iPhone Marketing Strategy

As with all Apple marketing, the iPhone marketing strategy is very clear, easy and clever. With the plain and easy apple icon, Apple focuses on the pure innovative style of their products without all the "fluff". The iPhone was released by Apple in June, 2007. The ground-breaking style of the iPhone was touted for months before the initial publish and has remained the best of the best when it comes to cell phones over the past any years. Before the iPhone's lawful release, Apple ran four television commercials promoting the new cell phone.

[b]Iphone [/b]

The first of the commercials portrays the new iPhone as the next step up from the popular iPod. The iPod was all the rage up until this point, and the iPhone was supposed to be the next-generation iPod, oh, and it's also a phone! The advertisement displays all of the enhanced features available in the iPod, and more, the point being "There's never been an iPod that can do this."

"So, say you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean"
Finger clicks on video and displays wide screen movie.
"Mmm, did somebody say Calamari?"
Finger clicks back to menu, selects Maps application to quest 'Seafood'.
"The closest would be..."
Map displays all seafood locations and highlights location nearest to you.
"Ah!"

Finger clicks seafood location, and cafeteria phone whole displayed. iPhone dial's.

The first four iPhone commercials flaunted the convenience, innovation, and usefulness of a particular stock with the functionality of not only a phone, or a music device, but a stock that can, among other things, listen to music, watch videos, view photos, make argument calls, check e-mail, browse the web, and view maps.

Not only does Apple use television for their marketing strategy, but they make use of their website by posting videos, they also published a handful of press releases that could have been released in one particular document. Apple often uses this tactic to build up hype and leave the consumer wanting more.

With Apple's brief press releases, giving the audience microscopic to go off, "Apple leveraged a law of social physics - news, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the absence of real information, those who care about a stock will grasp at any rumor that comes their way. Apple may publicly disavow the rumor Web sites that scramble for scraps about the companies plans, but secretly their marketing department must be delighted. It would cost a lot to buy that kind of Web advertising." (Silverman, 2007)

The lawful iPhone website does more than just contribute facts about the product. The website provides top tips and tricks for the use of an iPhone, as well as a huge focus on apps. Roughly the entire iPhone page displays images of apps, provides the "App of the Week," the website also contains sections titled "Apps for Everything," and the "Top Apps." Apple's website is a great marketing tool for current iPhone users and consumers that have an interest in purchasing the iPhone. The promotion of the apps will create a stronger source of wage for Apple. As customers see top rated applications, they are more likely to download the app, rather than searching through 25,000+ apps to find one that may be of any value to the consumer.

Successful younger men were the target audience that Apple had originally focused on. Apple had hoped that with this target audience, and the fact that 48% of this audience did not already own an Apple iPod, would allow them to reach their forecast of 10 million sales by the end of 2008.

One month prior to the publish of the iPhone, Solutions explore Group profiled a cross-section of those aware of the phone. The forecast of potential buyers for the day of the publish ranked a majority of T-Mobile customers, At&T's only Gsm-based stock competitor, at 15%. The second largest group anticipated to purchase the new iPhone was At&T's existing customer base, at 12%. The Solutions explore Group also found that 72% of males, versus 28% of women were most likely to explore the phone at its minimum price of 9. (Malley, 2007)

The safe bet current target audiences for the Apple iPhone contain young population between the ages of 20 and 35, affluent teenagers, "jet-setters", and "mobile" employees who work surface of the office.

Apple is known for their simplistic, but catchy commercials. In recent television commercials for the Apple iPhone, "There's an App for that" is the new catch phrase that places a strong focus on the apps available from the App store. Apps, or applications, are in "every category, from games to business, education to entertainment, finance to condition and fitness, productivity to social networking. These applications have been designed to take benefit of iPhone features such as Multi-Touch, the accelerometer, wireless, and Gps" (Apple, 2009). Apple currently claims to have 25,000+ apps available, and counting.

The focus on the difference of apps offered opens up the target audience greatly. There is essentially an app for everyone. As a few of the iPhone commercials advertise, you can find the snow conditions on the mountain, track fat in your lunch, find exactly where you parked your car. You can find a cab in a strange city, find your share of the bill for a table of 5, or learn to fix a wobbly bookshelf. You can read a cafeteria review, read an Mri, or just read a regular old book. These are just a few of the features that Apple has promoted through television commercials. iPhone apps contribute every functionality that one can imagine.

When the iPhone was initially released, it was priced at a hefty 9. Still, hundreds of thousands of population rushed out to get the new phone, forking over a third as much as they would have had they waited an extra 3 months. 3 months after the initial release, Apple reduced the price of the iPhone to 9. This enraged Apple's loyal customers and consumers who purchased the new phone just months earlier. One year later, Apple again reduced the price of the iPhone to 9, 66% less than the traditional price.

In July, 2007, the Apple iPhone was all the hype. I believe that Apple's decision to publish the phone at 9 was slightly based on greed. However, their stock was the most innovative out in the store place, giving Apple the leisure to price the iPhone at anyone they wanted. Many believed that Apple had cut the price after discovering lower than anticipated iPhone sales. Apple, however, states that the price cut was made "to spur holiday sales and anticipated that Apple would meet its stated goal of selling its 1 millionth iPhone by the end of September." (Dalrymple, 2007)

As with the stock life cycle of any cell phone or Apple product, together with Apple's iPod, prices are often reduced drastically months after the initially release. Tech products are always competitive against "the newest and greatest" while maintaining a relevant price in the store place. Had Apple not reduced the price of the iPhone, the customer base would have dwindled swiftly as many consumers are unwilling to spend 9 on a cell phone, no matter how many beneficial features the phone may carry.

As the iPhone remains to be the whole one smart phone around, the stock continues to grow, increasing size capabilities, increasing the whole of applications available, and providing new features that are released through new iterations of the phone, continue to contribute a greater value to the iPhone while the pricing remains relevant.

At this time in the stock life cycle, Apple continues to publish enhanced iterations of the iPhone. With most iPhone users un-willing to purchase a newer version of the iPhone because of price, the target audience for the newer generation phones is new iPhone customers. With Apple's installed base lasting to grow, they have found a way bring in reoccurring wage from their existing customers through the sales of their application downloads. As more and more population purchase the iPhone, Apple's audience for new customers continues to dwindle. Fortunately for Apple, they have built in other source for wage that continues throughout the life of the product.

References

(2009). Apple: iPhone. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from Apple

Dalrymple, J (2007, Sep, 11). Lessons learned from the iPhone price cuts. Pcworld, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/137046/lessons_learned_from_the_iphone_price_cuts.html

Silverman, D (2007, Jul, 10). Apple's silence helped the iPhone hype. Chron.com:Computing, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4954824.html

Malley, A (2007, Jun, 6). Apple, At&T neophytes to define iPhone audience - report. AppleInsider, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from AppleInsider Website

Mukherjee, A (2007, Feb, 28). iPhone under attack. Firm Today, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from the Firm today website

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