Eclectic Advertising has created an advertising campaign that will ensure the successful launch of Apple's newest product the iPad in to the market. In order to do so, Eclectic Advertising had to come up with a new approach to Apple's brand image and identity without compromising the core brand associations. It was essential to carry out detailed analysis about the market environment where the company will operate in. Moreover, clear understanding about Apple Inc. nd its main competitors was essential and information needed to be gathered about product portfolio with emphasis being put on the iPad, as it is the product that the campaign was created for.
Apple is an American multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing consumer electronics and software products. Apple's best known products include: the Macintosh line of personal computers, the iPod and the iPhone.Apple who has an extensive experience in the consumer electronics market through the development of computers, laptops, portable media devices and the smartphone has now developed a revolutionary product known as the iPad, which is a part of Apple's digital lifestyle strategy established when the company originated in April 1976. Moreover, Apple took third place overall in the consumer electronics sector in 2007, behind Sony and Samsung with a market share of 5.
9%, which clearly shows that the company has a strong brand name as well as high demand for its products.Furthermore, Apple remains a fairly niche player in the computers sector, being third in desktops and seventh in laptops with respective market shares of 5. 8% and 5. 3%. However, Apple products are aesthetically pleasing and the company tries to emphasize the quality of design, safety, power as well as security of its models against the competition. As Apple products have higher price points compared to its competitors, conclusion could be drawn that they are targeted at upper mass market.
The Apple iPad is the only Tablet Pc that can provide both men and women in the 20-34 age range of the AB socio-economic group with an impeccably sharp, visually encompassing yet simple to use experience on a personal PC: It uses iPads own 1GHz A4 silicon chip, which gives it amazing processing speed and comes with Touch activated, high resolution 9. 7 inch LED backlit IPS display. Using the most innovative technologies, Apple demonstrates it understanding of consumer requirements for PC capabilities.Furthermore, the UK economy is still recovering from the recent recession, which means that consumers have lower disposable incomes, as well as because of the high unemployment, including the youths Apple might see lower demand for its products than expected before. However, as the iPad is the new product that is being introduced to the market, it should help to boost the sales, by attracting those consumers who are tech-savvy and want to have the latest technological device.Moreover some consumers have not been affected by the economic downturn or some even benefited from the crisis, as interest rates has been reduced significantly, leaving some customers with higher disposable incomes.
However innovation in technology has paved the way for digital future, which had an impact on the way people interact. Moreover the rise of social networks and media mean people interact more on line than in person.Furthermore during the next five years age group 25-34 is expected to grow by 12. % which is capturing our target audience and are the UK's most techno-literate customers, as well as socio-economic group AB is predicted to increase by 7. 3% in the next five years, which represents iPad's primary target audience as well, showing the positive sign in the market for Apple's new devise: iPad. Moreover the number of people reading books is decreasing, because of the new trends in the technology, which means that iPad will help to bring a huge change to reading culture, which not only makes peoples lives easier, it also gives the opportunity to companies to enter the market with new technologically advanced products.
Advertising objectives for iPad's advertising campaign had been selected, which must be met in order to achieve set goals, followed by media, creative objectives and marketing objectives which had been defined by using the SMART approach (Smith and Taylor, 2004). Through the new advertising campaign, Eclectic Advertising aims to help Apple to achieve 70% of the brand awareness and comprehension with the primary target audience: new category users within first 3 months of the product launch.Moreover the second most important objective of developing the successful advertising campaign for Apple's iPad would be, to achieve brand awareness and comprehension of product within the primary target audience: brand switchers for up to 30% in the first 3 months and then 70% by the end of the second 3 month period. Furthermore, iPad is targeted at consumers who are age between 20-35, men and female and who belong to the socio-economic group AB, as well as belong to the small household.
The iPad will appeal to consumers who are mobile and have a further interest in books, music, games and location-based services, in contrast with road warriors who must carry all their data with them and dedicated book readers who require E-Ink capability" (J. Palenchar, 2010). More over iPad target audience will be people who are tech- savvy a well as those who commute long distances as "on the move" technology is gaining more popularity.The iPad's primary target audience consist of: brand switchers (based on the brand loyalty), so the sales promotions will be essential tool to be used, to get those consumers to buy the iPad and the new category users (based on the purchasing behaviour) people who are entering category for the first time or re-entering after a long time. One of the main aims of the advertising campaigns is to build awareness of the newest Apple product: iPad among primary target audience: new category users as well as create the category awareness and category attitude.
Advertising strategy also aims to persuade the competitor's consumers to switch to the Apple brand by encouraging purchase of the iPad, when targeting the brand switchers. Moreover the advertising strategy will aim to both: reinforce Apple image as a leader of innovative technology but also modify it through appealing to a wider less Tech savvy audience, who want the benefits and quality that only Apple's iPad can bring to them by informing them of why its is a worthwhile purchase. Moreover, to attract new category users it is essential to raise the awareness of the iPad with the message that demonstrates this particular product's benefits.More importantly the secondary customers are identified as brand loyals as this particular group has a positive brand attitude already.
In order to reach our target audience, different media have been analyzed. Based on our research, in its previous campaigns Apple used always more or less the same media: television, outdoor, press, radio and Internet billboards. For this reason our campaign will focus on television, Outdoor (buses, tube and billboards), press (magazines and newspapers) and Internet. We decided to avoid radio as we the message we want to transmit is not suitable for this kind of media.
In conclusion, it is essential to say that the advertising strategy and the plan have been created in order to achieve set goals. However it is essential to ensure that advertising effectiveness is measured, in order to see if company achieved its set goals. Moreover in order to measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign created by Eclectic Advertising it is essential to review the figures in order to know if the purchase from 30% of brand loyals users has been achieved by the end of the first quarter, and 50% purchase achieved by 2nd quarter.Moreover analysis of market share gain will help the company to see if the second marketing objective has been met to achieve 15% share by the end of the first 12 months after the launch of the product.
Finally the analysis will be needed to be carried out in order to find out if the final marketing objective has been met to establish iPad as the market leader in the Tablets market by the end of the first 12 months period post launch.
