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Marketing plan: Apple iPhone 6

Introduction

Apple Company was incorporated on 3rd January 1977. The company deals with the design, marketing and manufacturing of media and mobile communication devices, portable digital devices, personal computers and digital music players. Apple also sells a range of related services, software, networking solutions, peripherals and third-party applications and digital content. Apple’ deals with products and services such as iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, the Apple TV, a range of professional and consumer software applications, the OS X and the iOS operating systems, the iCloud products and an assortment of service, accessory and the support offerings (Chen, 2015). The Company also provides a variety of media devices and mobile communications, portable digital music player and personal computing product and many related services, software, peripherals, third-party software and hardware and networking solutions. Additionally, Apple Inc. provides with its software such as the iOS, a mobile operating systems (OS X), the Mac operating systems for companies, and application and server software. This paper will focus on the marketing process and strategies for the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6

The apple’s iPhone 6 is a product that combines the mobile phone features, the iPod and the internet communications devices in one handheld device. Based on Apple’s Multi-Touch user interfaces, the iPhone 6 features such as the desktop-class mail, searching, Web browsing and maps is well compatible with both Windows-based and Mac computers (Elliott, 2014). The iPhone 6 automatically synchronizes contents from user iTunes library, including bookmarks, contacts and mail accounts. The iPhone 6 allows all its users to get access to the iTunes Stores to download different videos and audio files, including many other different digital applications and contents. Apple launched its iPhone 6, its latest type of iPhones in 2014. Additionally, the Company has the iPhone accessories, and all iPhone 6 compatibility accessories are obtainable via the Company's retail and online stores and from different parties (Elliott, 2014).

Apple five-year financial overview

Apple has dominated the smartphone market for the last five years. The company has been doing very well regarding financial performance and sales. The uniqueness of the iPhone 6 has seen Apple at the top of its competitors such as HTC, Samsung (Linzmayer & Owen, 2015). The company’s revenue since 2014 is fantastic. From the table below, Apple sales were 233715, 182794, 170910, 156508 and 108249 in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 respectively. The revenue has been increasing every subsequent year; apple is performing very well at a revenue above USD200, 000 million at present. The gross profit also shows that Apple is making the greater sale of its products. The net income for the company between 2015 and 2011 is between USD 53,394 million and USD25, 922 million respectively (Linzmayer & Owen, 2015). This gives clear evident that during the year 2014, when the company introduced the iPhone 6, the revenue was higher compared to other years the previous years. The launch of the iPhone gave Apple a competitive edge over all competitors. The increase in revenue since 2014, when the iPhone 6 was launched shows the best financial performance of Apple Inc. the following table shows the income statement for Apple for the last five years (Linzmayer & Owen, 2015).

Current iPhone 6 market

Currently, the original use of smartphones has increased in across the world for the last four years. A case study on the use of smartphones in 2012 has stated that 88% of the U.S. population use the smartphone. Apple iPhone dominates the US market share with 73%, while the other competitors such as Sony, Samsung, Blackberry and HTC share the remaining 27% (Pornima & Jennifer, 2013). Apple has struggled to keep its standards and trigger a tough competition to all the competitors with the iPhone.  However, there existed some technical issues regarding the iPhone, during the time which, the iphone5 was being released at an initial stage. Although Apple faced several technical problems during that release, it currently owns a greater market share (Chen, 2015). The Apple iPhone targets those customers with the high social class such as sports personalities, celebrities and other more eminent people and political figures, through the gold platinum plated iPhone products. It targets such people because it gives them a high level of social status and it drives them to buy the iPhone (Pornima & Jennifer, 2013).

The iPhone 6 marketing plan (expand)

IPhone 6, is the sixth Apple installment in its iPhone series. It is a revolution product for the company, and it developed overall marketing plans for Apple’s strategies. Launched in September 2014, the iPhone 6 creates its competition to innovate Apple iPhone products into the higher scale (Linzmayer & Owen, 2015). Features including internal hardware and large screen size modification, the iPhone 6 is a mobile phone top product. In this paper, I will launch iPhone 6. It is an iPhone without the keypad. It is a touch screen iPhone. It can also be used as a mini computer (Linzmayer & Owen, 2015). It uses Microsoft Windows with the latest Windows (9) software. The iPhone bears all the latest smartphone technologies from Apple Company. In this paper, I will give a brief marketing plan and the marketing strategy for this product.

The mission statement

The Apple iPhone 6 mission statement is to become the leading product in the smartphone industry and become a genuine iPhone that improves user experiences by using modern technology in both software and hardware. The iPhone also aims at giving something unique to this new generation. It brings the whole world at the hand of a customer and makes life easier. The product also aims at bringing the best technology and offer the best iPhone product in the market.

