Global Media Business Practise - Apple Case Study

MARKETING STRATEGY

• Building Brand Loyalty: Through exclusive product launches, limited- time offers, and strategic partnerships with celebrities and influencers.

• Customer Experience: Creating memorable experiences through various marketing techniques, from captivating advertisements and engaging social media content to unique retail experiences.

  
  

• Target Market Understanding: Tapping into the target market's desires by focusing on simplicity, finesse in design, and incorporating emotion in advertising.

  
  

• Product Innovation and Exclusivity: Continuously developing innovative products like the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch, each offering a distinct user experience.

• Global Brand Value: Establishing a strong international brand image through quality and minimal design.

Flows

• User - Focus on user experience is based on its stylish, straightforward and luxury products that provides user interface that is very simple to use and learn.

  
  

• Consumer - Apple's target audience consists of middle-class and upper- class users who can pay higher for products that provide them with an incredible user experience.

  
  

• Production – Global marketing team produces their marketing content via Social Media Channels, App store and Apple News. Distribute using Teasers and trailers, Print adverts and commercials and releases teasers and trailers before product launches to build anticipation and excitement.

Innovation

• Apple has maintained this unique organizational structure despite its massive growth, demonstrating its continued value for fostering innovation and agility.

  
  

• Global Events: Emphasizes the scale and impact of these launches.

  
  

• Innovation Showcase: Highlights the focus on presenting new features and capabilities.

  
  

• Jobs changed the organisational structure from a decentralised to a centralised business structure (Podolny and Hansen, 2020).

  
  

• As in a decentralized structure, managers fought with each other over prices which impacted the company's profits.

  
  

• Traditional management affected innovation (Podolny and Hansen, 2020). He laid off the general managers for each department which put the entire company under one profit and loss.

  
  

• Apple to increase their employees to 137,000 employees and $260 billion in revenue in 2019 compared to 8,000 employees and $7 billion in revenue in 1997 (Podolny and Hansen, 2020) .

  
  

Full Report

This presentation explores the various relationships between brands and culture, focusing on how global corporations navigate and influence cultural contexts. We examined various companies, including H&M, Dove, and Always, to understand how their operations with issues such as feminism, environmentalism, race, and gender could contribute to our theme of Brands and Culture. For my individual contribution, I examined Apple’s marketing strategy, a global tech giant with a significant cultural impact. Apple, despite its global reach, tailors its operations to suit different cultural contexts. For example, in China, Apple stores offer unique product bundles, such as requiring the purchase of an AirPods case alongside the AirPods themselves, reflecting cultural norms and consumer expectations. This presentation will explore Apple's marketing strategies, innovative product development, and how these aspects are influenced by the cultural contexts in which they operate, with a focus on race and gender dynamics. This research report examines the processes taken to build the presentation and further explains the chosen case study surrounding the three main topics Marketing strategy, Innovation and Race and Gender covered in my presentation.

For the group project we chose brands and culture I chose to look at Apple’s marketing strategy. I did this by visiting one of their stores and looking at the layout of their stores in terms of their brand identity and marketing strategy. For example, with brand identity the layout of the store helps tell the story of Apple’s products and the impact they have on consumer’s lives. Resulting in customer loyalty and building brand loyalty through exceptional customer experiences and high-quality products. Driving product innovation through cutting-edge technology and design integrated through seamless connectivity between devices, which creates anticipation and exclusivity through strategic product launches (e.g launching new iPhones in September because they know that for Christmas many people will want them but also a Back to school time and limited-time offers (SmartOSC,2023).

I was the only one who looked at the tech business of Apple. They represent a brand associated with technological innovation, minimal design and a certain lifestyle. It cultivates a sense of exclusivity and "coolness," often associated with creativity. Apple's influence on culture can be seen in the way people communicate, consume media and perceive of themselves. They're more than just electronics; it's a status symbol. The rest of the group decided to explore other areas in different industries, such as the fashion and beauty industries, because they were drawn to the creativity of their case study campaigns, the fast-paced nature of the industries and the ideologies of the chosen brands. For example, Dove, H&M, and Always operate in different sectors but share a common theme around cultural conversations surrounding body image, inclusivity, and social issues. This is because Dove is well known for its "Real Beauty" campaign, as it challenges conventional beauty standards and promotes self-acceptance. It taps into cultural anxieties about body image and strives to redefine beauty more inclusively. Compared to Always, who addresses menstruation openly and challenges societal taboos, contributing to conversations about gender equality and women's health. Their campaigns often aim to empower young girls and break down surrounding periods. As for H&M, the fast-fashion giant reflects and influences trends in clothing and style. Its collaborations with designers and celebrities often generate significant cultural hype. It plays a role in discussions about sustainability and ethical fashion.

