Background
Apple is one of the American multinational innovative companies involved in the design, invention, and marketing of electronic products across the world (Pattuglia et al., 2019). These products include personal computers, portable music players, televisions, tablets, and cell phones. One of its most popular products is the iPhone x, which is a smartphone that operates using the company’s software. Due to the success of the launch of this phone, this paper will focus on the analysis of the public relations campaign for the iPhone x.
Inputs
During the iPhone X's public relations campaign, the company's primary objective was to gain leadership in the mobile market over its dominant rival, Samsung electronics (Pattuglia et al., 2019). Hence, Apple’s utilized a unique PR campaign strategy to promote this particular product. In a standard promotional tactic, Apple would distribute its products to a small group of hand-picked publications. The organization would distribute new iPhones to selected technology and mainstream media organizations to enable them to position reviews before selling the phones. In this PR campaign, Apple instead distributed its iPhone X products to several YouTube video bloggers before it sent them to technology and media organizations (Attar, 2018). This change in strategy was based on research based on the changing media landscape and the increasing power of social media influencers. Hence, its public relations objectives had been based on solid research as social media influencers had established significant influence over its target market's purchasing behavior, which mainly included influencers.
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The developed plan was a long-standing plan that would involve the continuous partnership between the brand and social media influencers as a major source of its communication. The quality of planning conducted was very high as the influencers selected had a reach of over eight million subscribers. The Apple marketing team also included a plan for the evaluation of success. For each influencer that was involved in the PR campaign, the brand assessed the reach and engagements of their brand-related activities (Attar, 2018). This reach and engagement would then be used to assess how well the new product had been received.
Outputs
The messages that were included in the public relations campaign were not entirely specific. The iPhone X was targeted towards the high-income bracket with a price range of 999 dollars (Zhou et al., 2019). Based on the branding target and the marketing objective, the public relations campaign was mainly focused on establishing the phone as presenting the highest technology that existed in the industry. This form of messaging was aimed at gaining the attention of the public while also placing the phone as the best and most innovative product in the market (Capatina & Dragescu, 2015). As the campaign included a variety of social media campaigns, the messaging had the same baseline but varied with each influence. Some of the messages used to highlight and define the campaign included, 'The best iPhone yet!', 'This feels like the future,' and 'Like using the future of smartphones today’ (Attar, 2018). Each of these messages was on target and structured to make the marketing audience believe that the iPhone X was the highest quality product that they could obtain.
The inclusion of several influencers, along with media houses, acted to further support the delivery of these messages while also emphasizing the objective of the campaign. The quality involved satisfied the expectations of the iPhone as each social media influencer used a strategy and tactics that were suited to the expectations of their following. Hence, these tactics satisfied both the clients and the targeted market. The resources involved were managed wisely as they enabled Apple to conduct its PR campaigns not only through its social media platforms but also through the social media platforms of public individuals that are highly popular. The further inclusion of media houses and publications that carried out technology reviews also ensured that members of the target market who were more interested in product specifications and details were also satisfied (Myronova, 2019).
Outcomes
To identify opportunities, solutions, and values, Apple relied on its research by its marketing department. Furthermore, the company has invested heavily in its research and development department to identify innovative solutions to the needs of its market (Myronova, 2019). The objectives and strategies used in this PR campaign were successful as Apple was able to increase its revenue and gain greater market share. The measures that were used to evaluate success included the number of sales made per quarter and the growth in revenue. Through the PR campaign, Apple was able to increase the level of engagement with its consumers while also increasing its profitability (Montgomerie & Roscoe, 2013). Based on the outcome of this campaign, it is clear that influencer marketing has become a highly effective strategy for increased customer engagement. Hence, other firms in the smartphone industry should include these tactics.
Additional Information
Apple has always identified itself as an innovative firm in the smartphone industry. Hence, the campaign actions and messages that were used in the PR campaign were highly consistent with its already identified values. These messages seemed to further highlight and emphasize Apple's commitment to innovation. The campaign conducted by Apple concerning iPhone X was highly successful as it resulted in the achievement of its objectives. Despite its premium pricing, the company identified that consumers purchased the iPhone X more times than any other iPhone sold that year. Apple also reported that it had grown its revenue in all its geographical segments (Lo et al., 2018).
References
Attar, T. (2018). Apple’s New Approach to Marketing and the Influence of Culture in the United States. https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/630280/azu_etd_hr_2018_0009_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Capatina, G., & Dragescu, F. (2015). Success Factors of New Product Launch: The Case of iPhone Launch. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 7 (5), 61-70.
Lo, C. H., Liao, G. Y., Tang, Z. X., Chen, X. W., Xu, H. F., & Hu, J. (2018). A Study of iPhone’s Attractiveness Factors by the Miryoku Engineering Approach. KnE Social Sciences .
Montgomerie, J., & Roscoe, S. (2013). Owning the consumer—Getting to the core of the Apple. Accounting Forum, 37 , 290-299.
Myronova, O. M. (2019). Features of marketing activity in the smartphone market. http://www.market-infr.od.ua/journals/2019/29_2019_ukr/39.pdf
Pattuglia, S., & Amoroso, S. (2019). Organizing the Marketing Actions Around Premium Price in Technological Brands: The Case of Apple. Skyline Business Journal , 14, 9-20.
Zhou, L., & Gupta, S. M. (2019). Marketing research and life cycle pricing strategies for new and remanufactured products. Journal of Remanufacturing , 9 (1), 29-50.
