1.0 Entrepreneur An entrepreneur identifies a need that no existing business addresses and determines a solution for that need. Entrepreneurial activity includes developing and starting a new business and implementing a business marketing plan, often with the end goal of selling the company to turn a profit. The term entrepreneur not only refers to the creator, owner and manager of a business, but also to the project leader of a business. An entrepreneur who regularly launches new businesses, sells them and then starts new companies is a serial entrepreneur. Whether a business owner should be considered an entrepreneur often depends on whether they created the business, and other legalities. That said, any founder of a successful household-name business began as an entrepreneur. 1.2 Examples of successful entrepreneurs Steve Jobs: The late tech leader started Apple in a garage and grew it into the dominant company it is today. Jobs even faltered partway through his career, leaving Apple for more than a decade before returning to the company and taking it to new heights Elon Musk: He founded SpaceX and has since become known for putting the billions of dollars his company has earned him toward some benevolent projects, including providing clean water to Flint, Michigan, and donating FDA-approved ventilators to hospitals fighting COVID-19. Bill Gates: The Microsoft co-founder has often been listed as the world’s wealthiest individual and has become an internationally renowned leader on pandemics and how to handle them. Definitions of Entrepreneur An entrepreneur can be described as “one who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying significant opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them” (Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2008, p. 5). An entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise”. traits of successful entrepreneurs: Planning There’s a lot of talk about “P” words: passion, perseverance, and persistence. I mistrust all three. A lot of unsuccessful entrepreneurs have these traits as well. You have to have some variation on them, but you can have all three and still fail. You and I both know people who never made it—and never stopped trying, either. My favorite “P” word in entrepreneurship is “planning,” but that’s just me. Stubbornness is good too (even though it doesn’t start with a “P”). Empathy As in, understanding how other people think and feel about things. Empathy leads to understanding what the people you sell to want, what they need, how they think, and how to best reach them. It’s hard to imagine somebody building a company without being able to put themselves in the buyer’s state of mind. A sense of fairness For dealing with vendors, customers, and employees. A successful entrepreneur needs to be able to be fair with those they do business with. Transferable values This is closely related to the sense of fairness. I just don’t see people building businesses without believing in what they’re doing. Willingness to work hard Entrepreneurs need the ability to work shoulder to shoulder with other people. Cliched, but true: The harder I work, the luckier I get. Knowing what they don’t know To me, that’s much more important than what you do know. Know where you are weakest, and where your strengths lie. Conclution Autonomy: Entrepreneurs are people who want to be their own bosses, set their own goals, control their own progress and run their businesses how they see fit. Purpose: Many entrepreneurs have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish and will work tirelessly to make that happen. Financial success: Most entrepreneurs realize they aren’t going to be overnight billionaires, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in the potential to make a ton of money from a hugely successful business over which they have full control. Legacy: Entrepreneurs are often guided by a desire to create something that outlasts them. Others want to develop a brand that has longevity and becomes an institution. Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the immense strength and human spirit of which made possible the great geographical discoveries of the world. Entrepreneurship is a vital activity to bring about changes in the economy and society not only in a country but also of those in the world. It causes the initiation of all types of human activities in the society. Entrepreneurship is the immense strength and spirit of humanity which made possible the great geographical discoveries of the world. It is the astounding forces of man that indebted our civilization with varieties of products, among technologies, and breakthrough thoughts. It is a basic strength of business organizations too. The provocation of change toward future business prosperity is the result of the entrepreneurial zeal of the people. Therefore entrepreneurship is a basic discipline to learn for the student of business. Definition of Entrepreneurship What is entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is the act of creating a business or businesses while bearing all the risks with the hope of making a profit. “Entrepreneurship entails bearing the risk of buying at a certain price and selling at uncertain prices.”Ricardo Cantillon. Characteristics of Entrepreneurship: Ability to take a risk- Starting any new venture involves a considerable amount of failure risk. Therefore, an entrepreneur needs to be courageous and able to evaluate and take risks, which is an essential part of being an entrepreneur. Innovation- It should be highly innovative to generate new ideas, start a company and earn profits out of it. Visionary and Leadership quality- To be successful, the entrepreneur should have a clear vision of his new venture. However, to turn the idea into reality, a lot of resources and employees are required. Open-Minded- In a business, every circumstance can be an opportunity and used for the benefit of a company. Know your Product-A company owner should know the product offerings and also be aware of the latest trend in the market. It is essential to know if the available product or service meets the demands of the current market, or whether it is time to tweak it a little. Being able to be accountable and then alter as needed is a vital part of entrepreneurship. TYPES OF entrepreneurship 1. Corporate entrepreneurship is a more general term referring to entrepreneurial actions taking place within an existing organization whereas Intrapreneurship refers to individual activities and behaviors. Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization. Intrapreneurship is known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches. Intrapreneurship is derived from the knowledge of using entrepreneurial skills, innovation, and start-up business practices within an organization. As we will see from the case study of Apple Inc., Late Mr. Steve Jobs belonged to this category. Corporate Entrepreneurship is broadly described as the process whereby an Example Apple Inc. creation of Macintosh, which divided the company into two group inside the company- Macintosh and the rest in early 1980. Second, CE symbolizes regeneration actions that enrich a corporations’ capacity to participate and take risks, which may or may not involve the addition of new businesses to a corporation. Here the example of second comings of Steve Jobs at Apple, where the development of iPod mp3 player regenerated the company in early 2000. CE is initiated at the top level of the corporation in order to create a companywide strategy and gain competitive advantage. Some scholars have labelled CE as Intrapreneurship. Conclusion To be successful in sustainable business practices often requires entrepreneurship and innovation. Being an entrepreneur requires taking on significant responsibility and comes with significant challenges and potential rewards. Entrepreneurship is a mind-set, an attitude; it is taking a particular approach to doing things. The motivations for becoming an entrepreneur are diverse and can include the potential for financial reward, the pursuit of personal values and interests, and the interest in social change. For innovation to be relevant for sustainable businesses, it has to be meaningful and affect a large number of stakeholders. Successful entrepreneurship often requires creativity and innovation in addressing a new opportunity or concern in a new way. WHO IS Steve Jobs Born in San Francisco, Calif., and raised in Los Altos, the Apple Computer Company visionary was adopted by his father Paul Jobs, and mother, Clara Jobs. As the son of a Coast Guard mechanic, Steve Jobs showed an early interest in electronics and gadgetry. While in high school, he boldly called HewlettPackard co-founder and president William Hewlett to ask for parts for a school project. Impressed by Jobs, Hewlett not only gave him the parts but also offered him a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard. It was there that Jobs met and befriended Steve Wozniak, a young engineer five years his senior with a penchant for tinkering. Together, they designed and sold the "blue box," which manipulated telephone networks for free long-distance calls. When Jobs returned to the United States, he renewed his friendship with Wozniak, who had been trying to build a small computer. To Wozniak, it was just a hobby, but the visionary Jobs grasped the marketing potential of such a device and convinced Wozniak to go into business with him. In 1975, the 20-year-old Jobs and Wozniak set up shop in Jobs' parents' garage, dubbed the venture Apple, and began working on the prototype of the Apple I. They attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, which helped them develop and market their Apple product. To generate the $1,350 in capital they used to start Apple, Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen microbus, and Steve Wozniak sold his Hewlett-Packard calculator. At the end of March 1997, Apple announced a quarterly loss of $708 million. Three months later, Amelio resigned and Jobs took over as interim Apple CEO. Once again in charge of Apple, Jobs struck a deal with Microsoft to help ensure Apple's survival. Under the arrangement, Microsoft invested $150 million for a nonvoting minority stake in Apple, and the companies agreed to "cooperate on several sales and technology fronts." Next, Jobs installed the G3 PowerPC microprocessor in all Apple computers, making them faster than competing Pentium PCs. He also spearheaded the development of the iMac, a new line of affordable home desktops, which debuted in August 1998 to rave reviews. Under Jobs' guidance, Apple quickly returned to profitability, and by the end of 1998, boasted sales of $5.9 billion. In October 2011, Jobs passed away at the age of 56 due to complications related to pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, whom he met while speaking at Stanford University, and their three children - Erin, Reed, and Eve Jobs. Together they raised their family in Palo Alto, Calif., along with Jobs' fourth child, Lisa, from a previous relationship. 