As a group, our brands demonstrate how businesses can develop a powerful cultural force because they are not selling the products themselves, they are selling the values and lifestyles, which help shape our perceptions of ourselves, relationships with others and our place in the world. With the group’s diverse interests in our theme, with me focusing on Apple and other brands like Dove, H&M, and Always, highlights the influence of brands on culture. This is because together, these brands demonstrate how businesses can have a powerful cultural force. As they are not directly selling products; they are selling ideas, values, and lifestyles to customers. They shape our perceptions of ourselves, our relationships with others, and our place in the world. Their advertising campaigns, social media presence and product design contribute to the ongoing evolution of culture. The fact that our group is examining such diverse brands shows how deeply connected brand identity is with cultural identity. Each brand reflects and influences the values, aspirations and anxieties of the society in which it operates.

My particular contribution to the group presentation centred on analysing Apple's marketing strategies targeting diverse audiences, with a focus on their use of simplicity and finesse in design. I researched and presented how Apple has incorporated emotions in their adverts to appeal to a wider audience. I examined how their product design and marketing strategies have been adapted to address the needs through flows and preferences by listening to customers and renewing products and services. Customers wanted high-quality products with minimal design and simple to use, such as using teasers and trailers, Print adverts and commercials before product launches to build anticipation and excitement. By analysing these specific examples, I helped the group understand how Apple has strategically integrated innovation race and gender into their marketing approach to achieve greater market share and build a more inclusive brand image. Therefore, Apple creates mystery around the product as they do not reveal much about the new product specifications and information. As a result, this has led to their marketing strategy being successful because of their existing and redefining of what technology could do, making it one of the most valuable brands and building a huge customer base that has been loyal to the company. This allowed them to establish a strong international brand image through quality and minimal design. ​

When choosing a company for this assignment like Apple, I focused my research on some of the topics mentioned in the brief, such as Race and gender, Marketing Strategies and tactics, along with incorporating one keyword from element one, which would be innovation.  I researched many case studies, looking at my chosen topics and have struggled with finding a specific case study that covers all three topics of my research markets strategies and tactics, innovation and Race and gender. This was because there was little information on the issues being reported. However, when I did my research I made to copy the website links that I thought would be useful for this assignment into a separate word. Therefore, I created a strong bank of useful case studies that I can refer to or choose one to research and analyse for this assignment. The rest of the links that I did not use in my chosen case study, I decided to use as other sources to back my research and use for context. For race and gender, I was surprised that there was only one case study from Apple, as it’s a global company that has thousands of employees of all different races, demographics, ethnicities, genders, and ages.

After reading the case studies, I highlighted the key findings and extracted the main points into my presentation allowing me to give a clear message and summary of my findings.  As a result, it has allowed me to have a better understanding of how Apple’s marketing strategy is so successful because involves a combination of well-designed products, promotional campaigns, distribution, and pricing, with a focus on simplicity, minimal design, and high-quality products (Duggal 2023). Often their Market strategy involves partnerships with celebrities and influencers, exclusive deals with other brands, using collaborations with high-profile figures to reach a broader audience. Therefore, this has successfully expanded its reach and reinforced its brand image, positioning itself as a trendsetter in both technology and culture.

I looked at multiple academic sources such as books, videos and articles about my topics to have a better understanding. These articles provided me with Apple’s unique techniques in their marketing campaigns. Their strategy is based on providing a unique user experience through its products and marketing campaigns, targeting middle-class and upper-class users who value simplicity and high-quality products. For example, their marketing campaigns are so masterfully designed to evoke emotions, inspire creativity, and show the capabilities of their products. Their brand messages are driven across the globe with huge advertisements, engaging social media updates, and notable events such as product launches. Apple partners with stars, influencers, and artists to maximize exposure and for positive brand positioning (Jain, 2024). 

The marketing strategies of Apple emphasize not only the features but the seamless integration of the hardware and software and the user experience they offer, emphasizing their designs while focusing on simplicity and elegance. Their exclusive product launches, limited-time offers, and strategic partnerships with celebrities and influencers.​ Creating memorable experiences through various marketing techniques, from captivating advertisements and engaging social media content to unique retail experiences.​ Thus, this makes their products connect on an emotional level with their customers allowing Apple to increase brand loyalty and customer retention (Jain, 2024).   

