Background
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer in 1976, and its first product was the Apple 1 microcomputer. Apple manufactures, designs, and markets tablets, wearable gadgets, PCs, and smartphones. In addition, the firm offers software applications and correlated accessories, services, and third-party digital content. The company’s product portfolio comprises iPad, Mac, iPhone, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and iPod (Global Data, 2022). The company has emerged as one of the leading firms producing consumer electronic goods.
Having no change, the technology giant risks its lineup of iPads and is perpetually behind the iPhone provisions in the market. Apple fails to position its products clearly, so consumers cannot decide whether a computing gadget is right to purchase. For the daily user with 1200 US Dollars to replace their outdated personal computers (PC), there is the Macbook Air, the Macbook, or the iPad Pro to choose from in Apple’s offering (Vasylieva and James, Jr., 2021).
The tech-geeks will assert that it is evident that one must select the right tool for the work. The iPad Pro is meant for creative professionals, the Macbook is designed for people who require super-portable typical tools, and the Macbook Air is for individuals who prefer good general-purpose tools that perform most things well (Ferrell, Hartline and Hochstein, 2021). This leads to confusion regarding the market marking of iPads.
However, Apple forgets that its functions are not full-time, as in the case of iPad Pro and MacBook. Besides, a journalist uses the Macbook Pro in an office when writing and doing dedicated study. At the same time, the inventive user owns the Mac Pro and many huge external monitors when carrying out heavy post-processing projects. It is not easy for a non-tech-savvy daily user who can afford only a single gadget (Dalgic, 2019). The many features and specifications on the information brochure appear confusing for most people; therefore, they depend on the marketers for advice.
Nonetheless, the marketers of Apple discuss every gadget individually; this is primarily a massive feature description with its superlatives. The marketers fail to express who each Apple product is designed for in the market (Kotler et al., 2019). The product provision at Apple seems to expand while its market delineation is blurred, making it more challenging for consumers.
Identified Needs
Tailoring Product-Specific Marketing Strategy
Apple has failed in its launch and marketing of the iPad Pro. The company’s sales and marketing approach was not clear as the entire marketing and launch concerned productivity, and it influenced positioning it to be a potential replacement for PC. Apple continues to make the best iPads in the world, even though a small percentage of consumers keep purchasing the inappropriate ones and then keep complaining about them, slowly tarnishing Apple’s public image while decreasing the customer ratings, thus making iPad Pro graded closer to its competitor (Kotler et al., 2019).
Ultimately, a single-minded rival comes with a superior entry-level tablet similar to Apple’s iPad Pro but appears to market and target the students aggressively, hence stealing this market from the firm. Others follow the same step, taking away various parts of the company’s business (Mertala, 2020). Therefore, the marketing failure of the iPad Pro is projected to have an effect on Apple’s sales in the short and medium term.
Based on the sales and marketing perspective, despite iPads having modern technology, respective nomenclatures indicate that chips available in modern iPhones have advanced chips compared to those in modern iPads. Hence, Apple needs to have a clear sales and marketing strategy for each product and not only a description of its features for its consumers (Guidolin and Guseo, 2020).
Considering Customer Needs and Buyer Possibilities
Its targeted audience of Apple comprises upper-class and middle-class users based on their affordability as they can pay higher prices for the products that offer them an inconceivable user experience (Zhou and Gupta, 2020). This implies that users have high disposable incomes and are ready to pay more for high-value products like iPad Pro.
However, the company fails to tailor its sales and marketing to the needs of its consumers, as a small percentage of consumers end up purchasing the wrong product, such as iPad Pro. The marketing team convinced them that the iPad Pro works better than a PC, thus making them opt for it. Nonetheless, the role of the iPad Pro is not full-time, which Apple fails to tell its consumers (Dalgic, 2019).
Therefore, it shows that Apple’s talks concerning its iPad Pro are segregated, only on feature descriptions and mass of superlatives. The company fails to express clearly how the iPad Pro is designed in the technological world (Lan, 2021). A firm needs to consider having a sales and marketing plan for a specific group of consumers based on its uses.
Example
A good example of failed sales and marketing for iPad Pro concerns Mary, a constructor who needs to replace her laptop. She is all set to have a Macbook Pro and then sees an advert about the iPad Pro on television. It asserts that the Apple CEO, Tim Cook, referred to the iPad as presenting a personal computing future that can operate Microsoft Office and has an attachable keyboard. Thus, he thinks this replaces the Macbook Pro perfectly (Mertala, 2020). She believes in using it for her business and then can watch movies in the evening.
However, she finds it difficult to do without the mouse after getting it and working on her account’s spreadsheet. Upon attempting to draft the project’s new plan for future tasks, she noticed that the attachable keyboard was not functioning like the real one. This implies a failed marketing approach for iPad Pro as it does not serve consumers’ needs as intended. In this case, Mary will not blame herself for purchasing the wrong machine but will blame Apple as she expected it to work (Dalgic, 2019). She will tell her friends about her encounters, and the company’s reputation and image will slowly get damaged as the narratives build up.
Solution
Apple has expanded its product offering, which makes it more challenging for consumers as these market delineations have blurred. Therefore, as a salesperson, through consumer engagement, messaging should be tailored to position iPad Pro and tablets in the market to compensate for this. The target market for this tablet must be transparent and should not overlap (Bartels, 2019). It will assist Apple to focus and make it easier for consumers to decide on the right product.
