In the event that the item doesn't instantly take off, there is a reasonable chance that its advertising will rapidly be lessened or vanish. Likewise, CE organizations regularly have an exceptionally short concentration on any given item. They deal with an exceptionally short item reinstatement cycle, and continue starting new items at regular intervals or a year. These items, with a couple of exemptions, are related to a serial number, not a name, thus at regular intervals CE organizations need to revamp practically without any preparation customers' consciousness and investment around new items. Now considering Apple's methodology, they start item families that stay for a long period of time (iPhone, ipod, ipad, and so forth). They value them at the right cost to produce aggressive promotion and they fabricate long haul start arranges. They are ready to be patient and offer opportunity to another thought to secure itself in buyer minds (Pandora Group, 2006).
Apple is moderately uninterested in rivalry. Clearly Apple needs to succeed in the commercial center and beat rivalry, yet the organization's perception of triumph is connected to purchaser reaction, considerably more than to the effect and admiration that they produce around their rivals. An exceptional illustration is their methodology to industry fairs. All CE organizations hurry to show new notions at the different CE fairs in Las Vegas or Berlin, and take extraordinary pride in "being first" instead of "being correct." A CE organization will be content with demonstrating another notion to contenders six - nine prior months it is set to be accessible in sales. Thereby giving an amazing preference to contenders to make up for lost time and kill their effect in the commercial center. Apple doesn't head off to industry fairs, rather it forms Apple occasions and events right before or much after the industry fairs. Yet throughout these occasions it demonstrates new ideas that are set to be accessible to people "quickly." (Forbes, 2013).
Apple values the entire buyer experience more than the real specialized execution. A hefty portion of Apple's rivals take pride in making items that characterizes a prevalent specialized execution. As it were, they esteem what's inside more than what is outside. The essential premise is that shoppers have a commitment to comprehend and acknowledge incredible innovation and shouldn't be disturbed by some absence of value in the development of items, awful configuration or lumbering client interfaces. Essentially CE organizations are controlled by the mentality of specialists who look down to shoppers and accept that it is their deficiency in the event that they don't comprehend the stunning innovation that they offer. Apple rather puts an immense premium on the overall buyer experience; beginning with the nature of assemble, the quality and tangible advance of materials, and the energy and usability of the client interfaces. Apple items are frequently portrayed as "spellbinding," and its clients speak more about this sexiness than they discuss immaculate innovation emphasizes. Generally, Apple has comprehended the specialty of keeping the relationship of buyers with engineering simple and energizing, while even now upholding a firm hold on the "engine's" execution.
They key segment for Apple is the customer and institutions. The challenge which Apple faces is that of compatibility with other software.

Recommendation of Schedule of Advertising Activities

For scheduling the advertising activities some key questions need to be answered first which are as follows:
Who is the target customer?
What media type will be most suitable?
How to target the customer?
What is the relationship between advertising expenditures and the impact of advertising campaigns on product or service purchases?
Knowing your target is the key in designing an advertising activity to know how to reach them (Kurtz, 2011). Media agencies define a target, then track their preferences and routines and offer a way for the brands to reach the mind of the customers. To be effective, advertising ought to convey messages that engage your clients when they need to purchase and achieve them through the media they utilization. It's stunning what number of commercial battles is focused around attempting to resolution a business issue - i.e. blowout sales intended to decrease stock utilizing such trademarks as "Everything Must Go" or "Must Reduce Overstocks." The U.S. Little Business Administration prompts organizations that the fundamental element for effective advertising is to pitch your items or administrations to intention a client's issue (Jefkins & Yadin, 2000). Given this, the SBA proposes that your advertising budget ought to be focused around the accompanying criteria:

Time your notice fight for when the client needs to purchase, not based just upon when you need to offer.

Advertise things that will be prevalent with clients, as opposed to building this choice in light of what things you need to dispose of.

Ads ought to be composed to tout client advantages.

Choose your advertising medium focused around the capacity to reach prospective users.

Making sense of the amount to use on advertising ought to start with your business incomes. The expense of advertising will be paid for by deals and expanding deals is your objective of a commercial battle. Subsequently, there are two equations that the SBA prescribes little organizations use when choosing the amount to use on advertising:
1. What amount of cash do you have to advance the offer of a certain item at a given cost? The SBA utilizes the sample that on the off chance that you use £10 of the offering cost of a thing that cost £300 on advertising, then you ought to be ready to use £3,000 in advertising to offer 300 units and create £90,000 in deals.
2. The other path is to situate aside a level rate of your aggregate anticipated deals incomes for advertising. So on the off chance that you want to commit five percent of your incomes and you hope to accumulate £100,000 in deals that year, you would use £5,000 on advertising.
When you have an idea about the amount of cash you want to budget for advertising, you have to make sense of when you ought to use that cash amid the following 12 months. We have attached example worksheets and format understands the concept of budgeting. While the plotting of this information may be tedious, it can help you come close your genuine deals against the objectives you set in making your advertising system. Thus, you can choose whether to roll out improvements. To evaluate the marketing campaign, the key performance indicator used is the sales and the increase in the market share of the product. To evaluate an advertising campaign, it should be split into two phases. The pre-campaign pre-test measure, for instance, prior to launching the campaign it should be measured in a survey that how many consumers are already aware of the product and how many already use it. The post-campaign phase will measure the same and the difference between the two results is the result of the success of the advertising campaign.

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