I responded to the brief by reading the whole brief over to have a general understanding of the assignment and then going into more detail, highlighting the key parts of this assignment and I broke down each of the parts into sections. For instance, there are three parts to this assignment. The first part is a presentation that is 30% of the final unit results. The brief mentions which format of the presentation they will accept whether that is a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, images as a PDF or A0 poster as a PDF printed for class. Also, if we have any notes for our presentation we must include them in the notes section. The topics in my presentation, about my case study must be the same as in my report. Secondly, for the individual report, it is 30% of our final result. This consists of an individual report presenting research and analysis supporting my project that is (1200 words). This report demonstrates how it contributes to the presentation by not only covering my three chosen topics of Marketing strategy, Innovation, Race and Gender using other academic sources and additional background information to prove context and the processes of the assignment. Finally, the reflective review was 10% of the unit and is an honest reflection and evaluation of learning from the group activity and what I learnt from the process. The review must follow either Gibbs's or Kolb’s models for reflection in Week Seven. 

I actively participated in group discussions, sharing my ideas and thoughts while respectfully listening to the viewpoints of others. I listened to the concerns and suggestions of the group members and worked together to find agreeable solutions to any challenges we encountered. For example, when someone left our group because they did not come to class, as a group it felt best to email her about and let her know that she was no longer in the group because we had to cut down on the members of the group. I worked well with the others, there was a lot of open communication which ensured that the process went fairly smoothly.

I actively participated in group discussions, sharing my ideas and perspectives while respectfully listening to the viewpoints of others. I listened to the concerns and suggestions of the group members and worked together to find agreeable solutions to any challenges we encountered. For example, when someone left our group because they did not come to class, as a group it felt best to email her about the group and let her know that she was no longer in the group because she did not come to class and we had to cut down on the members of the group. I worked well with the others, there was a lot of open communication which ensured that the process went fairly smoothly.

Apple was a better case study because as a global tech giant that operates in diverse markets with varying cultural norms, demographics, and consumer expectations. This presents a challenge and opportunity to analyse how the company adapts its marketing and product strategies to different cultural markets. As for innovation, Apple is known for its innovative product design and marketing campaigns. Exploring how they introduce new products, build brand loyalty, and create cultural buzz provides valuable insights into successful marketing strategies. Finally, for Race and Gender, Apple has made efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity in its marketing and product design. By portraying how they can effectively address issues of race and gender in their marketing strategies and build a more inclusive brand image.

My presentation on Apple’s marketing strategy drew upon various sources and approaches structured around their marketing strategy, flows, innovation and race and gender. The first area that I researched and was the main topic was the marketing strategy.  Apple creates hype and mystery around products, creating an experience while keeping it simple to retain customers. They achieve this by focusing on value, captivating visuals with minimal designs and understanding the target market’s needs and wants. Apple's marketing strategy involves a combination of promotional campaigns, distribution and pricing, with a focus on simplicity, minimal design and high-quality products. Their marketing channel takes advantage of both online and offline distribution channels.  Promoting their products through advertisements, sales promotions, personal selling, and public relations (Study Smarter, 2023).  Resulting in a successful marketing strategy and a leader in the tech industry.

The flows of their marketing strategy, it is based on providing a unique user experience through their products and marketing campaigns, targeting middle-class and upper-class users who value simplicity and high-quality products. They want to create products based on its stylish, straightforward and luxurious design that has a user-friendly interface and is simple to use and learn. As for consumers, Apple's target audience consists of middle-class and upper-class users who can pay more for products that provide them with an incredible user experience.

Figure 1(Vyshnavi and Hawelia, 2024).

This is shown in Figure 1, we can see that Apple’s target audience is young people 18-24 years old 25% is for education purposes and 25-34 years old, 33% (Vyshnavi and Hawelia, 2024) is for business employees. They are about selling the user experience that people value for different reasons.  A reason is that Apple creates anticipation and exclusivity through strategic product launches (e.g. launching new iPhones in September because they know that for Christmas many people will want them, but it is also a Back-to-school time) and limited-time offers.  As they are redefining what technology could do. This goes in line with the product range: iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch the entire software and services uniquely redefined how we connect, work, and live (SmartOSC 2023).  

