Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Apple has never truely had a solid target market. The company is aware of its slightly higher prices compared to its competitors such as Microsoft, Intel, and Google so it expects more of its products to be in homes of people with a more disposable incomebut yet it understands that there is an other side to the coin. People with a less resonable income are willing to sacrifice money for quality and ifficiency that is expected out of an Apple product.

Many succesfull companies like Sony and Intel spend from 10% - 20% of their revenue on Research and Development because it is important to gain info on the want and needs of the constantly changing market such as the 110 million people in the minority populations culture and how it connects to their product, or the key values of the different classes of generations such as generation y or the baby  boomers. However Apple spends far less on their R&D then most companies. In fact Apple spends roughly 3% of its revenue on R&D (http://seekingalpha.com/article/262877-apple-not-spending-enough-on-r-d). In fact in early 2007 Apple had spent only as much as 540 million on R&D mind you this is a multi billion doller company.




     Apple however relies on it's highly noted customer service to further the appeal of its product to any generation or ethnic group. I have put this to the test by entering an Apple store and pretending to know very little english. I was welcomed in by a young and atractive caucasion women who imedietly called over an hispanic co worker. After giving me his name he asked for mine and that he hopes to be of service to me. I told him I was interested in an ipod after previously breaking my current one. The man was confident and very patient in explaining all the latest features of their itouch fourth gen. He asked if I had family back home (Mexico) with internet service. after I said yes he tought me about the face time feature and how easily I can keep in touch and how much more saticfying it is then being on the phone. All in all the man persuaded me to buy it and he seemed to be worried about my individual need and not treating me as a target market.