19-days after his death, author Walter Isaacson released his self-titled biography, which became a New York Times bestseller. The book was later adapted for Aaron Sorkin's 2015, with Michael Fassbender playing Jobs. Jobs once described himself as a "hopeless romantic" who just wanted to make a difference. Quite appropriately like the archetypal romantic hero who reaches for greatness but fails, only to find wisdom and maturity in exile, an older, wiser Steve Jobs returned triumphantly to save his kingdom. Case Study: Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur who turned into an intrapreneur due to demands of the environment he worked in. The concept of corporate entrepreneur, initially called ‘Intrapreneuring’ is essentially start-up entrepreneurship turned inward. Apple was established on April 1st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. The kits were hand-built by Wozniak. Steve Jobs was booted in 1985 and returned as CEO in 1997. By the time of his death in 2012 at the age of 56, he had transformed a company that was in such weak financial shape that it accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft, into the most profitable technology company in the world. A consummate showman, Jobs was adept at explaining his vision to a mass audience and he built Apple into one of the world’s most powerful brands. The company’s annual revenues climbed to $108 billion (CNN most admired company 2012). Jobs and Woznick, both had a steady job but their entrepreneurial needs were unsatisfied and hence this gave rise to Apple Inc. But by 1980, increased competition pooled with poor sales of the Apple III and its follow-up, the LISA, resulted in loss of its market share to IBM. Faced with bad sales, Steve Jobs introduced the Apple Macintosh in 1984. The first personal computer to feature a graphicaluser interface controlled by a mouse, the Macintosh was a true breakthrough in terms of ease-of-use. This move by Apple demonstrated innovativeness and risk taking at the time of adverse conditions. This was partially because of Steve Jobs entrepreneur skills and partially of the entrepreneurial corporate strategies in place, this resulted in CE. Steve Jobs and his handpicked group of twenty Apple Computer engineers detached themselves from the other Apple employees to innovatively and intrapreneurially create the Mac. The MAC group, under Steve Jobs’ personal leadership, operated totally autonomously and without meddling from anyone at Apple. This is an example of how Steve Jobs exercised autonomy and disengaged from the organizational boundaries to lead a new business creation inside the same Apple. This action links up with the points of “Autonomous” and “Innovativeness” of the framework. It also fits in well with the definition of CE in question, since it created a new innovative business venture inside the organization. However due to creative difference between Steve Jobs and the board, Jobs quit Apple in 1985. Here we see that Steve Jobs need for autonomy and power got in the way and eventually resulted in his leaving his beloved Apple Inc. Entrepreneur need to be autonomous and locus of power can sometimes result in unfavorable results. This marked a turbulent time for the company. It can be said that Apple lost it’s in the words of Schumpeter, J. A. (1952) “Creative destruction” entrepreneur and hence entrepreneur orientation was lost and so was CE culture. However as entrepreneurs are “wild spirits” and always looking for new challenges, later that year, using a share of the money from the stock sale, Steve launched NeXT Computer Co. with the objective of developing an innovative computer that would revolutionize higher education. Here we see the “never say die” spirit of the entrepreneur that Steve Jobs was. He despite all odds and failures stood back on his feet and created a new business venture. He portrayed attributes of innovativeness and proactiveness. He took a big risk with his savings and it could be argued that it was a calculated risk but others see it as a move to show his doubters that he can create “anything from nothing”. Introduced in 1988, the NeXT computer boasted a host of innovations, But at $9,950, the it was too expensive to create enough sales to keep the company afloat. Undeterred, Jobs switched the company’s focus from hardware to software. He also began paying more attention to his other business, Pixar Animation Studios, which he had purchased from George Lucas in 1986. Here we see that Steve created branched out from the primary product and created an alternative business inside a business by utilizing his entrepreneurial skill of learning from failures. Steve Jobs could be said was a serial entrepreneur. He created a new organization and when the organization business was not enough for his appetite of entrepreneur orientation, he created a created a new business inside a business to satisfy the hunger of “creative destruction”. Following on the success, soon Apple bought NeXT for $400 million and re-appointed Jobs to Apple’s board of directors as an advisor to Apple chairman and CEO Gilbert F. Amelio. It was an act of desperation on Apple’s part. The physician of ancient Greece, Hippocrates in his aphorisms stated “For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable.” Because they had failed to develop a next-generation Macintosh operating system and incurred heavy financial loss, the firm’s share of the PC market had dropped to just 5.3% , and they hoped that Jobs could help turn the company around . One could argue that the move to buy NeXT and bring back Steve Jobs was risky and innovative in some sense and that was Apple’s entrepreneur orientation as its best for many years. On the other hand one could say that emotional embedded reasons were behind Steve Jobs accepting the offer to work for Apple Inc. Once again, head of Apple and having gained back the “locus of power” and “autonomy” , Steve went to his old style of leadership by example but the past taught him lessons and he fully learned from those mistakes like any other good entrepreneur would. Jobs struck a deal with Microsoft to help ensure Apple’s survival. Next, Jobs installed the G3 PowerPC microprocessor in all Apple computers, making them faster than competing Pentium PCs. He also spearheaded the development of the iMac, a new line of affordable home desktops, which debuted in August 1998 to rave reviews. Under Jobs’ leadership, Apple returned to success, and by the end of 1998, boasted sales of $5.9 billion. Jobs’ first major innovation was the introduction in 2001 of the original iPod and iTunes music store, which altered how digital music was purchased. In January 2007, after years of rumor’s, Jobs rocked consumer electronics with the introduction of the first iPhone, which has since undergone four successive renovations. The device was not the world’s first touchscreen handset, but its design and easy-to-use user interface became the standard for all smartphone aspirants. However in Apple’s iPhone case, they created market or developed a new market by innovating and reinventing the existing product itself. Apple’s reconfiguring of the smartphone market caused old-fashioned players, from Microsoft, Nokia, and RIM, to reconsider and alter their own mobile strategies in the wake of the disruption caused by the iPhone. Apple Inc. under Steve Jobs adopted an unconventionality style to strategic design to identify opportunities in its external environment and to position the company to seize these opportunities. Profoundly, this involved the leader, in this case Jobs to think not only about needs of stakeholders but also how the Apple can reinvent or create new markets, products, customers, and services. Nevertheless, Jobs stressed that the company had a longer-term strategy past personal computers, and that he was waiting for the next big thing, which turned out to be iPod and iPhone. Apple’s corporate entrepreneur strategy was heavily influenced by Steve Jobs personal values of regular and steady entrepreneurial way of doing things. It is important that CE requires consistency in approach and regularity in behavior. Jobs succeeded at seizing opportunities because he was able to recognize and initiating trends by taking a calculated risk at the time. He perceived himself akin to Henry Ford who, when asked about the of the automobile stated, “If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse”. Hence, it can be said that Steve Jobs had a “knack” of seizing opportunities because he was a risk taker and so did Apple Inc. as a company. Apple Inc. embraced “creative destruction” by altering the rules of the game in an IT industry. It also involves the aptitude to recognize industry dynamics and the key success factors that drive performance. Apple is known to be obsessed about the strategic action of its competitors and encourages his employees to do the same so that the company does not become complacent. They with the help of “aggressive marketing” are always looking to “compete intensively”, another dimension of the framework that is very relevant in Apple’s strategy. This is very clear from the mp3 devices market, where iPod’s monopoly has resulted in lack of competitors in the sector. Steve Jobs Co-founder Founded: 1976 of Apple Computer Inc. "We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."-Steve Jobs Apple and Its Business CONCEPT Yaynu wx ka iibina bal ku dar last picture o fmobile eeg With a market capitalisation of over a trillion dollar at the time of this writing, Apple is among, if not the most valuable brand in the world. In recent years, it has become increasingly rare to not use an Apple product at some point in your day. In fact, as of this month there are over one billion Apple products being used across the world. The little apple with a bite out of it has become synonymous with technology, music, and growth. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is considered one of the Big Four technology companies, along with Amazon, Google, and Facebook. The company's hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, the iPad tablet computer, the Mac PC, the iPod portable media player, the Apple Watch smartwatch, the Apple TV digital media player, and the AirPods wireless earbuds. Apple's software includes the macOS, iOS the iTunes media player, the Safari web browser and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites. Its online services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, Apple Music, iMessage, and iCloud. About Apple The history of everyone’s favourite start-up is a tech fairytale with one garage, three friends - Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and their wild passion to do something big. The two Steves attended the Homebrew Computer Club together; a computer hobbyist group that gathered in California's Menlo Park from 1975. Woz produced the first computer with a typewriter-like keyboard and the ability to connect to a regular TV as a screen. Later christened the Apple I, it was the archetype of every modern computer hand-built entirely by Wozniak. It was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips)—a base kit concept. The approach was to make something simpler for the rest of us. A philosophy even reflected today in Apple’s products. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($2,995 in 2019 dollars, adjusted for inflation). Apple Motherboards to iPhone and Beyond Steve Jobs was convinced that all future computers would have GUI. The first home computer with a GUI, or graphical user interface — an interface that allows users to interact with visual icons — was the Apple Lisa. Jobs adapted the technology of The Xerox Alto(the first computer to feature GUI) into a computer small enough to fit on a desktop. Despite a fantastic breakthrough it was a commercial failure due to its high price and limited software titles. On December 12, 1980, Apple (ticker symbol "AAPL") went public selling 4.6 million shares at $22 per share , generating over $100 million, which was more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956. By the end of the day, the stock rose to $29 per share and 300 millionaires were created. Apple's market cap was $1.778 billion at the end of its first day of trading. Apple iMac and iPod In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as the interim CEO, and a year later the company introduced a new personal computer, the iMac. The iMac was a strong seller, and Apple quickly went to work developing a suite of digital tools for its users, including the music player iTunes, the video editor iMovie, and the photo editor iPhoto. These were made available as a software bundle known as iLife. In 2001, Apple released its first version of the iPod, a portable music player that allowed users to store "1000 songs in your pocket". By 2015, Apple had sold 390 million units. The iPhone During his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would thereafter be known as "Apple Inc.", because the company had shifted its emphasis from computers to consumer electronics. The event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The company sold 270,000 iPhone units during the first 30 hours of sales, and the device was called "a game changer for the industry". Apple achieved widespread success with its iPhone, by October 2008, Apple was the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world. Apple Business Model Customer Segments In the 20th century, Apple catered primarily to the home computer market, selling products which, although coming with a premium price tag were still affordable for the mass market. In the 21st century, following Jobs' re-branding of Apple Computers Inc. to Apple Inc., Apple has focused increasingly on the consumer electronics, with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad becoming flagship products. They continue to cater to the premium end of this market. Value Proposition The key to Apple’s success is majorly given to its meticulous, elegant design. Moreover, the loyal customer base formed by Apple in the initial years is still a strong standing point, with customers ready to pay time and again for flawless, high performance, brilliantly designed devices. Customer Relationships Apple maintains its strong relationship with its customers through offering phone and web-chat based customer service channels, in addition to providing in-person assistance at their various stores worldwide. Key Activities Apple's key activities are investing a lot in quality control to ensure products meet the standard their customer base has come to expect. Aside from design, quality control, branding is a huge part of what Apple does. Apple is extremely conscious of controlling the image it projects and it has painstakingly and consciously cultivated an image of quality, precision, sophistication and class that enables it to justify the higher price tags its products commands relative to its rivals. Apple Revenue Model While home computer sales comprised the majority of revenue for most of Apple's history, in the last decade, this has changed as Apple has focussed on smaller consumer electronics. The sale of iPhones typically generates between 30-50% of the company's revenues each quarter, and is these days consistently their biggest earner. iPads are the second biggest earner, typically generating around 4-9% of Apple's quarterly income. Sale of Macintosh computers is still lucrative, but typically generates less than 5% of Apples income, and this figure has declined a lot in the last few years. Sale of other products, including Apple watches and iPods generate around 3-6% of revenue. Apple's internet services, including iTunes, Apple Care and Apple Pay typically also account for 3-6% of revenue. The key highlights of the analysis of Apple as a Tech giant are that when the need felt to a shift from the computer industry to the consumer electronics, it didn’t wait for the numbers to slump, it immediately started working on newer products. It worked really hard to maintain the quality standard and never compromised on it even if the sales fluctuated. When Bill Gates Steal From Steve Jobs The Dark Side of Bill Gates Steve Jobs passed away ten years ago, but many stories about him are still intriguing to be discussed. One of them is his relationship with Bill Gates. The relationship is full of tension, but when Steve died in 2011, the pair are on good terms. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ relationship started smoothly when the pair were admiring each other brilliant achievements. Bill has a brilliant mind for developing a computer program, and Steve is a genius creator. But, unfortunately, the relationship had become sour after Bill betrayed him. The problem between the pair occurs when they are partners. At that time, Bill Gates providing splendid software for Mac and contributed to Apple’s success in the market. As a business partner, Steve trusted Bill. So he lent Apple’s new operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”) to Microsoft so that Bill can work on software applications for the Mac. Bill Gates was so blown away with the new OS from Apple that Steve showed him. He becomes competitive and decided to betrayed Steve Jobs. While writing Mac’s apps, Bill stole the OS and applied it for Windows. Later, Bill Gates said: “if they didn’t want us to steal it, they should not have given it to us.” Steve Jobs’s frustration after the person which he associates as a partner has betrayed him. Bill Gates has crushed Steve Jobs’s reputation in the internal’s Apple team. The board and shareholders disregarded him and led to Steve Jobs’s dismissal. After all, Microsoft’s precious advantage of stealing Apple’s masterpiece OS is not the revenue but the status as a market ruler instead. Because not long after this accident, the board was kicking Steve from the company, and Apple never became the real competitor for Microsoft. The sacking had made Steve Jobs depress, and people from Steve’s circle believe it gave the roots for his pancreas cancer which he suffered for a long time before he died in 2011. However, according to his medical record, he started having health problems far after that. The relationship between the two geniuses is recovered after Steve Jobs call Bill Gates and asked him to write software for Mac. Bill Gates has a soft spot for Apple, so he accepts the offer and not only writes a program for Mac, but Bill Gates also invests in Apple. When Apple introduced a new collaboration with Bill, Steve invite Bill to attend the Mac World in Boston. Bill attended the event by using teleconference. Soon after Bill Gates’s face appeared on the big screen, the crowd, which is full of Apple enthusiasts, booed him until Steve Jobs stopped the crowd by defending his partner and saying: “No, no, no, sometimes your rivalry is also, your friend.” When he died, Steve Jobs is on good terms with Bill Gates. It seems Steve Jobs is forgiving his old pal and has gone peacefully as the founder and savior of Apple Inc. Maxaynu ka baranayna steve jobs Steve Jobs is one of the greatest inspiration for many people who want to make their mark in the tech world. The tech genius made Apple one of the most valuable and successful companies in the world. Years after his passing, most young entrepreneurs consider him as a source of inspiration. Here are a few skills that we all can learn from the greatest genius and apply in our lives to achieve our goals. Think Differently: Steve Jobs, as we all know, the billionaire founder of Apple computers, as early as in his early twenties almost single-handedly had introduced to the world, the first computer that could sit on the table and do things, which were unimagined at that time. He revolutionized music and innovated the iPod and a wide selection of songs at the iTunes store. The introduction of the iPhone, which would put much of the power of a computer neatly into the palm of one’s hand, has almost transformed the way whole humanity is living in this digital era. “Think Different” is the tagline of Apple. This quality of thinking differently and thinking out of the box has led Apple to extraordinary innovations and transformations in the digital world. This is a very important aspect that every entrepreneur should cultivate to make their ventures unique and successful. Learn by exploration: During his childhood days, Steve has spent his time with his dad in his mechanical workshop in their garage, learning how to build things, how to take things apart, and put things back together. Knowing Steve’s interest in electronics over mechanical things, his dad exposed him to electronics/radios/television and other gadgets which Steve assembled, dismantled, and reassembled as a practical way of learning. This gave him a tremendous level of self-confidence and understanding that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one’s environment. Because of this nothing scared him and nothing seemed complex to him. This understanding had led to great innovations and products at Apple, elevating humanity to the altogether next level. Entrepreneurs, especially the budding ones, should understand the importance of this learning through exploration and inculcate this in their day-to-day life. Have an imaginary vision: During the preliminary stages of Apple, Steve always imagined a computer that was as graceful and elegant as it was useful. He gave aesthetics equal importance to the technology. He could even look at the beige box and see the beauty. This intersection of technology and art has resulted in something truly special. Only his imaginary vision had driven him with varying degrees of success in his ventures. While designing a mouse for the Apple computer, he wanted it to move in all directions, and not just up and down or left and right. He was also clear that he wanted to be able to use this mouse on his jeans as well as on a desktop surface. When he started NeXT, Jobs used to say, “You have to have a real single-minded tunnel vision, if you want to get anything significant accomplished” Having an imaginary vision is very important for every entrepreneur while developing their products across, many industries and also during their execution. Think Big While developing Apple, Jobs used to push his team to develop more new tools and graphics. He wanted them to aspire to a bigger and more cosmic goal. He used to say to them, “Let’s make a dent in the universe. We’ll make it so important that it will make a dent in the universe”. While building Macintosh, he used to tell his team again and again that it needs to be insanely great. Steve’s attitude of thinking big is also visible when he questioned Sculley, who was then working in a leadership position in Pepsi-cola and was little oscillating as to whether join Apple or not, saying, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” This made Sculley take the decision of joining Apple right away. As an entrepreneur, if you truly want to make anything significant and big, thinking big is the very fundamental requirement. Focus on the Journey, not on the reward: Though Apple made Jobs a millionaire, making money was not his focus. He focused on what he wanted to do. For him, the journey is the reward. He used to say, “It’s not just the accomplishment of something incredible. It’s the actual doing of something incredible, day in and day out, getting the chance to participate in something really incredible”. This attitude had helped Jobs, to pursue his vision and passion and create another great product and a new company, even when he was kicked out of Apple, the company which he had co-founded. Develop your inner energy: Steve had always been a seeker throughout his life and obsessed with questions like who we are? He has learned the power of intuition and experiential wisdom over intellect and rational thinking – a difference of approaches that influenced his life’s work. Even from the age of seventeen, he had the habit of thinking each day that that day is his last day. He strictly followed a vegan diet. Power of design and imagination: Lessons from Apple and Nokia What does the story of Nokia and Apple have to do with the power of design and imagination in the luxury industry? In one word: everything. Why? The story of Nokia and Apple is a lesson about how two companies saw the world and executed their visions. Nokia saw its mission as making the best talking devices. Apple saw its mission