Finally, from a production perspective, Apple Global marketing team produces their marketing content via Social Media Channels, the App Store and Apple News. Their product launches and powerful advertisements capture the audience’s imagination and engage people’s experiences making consumers step into its stores on all social media platforms. Their commercials have been known for their emotional impact and storytelling, which are widely relatable themes like love, creativity, empowerment and connection with the audience (Jain, 2024). They distribute their adverts using Teasers and trailers, print adverts and commercials involving partnerships with celebrities and influencers, exclusive deals with other brands and collaborations with high-profile figures to reach a broader audience, before product launches to build anticipation and excitement (SmartOSC, 2023).  Apple has successfully expanded its reach and reinforced its brand image, positioning itself as a trendsetter in both technology and culture.

A useful source for innovation was Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs (Isaacson and Jobs, 2015), which provided invaluable insights into the company's early days, Jobs' vision and key decisions that shaped Apple's trajectory.  Their product launches have become global events, generating immense excitement and media coverage. These events focus on showcasing the innovative features and capabilities of new products, ensuring they capture the attention of both the tech community and the public. Apple often incorporates celebrity appearances and performances, adding an extra layer of attraction to the experience. These innovative product launches are essential, creating anticipation and buzz that not only drives consumer interest but increases sales (SmartOSC, 2023).

When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. He transformed the company's organisational structure to increase innovation and despite its massive growth, Apple has retained this unique structure to this day. Jobs changed the organisational structure from a decentralised to a centralised business structure (Podolny and Hansen, 2020) because in a decentralised structure, managers fought with each other over prices which impacted the company's profits. He believed that traditional management had affected innovation (Podolny and Hansen, 2020). Therefore, he laid off the general managers for each department, putting the entire company under one profit and loss. The effect of changing the structure into one functional organisation allowed Apple to increase their employees to 137,000 employees and $260 billion in revenue in 2019 compared to 8,000 employees and $7 billion in revenue in 1997 (Podolny and Hansen, 2020). Their design and leadership model has been crucial to the company's innovation success. 

Race and Gender

Finally for race and gender Apple has improved in racial and gender diversity among its employees, with black and Hispanic workers making up 9% and 12% of the workforce and women holding 32% of global positions (Peterson 2021). As indicated by the graph below.

Figure 2 (Peterson 2021).

As a result of this, Apple claims that they have increased the hiring of women employees by 42% since 2018. In January 2020, women filled 49% of retail leadership positions at the company (Peterson 2021). Inclusion and diversity are essential for Apple’s global community. “We're proud of the foundation we've built and clear-eyed about the challenges that remain. Together, we're committed to continuing this journey with humility and resolve," said Barbara Whye, Apple's vice president of Inclusion & Diversity (Peterson 2021). The company’s workforce consists of retail employees that Google and Facebook do not have and Apple's efforts to improve diversity and inclusion among its employees (Reuters 2016). The methods used to achieve the objectives include analysing salaries, bonuses, and annual grants to close pay gaps and opening up annual grants program to retail employees for the first time (Reuters 2016). 

My analysis of Apple's advertising strategies reveals how the company leverages aspirational messaging and carefully crafted narratives to cultivate a strong brand identity. This aligns with our group's theme of Brands and cultures, as it highlights how brands can use their platforms to promote specific lifestyles and values. Apple's focus on innovation, creativity, and user empowerment resonates with a target audience seeking to express their individuality and achieve their goals.

However, it does not reveal potential pitfalls, while Apple's ads often feature diverse individuals, they may convey certain social norms or exclude ethnic groups. For instance, the emphasis on technology and high-achieving lifestyles could separate those who do not fit that mould. Additionally, the company's marketing practices have been criticised for their environmental impact and labour practices, raising questions about the ethical implications of their brand image. Therefore, we can gain valuable insights into the power of branding and understand how they shapes perceptions and influences on consumer behaviours.

In conclusion, Apple's success lies in its ability to leverage innovation, create a strong brand identity, and address culture in its marketing strategies. I had many questions about Element 2 as they were not clear in the brief. Therefore, I overcame this by asking my tutor all the questions I had and she answered them for me, which helped me a lot when completing the assignment

Reflective review:

The group activity focused on exploring the relationship between brands and culture. We aimed to understand how global brands operate within diverse cultures and influence on brand strategies, marketing campaigns and consumer behaviour. Our goal as a group was to investigate how brands address issues of diversity, inclusion, and culture in their marketing and operations.

For the process to be smooth We initially expected to find a lot of information available about our brands and case studies on how global brands navigate culture with their brand or campaigns. We assumed that the project would involve a significant amount of research and analysis of brand marketing campaigns, consumer behaviour data, and cultural studies. However, I did struggle to find information that covered all three of my chosen topics that had a lot of information as I assumed that most global brands have well-defined strategies for addressing cultural diversity in their marketing and operations. But there was very little information, particularly on race and gender which was unusual for a big corporation like Apple as they operate in many countries with different demographics.