The firm’s best opportunity is to realign the iPad Pro with its key roles and targeted users. Through digital marketing and traditional marketing practices, one can help align the product uses to specific consumers in the market rather than targeting mass consumers based on their disposable income (Mertala, 2020). The latest iPad must be sold based on the buyer’s circumstance and not their disposition.
Social Media Marketing
At first, there is a need to engage consumers on the product through social media platforms, primarily Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, while focusing on the uses, features, and benefits to a consumer when purchasing an iPad Pro online. It will entail using demos to show how the tablet can be used by consumers based on its unique features.
Considering Product Specificity
However, as salespersons, there is a need to dissuade from asserting that iPad Pro is a replacement for laptops such as MacBook Pro or MacBook. This will lead to confusion as it makes consumers buy the product and, ultimately, fail to serve what was intended (Vasylieva and James, 2021). Since social media sites can reach a wide range of consumers at a reduced cost, a salesperson at Apple will benefit from utilizing them to improve consumer engagement.
Further, a salesperson needs to tell iPad Pro consumers stories in contrast to other products to allow them to see the difference in uses and design. The sales approach should focus solely on the iPad but, in certain instances, reference other products that relate to it and their respective uniqueness to the tablet. It will aid in setting it apart from others as consumers can distinguish its roles from Apple’s products.
Hence, a consumer cannot purchase an iPad as a substitute for other products that Apple manufactures; in the case of Mary, who had the idea of replacing her laptop and ended up substituting it with an iPad because the advert noted that it could serve as a laptop (Bartels, 2019). Therefore, to address such misunderstandings and misguidances, the company must tailor its marketing messages through the stipulated channels to meet consumers’ needs.
Traditional Advertising
Moreover, there is a need to utilize television and Apple’s ads to market the iPad Pro tablet to targeted consumers. The company should aggressively target specific consumers with its product other than the feature descriptions and mass of superlatives. Despite having the best products in the market, a company may fail to get the required consumers due to a poor marketing approach, as Apple did with the iPad tablet (Vasylieva and James, 2021).
The product has to be sold to meet the concerned customer’s needs in the market. This will differentiate it from competitors who only target a specific group of consumers, such as students with tablets. IPad Pro is promoted as a product with its unique revolution. It uses and is not a substitute for other products, such as Microsoft’s Surface Pro, which has been marketed as one to overtake the Macbook and the future of personal computers (Dalgic, 2019). In this perspective, the salesperson will fail the product if it does not perform as the consumer expects.
Furthermore, the intended market of iPad Pro is commercial and student users as it has more memory and processing capacity than earlier tablets. The tablet aimed at attracting a distinct group of professional clients. It is a mini PC gadget endowed with superior compatibility mode and ease of user application (Dalgic, 2019).
iPad Pro is a fully equipped gadget that allows users to take pictures, download a massive amount of data, watch movies, and send and receive emails, documents, and attachments. The tablet is designed to offer ultimate user-friendliness and accessibility to all modern technological developments in a single mini gadget. It is meant for business and personal usage, where a user can be highly connected and digitized to the world in seconds without hassle.
Additionally, Apple’s iPad Pro has several fascinating features that can enhance productivity, support innovativeness, or amaze one’s friends. For instance, two applications can be employed simultaneously on it (Jannah, Fitri, and Nurjannah, 2023). It enables shoppers to utilize social media platforms while surfing the internet concurrently and emailing and viewing documents.
Costs and Timings
Table 1: Shows the budget for iPad Pro sales and marketing online at stores.
Account Management
If selected as the salesperson on my proposal for iPad sales strategy, effective account management strategies for significant accounts will differentiate me from other salespeople in the market. First, I must apply a key account management approach and define what it entails. Then, I must select only a few accounts to manage while establishing the correct numbers. There is a need to understand the key accounts intimately, chat often and offer solutions, not sell products (Bartels, 2019). In addition, there is a need to embrace continuous improvement in consumer engagement perspectives.
Reference List
Bartels, R.D.W. (2019) ‘Marketing principles,’ Journal of Marketing, 9(2), p.151. Web.
Dalgic, T. (2019) ‘Niche marketing principles,’ Journal of Segmentation in Marketing, 2(1), pp.5–18. Web.
Ferrell, O.C., Hartline, M.D. and Hochstein, B.W. (2021). Marketing strategy: text and cases. Boston, Ma: Cengage.
Global Data (2022). Apple Inc: Overview. Web.
Guidolin, M. and Guseo, R. (2020) ‘Has the iPhone cannibalizedthe iPad? An asymmetric competition model. Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry,’ 36(3), pp.465–476. Web.
Jannah, M., Fitri, Z. and Nurjannah, N. (2023) ‘IPAD implementation in teaching English at SMP Islam Al-Azhar Cairo Banda Aceh,’ Journal of English Teaching and Linguistics, 4(1), pp.49–56. Web.
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L.C. and He, H. (2019). Principles of Marketing. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
Lan, B. (2021). Analysis of Apple’s marketing strategy. Proceedings of the 2021 6th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2021). Web.
Mertala, P. (2020) ‘It is important at this point to make clear that this study is not “anti-iPad”’: Ed-Tech speak around iPads in educational technology research,’ Learning, Media and Technology, 46(2), pp.230–242. Web.
Vasylieva, N. and James, Jr., H. (2021), ‘Production and trade patterns in the world apple market,’ Innovative Marketing, 17(1), pp.16–25. Web.
Zhou, L. and Gupta, S.M. (2020) ‘Value depreciation factors for new and remanufactured high-technology products: a case study on iPhones and iPads,’ International Journal of Production Research, 58(23), pp.7218–7249. Web.
Loading...