Market analysis

The Apple iPhone 6 primary competitors are Palm Pre, Blackberry Storm, HTC, Motorola Android and Samsung. The iPhone 6 is doing better that all its main competitors. It revenue and net income are better than that of Samsung, HTC, Blackberry and the rest. Apple will use a more differentiated way of marketing the product

SWOT Analysis

To understand the iPhone 6 product, there is a need to carry out its SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is highly significant for the launch of a new product. The opportunities and threats are external factors while the strengths and weaknesses are internal. The following table summarizes the iPhone 6 SWOT analysis

The target market.

The iPhone 6 target market is people at the age of twenty to thirty-four years. It also targets people who like entertainment in their phones. The iPhone 6 will also target students, professionals, the employed and the socialites.

Positioning

The position of the iPhone 6 in the smartphone market will aim at the winning more customers. Large companies with different products such as Apple have a larger number of customers, and it does not target a particular consumer segment. Because of its buyers, both the iPhone 6 users and the network operators will be targeted since they crave for the latest frills the iPhone 6. This will create a higher demand for the iPhone 6 until another version of the iPhone is introduced.

Implementation

To implement the iPhone 6, there is a need to assess the iPhone climate where the actual marketing strategy will be launched. The iPhone 6 marketers will learn some of the product competitors and develop other plans to differentiate the product from. Some communication strategies will, therefore, be developed to let the customers understand how the iPhone 6 is different. For instance, the marketers can mention the curbside services in iPhone ads.

IPhone will also carry out a survey of all customers to understand who they are and what exactly do customers want from the iPhone 6. The marketers will employ the informal surveying methods such as talking directly to the clientele and asking how the iPhone 6 can meet their needs better. The plan will also include performing formal marketing techniques by asking iPhone 6 users to fill some questionnaires online or in person.

Weaknesses of Apple iphone6

High scrap rate

Increased scrap prices are as a result of many things, when the wrong devices orders are made, when product engineering changes aren’t affected flawlessly or when designs are not well represented during manufacturing. For the case of Apple iphone6. Scrap and rework have frequently occurred, and the impact on production has always been a waste of waste of time and investments which eventually lead to low valued and quality products. Production management knows well that these expenses impact negatively impact the bottom line.

Even though it is almost impossible to eradicate scrap rates entirely, Apple iPhone 6 need to reduce the amount through optimization of how they document product data, review production processes and communicate about changes throughout its supply chain. Apple iphone6 currently fails to prioritize evaluating and improving their manufacturing processes thereby becoming much easier to control the amount of scrap in the business (Robert, 2014)

Low yield

Only this year when investors are raising the alarm that Apple iphone6 dividend yield stocks are not getting more attention like it should. For this investors, they have other excellent dividend stocks that can yield greater than 3%. Certainly, the industry has a handful of dividend stocks worth they can own for long-term yields of over 5%. Making the deal better, a fraction of these stocks will most possibly upsurge their dividend every year.

Having this in mind, these same investors are wondering how could Apple iPhone 6 with its less dividend yield of 1.8%, should be regarded as an excellent dividend stock. Apple iPhone 6 rarely or never paid dividends. This is more apparent in the management under Job with Apple iPhone 6; the company did pay a dividend. Apple iPhone 6. only paid dividends when Tim Cook took over the technology giant when the revenue was getting to $100 billion the board told investors about its intention to do so (Aly, 2013).

Unsafe working conditions

For an employee to work for excessive overtime with no single day off in the whole week is a violation of labor rules such as those contained in the OSHA framework. This is the same case with living in one full quarter and standing for a longer time that their legs swell and can hardly walk after their shift. Gupta, (2013) report that this is the lives that employees live at Apple’s manufacturing centers in its plant in China, where the company’s suppliers purportedly wrongly disposed hazardous waste and gave improper records.

At least 140 workers in China were injured some years back by using a poisonous chemical needed to clean iPhone screens with two explosions in 2015 killing four individuals and injuring more than 50. The California-based firm had already been warned regarding the hazardous environment in the Chengdu plant before the bombings took place at that particular station (Cheng, 2013). New York Times reported that ‘If Apple iPhone 6 was warned and didn’t act, that’s reprehensible. A banner in the same plant carried a warning to the staff: ‘Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow’. Employees who made it late for work are made to write confession letters.

Some conference report like the one compiled by Cheng, (2013) came few years shy of Apple reporting a whopping $13billion profits on $46billion but still wants more productivity, quality and scheduled operations from overseas factories which may not be possible under such condition. Apple iPhone 6 management claims that it has improved industrial units in recent years and have issued a supplier code of conduct on labor and safety, but glitches are still there (Gupta, 2013). Suppliers are only given small profit margins on what they produce for Apple iPhone 6, management always seeks for details regarding part costs, workforce size and salary brackets.