I had mixed emotions of excitement and apprehension. I was excited to start the project and learn new skills, but I was apprehensive about the possibility of encountering challenges. However, as the weeks progressed and the assignment became clearer, I felt confident in my abilities to overcome challenges, for example, understanding the structure of the report and what to include in the presentation. We encountered difficulties in group members leaving and coordinating projects effectively with team members due to sudden departs of group members leaving for personal reasons or due to repeated absences and lack of contribution, it was determined that this member would no longer be part of the group. This impacted the overall experience by delaying the completion certain tasks and causing some frustration within the team. As it made it harder because we had to reassign roles and tasks, which delayed our progress. As I progressed, I gained more confidence in my skills and developed a stronger sense of ownership over the project.

A positive aspect of the project was the strong work ethic of group members who were determined to get the assignment done on time. We had strong communication as a group via social media as this was convenient and everyone did contribute their opinions and views on questions we had in the chat to the conversation. A negative issue we faced was our time management for our project when choosing the day to present. As a group, I ensured and asked everyone which day they wanted to present and they all wanted to present on Tuesday 21^st January. However, some group members expressed their concern and were unhappy with the day we chose because we had a presentation the day before and they felt that the presentation dates were too close together and not spread out enough which led to some group members feeling unprepared for their presentation. There was some disagreement regarding the presentation as one person thought that we had to submit everyone’s work in the presentation for our assignment as a group.  However, there was a lack of clarity regarding our presentation submissions on our theme as the brief was not specific. We dealt with this situation by asking the tutor for clarification on the assignment submission.

My role within the group was the main coordinator, as I oversaw communicating with everyone about which day they wanted to present our presentation and putting it in the Excel spreadsheet. I have a rough idea about what each person’s topic was about to make sure that there was no overlap in brands.

My contribution to the project was significant because I was responsible for coordinating the presentation dates and making sure people knew which brands they were doing. I believe my contributions were effective in several ways. Firstly, the group discussion regarding our choice of themes provided a strong foundation for the project, ensuring that our research was grounded in existing knowledge. Secondly, identifying key topics and brands that we wanted to research allowed us to narrow down the specific brands and campaigns or case studies we chose. Finally, my contributions to the group discussions ensured that the project stayed on track and that all members were well-informed about the latest topic everyone had chosen. Overall, I believe my contributions were valuable and contributed significantly to the success of the group project.

‌References

‌Isaacson, W. and Jobs, S. (2015). Steve Jobs. London Abacus. https://www.books1.co.uk/pdf-read/BA/Steve-Jobs---Steve-Jobs.pdf 

Jain, G. (2024). Apple Marketing Strategy: 8 Essential Principles to Understand. [online] MageComp Magento Blog. Available at: https://magecomp.com/blog/apple-marketing-strategy/.

‌Leith, S. (2011). Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson – review. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/25/steve-jobs-biography-walter-isaacson-review.

McCormick, K. (2023). Social Media Advertising 101 (+Examples, Costs, Tips & Types). [online] WordStream. Available at: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/07/18/social-media-advertising.

Nikita Duggal (2023). A Case Study on Apple Marketing Strategy | Simplilearn. [online] Simplilearn.com. Available at: https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/marketing-case-studies-tutorial/apple-marketing-strategy.

Peterson, M. (2021). Apple hiring data shows increasingly diverse workforce. [online] AppleInsider. Available at: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/03/18/apple-hiring-data-shows-increasingly-diverse-workforce.

Podolny, J.M. and Hansen, M.T. (2020). How Apple Is Organized for Innovation. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-apple-is-organized-for-innovation.

Reuters (2016). Apple reports improving racial and gender diversity among employees. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/03/apple-diversity-report-race-gender-facebook-google.

SmartOSC (2023). Apple Marketing Strategy: 8 Secret Key Strategies From Tech Giant. [online] SmartOSC. Available at: https://www.smartosc.com/apple-marketing-strategy/.

StudySmarter (2023). Apple Marketing Strategy: Analysis & Importance | StudySmarter. [online] StudySmarter UK. Available at: https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/business-studies/business-case-studies/apple-marketing-strategy/.

Vyshnavi, P. and Hawelia, A. (2024). The Secret Behind Apple’s Successful Marketing Strategy. [online] StartupTalky. Available at: https://startuptalky.com/apples-marketing-strategy/.

Youtu.be. (2024). Available at: https://youtu.be/Hz3RWxJck68 .