as reinventing the phone through a revolutionary touch interface. Steve Jobs’ vision was ahead of his time. He said, “What we want to do is make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been, and super-easy to use. This is what iPhone is. OK? So, we’re going to reinvent the phone.” One company got it right and revolutionized the marketplace, while the other business ending up getting bought out and sold for a fraction of its market value. Here is how it happened. Misdial According to Frank Nuovo, a former vice president and chief designer at Nokia, Nokia developed an iPhone-like device in 2002. There was not much information about this product, other than it had a touchscreen and allowed its users to browse the Web, find restaurants and play games. Two years later in 2004, the development of what became the iPhone began when Apple gathered a team of 1,000 employees to work on the highly confidential “Project Purple,” including Jonathan Ive, the designer behind the iPhone. Apple was under threat from mobile phone manufacturers. What Nokia had done to camera manufacturers was about to happen to Apple and its iPod. The development of the iPhone was at first a defensive move and later became an offensive move. The user interface was built around the device’s multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPhone had Wi-Fi and could connect to many cellular networks. It was a whole new approach for mobile phones. Why did Nokia fail to leverage its vast R&D budgets and launch its own version of the iPhone? Blindsided Nokia was a brilliant engineering and manufacturing company focused on the product and features. No one could beat Nokia in the quality, price and features of their mobile phones. Nokia had several fatal blind spots: its reliance on the Symbian operating system, overconfidence due to its market dominance, and a lack of focus on the consumer experience. By contrast, Apple was desperate for a break-through product. It was facing irrelevance if it did not respond to the growing threat from the mobile phone industry. Apple was at its own inflection point and needed to change the game to stay relevant. The only way for Apple to win was to change the game. Apple changed the game and was rewarded by the markets. The iPhone was launched in 2007. Apple’s market cap was $111.90 billion in 2007 and Nokia’s market cap was $116.8 billion. IN 2013, APPLE’S market cap was $3,198.67 billion and Nokia’s market cap was $16.16 billion. The Nokia handset division was sold to Microsoft in 2013. The iPhone is testament to the power of design and imagination. Think of the world without your iPhone or smartphone for a day or a week. Jobs said it best in speaking of the iPhone: “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” What Market Research Is Market research is any set of strategies used to collect information about your business’s target audience, customers and buyer personas to establish how viable your product is or would be among them. Determine the size of your target market Test demand for your products and how much customers are willing to pay Understand your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses Identify business performance issues Identify new opportunities Test whether your marketing strategies are effective Keep track of current trends in your industry Ensure optimal brand positioning Apple wxy awoda sarta mxy customer ku rabaan wa research Apple Case Study(Research): Data Analysis Of Apple Sales Question Task:This is an individual, written assessment, to be completed in report format. You are required to write around 3,000 words (+/- 10%), excluding title page, preliminaries, tables, figures, reference list and appendices. The report requires in-text referencing and a full reference list in APA style, with evidence that you have critically read and integrated a minimum of 20 suitable scholarly references. The purpose of this assessment is to present the final report of the Professional Project you proposed in Assignment 1. This report should build upon both components of your Assessment 1 and it should be developed with the help of the tutor/co-ordinator feedback. In order to successfully complete Assessment 2, you are required to carry out the investigation you have proposed in Assessment 1 and produce a professional research report that shows that you have followed through from finding a research question to answering that question and developing recommendations that arise from your findings. Answer Executive Summary The main purpose of this Apple case study is to find the correlation between the sales of the products of a company and customer satisfaction levels. A case study on Apple Inc. will be done in this report and based on the data and research on Apple the aim of the research will be obtained. Two research questions will answer the objectives of the research, which are: the first one is that does customer satisfaction index affects the sale of the Apple products. The second one would be if there is any relation between customer satisfaction and the sales of the product affected by it. The research will be done by looking into various sources which will include the company’s website and other reference materials. The data, graphs, and charts thus obtained from the various sources will help in answering the research questions that are asked in this report. Introduction It is given in this apple case study that any company or organization that enters the market has some set of aim and beliefs which will make the company successful. The main aim of any company that enters the market is to gain lots of profits from the market and become the most successful company. But there are several ways and processes which helps in the growth of the company and set up its place in the market. One of the main factor which decides the success of the company is the satisfaction of its customers from the service and the products provided by the company. The aim of this report is to analyze the importance of customer satisfaction in the sales of the products of the company. The case study for research on this topic will be done on the Apple Inc., the technology giant of this era and how loyal and trustworthy it is to the customers and did the customer's trust and satisfaction helped in the growth of this company (Hult et al. 2019). The case study of Apply is chosen for this report because of many reasons, one of which is the high sales of Apple products. The products provided by Apple are very expensive as compared to its competitors, despite it the sales of the products rises every year and all the technology and the facilities provided by the company are accepted by the customers. Other competitive brands are also manufacturing the same types of devices with the same features, some even providing more features than Apple products, so what is it that makes this company the most chosen one over the others. Is it because of the trust of the customers and their loyalty to the brand or is there something that other companies cannot see. This apple case study will give a deep insight into the factors due to which it is the most chosen and trusted company for the customers (Beckers et al. 2018). Literature Review Customer satisfaction is very important for the growth and the development of any company or organization. It has been seen that the quality and the services provided by the companies have been influenced by the satisfaction of their customers. The upgrade and new innovations in technology have been a result of the customers' satisfaction and acceptance. If the customers are not satisfied with the product range of the company and the qualities that they provide, then the company can lose its customer base and that will decide the company's place in the market. Anything that the company produces and sells depends on the acceptance of the user base and the market. Doesn’t matter how important and innovative a product is, it will only be successful if it is accepted by the customers and the consumers (Agnihotri et al. 2016). It is given in this apple case study that the company works according to the needs and the wants of the customers, the main purpose of all the companies is to satisfy their customers in all aspects whether it’s the products, the quality of the products, the support to the customers and the reviews of the customers. Company satisfaction is not limited to producing just the right product, it also varies in various aspects. Customer care is one of those, the work of the customer care department of any company is to provide total guidance and support to their customers in terms of solving their queries related to the products and another customer related service provided by the company (Lim et al. 2019). The customer review is also an important part of the customer satisfaction for the company, taking advice and the reviews of the products by the company from the customer is a good way of communicating with the customers and determining their needs. If the customers have a good experience with any company and the services provided to them are very satisfactory and problem-solving, then the company will have a loyal customer base. A loyal customer base can only be developed by listening to the customers and once it is developed, the consumers will only trust the products from the company even if they charge more for everything as compared to the other competitors (Martinaityte et al. 2019) Research Aim and Questions The aim of the research is to find out whether customer satisfaction is an important factor which decides the growth of the company, and whether the increase in the sales of the product of the company is decided by it. The research questions that will give a proper answer to the aim of the report is: What is the relation between customer satisfaction and product sale? What is the relation between customer satisfaction and product sale? Methodology Data Collection: The main aim of this apple case study is to determine how the customer satisfaction level affects the sales of the products of the company. It is a secondary data analysis report and the data provided here will be the factual data collected from various sources which also includes the official website of the Apple Inc. The main vision of Apple Inc. according to Steve Jobs was that the company will solely focus on its customer base first and will then work towards the technology of the product. Apple is still successfully following these steps and has managed to build a huge user base or a fan base due to their vision. If data from the previous 11 years is to be looked at, then Apple Inc. and its products have topped the market in the customer satisfaction ratings till now. According to the ACSI ratings, Apple has scored 83 in 2018 and the similar score in 2017 too, which is the top score as compared to its other competitive brands. Whether it is the handy devices like the smartphone and laptops or if it is the other devices like desktops, Apple is ranked at the top as compared to others in the customer satisfaction rate. Apple also provides the feedback facility to its customers and works on the genuine feedbacks too. As soon as a customer purchases an Apple device, they get a notification to rate the product, and how satisfactory the product is and would they like to purchase Apple products in the future too. All these feedbacks and details are not just plain words, the company works in these details too and makes sure that the customer feels validated and the communication between the customer and the company remains intact (Wildemuth, 2016). Data Analysis: This apple case study collects data using the method of quantitative data analysis, the data is collected from various sources, all of which are described in the above paragraph. The data here will be analyzed using the correlation