Budget overruns

Mickey North et al., (2015) in a report highlighted a vital factor regarding Apple iPhone 6 .about the need to maintain fair activity costs for operational production. The report shows that resource constraints are a key feature that is hindering and limiting the sale of products to consumers due to the ignorance or not being prepared to roll out budgeted investment as planned. An evaluation of the internal controls of the production operation at Apple Company is helping the management to predict and simulate the future expectations of the firm. The changing business conditions are posting vital issues on how to evaluate the budget effectiveness and trade controls to ensure future production projects are not subjected to obvious risk issues.

The former Apple CEO Steve Jobs wished to have Apple iPhone 6 huge second campus to be built by the end of the year 2015. However, issues regarding budgetary matters have attached one more year to the set completion date (Liu, 2011). Also, in June 2011, the same management gave plans to build Apple iPhone 6 new corporate office block before the Cupertino City Council. The design impressions appeared like a spaceship that had the capacity to hold 12,000 employees. The building had at least 2.8 million square foot campus accompanied by 176 acres of trees. The building had curved exterior walls and panels 40-foot long made of concave glass on all its sides. In 2011, the estimated budget was roughly under $3 billion. The CEO planned for groundbreaking in 2012 and had the Apple office building completed by 2015. Unfortunately, the budget has gone up to almost $5 billion today, and Apple have no plan to commence building until June, and it will most likely be completed in 2017 (Ong, 2012)

Conclusion

To succeed in streamlining the production operations will be reliant on how the management will control their relationships with the workforce, the supplier, and its customers. This is to have early supplier participation for innovative product development, excellent communication, and performance advancement or improvement through supported and continuous evaluation of the current framework.

As time goes by, the mix of international strategies to drive the production operations will give Apple iPhone 6. the advancements it requires to be able to support its consumer’s demands. The key areas identified in Apple operations management docket include the outsourcing strategy, leadership strategy, customer-centered services and differentiation strategy (Marketgrader, 2015). If the management can positively address these particular areas while maintaining high-quality service centers will be integral for the company to improve on its objectives for its hardware and software products.

Being honest in operations management is the indispensable practice to enable the smooth processes involved the Company’s internal controls. Conclusively, the production operations management have the duty to assist in preventing or reducing errors or fraud occurrence by detecting them early enough before they turn affect the entire operations (Ong, 2012). Apple Inc. can only maintain its worth if can manufacture a high-quality product, safely, within budget and on schedule.

Recommendations for iphone6

The primary advice Apple iPhone 6. is to improvise its production operations by involving multiple departments or segments in the firm activities. The operating income for every unit will ignore the expenses and income that are managed outside other functioning departments. Also, another area that needs a close address is that of communication that needs to be kept running each and every time to make sure the sending and sharing of information within the business during operations.

Because the corporation deliberates the fading (market share value) of its extensive demanded securities investment portfolio, it needs to make it provisional in nature and characteristically capitalize their highly-rated securities. This strategy will restrict the number of regular investors who should acquire these securities. Apple Inc. investment current policies require any shareholders to show the highest kind of activity performance with the main aim being to reduce the probable risk of capital loss.

Another recommendation on Apple’s production operations is to have its shipping costs being kept quiet for the business periods. The average payable to clients associated with handling and shipping cost of their goods or services are primarily classified as revenue. Thus, Apple iPhone 6 handling and shipping costs should be maintained at low levels to reduce operational expenses and maximize profit returns while still doing things on a budget and schedule (Mickey North, 2015). The warranty costs which forms an essential part of Apple iPhone 6. overall estimated cost for both software and hardware devices sold to customers. These warranties for the need to be evaluated for appropriateness and effectiveness concerning the current warranty obligations. This will go a long way to ensuring that there is actual changes for future estimates and customer experience and feedback are well documented.

The operational costs consumed by software development and research by Apple iPhone 6. R&D department must be regulated to prevent budget overruns. This is because some of the company’s invested research endeavors lead to dead results. During the development costs for PC software, to be leased, marketed, or sold, they should be exposed to capitalization by the company. This will determine when a product is technologically viable and when proven and recognized then the product will be available to the client base. As a result, expenses suffered when accomplishing a technological practicability will be significant. Apple iPhone 6. must look into its expenditure on during software and hardware development and analyses the effect they have on its anticipated returns from the final products or services (Robert, 2014).

References

Elliott, S (2014). The Apple Brand and its success in the launch of iPhone 6 in 2014. The iPhone market.