The Marketing of IPod Color

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Introduction
An iPod refers to Apple’s portable multipurpose digital gadget popularly known as a music player. Lately it has integrated other functions like a camera enabling it to carry a wide variety of functions. The device entered the global market in the year 2001 and has sold millions of gadgets since its inception It is one of the most successful electronics in the Apple’s directory with regard to its popularity and unit sales worldwide. In the view of this, we have to concentrate on the strengths of the iPod that has made it sell like hot over years since its first market entry (Levy 1). We will narrow on the iPod color as one of items of interest in our discussion. In addition, we will consider Apple Inc targeting and segmentation strategies that have given the electronics giant an edge over its peers.
IPod marketing
Apple marketing is guided by wide market and consumer research. This has helped the techno-savvy giant employ very workable plans and hence retains an upward trend in sales of its few products. Apple uses multiple segmentation method which includes psychographic, demographic and geographical segmentation in marketing iPods. We can say that apples approach is a multi - variable approach. This has enabled the company realize high annual turnovers, making it the leading electronics company in the United States by volume of sales. We will discuss each of the market segmentation criteria. We need to emphasize on the impact of the iPods’ range of colors in enhancing the marketability of the iPod.
IPod Color marketing and the success story
The inception of the iPod in 2001 transformed how people listened to the music. Initially iPod came in only one color; White. This did not go well with the customers and there were complains that urged the Apple to give its consumers a black option. Apple never knew how to go about and it took more than three years before they agreed to introduce black iPods. The new color was received warmly by the consumers and it was a major stepping stone in marketing Apple Inc products. By then customers had a choice of either a white of black iPod.
Later on the company diversified its brand and presented the consumers with a spectrum of colors to choose. Nowadays, iPods come with a variety of cool unbeatable colors on its Aluminium strapped body. The colors range from light blue, pink, purple among others making it captivating, irresistible and attractive. However, black color remains one of the most preferred in Apple products (Levi, 2).
Owing to the superior design features, apple had sold more than 42 million iPods by the fourth year of its launch. The sales were recorded despite high retail price of between100 and 600 dollars. The market share increased to 75 percent after iPod sales. The consumers in the US mobile market described it as polished digital gem and a must have (Boone and Kurtz 84, Levi 65).
During Apples’ special event organized by Apple in 2007, one of the key updates that touched the hearts of the customers was the color variety. Apart from color and design, there are several other factors that have pushed the sales of the iPod beyond the limits. These include brand loyalty, innovativeness and a hands-on approach to customer needs and desires ( Levi 72).
Apple market Segmentation
Market segmentation refers to the act of defining and profiling a standard market to one that consumes a product of the company involved. Apple Inc identified a product in the view of the Mac computers it had produced earlier. Besides, it laid specific emphasis on the marketing gaps by Microsoft, Nokia the then mobile gadgets giant. It is out of the outcome that the idea of the iPod was conceived. It was designed as a solution to digitalizing music and making it more accessible irrespective of one’s location, environment. In short, the iPod was the gadget of convenience. As said earlier Apple applies multiple segmentation strategies in its marketing campaigns. We will address them one by one.
Demographic segmentation
Demographical segmentation describes approaching a market based on a target group identifiable by age, gender, education level or occupation. Apple Inc marketed iPods by targeting teenagers. The question is: how did the company go about this?
Apple developed the iPod touch specifically for the lovers of games. The device targets young specifically white male gamers. Apple made sure its target market was unexplored and therefore they could make a catch out of it. This is not the only product whose target was a demographically segmented market; finally it came out as one of the saviors of the company that was struggling to stay afloat in a turbulent market. This resulted from boosted revenue from iPod sales (Boone and Kurtz 101).
Besides the iPod advertisements targeted the teenagers and were mostly run in the MTV show Heroes, which was the most popular TV show in 2007. By doing this, Apple’s main objective was to reach as many teenagers as possible. This strategy worked wonders and it moved iPods in millions. This is because its gadget was hard to substitute. For example the iPod touch constituted a media player, a powerful camera, it was also portable on the pocket, and it also incorporated the desirable feature of touch screen support. These are just but a few of the features that made iPod stand out in the market. Consequently, in the same year, Apple’s iPod was named the most influential product of the century (Boone and Kurtz 384).
Psychographic segmentation
Psychographic segmentation describes reaching for customers based on their lifestyle and personal interests at a group level. The iPod was designed specifically for people who had passion for listening to music, gaming which integrated advanced technology. The product target also people had a high rate of diffusion of innovation. In this target population those who had a passion for the earlier Mac products adopted the innovative apple product. In addition, the new group whose lifestyle marched the new apple products did not have substitutes and they grabbed the iPod at the earliest opportunity (Simpson, et al 77).
The remaining percentage of the consumers in the market share was moved by the choices that Apple Inc offered to its customers: from iPod Nano, Mini and Shuffle. Each of these products had an appealing attribute that members of the target lifestyle could identify with. The attributes varied from a range of colors, attractive slim design, and huge storage spaces between 2 to 32 Gigabytes. This pushed the iPod sales to 40 million pieces by close of 2006 (Simpson, et al 79).
Geographical segmentation
From the word geography we can deduce that geographical segmentation refers to targeting clients based on their location variations for example nation, state. This will also influence them towards preferring a brand over its rivals in the market segment.
On inception of the iPod, Apple aimed at rocking the vast American music industry through aiding in online purchase of music and at the same time to transform its accessibility through a portable device-the i...