The IMC tools that have been used in the past to promote the Apple Watch brand are advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, and sales promotion. Direct marketing allows for direct communication by Apple Watch Company with its users (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). Some of the tools used in direct marketing are promotional letters, catalogs, brochures, and emails. Also, personal selling involves the marketer directly selling the watches to the clients. Advertising is a useful tool in the sense that the Apple Company uses the shortest time possible to have their information regarding the watch conveyed to their users (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). Advertisements are mostly done using newspapers, television, and radio thereby creating awareness about the brand to the users. Sales promotion, on the other hand, can be done by giving the Apple Watch on a discount to the customers.
The media that has been used to market the Apple Watch brand is the old media or traditional media (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). The media entails advertisement forms such as direct mail, newspapers, television, magazines, and radio. Use of radio and TV is aimed at reaching the target audience with the right message. For instance, if you want the Apple Watch to get a proper market, the television and radio will be the right platform to channel your message by choosing the segment in between where there are several viewers. With that in mind, several listeners will develop brand loyalty to the Apple Watch being advertised in the media. Furthermore, newspapers and magazines are found in several public places allowing the public to have a good view of the Apple Watch advertisement.
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The main message and positioning strategy of the IMC tools were to create the Apple Watch awareness and change customer’s attitude towards the product (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). Brand awareness is the main message and positioning strategy among the IMC tools. All tools are meant to communicate essential pieces of information about a specific product or service. Additionally, if customers have a certain attitude towards the Apple Watch, the Integrated Marketing Communication tools change their attitude completely. For this reason, the customers will develop brand loyalty towards the watch made by the Apple Company. By continuous advertisement, sales promotion, and direct market, the Apple Company will be better placed in the market and able to compete effectively with other brands.
Recently, there have been numerous campaigns such as themes and slogans used in the Apple Watch product (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). Campaign slogans are usually short phrases that are used in the advertisement. The slogans are usually made in a way that they can be easily remembered. For instance, the Apple Watch product uses the slogan ‘think different,’ and this draws the attention of the users, and they are encouraged to use the watch. Subsequently, campaign themes are used to get action from consumers such as increased consumer loyalty. The main goals of themes are to position the watches well to its target group. For instance, the patriotism theme like ‘Made in USA’ influences people who only believe in buying the Apple Watches made in the US and no other country.
Alternative IMC tools have been used with the change in technology (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). For instance, the internet has been seen as an ideal advertisement platform. Several advertisements regarding the watch are done through the internet, and this has been recognized as an effective method of communication since some people nowadays use the internet often. Through the internet, multimedia documents are shared between different users. Therefore, they create brand loyalty, inform customers directly and build good relationships among the users and organizations. Even less, platforms like Facebook and Skype have been used as an excellent tool for alternative communication. Through these platforms, people can be influenced directly and by so doing creating brand awareness about the Apple product.
The Apple Company has come up with several strategies to overcome competition from their competitors like the watchmaker Swatch. First of all, knowing who their competitors are is essential in overcoming competition in the market. After that, it is necessary to know the kind of watches they offer and their selling point. From there it will be easy to understand how to approach the customers and meet their demands better than your competitors. Being unique like having different slogans is essential because it makes the Apple Watch stand tall in the market and brace the competition storm. Lastly, to deal with competitors, the Apple Watch need to come up with its online brand and image that will make it better placed in the market and overcome competition.
- Finne, Å., & Grönroos, C. (2017). Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing communication. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), 445-463. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ake_Finne/publication/316028858_Communication-in-use_customer-integrated_marketing_communication/links/599d47a30f7e9b892bb1da50/Communication-in-use-customer-integrated-marketing-communication.pdf
