Introduction:
The main purpose of writing this report is to determine the marketing metrics and marketing effectiveness of Apple. Marketing metrics are the performance indicators, which permits the business to perform overall marketing performance. The marketing metrics help to attain greater accuracy in the business activities. Marketing plays an active role in the business and the success lies in the marketing abilities. The marketing metrics are categorized into various types’ namely behavioral, financial, physical availability and consumer profile etc. In this report, these metrics with respect to Apple Inc. will be discussed. As a marketing consultant, I will provide the detailed report of effectiveness and competitive advantage in the field of marketing.
Marketing metrics:
Metric is the system that identifies the characteristics and trend of specific events. Marketing metric is the system that allows determining the marketing performance of the company (Farris, 2009). The important metrics of the marketing are share of hearts, customer profitability, product and portfolio management, promotion, advertising metrics and so on. Each metric has different areas and performance. These metrics are used to evaluate the competitive advantage of the company. Apple is the global manufacturing company, which faces major challenges in the organizational culture and organizational structure for past few years. Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple Inc. and his organizational culture was complex. Even the company grew trendy fast in short time that the management found some challenges not being able to keep finances and operations under control. Apple Inc. has been forced to redesign the organizational behavior to prevent bankruptcy. Apple has effective marketing strategy and metrics to determine overall performance.
Share of heart, minds and markets:
Mind share is computed by taking the percentage of consumers who determined the competitors when they are requested to share the information about the name and thinking of the specific company. Heat share can be computed by having the percentage of consumers who determined the competitors while responding to the question asking them to whom they would choose to buy the product (Meyer, 2014). In this company, the most operating system Mac OS have wide range of markets among rival competitors. Globally, many users prefer this product for personal use.
Market share:
Market share is the key indicator of the marketing performance and it determines how well the company is doing its performance against the competitors. It can be compensated by changes in the sales revenue which helps the mangers to determine the demand in their market. The current market share of Apple Inc. has low share against the competitors. It has low market share compared to last year. The sales growth obtained from primary demand is more profitable than that by acquiring share from the competitors. The losses in the market share will leads to log term problems which needs strategic adjustments. The market share trends for individual products are treated as early indicators for future problems. The market share of Apple Inc. has given below.
Market penetration:
Market penetration is the strategy which can be measured by the amount of sales value of the goods and service compared to the total target of that product and service. Apple utilizes this market penetration as their second important intensive strategy for growth. Market penetration comprises retaining a large market share by selling the products of the company. Apple Inc. uses this intensive strategy by selling this iPhones and iPads to attain its current target markets. The company attains its target by having more authorized sellers in the current markets. It is significant in the penetrating markets yet Apple didn’t attain the position. Apple uses this intensive growth strategy where it uses many websites and outlets.
Customer satisfaction:
Customer satisfaction is the marketing concept which evaluates how products and services provided by the company meet or satisfy the customer expectations. Customer satisfaction is significant as it offers marketers with a metric which they can use to enhance the businesses. Regarding customer satisfaction. Apple stands tops in the customer satisfaction of technical support. Apple score good reviews from the customers for online support and phone. They scored four out of five (Fingas, 2015). AppleCare service provided by Mac owners where the service was able to solve the issue. Apple has sustained top score for overall satisfaction since 2007.
Margin and Profit:
Profit is the amount which the business retains after the exclusion of all expenses from gross revenue. Profit margin represents the profit of the company i.e., percentage of gross revenue. It is important to consider that profit determines the amount of money earns from business from activities and invest in future aspects. The amount of profit margin offers information about the financial health of the business and sustainability of business model.
Profit margin:
Profit margin refers to the profit of the company which can be represented in the form of percentage (Ling-yee, 2011). The percentage of revenue is also called as profit margin. In this margin, the company hold the profit after depreciating the fixed and variable costs. The profit margin is used to maximize volatile earnings, internal comparisons and it may vary between industries. This minimize the risk which affect the sales will lead to net profit loss. In Apple, the profit margin has eventually low when compared to last year.
Target revenue:
Target revenue is the marketing activity which threatened to minimize the funding available to the company. It determines the amount retains from the desired profit. With the help of target sales volume and sales price, the revenue level will be attained. The target revenue of Apple will be $47.5 billion as Tim cook hit this target last year.
Break even sales:
Break even sales is the amount of revenue at which a business gains zero profit. This amount can be retained by estimating the fixed costs and variable costs of business. A break even sales has minimum amount of sales which need to be reported in every accounting period to prevent losses. In other words, if the business downturn occurs, the breakeven level will be used to match up with the future sales level. Apple hit 2M in Q2 in the year of 2015. It didn’t hit the same in next quarter (Jain, 2015).
Product and portfolio management:
Product managers requires this practical approach to manage the product portfolios which consists of planning and analytics. Analytics needs the companies to determine the current state. Planning identifies the companies to evaluate how they use the resources and how to attain portfolio goals. The product and portfolio managements is used to evaluate the resources to deliver the products and optimal allocation of memory which helps to set a strategic goals of the company. Apple extended its product portfolio through their revolutionized products.
Volume projections:
Volume projections help the marketers to predict the sales by sampling customer intention through market studies (Lehmann, 2004). In this metric, how many customers will able to try a new product and the retention of buying of the project will make it as a projection. In next five years, the forecast earnings growth of Apple has become like this,
Compound Annual Growth rate:
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is used to measure the company’s growth in different time periods. The growth rate from the initial investment value to the ending investment value has been compounded during time period.
