Marketing Assignment Essay examples

Submitted By David-Leunghc
Words: 3151
Pages: 13

Apple Inc., the leading company in the I.T Industry and is currently one of the fastest growing company in the US economy. Tim Bajarin suggests 6 reasons why Apple is so successful. They can be concluded as simplicity, innovative and satisfaction. But beyond that, the core principle that drives Apple’s success is unquestionably their Customer Oriented Marketing Strategy, in which it defines as a group of action taken by a business to support its sales and service staff in considering client needs and satisfaction as their major priorities. (Dictionary, n.d.) This essay analyses on the effect of Apple Inc. being customer oriented on their service, product performance concept and customers’ behaviours. Including the discussion on the impact that operated as a customer-oriented company has on their customer satisfaction and service value. Specifically, main focus is on how Apple Inc. maximises their corporate value by offering satisfying customer services, in order to cohere customers’ loyalty and maintain sustainability. Before the first iPhone was published, people had already been discussing about the possibilities of having a simple, easy to use and handy touch-screen mobile devices. Steve Jobs (Apple Itc. Co-Founder) identified a new potential attractive market and worked on this revolutionary project. For all the Apple’s products are based on Steve Jobs represented the actual customer and his employees came to mind with that when designing the product. To be customer oriented implies that a firm is actively engaged in the organization-wide generation, dissemination of, and responsiveness to, market intelligence (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990). Steve Jobs understands that the product that Apple creates must to be customer-friendly and easy to understand and learn by the general public. Job’s idea was to delinearate his products to be something that people couldn’t live without it. Customers engage in a constant process of evaluating the things they buy as they integrate these products into their daily activities (Fournier and Mick, 1999). The quesetions for nowadays customers is how to receive all the information but in a simple, straighforward and effective ways, in which Apple’s products emphasize on networking and simplicity. Their own cloud storage system iCloud enables customers to transfer information through their devices such as iPad, iPhone and Mac. All the closely bonded products expand Apple’s market and attract customers through network effects. Apple’s success is also because it has only one product for each devices (i.e. simplicity): iPhone as a mobile; Macbook as a computer; iPad as a tablet; iPod as a MP3 player. It minimizes the decision-making process for the customers and also differentiates themselves from their competitors by specializing their products in specific areas. Apple invents differentiated, innovative products which distinguish themselves from others, and maintain competitive advantage. Companies must deliver as much value as customers initially expected, and it must be enough to satisfy their needs (Hawkins et al., 2004). Apple recognizes the public’s need and provide consumer friendly products, satisfying customers’ expectation and wants. Apple customers are often long-term brand customers, supporting the company with a strong financial edge in the long-term. What causes them to be loyal to this company? The answer could not be separated from customer satisfaction. Ira Kalb, clinical marketing professor at the USC Marshall School of Business, once said, "The reason that a lot of these companies don't copy Apple's customer service is they don't realize how important it is, that's the big one. They look at it as a cost rather than a return on investment item." (Ogg, 2010) Consumer satisfaction is central to customer behaviour concept and it is now common to find customer satisfaction as one of important goals in company politics (Fournier and Mick, 1999). Apple stores were