technique, this technique will help in analyzing the relationship between customer satisfaction and the dependence of the sale of the products in it. The data analysis for this report will be done on the basis of raw data that is available publically on many websites and books. The tables and charts describe the comparison between the customer satisfaction rating and the sales of the product. The basis of the rating of the Apple will be according to the ACSI ranking, this ranking is done on the basis of the customer satisfaction of a particular product and Apple tops this ranking every year since past 11 years. The research for this apple case study will conduct various statistical analysis techniques to critically analyze the ways in which the customer satisfaction index can be measured and the trust and dependence of the customers for the product can be looked into. These techniques included are Conjoint analysis, TURF analysis, GAP analysis, MaxDiff analysis, and Cross tabulation. All of these techniques are the different types of ways to find a common result which is the customer satisfaction index (Yuan et al. 2015). According to the data analysis of Apple sales and customer satisfaction collected in the last 11 years, it can easily be noticed that there has been a dramatic change in Apple’s sales business. The fact that the sales have seen a rise at a very high rate shows that they are doing well in the customer satisfaction front. The sales that were around 1.4 million in 2007 have risen to more than 216 million by 2018. The growth in sales is highly commendable, knowing that Apple has sold approximately one billion iPhones worldwide in this 11-year period. It is no surprise that the iPhone sales have contributed to about 70 % of Apple’s entire revenue, making the company almost around 61 Billion U.S dollars. Increase in sales is the easiest way to judge consumer satisfaction and the fact that this success has made it possible for Apple to rank among the most valuable brands in the world, speaks volumes about their strategy. The reason behind Apple’s success is brand loyalty which only can be explained by putting forth the fact that Apple has a strong consumer satisfaction game, giving public what they want at the same time providing them with innovative inventions. According to the ACSI index, Apple started in 2007 with a customer satisfaction index of 79% itself, but has seen nothing but a constant rise up to 2013, with 87%. However, a minute fall in satisfaction is noticed, from 87 to 83% throughout the years 2014-2018, the sales though do not seem to be majorly affected by it. Findings and Analysis Correlation Analysis: The data given in this apple case study is used to analyze customer satisfaction and the product sales for Apple is based on the finding since the past 11 years. The Apple products have been placed at the top in the ranking of their customer satisfaction levels and the sales of their products. Various sources including the official website of Apple and other third-party comparison websites have confirmed this statistical data and thus ranked the Apple at the top of the table as compared to its competitors. The basis of the customer satisfaction score is done by the ACSI rankings, which is the unit used all over to rank the products and the companies according to their performance in customer satisfaction and Apple tops this list with the score of 83 (Hill and Brierley, 2017). Conjoint Analysis: This method of analysis given in this apple case study looks into the ways and the types of products that the customer's need. It looks into the various factors such as the cost of the product and if the cost of that product inclines with the features that it provides. It also focuses on the ways and the benefits that were provided to the customers and how these benefits and services helped in the good or bad promotion of the product. This method is now widely used to promote a product, decide the pricing of the product and the launching of the product as well (Ben-Akiva et al. 2019). TURF Analysis: The full form of TURF is Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency, this method looks into the deep understanding and the needs of the people and accepts the responsibility for the various products and services launched together. The services combined together and the interest of the customers in that particular area lets the company decide the fate of the products. The data is collected from the customers and the unduplicated data and the customer response is extracted (Pattanayak et al. 2016). GAP Analysis: Before the launch of any product, a company gives some specific details on the performance of the product and how it will benefit its users. So, the GAP analysis is used to check the before and after the performance of any product, this is obviously done by using the consumer’s support as well. The requirement of this process is to improve the quality and the standard of the product of any company and to clear and fix the errors (if any) of the product or the services. MaxDiff Analysis: This analysis method is quite similar to the conjoint analysis and the two could be confused easily as they have many similar properties. The basic work of the MaxDiff analysis is to focus on the preference of the customer for the particular product that they need. The focus can be on various factors like the cost of the product, functions of the product, technological advancement in the product and the preference of the brand for the product. Cross Tabulation Analysis: As the name suggests, the cross tabulation is the easiest and the convenient way to analyze the details and the features of the products by comparison in two or more categories. Any two product or the features will be compared in the form of a table and in this way it will be very easy to compare the two or more and thus determine the most useful and easy approach (Apenes Solem, 2016). Discussion: The content in the discussion section of this apple case study will contain all the information from the literature part and the result section of the report. All the analysis methods and the result derived from these analyses will be compared and then a conclusion of the report will be provided at the end of the report. The actual aim of the report is to find out the relation between customer satisfaction and how it influences the sales of the product of the company. The previous secondary analysis done on this report has been done on the same subject only. Customer satisfaction is the most important need for the growth and development of the company. The report discusses and provides many ways which prove that the growth and success of any company directly depend on the customer satisfaction level of the company. The fact that Apple stayed on the top of the customer satisfaction ranking and similarly at the top of the most successful business as compared to its competitors, proves that the customer satisfaction indeed does help in the growth and development of a company. Many analysis methods have been provided in the above report which provides information about the impact of customer satisfaction on a company. Conclusion Addressing Aims and Research Questions: The aim of this apple case study is to point out that whether the satisfaction of the customers from a certain product of a company is the reason for the success and growth of the company. This has been proved in the report above by many critical analysis methods and from various sources of information. The research material that was used to come out to the conclusion that it is very important to satisfy the customers through the products and its services. The customer base is the only people who will buy from the company and the dissatisfaction of them will lead to the obvious failure of the company. The report clearly mentions the various analytical methods that were used in the determination of the importance of consumer trust and satisfaction for a company. It is important for the company to engage in communication with the customers through whatever means possible. This indicates that the company is really willing to put in more efforts that will help in the development of the product and provide better and reasonable features to the customers. Exactly like the case in Apple Inc., though the price value of the Apple products is more as compared to its other competitors it still is one of the most recognized and loved the brand for the maximum customer base. The research question was whether customer satisfaction is an important aspect in terms of the growth of the company, this question is answered in this report. And the conclusion that is derived from it is that customer satisfaction is really the most important factor responsible for the development and growth of the company (Tzoumaka et al. 2016). Limitations: The limitation of this apple case study is the ever-changing data and results. The results and findings in this report from various sources suggest that Apple Inc. is the topmost brand in electronics. However, there could be various other means by which the growth and the development of the company can be measured. This report is meant to find the company and its growth with respect to the number of positive feedback and recommendations from the customer base. The satisfaction of the customers is the key point in this report and the rank of the company is determined by that. Also, the factual data and the comparative data mentioned here can change in the future with big or less margin, so this report is time-bound and is limited only for this particular period of time. The results and the findings could stay accurate or change over time as well. Recommendation The most important recommendation for the report could be that although Apple Inc. gets full marks for its customer satisfaction factor, it should still look into other aspects as well. There is a big customer base that supports the changes and updates in the features of the products from Apple. But there are a lot more other people and consumers who think that Apple is going out of its own vision and it is not so much customer friendly as it used to be. Which means that a little number of customers are not satisfied with the way the company deals with them, although this number is very low it can grow up to a sizeable amount. This could cause a lot of problems in the future; many people recommend that the price of the products from the company should get down a little which can increase its customer base. But this is not important as the facility and the features provided by the company makes the amount of the product worth it and people accept and respect that. The company is becoming more like a fashion brand rather than a technology giant, and due to which a lot of Apple products were faulty at times which included a smartphone that was cracked from the middle. These types of news are dangerous for the company and they should make sure that every product that comes out of the facility is up to date and gives the best performance. It is not possible for any company to satisfy every customer; therefore, the company should look at the requirements and the needs of the majority of the people rather than focusing on every customer. The launch of new apple features was also not well appreciated by some of the customer base, an example of which is the ear pods. This however does revolutionize the smartphones and keeps them a step closer to the new innovations and technology. So, it is given in this apple case study that along with the new improvements and innovations in technology and fashion trends, the company should also focus on its customer base and make sure that the customers trust them and make them the champion of the customer satisfaction once again for the 12th year. Apple case study assignments are being prepared by our management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable online assignment https://www.totalassignment.com/free-sample/apple-case-study Main Blog Marketing Technologies and Tools Apple's success secrets. 