The product i will be marketing is the new Apple MacBook Pro, its the latest inclusion to a line of existing models, all designed by apple in california. The recommended retail price for the product will be £1200 pounds for the 13inch screen, £1400 for the 15inch screen and the last price will be £1550 for the 17inch screen. The main focus for the advertisement will be the new features of the product, the speed of the product is 2x faster than the previous model, the design makes the new MacBook Pro 10% lighter than the previous model, and also it features an all new design which is a unique selling point for the product.
Marketing Mix
TV Promotion- There will numerous adverts which will advertise and show off the product, focusing on the main features, and what's new about the product, and why the customers should purchase it.
Social Networks-
There will be adverts featured on the social networking sites, Facebook & Twitter, for those who may not have seen television or magazine adverts, and just in general to advertise the product to a wider audience.
Magazines- There will be multiple adverts in technology magazine, sport, and music and film magazines, just to advertise the product to a wider range of audience.
Website Promotion- There will be a website with full detail of the product, what's new, the prices of the product, release dates, and also videos of promotions from celebrities and other high personnel, who use the product and have positive things to say about it.
Billboards- There will be billboards with the new product on, with a slogan and large image of the product.
Aims of the campaign:
To attempt to advertise the product, in a efficient, professional, and friendly manner, and try and entice customers into purchasing the product. In conclusion the obvious main aims for the marketing campaign are that the new MacBook Pro models sell millions of copies to make money. The other aims are the new product raises awareness of how good the new model is compared to the previous, old version, mainly so that this brings in new customers who may have been unaware of the item. Also to bring in those who had the previous product, but may want a step up or just fancy getting the new one for its new features. Overall i hope that my campaign will put the new MacBook Pro at the top of all computer models of its kind, and that it makes the product a desired product for all. The other aim of this campaign is to give a reboot of the previous think different campaign in which apple had created an advertising slogan, It was also used in a television commercial, several print advertisements and a number of TV promos for Apple products.
SWOT: Review of the Current Market
Strengths:
Apple have a extremely high, and very good reputation for its products, its one of the worlds most favorite and well known companies, it has easy brand recognition and is known to make the most beautiful computing and mobile devices. Each product they sell, outsells that of the previous model, and the sales are deep into the millions. Apples staff also get a huge recognition for the work they carry out,
they have great skills, and researchers who will conjure up new products in which will be promoted to a high level and sold to the millions of customers.
Weaknesses:
There isn't a huge number of weakness regarding the current market, the few weaknesses they have are the dictation by a company for only being able to purchase and download apps from the Apple app store. People may not warm to this and maybe tempted to chose from other products instead. Another weakness for the product is that, it may not have enough new features to tempt people into buying it, previous MacBooks have not really been changed and adapted too much from the previous model, so this could be a concern.
Opportunities:
The Apple MacBook Pro has been increasingly popular over the years, most people now desire one, or in fact own one themselves. This also means that when it comes to selling a new product, it wont be hard for apple, as people already know how classy and how great their products are, these days being seen with a MacBook pro is deemed rather trendy, and a good fashion statement too. Not only will people base their decision to buy a new product because its 'new' they will be apple fans, and loyal to the company, so may decide on purchasing the product, simply because apple made it.
Threats:
There are a few threats, one is the amount of similar products now on the market, there are a lot of similar, maybe less good products, that come at a cheaper price, which have similar features. Another threat is the recession, money is becoming extremely important to people who dont have a great deal of it, people aren't spending what they usually would, and this may cause Apple a problem when trying to sell their products, mainly because of the high price tag they contain.
Potential Market:
The Apple MaBook Pro would mainly be aimed at anyone from the age of 13+. The age range for most Apple products is invalid, as they are simple to use, and dont really require the user to be technically gifted with electronics or anything. The MacBook Pro reaches out to everyone, be it school children, college students, business men, or even just for people who want it for general use. Business men will find it extremely useful as not only does it look good, it has great ability to store information and have good memory to store lots of programs for business use. School students, and College students will find it great as its good for social use, ie viewing the web and accessing FaceBook etc, and also educational side, it allows you to work quickly, and use many programs to help you study.
Direct Marketing
The use of search engine optimisation will allow us too target people who are searching for the item and also relavent items. Another form of direct marketing in which we will use is email marketing, emails will be sent to existing customers on the customer database, as well as those who add their email adresses when they wish to be contacted about the release and dates of new products. We will also be placing adverts on a majority of well known websites, these will include, google, and also webpages of stores which stock the product. Facebook and Twitter pages shall be created to show off the new product, as this will reach an entire new range of audience. There will be links on these pages to adverts, and also relevant videos on YouTube about the product.
Gaining Feedback
Obviously, during modern day, the use and popularity of social networking sites such as twitter and famous is huge. Therefore this has drawn me to the conclusion that i will use these sites to gain feedback for my product. I will place links to a multi question questionnaire on the sites, this will then reach people who may not be included in the original target audience, and also reach those who are in my target audience. This questionnaire should help us achieve an understanding of what specifications they like and dislike on the new MacBook Pro, this is will then help us discover peoples needs, and we will be able to include these in future models.
