Apple's Loyal Customer Base Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Apple's Loyal Customer Base - Assignment Example The researcher states that Apple’s product lines mainly include the iPod and iTunes, desktop and laptop computers, the revolutionary iPad and iPhone, and the OS X operating system. The company’s main competitors are Microsoft, Sony, Dell, Acer, Samsung, Toshiba, Nokia, and HTC. As of 2011, the organization has 364 retail stores across 13 countries. As scholars point out, a well-developed business model, competitive products, an innovative marketing strategy, and a potential operational model constitute the key elements affecting Apple’s overall corporate strategy. The company organizes workshop programmes and promotes other personal customer relationship practices like e-mails and surveys as part of building a long-term relationship with its customers. This paper will discuss various strategies used by Apple to enhance its customer communication practices and drive customer relationship management effectively. Target marketing to build customer relations As of 20 11 data, Apple operates in 13 countries including United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Sweden. Majority of these countries are economically developed, and the remaining are rapidly emerging economies. In terms of geographic targeting, Apple focuses on market segments like cities where the density of people is very high. In addition, the organization gives specific attention to geographic market segments that have a well-developed infrastructure. By following such a geographic targeting approach, the firm tries to enhance the easy flow of raw materials and labor. In terms of demographic segmentation, Apple mainly focuses on young people and business executives, because most of the Apple products offer extensive and innovative features that may not be appealing to a middle-aged or senior person. In addition, Apple particularly targets high-income groups while dividing its market segments on the bas is of demography. To illustrate, Nokia and Samsung are major competitors of Apple in the smartphones market. Relative to Nokia or Samsung products, Apple’s smartphones are very costly as the company does not consider the needs of low-income people much. The company also practices psychological or behavioral segmentation approaches effectively. Referring to a report by Jaques, many of the people consider Apple as a luxury brand and hence they are willing to buy Apple products regardless of the prices in order to increase their social status. With the intent to take advantages of this favorable condition, Apple’s management designs and sets prices for products particularly for high-class social groups. In addition, the company identifies the potential market for a planned product in advance by exploring the psychological needs and requirements of customers effectively. For instance, Apple’s management identified the music sector as the broad market for its iPod be fore even the company began the product research or development process. Customer communications Apple gives great significance to customer communications as the company extremely values customer suggestions and feedbacks. A company uses various traditional and modern communication channels to be in line with changing customer tastes and preferences. Apple uses many ways to collect their customer information.