By Jayraj Patel
Apple Inc. does not need an introduction. It is the most valuable company in the world with a staggering market value of $752 billion. It has delivered a range of products in the computing and networking space since 1976 which include the iPhones, iPads and iMac that have disrupted the markets previously dominated by Silicon Valley giants like Microsoft, IBM and Nokia only about twenty years ago.
The legacy of Apple
Today, Apple is the world’s most valuable brand and continues to introduce innovative products every year that surpass their predecessors. This successful repetition can be entirely credited to the ‘constant perfection’ philosophy that was instilled by the company’s legendary founder Steve Jobs, who played a pivotal role in shaping the culture and structure that makes the company so successful today.
With the launch of iPhone X earlier this year, the company marked its 10th year anniversary as a smartphone maker by doing what it does best. It designed a special edition model, built a hype in the market for months and launched it with a bang. The iPhone X stole the show and even pushed the other model launched this year, iPhone 8, in the background. Apple wanted to let people know that it has come up with the ‘smartphone of the future’.
What has been the company’s strategy?
It has been doing this for years. In planning and designing, it stays true to a selective range of product lines, creates spectacularly aesthetic products, establishes software coherence and compatibility for all its products to be well-connected with each other, and adds a few elements or functions that are new and unique. In marketing, Apple demands a premium price. It advertises itself as a luxury brand and announces all its products through a single event in September that is attended by tech-celebrities and media while being live-streamed to spectators across the globe. It repeats this process every year, without failure, and regardless of short-term failures, it continues to grow.
The targeted consumer
Apple’s customer base is diverse, including people of all ages, genders, professions, income levels and geographic differences, but all of them share one property that Apple subtly cashes in on—ambition. There is no denying that Apple products are expensive and that the first set of buyers are the rich and wealthy who already own most of Apple’s products and are loyal to the Apple experience. For these customers, the high price and the technical specifications are almost irrelevant as these customers will replace their old models for the ‘updated’ versions, only because they are enticed by the fresh elements that the company constantly markets, like the FaceID feature this year.
After the new models roll into the market, Apple cuts prices of the existing models significantly, and these one or two-year-old models are then bought by the set of customers who feel that they are receiving a good deal on expensive Apple products. These customers are significantly important for their sale base as their purchases of older models reflect the proportion of customers that are willing to buy Apple products when they can afford them, or when the products seem more price-worthy.
A unique selling point
Apple combines a distinctive set of elements and positions itself not as a hardware and software manufacturer, but as a company that provides futuristic technology experience—a unique experience that fosters product and user connections, and delivers an emotional appeal in a rational industry. Being a luxurious technology brand, Apple doesn’t necessarily launch the best products in the market, it continues to thrive on the perception that it is entirely dedicated to delivering the best products. That is the true power of Apple, the company that targets the exclusive, but appeals to all.
Apple doesn’t compete with Samsung or Microsoft. It has always tried to differentiate itself as an innovator, of special products, for special people. The rest simply follows. With this unique strategy, Apple has become the most profitable company in the world with a $45.2 billion gross profit recorded this year and for now, there seems to be nothing amiss as it stays true to its promise, or at least, has everyone convinced that it does.
Featured Image Credits: Visual Hunt
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