Indirect competitors produce efferent products
The marketing environment report assignment
Coinage, G. (2006). Also states that changing technology may bring forward new opportunities and threats that the company will face in relation to a products lifestyle. This suggests that Apple will have to evaluate new technology available in order to keep customer demand high and to gain competitive advantage by identifying opportunities and threats. Apple will have to ensure that their phone 5 meets the ever changing expectations of their consumers. Apple’s pod sales have gradually decreased as a result of their customers increasing demand for phones and pads instead of MPH devices. Theorizing, D. 2012). Therefore, Apple must analyses the technological changes occurring in the market and evolve to ensure that all products remain up-to-date and desirable to customers. Social and demographic changes in society will have an impact on an organization such as Apple due to the fact that they are constantly dealing with customers who are part of a changing population. Organizations must be able to deal with demographic changes such as the ageing population that we are in today. The section of the population aged 65 and over is expected to rise from 13% up to 20% over a 50 year period, states Paul Withered.
This shows that it is essential for companies to consider the older generation as they are a large segment of the market. Therefore, if companies are able to develop their products and services to tit elderly people, they will find themselves in a much better position in the market. Apple has been able to cater for this segment as they have the “ App Store” which allows customers to download a variety of APS from “ Matcher”, to “ Angry Birds”. Apple have allowed themselves to appeal to a mass market which enables them to deal with the demographic change of the ageing population and still keep their younger customers interested.
Williams, A. (2010). This shows how competitive the mobile phone industry is and the success of a company depends on the loyalty of customers, modern technology in the product and how well the product meets customer’s expectations. Indirect competitors produce efferent products, but ultimately satisfy the same need. This type of competitor is hard to identify and therefore it is important for companies to research potential competitors fully in order to be able to respond quickly to changes. Intermediaries are companies such as retailers, distributors and wholesales.
These are companies in which most organizations will be involved in and therefore it is important for them to be selling the right image of the organization. Carapace Warehouse would be a retailer of Apple. This could affect Apple because the employees selling an phone 5 erectly to a customer will be able to project a positive image of the product to the customer. Similarly, if an employee appears lethargic and detached a customer is unlikely to want to purchase the product they are promoting.