Apple Inc is an American based multinational company headquartered in Cupertino California and a market leader in the technology industry since its inception in 1956. They mainly deal in the sale, designing and developing of computer software, online services, and consumer electronics. Their hardware product line includes tech devices like the iPad, the iPod, the Apple smart watch, the iPhone and the Mac computer. The software products include iOS and OSX operating systems, the Safari browser, the iTunes media player as well as the iWork and I Life productivity as well as creativity sites. They also own the iTunes Store, I Cloud, and the Mac Ions app stores and have subsidiaries in over eighteen countries worldwide and over a hundred online stores.
The company enjoys high brand equity, strong brand identity and an almost cultic customer loyalty since their products are considered among the best brands in the technology market and are synonymous with class and sophistication (Shalley. Hitt & Zhou, 2015). The company's long-term goals and objectives include increasing their sales volumes annually. They also aim to produce high-quality products with features that meet and exceed customer expectations and to be the market leader in the technology industry. To increase their sales volume, they have established stores, third party retailers and wholesalers all around the world and have over a hundred online shops making their products easily available all over the world (Erasmus, Strydom & Rudansky-Kloppers, 2016). For continuous product quality, the company invests heavily in research and development which helps in adding newer and more advanced features in their new product lines. The company uses mono segmentation to market its products which entail making specific product features for a certain target market (Shalley et.al. 2015). Their target market includes millennials, students, business people, young kids and it aims to reach the wealthy and high-income earners (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). The company develops a unique selling proposition for its products in the various customer markets to create points of relevant differentiation and increase their competitiveness in the market. For the Millennials and the young adults, Apple’s products provide access to social networking sites, gaming sites and music and entertainment applications (Erasmus et.al., 2016). The unique features make the products like the iPhone and the iPod attractive to this particular market segment. For the students, and the business and working class market target, the company produces quality and portable devices that facilitate learning and working. These products include the MacBooks, iWatch, Mackintosh, laptops, tablets, iPhones, iPads, Keynotes, and Logic Pro devices that ease note taking, learning, and business processes. For the kids, Apple has an array of unique devices like the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad on which they can play games and interact but with unique parental control features (Shalley et.al., 2015). The uniquely tailored products make the company’s brand portfolio broad and specific at the same time a particular many companies find hard to attain.
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The mono-segmentation marketing strategy requires different resources and capabilities to accomplish (Shalley et.al., 2015). The core capabilities include a unique design capability, invention and innovation capability and a dynamic capability. A unique design capability is critical in maintaining the current brand image and brand personality which is characterized by elegance, technological sophistication, and class (Shalley et.al., 2015) . The capability is required for customer retention and attraction since the Apple brand is considered a personal defining accessory for most of the users and the uniqueness and affluence of the products is what makes them sell. The invention and innovation capability is required for the continuity of the brand portfolio (Erasmus et.al., 2016) . Like in the case of the iPhone, each new series comes with new and more improved features which make the customers anticipate for the release of the next series. To maintain this reputation and build brand loyalty invention and innovation are prerequisites of the production process. The dynamic capability is the ability of the brand to adapt to market shifts and changes in customer tastes and preferences. The technology market is highly versatile, and if a company is to succeed in market leadership, it requires dynamism and anticipation of customer needs before their competitors (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012) . The Apple brand, therefore, requires resources of time, money and human capital to offset their research and development efforts and put these capabilities into use.
The company will, therefore, capture value and sustain their competitive advantage through research and development efforts to spur innovation and invention to maintain their uniquely high brand equity (Erasmus et.al., 2016) . Tom Cook who is the current CEO of Apple describes the company’s management strategy as democratic since it is centered on employee motivation as the primary brand ambassadors. The company’s cost and differentiation advantages contribute to a substantial amount of their profitability. Their premium pricing positions the product as a good of ostentation whose value increases as the price increase (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012) . Their product differentiation advantage gives the company high brand equity, and a competitive edge since the level of imitability is relatively lowered. The company employs the corporate growth strategy as evidenced by their product portfolio. They expand their market share already established market segments and also continue to introduce new product lines. Apple is a vertically integrated company with operations in four different sectors all managed under the Apple brand (Shalley et.al., 2015) . The four arms of the business are the hardware production business, the software business, service-provision business and the retailing business.
Strategic alliances involve the coming together of two or more businesses with the aim of achieving mutually beneficial goals (Erasmus et.al., 2016) . Apple’s strategic alliances include partnerships with other key players in the technology business like Sony, Motorola, Microsoft, Phillips, HP, IBM, and AT&T. The company’s competitive advantage includes their high brand equity, their product differentiation in the marketplace and their niche marketing (Shalley et.al., 2015) . Apple is among the world's most valuable brands which account for their brand equity and their product differentiation through vertical integration increases their customer base and revenue. The company's niche marketing whereby they target the high-income earners and the utility of the premium pricing strategy also plays an important part in creating a competitive advantage (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012) . The organizational chart for Apple would be hierarchical with a CEO and senior vice presidents, chief design officers, chief operating officers and vice presidents in the four businesses working directly under them.
In sum, Apple Inc is a leading technological multinational enterprise, and their goals and objectives include to increase revenue, product quality and to drive sales volumes up. The company's target market includes the affluent including students, business people, the millennials, and kids. The company's competitive advantages include their brand name, product differentiation and niche marketing which are sustained by continuous research and development. Their vertical integration involves four different businesses, and their strategic alliances are with companies like Disney, AT&T, Sony, Motorola, and Phillips.
References
Erasmus, B., Strydom, J. W., & Rudansky-Kloppers, S. (2016). Introduction to business management . Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Shalley, C. E., Hitt, M. A., & Zhou, J. (2015). The Oxford handbook of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship . New York: Oxford University Press.
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2012). Marketing strategy, text, and cases . Nelson Education.
