Iphone 4

Iphone 4 9) What is the Issue? Apple is plagued by the issue of efficiently marketing the iphone 4 model. Marketing is crucial in any business industry as it determines the sales of the product and consequently the profitability of the business firm. The apple iphone is targeted at top consumers who have the need to have portable entertainment, keep relevant information for future reference and for communication purposes. The product is expected to reach most of the consumers who are skilled laborers, scholars, commercial clientele, business investors, and medical practitioners. This shows that the product is intended for the high-end market. The current market for high-end phones is not very large and intensive marketing strategies are to be employed if one intends to cut a niche in this high-end market.

Very few consumers are willing and able to purchase a product that is endowed with Internet, video, and PDA features (Wooldridge & Schneider, 2010). Another marketing barrier is that the product is only available through Cingular. This means that willing consumers who are registered with other networks are at a disadvantage, as they cannot easily adopt this product. The process involves the wastage of a lot of time or the cost of cancellation fees with regard to termination of the previous network provider. Many contracts involving network provision range from two years (Wesley & Barczak, 2010).

This means that the marketing team will have to incorporate strategies to woo most of these consumers. Cingular will probably employ discounting as a technique to woo the customers as a way of shielding them from the cancellation fee costs. As a means of countering this cost, Cingular has to sell value added services (Lamb & Hair & McDaniel, 2008). 10) Implementation Items/Plans The marketing strategies that the company could employ are as follows. First, the objectives of the marketing team have to be set out in detail. The objectives are to be time bound preferably for the first and second years of trading in the market. The objective for the first year ought to be realizable and should take into account that the product is new in the market.

The objective for the first year would be to work with the aspiration of securing at least three percent of the market for personal digital assistant phones in the first world countries like the United States of America, Russia and the United Kingdom. The team should aim at making unit sales volume of close to 500, 000. The objective for the second year in business would be to aspire to cut a significant niche in the personal digital assistant phones market totaling to close to eleven percent. This should be inline with the total number of unit sales volume as at that time (Hutt & Speh, 2009). Another crucial objective would be to increase the value of Apple as a brand name. This is because apple is the single heaviest investor on the Ipod brand. The image of Apple is to be established as one that entails innovation, quality, and value. The establishment of the brand name is beneficial to marketing, as an established brand name tends to restore confidence and surety to the consumer.

This would end up in complementing the first and second objectives as it has the effect of increasing sales and the creation of loyalty in the customer’s heart. The progress in meeting these objectives is to be measured continually so as to highlight on the areas that need change or improvement (Becker & Arnold, 2010). The company should collaborate with other large phone network providers. This would benefit a great deal in terms of marketing.

Possible companies include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and Cellular One. Large companies that deal with software development could be invited onboard to ensure quality services are delivered to the consumers. The I phone 4 as a product is to be in a class of its own when in comparison to other personal digital assistant (PDA) phones. The product is to be marketed as an all in one gadget that has features entailing entertainment, can save good amount information and provides efficient avenues for communication (Pride & Ferrell, 2008).

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W. & Hair, J . F. & McDaniel, C. (2008). Marketing. Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Learning. Pride, W.

M. & Ferrell, O. C.

(2008). Marketing. Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Learning.

Wesley, D. & Barczak, G. (2010). Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap. United Kingdom: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Wooldridge, D & Schneider, M.

(2010). The Business of IPhone App Development: Making and Marketing Apps that Succeed. San Diego, CA: Apress.