SOCIAL MEDIA AND MARKETING.

Apple Inc. is a multinational corporation.  It is very well known for its best-featured products. When it comes to making money and becoming famous for the technology, Apple does it with their products and through the advertising.

            According to the different blogs, news, and articles it is proven that Apple Company isn’t heavily involved with social media. Social media’s main purpose is to exchange information, collaborate with others, and have conversations. In return, the bloggers and company informers inform the viewers and consumers about the products, in return get feed backs of their experiences.

            The most popular online tool of social media is Facebook. For Apple Inc. the official facebook page does exist but its hard to find. Apple Company has only one official page but as I was researching for my blog post I couldn’t find the official page. But people and consumers have other pages for all Apple products such as Macbook, iPhone3 , iPhone 4 , and many more.

Apple Inc. although isn’t officially involved into blogs, facebook and other social media tools to attract more customers but they are doing a great job through the official websites which is www.apple.com. At this page, the viewers, customers, and consumers can find all information related to the products.

 The website page acts effectively by:

1) Apple support- in which, the customer’s gets reply within 24hours regarding any concern related to any product, also contains links for social interacting with other such as:

* Videos- to show how to use the products.

* Manuals- how to setup and troubleshoot the products.

* Communities- to socialize and interact with the people around the world to share experience and concerns about the products.

2) Hot news- the best and unique part of the Apple Company is that it posts and blogs about the lastest and hot news about the products, customers, and the company itself. Where you can find abundant amount of reliable information.

* www.apple.com/hotnews

            Apple Inc. isn’t strongly involved in social networking sites instead the official website page of the Company plays the role of social media and marketing.

DEVELOPING AND MANAGING PRODUCTS

Apple Inc. is the most valuable brand in the world. It has been designing, manufacturing, and marketing various media devices, personal computers, and a variety of related software which includes iphone, ipad, and ipod. The ambition of the Apple Company is to spread their new—featured products around the world, to improve the lifestyles and to make consumer’s life colorful. Since 1976, Apple mainly has released wide range of iphones and ipad to bring success to the Company’s name and make it known for its innovation.

The secret behind Apple's success is their ability to keep on innovating the market with their new

products. Apple is a company that never stops coming out with new ideas of how to make their products better and more efficient in order to satisfy the market's needs.Recently Apple has released iphone 5C, 5S, ipad Air, and ipad mini , which are sold in many places and are highly recommended. All these products add to the product line of the Apple Inc. In regards to the formation of the latest ipad air, iphone 5S . Apple Company mostly come up with an idea based on the feed-back recieved regarding the new products.

Iphone 5C- Apple Company had positive reviews from the costumers after iphone 5 and in order to make lives more colorful than only two colors( black and white). Apple Company came up with the creative idea of manufacturing the iphone 5s with variety of colors. As a result, using iPhone is that much more engaging and delightful. When it came to commercialization, Iphone 5S was highly praised because of the colors it had and they portrayed the way to making lives easily, stylish, colorful and branded. The features of new iphone 5s like new camera, thin size, itunes, complements the iphone 5 made it high demanded and is now sold in over 22 countries. It has also accounted for more than 60% of the 33.8 million iPhones Apple sold last quarter. So, this shows that Apple iphone 5S has got every aspect of the product development process right. This has just proven Apple Inc to be the #1 branded and innovative technology company.

PRODUCT CONCEPTS

           

 Apple Company has always been admired among all ages, various countries, and cultures. Apple Inc. was always been manufacturing thought provoking and stylish products, which eventually made it a brand and slowly but surely a global brand too. When it comes down to their brand – which Apple has artfully developed since their inception. Apple Company has been following their former tagline, “Think Different,” to come out with a new technological idea. Apple Company started with only one product APPLE I and now had sold a long range of products like macbook, ipod, ipad, iphones and many more.                                                                                                                                                    Apple has also built their brand through consistent designs. 

  Iphones are the one of the best-sold Apple Inc.’s products. Iphones are the consumer products because

it is manufactured for an individual to enhance their lifestyle with best-featured technology and to make them look classy, branded, and allows them to handle things easily with new version of phone. Iphones are also referred as shopping product mainly because they are expensive and are found in fewer stores but people always agree to purchase the new products because of their service, brand, features, design and colors.  As the following graph shows the revenue rate of the products over the years.

                                                                                                                                        This company has a long range of products, Apple Company manufactured the products that weren’t sold quite satisfactory and on the other hand side they also manufactured the products that just added more value to the brand, and brought more success to the company.                                                                     

Apple Company sells variety of technology pieces, in different sizes, prices, and contains different features.  Apple Company’s official page has different tabs for their technology, which makes the consumer to choose easily. http://www.apple.com.

Apple sells product mix:

1)    Macbook Air, Pro, Mac mini, iMac.

2) Ipod shuffle, nano, touch, classic.

3)    Iphone 3, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 5C

4)    Ipad Air, mini, mini with retina display and many more.

Apple Inc . is still on its way to introduce new featured products, due to its products it has become the most valuable company and from Technology Company now it has been titled as “ a luxury brand.”

Personal Selling and Sales Management

In chapter 18, I read about the sales promotion in addition to using advertising, public relations, and personal selling, marketing managers can use sales promotions to increase the effectiveness of their promotional efforts. Apple Inc. as rarely offers promotional codes or discount coupons but they usually have special deals available for the products sold on the special occasions like Black Friday and Christmas holiday shopping season.

            Apple Inc. sells the products at the retail stores, online stores, and many other retail chains such as Wal-mart, Best Buy, T-mobile and many more. When Apple Inc. uses their sales promotions they usually target the ultimate consumers.

For the Consumer sales promotion Apple offers the gift cards, free delivery option, offers in-store pickup for many of the items available on the Online Store, they also offers return policy for the consumers. According to which, sometimes the product might not be what they expected it to be. In that case, such as for iphone return, you may return your undamaged iPhone with its included accessories within 30 days of purchase for a full refund but while returning the product will cancel the wireless account and wont be responsible for any additional fee. Apple Inc. mostly does this by their agreement signed by the consumers.

            The tools Apple Inc uses for their sales promotion are:

1) Rebates- As I said before, Apple Inc. very often offers rebates such as the famous one and the recent one was that if you buy a Mac for college and get a $100 gift card to spend on apps such as itunes. Or buy an iPad or iPhone and get a $50 card.

2) Premiums- As such Apple doesn’t give out extra items but with the purchase of iphones, ipod, and

ipad they offer AppleCare+ insurance for 1 year warranty that will covers the customer for repair or replacement of the device in the event of accidential damage or battery depletion.

3) Personal selling- Last and most important is the personal selling, which may work better than other forms of promotion. Apple uses extensively personal selling. The company's Apple Stores are home to many young and knowledgeable sales

representatives who are trained thoroughly in both product information and customer service. With the release of new products and upgrades the company produces every few months or so, it is important for sales representatives to stay informed about the latest technologies entering the market. Walking into any Apple Store will reveal that employees are often young and enthusiastic about the products.  Along with the great product the customer service at Apple Inc usually turns consumers into customers. This leads Apple Inc into the long-run as the best technological company.