Team E, 2016
Strategy and Positioning Analysis: Apple’s iPhone 7
Likely responses
Sales will go up
once released
Sales did not go
up, not as
successful as
planned.
Will be purchased,
but will likely not
grow sales from
last model.
Target Market Segments
Demographic
:
Demographic
segmentation means identifying markets based on several shared traits,
including age, race, gender, marital status, income, education and occupation. Thus, the phrase “a
demographic
” refers to a
market
segment with common traits. Although Apple is considered a
premium brand and many products come with a premium price tag, teens are considering one of
the primary Apple target market demographics. This is because teens are attracted to the value of
an iPod and this translates into wanting iPhones, Macs, and other products later on in life
(Gaille, 2015).
A majority of Apple’s target demographics admit that their loyalty is blind to the
brand. Only about half of iPhone users say they’re impressed with their phone. Windows phones
actually outsell the iPhone in two dozen countries (Gaille, 2015).
Who Are the Best Customers for Apple?
54% of consumers who purchase an iPhone say that their last phone was also an
iPhone (Gaille, 2015).
Team E, 2016
Strategy and Positioning Analysis: Apple’s iPhone 7
1 in 4 people say that they’ve purchased Apple products because their friends also had
an Apple product (Gaille, 2015).
For people who have purchased multiple Apple products in the past five years, less
than 30% say that the iPhone is the best phone on the market today (Gaille, 2015).
Just 0.3% of people in a recent survey stated that the interface created by Apple is the
reason why they prefer the brand’s products (Gaille, 2015).
The average household income for Mac owners is $98,500 (Gaille, 2015).
2 out of every 5 Mac owners is younger than 34 (Gaille, 2015).
Apple is a premium brand that is associated with a premium income level. It is a brand
that everyone may want, but not everyone can afford. For this reason, the best customers for
Apple tend to be younger and wealthier, so Millennials tend to be the next preferred targeted
demographic after teenagers. Millennials are hooked into technology like no other generation,
exploit the benefits Apple can provide, and this leads to more wealth for them and more sales for
Apple (Gaille, 2015).
Psychographic
Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions. The Apple brand
personality is about lifestyle; imagination; liberty regained; innovation; passion; hopes, dreams
and aspirations; and power-to-the-people through technology. The Apple brand personality is
also about simplicity and the removal of complexity from people’s lives; people-driven product
Team E, 2016
Strategy and Positioning Analysis: Apple’s iPhone 7
design; and about being a really humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with
itscustomers. The Apple brand is not just intimate with its customers, it is loved, and there is a
real sense of community among users of its main product lines.
