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IB3650 - Marketing Communications - 2017-18 Individual Project Brief (12 CATS)
Here are your task(s):
Select a brand;
and for that brand, conduct research and produce a report of no more than 2500 words that addresses
each of the following tasks:
i) Research,
outline and evaluate the brand’s current marketing communications strategy.
ii) Evaluate
the brand’s current utilisation of social media as a communications tool.
iii) Suggest
ways in which the brand’s utilisation of social media as a communications tool
might improve or enhance the brand’s value/equity.
Guidelines
You may make
any reasonable assumptions necessary. You may adopt any relevant concepts or
frameworks to aid the structure of your argument or your interpretation. If it
assists your argument, you may adopt a role (e.g. brand manager reporting to
marketing manager; marketing manager to marketing director; etc.).
You may be as
contentious as is desirable and legally allowable in your suggested use of
social media, but the suggestion and intended execution must comply with ethical standards and guidelines, fit with
the brand’s current positioning and identity, and must be justified with use of
evidence and likely benefits. If you consider it necessary, you may also
suggest modifications to the brand’s current positioning, but again this must
be justified with substantive evidence of need, expected benefits, and how the
use of social media might be used to aid achieving that objective.
[Note: You must
indicate, via an e-mail to the NIE (yansong.hu@wbs.ac.uk), which brand you
intend to select no later than 12.00 noon on Friday 1st December
2017]
* Use a
business report format, but ensure that your argument is integrated and
coherent
* The upper
word limit is 2500 words.
* All work must
be original and individual
* The report
should be typed, single sided, double spaced and with at least 1” margins.
* A word count
must appear on the front cover of your assignment.
* Any
assumptions made must be explicitly stated.
* Please refer
to the latest WBS policy on word count (posted on my.wbs in a different file).
* Appendices
must be used with great care, must be appropriate, and must be referred to
within the body of your report. They cannot be used to circumvent the word
limit.
* You should
submit your work via the my.wbs online submission system by the specified
deadline.
* Extensions
will only be granted in line with University rules (illness, supported with a
medical note, and/or adverse personal circumstances, supported with appropriate
evidence).
SUBMISSION
DEADLINE: To be confirmed by the undergraduate office
Marketing Communications: (A case study of
iPhone a product of Apple Inc.)
Name
Institution/Affiliation
Word
Count: 2478
1.0
Introduction
Apple Inc. is
regarded as one of the dominant corporations in the United States (Behrandt,
2012, pp. 287). During the 1970s the company was popularly known as Apple
Computers, having been formed by three individuals; however, the third co-founder
did not believe in the longevity of the enterprises, for that reason he opted
to sale his shares valued at 10% in the ventures at a price of $800. Presently,
10% shares in Apple Inc. are worth over $540 million; the company has quickly
risen in popularity in the technology industry having conquered the global
market. In 2007, Apple Inc. was able to venture into the production of smart
phones, with the company penetrating the market by producing its flagship
product known as the iPhone a GSM-based smart phone. Initially, the company had
been accused by the individuals who purchased the iPhone product of adopting a
very unsuccessful marketing strategy during the early stages of production.
After the launch of the iPhone, Apple Inc. significantly reduced the prices of
the product, such that the prices could be equated to the cost of the ordinary
and regular 3G smart phones. This served as a discouraging factor to the
earlier customers of the iPhone a product manufactured by Apple Inc. to satisfy
the needs a particular cluster of the population.
However, despite the Apple Inc. running a marketing
strategy on iPhones that was termed as ineffective, loyal customers continued
to purchase the iPhones. Dyer-Witheford (2012,
pp. 131) asserts that the loyal consumers who unrelentingly purchased the
iPhone received communication that the smart phone was adapted to be used by a
singular service provider notably the AT&T. The poor marketing strategy
resulted in the company facing more significant opposition from the loyal
customers, who opted to use alternate service providers. For that reason, the
company was forced to adopt a more effective marketing strategy that would
ensure Apple Inc. penetrates the market and targets the potential customers in
the global market. The company aimed at redeeming its image on the loyal
customers who had faulted the marketing strategy, the company focused majorly
on individuals from the upper-class cluster.
2.0 Marketing communication strategy
The current marketing communication strategy adopted by Apple
Inc. has helped the company to efficiently create brand awareness for the
iPhone. As a result, according to Liao and Hseih (2013, pp. 411), the targeted
consumers can translate the information concerning the product into specific
perception about the attributes of the product as well as the position held by
the product in the global market. Apple Inc. utilizes a marketing communication
strategy so that to retain the current loyal iPhone customer base as well as be
able to create a functional relationship between the suppliers and the
customers. Besides, the marketing communication strategy adopted by Apple Inc.
on iPhone defines the plan held by the venture as a way of disseminating
information regarding the smart phones as well as establishing the spread of
brand awareness (Foulger, 2014). Additionally, the iPhone marketing
communication strategy majorly focuses on the consumer; as such Apple Inc. can
use different components of marketing components. The marketing team
responsible for running the iPhone marketing communication campaign recognizes
that an analysis of the needs of consumers as well as preferences enables the
team to run an efficient, market-oriented strategy.
Apple Inc. has designed the iPhone’s marketing communication strategy such that it is constituted by various significant components. The advertisement of iPhones has enabled Apple Inc. to reach a broad customer base through the utilization of global market or use of appeals on...
