Critical marketing audit: The case of Apple Inc. (PDF)

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: A, Royal Holloway, University of London, language: English, abstract: This report covers a critical marketing audit of Apple, a company that operates in a highly competitive and dynamic high-tech industry. Specifically, the report analyses Apple's current market strategy and business environment and then goes ahead to offer recommendations that the company's marketing department can implement to improve the effectiveness of the company's current marketing strategy.
The report has found that competitor rivalry fuelled by intensive product development efforts have resulted into unusual brand loyalty even when competitors such as Samsung sell closely similar products at strangely low prices. Further, the study finds that Apple and its competitors share one common thing, creativity and innovation. Arguably, leading consumer electronics manufacturers in the US including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and IBM rose to fame courtesy of their cutting-edge technologies and product designs. In a nutshell, the study shows that Apple's rise to fame was a result of its product innovation and diversification efforts by launching less conventional products such as iTunes.
The report recommends that Apple should increase its product, business process, and business model innovations in order to address the stiff competition posed by rivals such as Samsung, HP, Dell, Microsoft, Google, and Lenovo. Further, the report recommends that Apple should become a lower seller so as to increase its customer base and build the confidence of the young and middle-level generations from less affluent households.