External Marketing Analysis Report for Adobe

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As a software and application company, Adobe has led the way for many years with its Acrobat, Reader, Shockwave, and Flash products. Adobe is again on the forefront of technology as nearly all of its products are cloud based and offer new improved functionality. It also is capitalizing on the trends in social media and social marketing with its cloud based media and picture editing software. With customers able to upload edit and download and then share their work on social media, Adobe is well postured for continued market growth.

Politically, Adobe has not had many significant hurdles to overcome in the past. However, Europe has been very anti-U.S. technology recently with current law suits coming against Google for anti-trust concerns. There is even talk about a technology tax to be imposed upon technology and software sellers from the U.S. Even though Adobe is not directly tied up in this legislative push from the old-country, it may impact their pricing model. There are already sites upset about the unequal pricing of Adobe software and cloud solutions for oversees companies and individuals. Australia is aggressively tackling this claim as their federal parliament is looking at the “Australian Tax” and may step in with some legal measures. Despite a lot of talk there have been very few true political hurdles for Adobe to overcome in their marketspace.

Culturally Adobe is in a great place right now. Early in the company’s history they were seen as a niche company with ownership of Acrobat and Reader and Photoshop and were doing well. Through strategic acquisition and forward thinking they are poised to capitalize on two very important market shifts, social media and social marketing.

Around the world more and more people are active one some form of social media. Whether through Facebook or Instagram, individuals want to put pictures of themselves online for the world to see. The new software from Adobe allows individuals to alter, touch-up and enhance these pictures from anywhere in the cloud. This is right in line with what the individual culture is looking for today.

The other cultural shift occurring is that of the business and marketing world. So much advertising and selling is occurring on-line that some companies are shifting their entire business strategy from brick and mortar stores to nearly all on-line to reduce costs. Adobe has again shown the foresight to provide cloud-based applications that companies can purchase to help tailor and test their digital marketing. This includes targeting specific demographics to ensure these companies hit the sweet spot of their customer base. They have strategically placed their products and brand to take advantage of the cultural shifts of both individuals and businesses.

Competition

Adobe’s primary competition comes from Microsoft Corporation, Apple Inc. and Quark Software Inc. It is important to note when discussing Adobe’s top two competitors they are in part much larger companies that offer a broader range of products. The financials for these companies will reflect the whole company offerings but the product offerings listed will reflect only those that are in direct competition with the products Adobe offers. Microsoft and Apple produce mainstream operating systems and have designed digital media software that is compatible with their operating systems. This software competes directly with Adobe’s digital media software. Quark Software Inc. is a private owned software company that specializes in publishing software.

Apple

Apple Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California. They currently employ about 93K full-time or equivalent people. For the last fiscal year Apple generated $182.8 billion in sales. Apple develops its own operating system OS X. They also develop computer software titles for its OS X operating system. The software Apple develops is bundled with its computers. iLife is a software package that bundles iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand. For presentation, page layout and word processing, Apple has iWork. This includes Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. iTunes, QuickTime media player, and Software Update are available as downloads. In the professional creative market, there is Aperture a professional RAW-format photo processing; Final Cut Pro, a video production suite; Logic Pro, a music toolkit; and Motion, an advanced effects composition program. Apple offers online services with iCloud, which provides cloud storage and syncing for a wide range of data.

Microsoft

Microsoft was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. They currently employ about 128K people. Last year Microsoft saw about $23.38 billion in revenue. Microsoft Corporation’s challenge to Adobe comes from there release of Windows 8 and Office 2013 as well as XPS. XPS competes with Adobe’s PDF. Office 2013 offers 7 different applications. Microsoft also operates Expression Studio which is a graphic design tool similar to Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator tools. They offer 15 different tools and apps under their business section and 3 product tools under their developer section.

Quark

Quark was founded in 1981 in Denver, Colorado. They provide design and publishing software to more than three million users in over 160 countries. Quark is a relatively small company and only employs between 500 – 1000 people. They are privately held and do not release revenue figures but it was estimated in 2009 they had 170 million in sales. They currently offer nine products; three under design and digital category and six under Quark Enterprise Solutions QuarkXPress, the company’s most successful product is page layout and graphic design software that lets you create and publish materials for print, the Web, e-readers, tablets, and other digital media. In terms of size and product offerings, Quark is the most similar to Adobe.

Targeting the World

Although Adobe products are being used in many facets of our everyday interactions on the internet, they are not a mass marketer. The company actually uses a multi-segment strategy to reach the end users of their products. By focusing on benefit segmentation, they can speak to each group of users as the software applies to them, whether it is digital media, digital marketing, or print and publishing. Within the digital media space, the Creative Cloud focuses on the needs of creative professionals. Graphic designers, user interface designers, video game developers, and web developers around the world rely heavily on these tools to do their jobs effectively. Adobe actually