Customer profitability:
Customer profitability is the revenue or profit which acts as serving a customer group in the specific period. The costs related to the customer relationship and revenues incurred from customer relationship can be varied in the specific period of time
Customers:
Customers of Apple Inc. are children, college and university students, business people and Adults. Each has unique needs while it comes to the purchase of electronic gadgets.
Retention profit:
Customer retention relates to the actions and activities organizations tends to minimize the number of the customer defections. The main objective of customer retention program is to help companies regain many customers through customer and brand loyalty initiatives. Customer retention starts with the customer continues throughout the entire lifetime of the relationship. Compared to Samsung, the iPhone has 83.4% of customer retention rate in the future. Hence the customer retention rate of Samsung was 64.2%.
Average acquisition cost:
Acquisition cost is the metric which can be included in the raising of web based advertising campaigns and internet companies will be tracked. It is the cost of maintaining a potential customer to buy a service. The average acquisition cost of Apple Inc. is $3.5 Billion.
Sales force and Channel management:
Sales & Channel Management helps multichannel distribution for sales in two ways. First, enhancing the effectiveness of the sales investments and interactions with customers. Secondly, driving the efficiency in all sales channel like sales force and channel partners etc.
Sales Goal
Sales goal of Apple Inc. is to acquire stellar products and services inside timeframes at the actual cost which refers the best value to the customers and stakeholders.
Sales Force effectiveness
Sales Force effectiveness determines the success factors which guarantee the improved performance and permits the clients to focus on their resources (Milichovský, and Šimberová, 2015). Sales force effectiveness can be defined as the sales professional’s ability at every stage of the buying process of customer. If it fails, the sales function issue occurs in the company. Sales force effectiveness of the company is effective than Samsung.
Category performance ratio
Category performance ratio can be defined as the relative performance of the retailer in the product category which can be compared with the performance in product categories (Seggie, Cavusgil, and Phelan, 2007). The distribution metrics determine the availability of products sold through retailers.
Pricing strategy
Apple uses the retail strategy is called minimum advertised price. This policy decline the dealers from advertising the manufacturer products under a minimum price. It can be enforced through the marketing subsidies provided by the manufacturer. It is effective that prohibits the retails directly competing with Apple. It has more distribution channels and the company make more money on the direct sales.
Price elasticity of demand
Price elasticity of demand is used to determine the relationship between the changes in the quantity demand and its price. The demand for normal product will affect the raising of prices. In case Apple, the demand changes while the prices are increased. Hence it has strong reputation.
Optimal price
Optimal price can be defined as the price which increase the profit. It can be evaluated through different methods. The optimal price of the Apple Inc. is $499 in the United States (Meyer, 2015).
Residual elasticity
Residual elasticity is used to determine the elasticity of demand for the company in the competitive market with respect to the market electricity of demand. The residual elasticity of Apple always remains neutral. If the demand for the product increases, the price also increases.
Promotions:
Apple use intensive growth strategy for their promotion of products. It uses many websites and outlets for their promotion. The advertisements appreciate more people tends to buy Apple products. A broad differentiation generic strategy of Apple determines the demand and needs to acquire the market. This market penetration strategy enables Apple to reach the customers in market segments (Yeung, 2016).
Incremental sales:
Recently Pokémon would have added $3 Billion in Incremental sales for Apple Inc. This symbolizes the great reputation of the company.
Redemption rate:
The promotion needs consumers to gather tokens or codes. To receive a free gift, the brand should be viable which it offers for the consumers to commit. Apple perceives many gifts and coupons to the consumers.
Price waterfall:
Price waterfall is used to determine the latent costs and expenses incurred from the company. It is important to retain the control over pricing if the pricing waterfall comes in. It is effective tools which determines the discounts offered to the customers. Apple provides over pricing offers to the customers. If there is 1% increase in pricing, it will lead to 12,5% enhancement in the profitability.
Advertising metrics:
Advertising is the marketing metric which used to promote the product. For this advertising, the campaigns have been developed. All advertisers should comply with advertising policies and search ad contents.
Frequency response function:
Frequency response function is the metric obtained from the consumers respond to buying of specific product of the company. Here, Apple product has been selling globally.
Effective frequency:
In this advertising, the effective frequency is frequency where the number of time a person response to the advertising message (Pauwels, 2015). The effective frequency of Apple Inc. is quite high than other phones.
Effective reach:
Effective Reach is the total percentage of target audience which receives given message to influence the sales and purchase at above effective frequency level. The effective reach of Apple Inc. is 85%.
Online and mobile metrics
Online and mobile metrics are the important metrics for the marketing. It is the best way to promote the products of the company. Through this process, the products can be sold to the consumers.
Cost per Tap:
Cost per tap model is the promotion strategy of Apple Company. It means the competitors can be bid without considering the worrying of overpaying.
Visitors:
Visitors are the competitors and customers from different countries. The number of visits per visitors have been applicable and made by the plan with subscription
Likes:
Apple radio hits more likes among the iPhone customers. The streaming music company has planned to analyze the waters of the crowded industry. The technical specification of Apple is very effective than other brand. The features of this product has been appreciated by many customers and competitors.
Effectiveness of marketing strategies:
Conclusion:
Apple has effective marketing strategy. It is highest brand in the technology industry as well as brand ranking. The main target market of Apple is music lovers. It captures the hearts of all music lovers through the revolutionized product. Similarly, the customer satisfaction rate is higher than leading brand. Here the performance assessment of the company is effective in terms of marketing metrics. If the relevant marketing metrics associated with the success of the company has enhanced, the performance of the marketing strategies will be raised.
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