4 key tactics of high NPS to the Apple brand Apple’s success secrets. 4 key tactics of high NPS to the Apple brand Apple has established itself in the eyes of the client as a proponent of the innovative technologies responding promptly to the needs and desires of the audience. Since 2007, Apple is one of the first companies to introduce the NPS system. Since then, all employees support this system, and the corporation performs daily actions that promote customer loyalty to the brand. The trust of the team and all customers of the company was obtained using 4 key tactics of NPS: Experience working with clients Having dedicated his life to creating a unique product, Steve Jobs broadcast to the public the main idea of the Apple brand: each new product of the company should be improved taking into account the desires and needs of the customers. This is the key to grow and scaling a business! “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not other way around!” – Steve Jobs Statistics of attendance at Apple stores around the world is more than 1 million people per day. It is 365 million visitors per year. Why are so many people visiting the Apple store? The secret is in the experience and service standards that every brand customer receives. Consultation with Apple experts consists of 5 simple but effective steps: A : Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome. P: Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs. P: Present a solution for the customer to take home today. L: Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns E : End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return. Apple employees use the same steps with each new product, as a result, the customers leave the store delighted and are happy to share their buying experience and convenient service with the friends and colleagues. Listen to customers Apple uses NPS to get credible customer feedback on the brand. Just after making a purchase, the company sends a survey to the client, asking them to assess the level of satisfaction and the likelihood of recommending the products to friends. The Apple NPS team uses testimonials to accurately form the reasons for encouraging customers to recommend the brand. Each employee can view the feedback received from the customers and adjust the work with this information. Here is an example of how one of the NPS Apple polls looks like: Quickly close cycles Following the NPS survey, Apple Store managers identify “brand critics” within 24 hours. The researches have shown that companies quickly closing the cycles and settle a customer, after receiving negative feedback, experience a 10% increase in sales. More important is the fact that at Apple, after meeting the dissatisfied customers within 24 hours, they managed to achieve a greater return on investment. Subsequently, the work with NPS, already loyal “critics of the brand”, acquired more Apple products and services than other customers. Additional sales amounted to more than 25 million US dollars in the first year of experience with NPS. Engage all employees using NPS Apple was one of the first supporters of the idea that employees should be brand representatives, as they are the first point of contact with your company. It is important that employees are true fans of the brand, able to turn customers into referees. How did Apple achieve this? The company sends NPS surveys to its employees every 4 months and measures their likelihood to recommend Apple as a place to work. Winning trust among the team is an important attribute of the corporate success. The ForeSee study shows how the active involvement of Apple employees led to the maximum customer satisfaction with the brand (see Image below). As a result, the customers admire the brand and they are happy to recommend Apple products and services to their friends and family. Conclusion Today, Apple continues to improve NPS to continuously measure the customer satisfaction and, as a result, the company is one of the main market leaders. Apple has achieved worldclass Net Promoter Score using four key tactics – starting with the customer experience, and not with the product; carefully listening to the customer reviews; quickly closing the cycles and involving all Apple employees to the NPS. Buying, discovering and using an Apple product is an unforgettable experience for the customers that makes them happy. The company pays a close attention to the feedback received from NPS surveys and uses it daily to manage the entire chain of stores. As a result of success, Apple has created a good return on investment and increased sales. Finally, attracting all employees through the NPS program has led to the increased trust between the team and high customer satisfaction. These four steps have become a key in shaping the global love for the Apple brand. https://4service-group.at/apple-s-success-secrets-4-key-tactics-of-high-nps-to-the-applebrand/ 2. An Obsessively High Attention to Details Apple doesn’t just stick to offering quality and reliable products. The company goes the extra mile and pays a ton of attention to the smallest details. And consumers notice that. In fact, if you google “Apple attention to details,” you’ll come across tons of articles talking about the brand’s “fanatical” and “insane” obsession with details. Here are just some examples to show you what we mean: The Apple Pencil’s weight is distributed in such a way as to ensure that no matter which way it’s placed, it always rolls over to display the word “pencil.” Its weight distribution also reduces its momentum when rolling, thus reducing the risk of it rolling off the table. Wx yaro kasta time bay ku bixinaysa Apple Target Audience Apple's target audience consists of middle-class and upper-class users who can pay higher for products that provide them with an incredible user experience. This means that these users have a higher disposable income and are willing to pay more for as high-priced products as Apple's. A higher percentage of customers who buy the iPhone, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and Apple TV are between the ages of 25 and 34. -- Seniors 65 and older, and people between 35 and 44, are the biggest of iPad customers. -- And those who are 35 to 44 made up the highest percentage of Apple Watch sales. Dadak wa wayn Minney says that the trend is an indication that Apple products are "getting in the hands of people on the late side of the adoption curve," while still remaining very popular with their core customer base -- younger, tech enthusiasts. There are a few theories about why this is happening. "Older people might be new to Apple," Minney said. "They haven't bought as much stuff." Another possible reason: Older customers are buying Apple products to give as gifts https://money.cnn.com/2015/10/29/technology/applecustomers/index.html#:~:text=%2D%2D%20A%20higher%20percentage%20of,pe rcentage%20of%20Apple%20Watch%20sales Case Study on Apple Marketing Strategy By Simplilearn Last updated on Jul 18, 20225612 Table of Contents Apple Target Audience Marketing Strategy of Apple 5 Key Takeaways From Apple Marketing Strategy Breaking through with several inventions in the world of technology, Apple Inc. has been carving infinite milestones ever since its inception. Even though its innovations speak for themselves, this highly-valued giant corporation has invested heavily in its marketing team to soar high up as a tech maestro. Apple Inc. realized the role of brand marketing in the success of a venture from the start as a crucial way to connect with its target audience. This brand's marketing is so vigorously carried out and well-thought that it is often an inspiration and a place of research for marketing professionals. Here we bring you a wellcurated case study on Apple's marketing strategy, the key takeaways to learn from this venture, and how to incorporate the same in your business and marketing strategies. Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing With Purdue University & co-created with FacebookENROLL NOW Apple Target Audience To understand its key strategies for marketing Apple products, let's first understand what Apple's target audience is like. Apple's target audience consists of middle-class and upperclass users who can pay higher for products that provide them with an incredible user experience. This means that these users have a higher disposable income and are willing to pay more for as high-priced products as Apple's. Let's take a look at Apple's target audience with this comprehensive analysis sourced from Business Research Methodology's report on Apple Segmentation: Particulars Apple Target Audience Areas Urban Gender All Age 20-45 Life phase Bachelors to Married both Earnings High Jobs Working professionals, managers & executive level workers Besides this primary classification, Apple also explicitly targets professionals working in specialized software like music, video, photography and all kinds of design careers. These working professionals prefer Adobe’s Final Cut, Photoshop and related editing software which work well with Macbooks and IPads than other operating systems. Even better, business professionals prefer Apple products such as iPods and Macbooks for their day-to-day work. Products like iPads and Macbooks are lighter and portable, so they are often selected by students (upper-class), educational institutions and teaching. Free Course: Digital Marketing Tools & Techniques Learn SEO, Email, Paid, Affiliate Marketing & MoreENROLL NOW Marketing Strategy of Apple Now coming to the marketing strategy of Apple, it is a combination of well-designed products with the right user experience, promotional campaigns, distribution, and pricing. Let’s take a look at all these features of Apple marketing strategy in detail: Focus on Finer User Experience Apple’s branding strategy is based on its stylish, more straightforward and lush products that focus on providing a user interface that is very simple to use and learn. They are lighter, easy to carry as well as durable. This minimal look and user experience makes it a perfect sell to its target audience, which comes from the middle to upper class. Suave Yet Simple Advertising Storytelling is such an essential part of every Apple ad as well as a marketing campaign. Often these ads focus on minimal design as well as high-quality images. They are either blended with music or a simple story. Apple consciously ensures that its advertising and marketing don’t use too much jargon or filler language in its ads. Instead, it shines a light on the product to let it speak for itself without showing what the price is like or using complicated words for its features. Targeting the Right Markets Apple is excellent at tapping into its target audiences like a genuine tech witch who knows their aspirations, preferences and pain points! Its market research is always on-point and crystal clear in its products, curation, and features. 