About Apple Inc.
Founded in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, Apple Incorporation is a multinational technology business that specializes in producing consumer goods, personal computers, servers, and computer software. The Macintosh computer, iPad tablet, and iPhone product lines are the core product categories the company focuses on. Timothy Donald Cook now serves as the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) and is based in Cupertino, California. It is the second-largest phone manufacturer in the world and the biggest IT firm combined.
With a history spanning more than 30 years, Apple has experienced a number of ups and downs in terms of its financial success. After 2007, when Apple introduced the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the company finally saw significant success. It trades under the symbol AAPL on the NASDAQ. It is a component of both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ-100.
Mission and Vision Statements
Through its cutting-edge hardware, software, and online offerings, Apple is dedicated to providing the finest personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals, and consumers worldwide. In order to provide its clients with products and solutions with cutting-edge design, excellent usability, and seamless integration, the company’s business strategy takes advantage of its exceptional capacity to design and build its own operating systems, hardware, application software, and services.
Company Analysis
The business has produced a wide variety of electrical devices for a very long period. The organization has found it essential to do a PESTEL (political, economic, sociocultural, technical, ecological, and legal) study in order to identify the variables that might have an impact on the accomplishment of its purpose and vision. The study identifies how governments and other groups affect commerce. PESTEL aids in the analysis of the firm’s external environment and assists it in making certain important decisions.
Internal Environments
The internal growth-limiting elements for Apple Inc. are classified as both strengths and weaknesses. The company’s strongest asset is its brand identification, with Interbrand ranking Apple number one with a value of $408 billion for the ninth consecutive year. Due to its great brand reputation, Apple may introduce new goods that will ultimately sell. The poor cannot afford them; middle-class and wealthy folks are the target markets. The company is massive, with a market capitalization of 2.23 trillion dollars in the fiscal year 2021. Due to its financial resources, Apple is able to invest in cutting-edge technology that no other company is using.
Trademarks, Patents, Copyrights, and Current Processes
The Apple corporation creates and manufactures technologically advanced and reliable products. The company was also one of the first to introduce cutting-edge technology like iPads and iPhones. Rapid innovation gives the brand a competitive advantage by allowing it to stay up with the newest technologies. Additionally, Apple utilizes several operating systems (OS) that are incompatible with other platforms. For optimum security, Apple has filed trademarks for its logo and macOS. Due to the company’s extensive development of technical products to outperform its competitors, it holds several patents. The company’s intellectual properties are shielded by both trademark and copyright.
Strengths
The iPhone, the most widely used smartphone in the world, is created, produced, and sold by Apple, even if Apple only accounts for 15% of the worldwide smartphone market. Apple constantly pays attention to consumer input, whether it’s favorable or negative. If it’s negative, Apple will make sure to improve its business. Compared to competing operating systems like Windows, Android, and others, Apple products are easier to use. The user cannot alter the gadget to suit their own requirements. However, Apple’s main focus has always been on creating products that are beautiful and simple to use.
Weaknesses
Apple presently employs 98000 people and runs 450 Apple stores. Due to its exclusiveness strategy, Apple Inc. has a constrained distribution network. For instance, the business picks its authorized vendors carefully. This exclusivity approach is taken into account as a factor that restricts market reach in the SWOT analysis framework. The dependency of Apple’s sales on upscale market segments is one of its key disadvantages. While prohibiting customers from low-income brackets from simply purchasing the company’s items, high costs draw clients from the middle- and high-income groups. Because high-end market segments only make up a small portion of the worldwide market, this internal strategic aspect is a significant limitation.
External Environment
External Opportunities
In the intensely competitive smartphone market, Apple has sued Samsung twice in the past two years for patent infringement. Of a $2.2 billion lawsuit for Samsung’s violation of three patents, Apple received $120 million. Apple has a chance here because when something becomes popular on social media, the firm will become well-known. Apple should seize the chance to boost sales.
Forbes estimates that by 2022, sales of wearable smart technology devices will have doubled. With 233-million-unit sales, it will grow to be a $27 billion+ market. Apple has the chance to profit from wearable smart technologies.
External Threats
Consumers will find Apple Pay’s fingerprint technology more convenient, while credit card firms like Visa, American Express, and Mastercard will find it more secure. However, rivals like Samsung already use comparable technology on some of their phones, and going future, all phones will probably use the same technology. Apple operates in a fiercely competitive, fast-evolving market that frequently exhibits high levels of consumer devotion. However, Apple keeps convincing its customers to buy what is truly a very nice device at a fair price.
