Apple Inc. Brand Strategy Analysis
You will create an individual report based on your analysis of one of several international brand cases. Your brand case will be allocated to you by your seminartutor and may include brands (for example only) such as: Bermont Watches, Sunseeker Yachts, or De’Longhi Coffee Machines.
In your report you will undertake a critical analysis of the international brand’s historical performance. You are free to analyze the overall company’s international brand, or instead to select one of their product or service lines. Your report should be underpinned by academic theories, models and industry insights, using:
- Secondary data, tales, charts and diagrams
- At least 3 academic theories and models – applied specifically to your case
- A selection of references to academic journals, books, trade press, and websites
You are free to use whatever format and subheadings you wish within your report. Also, you can include images, screen grabs, diagrams, tables, models and charts in the body of your report. Where possible, you should create your own tables and annotate models, images and diagrams.
You should attempt to arrive at your conclusions through investigating the following sources:
- Academic literature
- Corporate websites
- All forms of international marketing communications (advertising, marketing; public relations; sponsorship; endorsements; events)
- Context and positioning of the media where the branded communications have taken place
- Packaging, promotions, and points of purchase/interaction
- Trade press, consumer press, online forums, social media and product reviews You are free to make recommendations concerning improving the performance of the international brand, but these should be restricted to those that follow the current brand strategy.
In your report you should:
- Breakdown and analyze the international brand’s: image, identity, and personality with criticality and from several perspectives
- Remember to dedicate your discussions and analysis to the international brand over and above that of just describing the functionality and design of the product or service. Also, avoid simply writing a generic report on the history of the company
- Remember, this is a specialist module on International Brand Strategy.
Therefore, be very careful about applying generic models such as SWOT, PESTLE, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Porter’s 5 Forces, BCG Matrix, or Ansoff’s Matrix. Instead, you should look to more specialist models from branding and behavioral psychology, that you have been introduced to during the module.
You should consider:
Who are the desired target audiences and what emotional and social relationship do they have with the brand? You will be expected to define and focus on two consumer segments. There needs to be a clear definition of several unique attributes of each consumer segment. Beyond this, also offer an appreciation of how they think, feel and do – mapped specifically to the brand.
What are the key facts and pieces of information communicated by the branded product or service explicitly, implicitly, and tacitly – that give messages and meaning to the offering and that are transferred and acquired by the consumer? What is the creative approach? Consider for example the use of semiotics, colours, typography, humour, celebrity endorsement etc.
Where does the branded offering communicate these elements? What are the integrated marketing channels, and where are the touch-points and moments of truth?
What are the respective strengths and weaknesses of each of these?
Why do you feel that these audiences have been worth targeting?
Why is a branding-led approach to these activities the best way to achieve objectives, beyond other strategic business approaches?
How is effectiveness judged, and what data is used to do this?
APPLE INC. BRAND STRATEGY ANALYSIS
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In the advancing and significantly growing global business, the product's functionality contributes to a brand’s success. Apple Inc. is a technological firm headquartered in California’s Cupertino that embraces distinct design success, brand experience, and innovation approaches to gain a competitive advantage in the global business landscape. The company’s international recognition is attributed to its distinct brand experience and cutting-edge commodities. This paper sheds light on Apple’s global brand strategy’s intricacies by utilizing academic theories, industry insights, and models to offer insights regarding the significance of its brand image, identity, and personality. The paper employs a multidimensional approach in explaining the relationships created by Apple with its diversified consumer categories, thus studying the implicit and explicit information communicated by its commodities and services.
Theoretical Framework
Apple company embraces three branding models, including but not limited to cultural branding, emotional branding, and brand experience models. The cultural branding model, coined by Holt in 2004, is pivotal to comprehending Apple’s capabilities in resonating and associating with diverse international consumers. The model implies that brands’ attainment of influence and meaning results from their alignment with existing cultural practices and myths (Briciu and Briciu, 2020, p. 97). Apple Inc.’s embracing of this model is portrayed in its significant alignment with cultural aspects such as rebellion, creativity, and individualism. The emotional branding model introduced by Gobe in 2001 sheds light on Apple’s capabilities in establishing solid and desirable dynamic interconnectedness with its consumers (Mittal and Bangur, 2021, p. 1). According to the model, a brand’s success surpasses rational perspectives by embracing the prevailing emotional considerations. Apple’s commodities are usual gadgets and foundations for emotions and aspirations. The company’s consumer-friendly interfaces, well-presented brand imagery, and minimalist design approach evoke elegance, simplicity, and sophisticated emotions in the target audience.
The brand experience model explained by Pine and Gilmore in 1988 emphasizes the establishment of immersive and holistic brand experiences, and Apple has emerged as a giant in this context. The model further emphasizes the significance of emotional, sensory, and intellectual associations in enhancing the customers’ perspectives (Lee et al., 2018, p. 9). Apple company’s commodity and retail