New Ipad Pro & Ipad 9.7- Reinventing the Tablet Market?

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Place:

The company has a presence in nearly 200 cities in the world including places like Canada, China, USA, and the UK. Apple stores and outlets are established at well-placed locations where the loyal customers, as well as the prospective customers, can examine the iPads to their heart’s content and satisfy their curiosity. Apple wishes to build the grandeur of their stores so that they can serve as geographical landmarks.

Apple is also the best example of companies executing omnichannel strategy. They have understood the process a customer undergoes when buying an Apple product and integrated mobile apps, web platforms, and offline shopping to deliver a unified experience.

Promotion:

In advertising the new iPad pro, Apple took real problems of people, identified on twitter and promoted iPad pro as the solution (Exhibit D). The advertisement aims to attract tech-savvy youth, who are the prime target of iPad pro. The company is promoting the high usability of the iPad and positioning it as a device that has both power and portability which can replace laptops. Also, along with the iPad, the company is also promoting Apple pencil that can be used with the iPad to create user experiences as good as working on a paper.

Apple has always believed in capturing customer loyalty at an early age. Thus, even with iPad Pro, they focus on targeting the school and college students by providing student discounts, partnering with universities etc. They’re trying to capture youth as customers before they even know that they are customers. (Source: https://www.apple.com/education/ ).

- What are the unmet customer needs? – White Space

Even though tablets have been around for nearly a decade, no tablet maker has fully achieved a tablet design which meets all the needs of the consumer.

The current market has many tablets which are still running enlarged versions of phone operating systems and limit their utility for power users. The tablet consumers are still waiting for a tablet design that allows them to do all that they could do on their laptop computers with an interface that is more conducive to the touch input capabilities of the tablet.

The low-end tech consumers have different needs which are not met. As this segment uses the tablets primarily for entertainment purposes, they want superior quality screens and audio systems on their tablets at a lower price. Very few tablets below the price range of $350 provide the quality these customers desire.

Can Apple’s current marketing mix be leveraged to meet the unmet needs of the customers?

Apple’s promotion and pricing strategy for the iPads has been indicating that the iPad is a clear replacement for their older portable laptops. However, their products have been lacking in the design of the operating system and are not able to meet the expectations set by the lofty promises made via promotions and the high price point.

Lack of lower price options has also meant that the pricing strategy was completely ignoring the low-end market who still want the quality that Apple promises but do not want to pay extra for additional features.

How can Apple change its marketing mix to meet the unmet needs of the customers?

It is very clear that Apple must revamp its pricing and product design to meet the customers’ unmet needs and thereby regain some of the lost market share. Suggested changes to the marketing mix:

- Apple should diversify its product line to target the two segments of the market separately. Apple has started implementing this with the new iPad 9.7 priced at $329. This is also a way to customize the price for each segment

- Apple should redesign the operating system of the iPad to provide the additional value which the pro customers seek

- EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF MARKETING PRINCIPLES

For Apple to be where it is right now, they have followed various fundamental marketing principles. We have analyzed a few core principles which have yielded them great success.

- The Marketing Concept- Satisfying Customer Needs Better Than the Competition

Apple has built its entire brand value proposition around innovative technology, the user interface and the ease of use. Apple provides its consumers with a broad yet meticulously linked product range which is very hard to replicate. By having their own Operating System, hardware, and applications, Apple has created an ecosystem for its customers and has earned their loyalty in the process. This can be extended to the iPads which will benefit from Apple’s brand value.

- Price Differentiation

Apple does not get into price wars with its competitors and believes in focusing on design and quality. Although the iPad 9.7 has a lower price point, Apple has not compromised on the product quality in any way. We would like to look at this lower price point as Apple’s way of understanding customer needs and creating a product which was very necessary to target those consumers who couldn’t afford the Apple iPad but wanted to be part of the Apple ecosystem anyway.

- Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

Apple uses the IMC approach to maximize the impact its products have on its consumers. With the iPad, Apple is using concepts from AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). They captured the attention of the targeted consumer segment by introducing a new tablet in their range. The interest and desire were generated by advertising the high usability of the tablet for students and professionals and thereafter launched the New iPad pro.

- Understanding the customer and appealing to their emotions

What apple does better than any of its competitors is going to great lengths to understand their customers. They want to connect with their customers in their own language and not as sales people would. Further, Apple maintains good relations with the major influencers of the technology world (Bloggers and YouTube reviewers), who shape the needs of the customers. Apple did a great job connecting with their customers and prospective customers using a string of advertisements for the iPad Pro. The ‘So many things to love’ (Exhibit D) series of advertisements was a great success and is one of the reasons why the iPad pro is doing so well.

CONCLUSION