The majority of smartphones sold worldwide are made in China, which is well known for its fake goods. Apple is now open to third-world nations using its reputation for selling fake goods illegally. Counterfeit Apple items are offered for sale by shady merchants at the same price as genuine Apple goods. Potential purchasers may think that a counterfeit item is of poor quality and manufactured by Apple.
Impacts of Internal and External Environments in Achieving Strategy
In a SWOT analysis, the external elements that affect a company’s performance are always included under the opportunities and threats. Apple may use new technologies to expand its clientele and rule the market. Given the strong demand, the brand may plan and provide self-driving software for automobiles. Apple has the know-how to make it happen rather than producing real driverless cars like Tesla. Services for streaming music must be made more widely available. The population is young, and the economy is growing quickly, creating room for development.
Strategic Objective of the Company
Organizational objectives are the short- to medium-term targets and goals that Apple Inc. sets in order to accomplish the more significant long-term strategic goals. The organizational objectives have a significant role in defining how Apple Inc. allocates resources as well as the implementation of its rules, timetables, and processes.
The company is putting more effort into ensuring that the design of its products and functionality are made in a manner that meets its customers’ expectations. Additionally, Apple company is determined to keep its ecosystem strong and protect the business from unhealthy competition from other well-established companies.
Long Term Goals
Offering quality items at premium pricing while yet maintaining a substantial market share and strong profit margins is Apple’s current long-term goal for their product. The primary goal is to keep developing ground-breaking goods. With each of its products bringing something fresh and interesting to the globe, Apple has established a reputation for setting trends in the industry. Their approach is to produce ground-breaking goods. Along with having a strong R&D staff, Apple has to have a fantastic culture of team building.
Another long-term objective for the business is to assist the community in the creation of hardware and software made by third parties (Steve W. Pearce). The Apple Global Volunteer Program is one of the initiatives that has benefited localities. With a total donation to charities and non-profits of more than $78 million, the Apple Matching Gifts Program has been a resounding success.
Short term goals
Apple company is set to increase the rate of sales of their products by 21 percent following the projected recruitment of additional marketers in the next five years. The company is already popular in the market, but this is not enough to bring in more sales; therefore, it is decided that the company will increase the blog on the company website. The number of page visits will be collected and analyzed through google analytics. To also increase the sales of Apple products, the business will launch a program that will attract many people to the business with the aim of winning themselves a token on social media by participating in the marketing activities.
Methods of Collecting Data
One scenario where you may use a survey is to get feedback from attendees after an event. This might provide you an idea of what attendees liked, what they would have liked to be different, and how you can make improvements or cut costs at your subsequent event for a comparable group.
Although participants can get hard copies of surveys, internet surveys offer the chance for widespread distribution. They can also be reasonably priced; using a free application can make conducting a survey completely free. Partnering with a market research company to get the survey in front of a certain demographic may be worthwhile if you want to target a particular set of individuals.
Keeping track of this information might help the business better understand the company’s consumer base and make judgments regarding focused marketing campaigns. Face-to-face conversations on a particular subject or issue are the main component of interviews and focus groups. Focus groups usually consist of multiple persons, whereas interviews are normally conducted one-on-one.
Due to the candor it provides, seeing users engage with the website or product might be helpful for data collecting. The company can see in real time if your user experience is challenging or unclear.
Using pixels and cookies, companies may collect behavioral data. Both of these programs track users’ online activity across several websites and give information about the material they are most interested in and interact with.
Monitoring follower interaction on the brand’s social media accounts is a simple method to keep tabs on information about the motives and interests of your audience. Although many social media platforms come with statistics, there are other third-party social media sites that provide more thorough, structured information gleaned from many sources.
References
Addison, M., & Adelaide, V. (2022). Brand development and marketing strategies in the USA: A case of Apple Incorporation. Journal of Marketing and Communication, 5(1), 1–8.
Greg, R. (2020). Strategic review of Apple Incorporation marketing in the United States of America. Journal of Marketing and Communication, 3(2), 47–83.
Yie, E., Zhi, E., & Ping, T. S. (2021). A critical analysis of internal and external environment: Case study of Apple Incorporation. Journal of International Business and Management, 4(10), 01–14.