5 Key Takeaways From Apple Marketing Strategy Here are the major critical takeaways from Apple Marketing Strategy: Tapping into your target markets and audience is the key to curating and selling user experiences that value the preferences of its people. With simplicity and finesse in design, the right products with minimal designs and features can create a perfect impact for your brand. Incorporating emotion in your advertising and marketing can also help you connect with your audience better. Don’t exaggerate the copy and conceptualizing of your advertising and marketing campaigns and prefer the “less is more” approach. Create shorter yet emotional and empathetic ads to captivate your target audience. When you create an international brand value through quality and minimal, sophisticated design, you don’t need to compete in terms of price. Instead, your price will set you apart for your user experience and design features. Become a millennial Digital Marketer in just https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/marketing-case-studies-tutorial/applemarketing-strategy Marketing Planning: A marketing plan is a broad document or design that outlines a business advertising and marketing efforts for the upcoming year. This plan describes business activities involved in completing specific marketing objectives within a specific time period. Apple uses marketing planning while producing new products for their current target markets. By having a marketing planning it helps Apple stay organised and make quick decisions. It also helps the brand meet their tasks and deadlines and it also helps them create everything. Understanding customers: Understanding customers is important for a business, this is because they are the people who are buying the products from a brand and they are the reason behind why a business becomes successful. Apple understanding Customers: Apple understands their customers by getting customer feedback and by getting customer feedback they get the opportunity to improve their products by releasing a new product or by updating their IOS. So by making changes on their products Apple understands their customers’ needs as they adapt to their needs and wants which attracts more new customers into their store. If Apple did not listen to the feedback and suggestions from the customers then the customers would not purchase their products which would create a big loss for the business as they wouldn’t be making any money if customers didn’t purchase their products. This is why it is important to understand the research from the market research so they would be making much more money as a company. Understanding competitors: Understanding competitors is also important for the business. This is so they can compete with their competitor’s price wise and software wise to make sure that they are the best company within the category which in this case is Apple. Apple understanding their competitors: Apple competes with brands like Samsung. Apple and Samsung both look at each other’s sales and the products that they launch. They both try to compete each other by having similar price ranges and getting out similar products. For example Apple and Samsung both have a smart watch. The Apple one is known as the ‘Apple Watch’ and the Samsung one is known as the ‘Samsung Gear S3’ Understanding market environment: Understanding the market environment is also important as it would help businesses during the market research. During market research businesses have to analyse its external environments. A useful way to do this is by using a SWOT Analysis. This analysis observes the relationship between a business and as well as its marketing environment. SWOT analysis stands for: Strength: This refers to the advantages of the business and also the internal features of the business/organisation. This could be the location of the business or how well a business advertises their products. Weakness: This refers to the disadvantages of the business and also the internal aspects of the business/organisation. This could be the amount of sales a business is making or the poor quality of products and services that a business have launched or produced. Opportunities: This focuses on the developments of an organisation. This could include the business moving into a new market segments or new territories for a service or product. Threats: This refers to the competitors which may be affecting a certain business as they may not be doing well with selling their products as their competitors are taking away their customers as they may have good price ranges and good offers available for customers. Threats refers to the damage in a business or organisation. This could include taxation which may be introduced on a product or service or a competitor has a new product or service. Apples Market Environment: Apple SWOT analysis: Apple’s Strengths– Apple has launched many different products such as IPhone, IPad, IPod, MacBook and even an Apple watch ‘IWatch’ they have given many opportunities for their customers as there are a variety of different products for the customers to purchase. The have come up with everything a person may want and desire. Apple is one of the most valued brand in the world. Their brand value in 2016 was $228.46 billion whereas now in 2017 the brand value is $234.67 billion. This shows that their brand value has increased by 6.21 % within one year. Whenever Apple always designs its products they focus on their consumers. By getting feedback from them they are always relating back to their consumers and how they’d prefer their new products. This is why Apple has become successful as they are always thinking about their customers and are always caring about their happiness. Customers like to be satisfied with products which Apple certainly does do as they get a lot of customers purchasing from them. Apple has also branded and advertised their company well. Apple is one of the most wellknown brand world-wide which shows that they have caught everyone’s attention and have advertised their brand very well. If Apple didn’t advertise themselves properly then they wouldn’t be as successful and popular as they are currently. Apple’s Weakness– One of Apples weakness is that their prices for their phones are much more expensive than their competitor Samsung. Apples latest IPhone 8 64GB is £699.00 and the IPhone 8 Plus 64GB is £799.00. Whereas the Samsung’s latest phone which is the Samsung S8 64GB is £669.00 and Samsung S8+ 64 GB is £779.00. This shows that the Samsung’s phone price ranges are cheaper and much more affordable than Apple, this is a weakness for Apple as not everyone likes to spend a lot of money which makes them step back when it comes to purchasing an IPhone. Apple’s Opportunities– since Apple has become very popular and successful over the years the company now want to expand even more by launching their own car line. They think that they are almost ready to start something completely new which will get new customers into their company. This will attract people who are interested in cars and who are also looking into buying a new car. Apple now is hooked on ‘Apple Car’ which is supposed to be launching in 2020. Just how Apple are doing well by selling Iphones, IPad, IPod and MacBook’s Apple also thinks that they will do well or are hoping to do well when launching their own car line. Apple’s Threats– Apples laptop MacBook has competition between Dell, Sony and Lenovo. This is because they are all very successful and popular laptop companies which are used and purchased by many different consumers. Apple does try their best to keep ahead of the game by launching different MacBook’s to get more customers as it is a popular laptop in terms of Apple but so does Dell, Sony and Lenovo. They all also get out new versions of their laptops just as Apple does with their MacBook’s. This is a threat for Apple because sometimes when they try to be ahead of the game other brands such as Dell, Sony and Lenovo end up being on the same level as Apple which makes it difficult for Apple to compete with them and be ahead. This also goes for their IPhones as IPhones are the only phones which are from Apple whereas Samsung, HTC and Sony are from Android. Apple tries their best to stay unique and beat Android by coming out with new software’s but when Android see that Apple has come out with a new Software they also end up creating a similar and try to create a better software than Apple. This again is another threat to Apple as they want to compete with Android. Qualitative Research: Qualitative research is subjective and is often open-ended. This type of research involves surveys, interviews and questionnaires. Qualitative research focuses on behaviour, opinions and intentions. Apple uses this type of research by producing online questionnaires and surveys for their consumers to take part in. They look at the responses to see the thoughts and opinions of different people and put them in use when launching something new. Quantitative Research: Quantitative research focuses on figures and statistics. It often relates to number and figures related to sales data, market value but it can include responses from customers. This type of data can be used to measure products on a weekly basis and it can also be used to track prices across different brands. This type of research can also estimate market shares of competing brands and can estimate market share segments. Apple uses this research as they look at figures of different sales made by different companies and brands. They look at how much profit and customers their competitors are getting and how they can beat them and make more sales and profits than them (e.g. Samsung). They also https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/market-research-apple-8644.php 1980 To Now: The Journey Of Apple's Market Cap From a stock-split adjusted IPO price of ten cents to over $2 trillion in market cap today, Apple has trailed a long path of success. The Apple Maven reviews the highlights of this journey. BY DANIEL MARTINS Currently, Apple stock (AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. Report has the largest market cap in the US market – although Microsoft has recently joined the select $2 trillion club. The journey as a publicly-traded company was marked by historic product launches and major technological innovations throughout different economic cycles. Today, the Apple Maven tells a bit of this success story that, on and off, has created so much value for shareholders since 1980. Figure 1: Steve Jobs, John Sculley and Steve Wozniak in 1980. Ap Photo/ Sal Veder Read also: Apple Stock 101: What All Investors Should Know The 1980s The IPO: The year that the Apple III was launched, in 1980, was also the beginning of AAPL’s journey on the stock exchange. At an IPO price of $22 (or ten cents in split-adjusted terms), Apple kicked off with a market capitalization of $1.8 billion. At the time, it was the biggest IPO since Ford, nearly two decades before. Apple debuted in the stock exchange during a year marked by the beginning of a bull market. Macintosh era: In 1984 the first Mac was released. At the time, it was considered a “commercial failure but with technical acclaim”, largely due to its high cost. This period was also marked by disagreements among Apple's top leaders: CEO John Sculley, hired by celebrity founder Steve Jobs at the time, and Mr. Jobs himself. Read also: Mac: An Uphill Battle For Apple Stock in 2021 The 1990s Difficult times: From the beginning of the 1990s to mid-1997, Apple lost competitiveness in the market due to a series of internal factors. Products that lacked consumer appeal led to a sales shortfall, and Apple was allegedly 90 days away from declaring bankruptcy. The company was “saved” at the time by Microsoft, which agreed to pay $150 million to Apple in exchange for a few rights – setting Internet Explorer as the default browser on Macs, for example. Apple's market cap in 1997 was around only $2.3 billion, barely higher than it had been on the IPO day. Prices leveled again: The launch of the all-in-one iMac (the iconic color model), in 1998, was the one of the key milestones of the company's resurgence. The iMac was well received and helped to boost sales, leading Apple to return to profit once again. Jobs is back: Around the same time, in the late 1990s, Steve Jobs returned to Apple – another key development in the company’s turnaround. This was the beginning of what would soon become a revolution in consumer tech (particularly mobile) devices. The 2000s First, the iPod: In the early 2000s, Apple's market cap reached $5 billion. This period was marked by the launch of innovative offerings that gave Apple the identity that it still carries today. In 2001, the iPod was unveiled, selling over 100 million units in 6 years. In 2003, the iTunes store saw the light of day, marking the first step taken by Apple in services. Read also: Apple Stock: Could This Be The Next Big Thing In Services? MacBook and MacBook Pro: 2006 saw the launch of the first model in Apple's current line of PCs. Apple stock began to appreciate fast: from 2003 to 2006, shares jumped from $6 to $80, adjusted for stock split. iPhone, a game changer: In 2007, Apple achieved perhaps the peak in success with mobile devices. Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone and Apple created the concept of the smartphone. To date, it is the tech giant's most important revenue generator. During the year of the iPhone's launch, AAPL jumped from $75 billion to $100 billion in market cap. Beyond smartphones: A year later, in 2008, Apple launched the AppStore, the company's biggest revenue generator in services today. iPad, the tablet concept: In 2010, when the first iPad was successfully released, Apple passed its peer Microsoft in market cap for the first time. At the time, Apple was worth $269 billion, making it the third largest among public companies in the world by market cap – trailing oil and gas giants PetroChina and Exxon Mobil. Read also: Apple: Time To Start Talking iPhone 13 The 2010s King of the world: In 2011, the year Steve Jobs passed away and current CEO Tim Cook took over, Apple became the most valuable company in the world. The market cap reached $337 billion, surpassing Exxon Mobil. Wearables opportunity: After successful updates to its entire portfolio, Apple's growth continued. In 2015, Apple strengthened its wearables segment with the launch of the Apple Watch. In 2016, it was time for the AirPods, adding revenue to this growing segment. Later that year, it was announced that there were 1 billion active Apple devices in the world. At that point, the company was worth $608 billion. The first trillion: In August 2018, Apple hit its first trillion dollars in market cap. However, by the beginning of 2019, the equity value had dropped to $746 billion after a broad market pullback in Q4 of 2018, only returning to $1 trillion in October 2019. The 2020s The second trillion: In August 2020, after delivering outstanding results quarter after quarter, Apple crossed another milestone: $2 trillion in market cap. The year also marked the kickoff of the 5G cycle with the launch of the iPhone 12 and the transition of Intel processors to the Apple-designed M1 chip. The next step: The main driving force of the company today is Apple’s ecosystem, which ties together its products and services and turns the company into a revenue machine. As we await the next few chapters of Apple's incredible market cap journey towards the third trillion, some new candidates for possible catalysts have emerged: the ongoing 5G cycle, the Apple-designed M1 chip, developments in mixed reality technology and a possible Apple Car. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestreet.com/apple/.amp/stock/1980-tonow-the-journey-of-apples-market-cap The Founding of Apple Computers, Inc. Carol Highsmith, photographer. Passersby outside an Apple computer store in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland. 2015. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Apple Computers, Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who brought to the new company a vision of changing the way people viewed computers. Jobs and Wozniak wanted to make computers small enough for people to have them in their homes or offices. Simply put, they wanted a computer that was user-friendly.1 Jobs and Wozniak started out building the Apple I in Jobs' garage and sold them without a monitor, keyboard, or casing (which they decided to add on in 1977). The Apple II revolutionized the computer industry with the introduction of the first-ever color graphics. Sales jumped from $7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980, the year Apple went public.2 Wozniak left Apple in 1983 due to a diminishing interest in the day-to-day running of Apple Computers. Jobs then hired PepsiCo's John Sculley to be president. However, this move backfired and after much controversy with Sculley, Jobs left in 1985 and went on to new and bigger things. He founded his own company NeXT Software and he also bought Pixar from George Lucas, which would later become a huge success in computer animation of such movies as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo.3 Through the rest of the 1980s, Apple was still doing well and in 1990 it posted its highest profits yet. This was, however, mostly due to the plans that Jobs had already set in motion before he left, most notably his deal with a tiny company by the name of Adobe, creator of the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Together the two companies created the phenomenon known as desktop publishing.4 Back in 1985 Sculley turned down an appeal from Microsoft founder Bill Gates to license its software. This decision would later come back to haunt him because Microsoft, whose Windows operating system (OS) featured a graphical interface similar to Apple's, became their toughest competition in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Over the course of a few years, Apple's market share suffered slowly after its peak in 1990 and by 1996, experts believed the company to be doomed. It was not until 1997, when Apple was desperately in need of an operating system, that it bought out NeXT Software (Jobs' company) and the board of directors decided to ask for some help from an old friend: Steve Jobs. Jobs became an interim CEO, or iCEO as he called himself (Jobs was not officially the CEO until 2000). Jobs decided to make some changes around Apple. He forged an alliance with Microsoft to create a Mac version of its popular office software. Not long after this decision was the turning point for the company. Jobs revamped the computers and introduced the iBook (a personal laptop) followed by iPod, an mp3 player, which became market leader. https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/april/apple-computersfounded Apple They attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, which helped them develop and market their Apple product. To generate the $1,350 in capital they used to start Apple, Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen microbus, and Steve Wozniak sold his Hewlett-Packard calculator The First Round Woz, unlike Jobs never saw it as a business opportunity. He saw it as a cool product he intended to give out for free. But that's not how Jobs saw it. He consulted someone he knew in Atari and worked out a business plan. They needed money to start production. So Wozniak sold his HP calculator for $500 and Steve sold his Volkswagen for $1500. But then the engine broke down so Steve had to pay for the repairs. In all, Steve and Woz started Apple computers with a total of about $1300. Paul Terrell After numerous demonstrations at the Homebrew Computer club Jobs met Paul Terrell who has just started a chain of electronics stores around Menlo Park by the name of Byte Electronics. He agreed to give him a personal demonstration. Terrell was impress and he placed an order for 50 fully assembled machines. However, Steve needed about $15,000 to buy the required parts. Allen Baum, a guy Steve went to high school with and his father lent them $5000. Steve tried to go to banks but given that he looked well.. less than a businessman, they turned him down. Finally he went to a store called Cramer Electronics who after confirmation from Paul lent them the parts on a thirty day line of credit. Mike Markulla Mike Markulla came on board when they were designing the Apple II. He had heard about it and was interested in what they were doing. So he struck a deal with Jobs. He'd spend some time studying the company and drafting a business plan. If he liked what he saw, he'd invest in the company and if he didn't, they'd have had his time for free. After spending several afternoons drafting a plan, Mike concluded that Apple would break into Fortune 500 in two years. He guaranteed a $250,000 line of credit in return for a third equity in Apple stock. They worked out the paperwork and on January 3rd, 1977 Apple Computer Co. was officially born. https://www.quora.com/How-did-Steve-Jobs-raise-the-money-to-start-Apple https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/who-was-steve-jobs-seethe-apple-founders-career-andmore/197538#:~:text=They%20attended%20meetings%20of%20the,sold%20his% 20Hewlett%2DPackard%20calculator. What is Apple's business concept? Apple's business model is based on innovation and consumer-centric devices. They are able to keep their base due to easy-to-use designs and data migration to new product lines. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/111015/apple-vs-microsoft-vsgoogle-how-their-business-models-compare.asp Market research Apple uses the process of marketing research to learn about the needs of its customers and get their feedback on the products. This helps in maintaining a good relationship between the customer and the company. For a smooth running of the organization, it is important to understand the needs of the customers, understanding the competitors and the market environment. Apple gets feedback from its customers to serve them better by releasing a new product or by updating the ios. The company could have suffered if they did not take into consideration the feedback of the customers. Getting regular feedback from the customers is an important part of marketing research and can save the company from enduring heavy losses. It is important to understand the competitors as Apple competes with big brands like Samsung. Both these companies closely keep an eye at each other, from analyzing the sales to the products launched. They try to compete with each other to such an extent that they both release the same type of products at almost the same price range. Let us take the example of the smartwatches released by both the companies. Understanding the environment of the market helps the company during market research. It can be carried out by SWOT analysis, which is a method to identify threats, strengths, and weaknesses of a certain organization. SWOT analysis is undertaken by organizations to detect their internal strengths and weaknesses and also identify external opportunities and threats. Apple also uses this analysis as a part of its marketing strategy. https://sourceessay.com/market-research-for-apple/ REFERENCES https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7275-entrepreneurship-defined.html https://biz.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Business/Entrepreneurship/Book%3A_Entrepreneurship_and _Innovation_Toolkit_(Swanson)/01%3A_Chapters/1.01%3A_Chapter_1__Introduction_to_Entrepre neurship https://articles.bplans.com/35-common-characteristics-of-successful-entrepreneurs/ https://fee.org/articles/what-is-entrepreneurship/amp https://www.iedunote.com/entrepreneurship https://byjus.com/commerce/what-is-entrepreneurship/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wix.com/blog/amp/2021/07/types-ofentrepreneurship https://www.mbaknol.com/management-case-studies/case-study-of-steve-jobs-theultimate-intrapreneur-and-entrepreneur/?amp https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/who-was-steve-jobs-see-the-applefounders-career-and-more/197538 KN https://startuptalky.com/apple-evolution/ https://medium.com/codex/when-bill-gates-steal-from-steve-jobs-6a1b3bd87176 https://www.grin.com/document/429722