Pub Mac

Salut à tous,

Je suis en train de fignoler la structure pour ma thèse qui s'annonce pour le moment sur les dangers de la dépendance des moteurs de recherches et en particulier Google.
Et oui je sais bien le sujet aura changé beaucoup de fois depuis la création de ce blog mais bon c'est ça aussi le charme de la thèse, on commence en pensant que l'on connait son sujet, le plus on avance le plus on découvre que l'on connait rien, après on est totalement perdu et au final on retombe plus au moins sur son sujet initial.
J'ai à ce sujet un rendez vous mardi prochain pour faire valider le plan de ma thèse mais le garde jusqu'à maintenant secret.
Je tenais à vous faire part des publicités Mac vs PC que j'avais découverte il y a deux ans quand j'étais aux USA.
Je les ai trouvé en version française sur Youtube j'espère qu'elles vous plairont si vous ne les connaissez pas encore.
Elles devraient toutes y être. Sachez qu'en principe elles sont diffusées sur la Télé américaine mais seulement par petit bout c'est pourquoi chacune ne durent plus de trente secondes:

Apple: PowerPoint presentation

Distribution Policy Apple

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Apple: Bibliography

Start by the first article: http://moteurs-de-recherches-alternatifs.blogspot.com/2008/11/apple-distribution-policies-at-apple.html

7 Bibliography

http://ejschmidt.com/blog/
http://www.nytimes.com/
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/index.php
http://www.businessweek.com
http://www.economist.com/
Apple, Inc., Annual Report, 2007
Yoffie, D., Sind, M. « Apple Inc., 2008 » Harvard Business Review, 2008
Chernev, A. « Apple Retail Stores » Kellogg School of Business Review, 2002
Apple Retail Manifesto, Apple 2001

Apple: Conclusions and recommendations

6 Conclusions and recommendations

What advice can be given to a company that multiplied by 3 its revenues in just 3
years (not being a start-up, but an $8 billion multinational) and that from an
“ancillary” activity, like retail, is able to squeeze $5 billion and half a billion of
profit? In order to give an answer I think that we should step back for a moment.
Apple today earns money through electronic devices, but competition in this field is
increasing and hardly they’ll be able to maintain high margins. Apple has already
stepped in the service market: the iTunes, although barely profitable, is a leader and
the App Store (a store for software for handheld devices) is growing quickly. The
development of mobile telecommunications should enable in the near future cheap
mobile data tariffs. Leveraging its devices Apple could evolve in a Content Service
Provider. Already today, through the App Store they can sell music, movies, TV
shows and software to iPod Touch and iPhone users. The war for future distribution
standards is just at the beginning. Apple should be very careful in adopting closed
proprietary standards, because even the most wonderful device, if doesn’t have enough
developers creating innovative applications for it, won’t gain the benefits of network effect
and thus could be relegated as niche product.

Developing a wide network for content distribution could provide a source of profit for an
undetermined time. It is also possible to envision a future where Apple sells its devices at an
highly discounted price, in order to enlarge the user base and make money through the
services sold over its digital content delivery channel, a strategy already successfully adopted
by video game console producers, most notably Sony, with it PlayStation console.

My personal opinion is that Apple should use wisely the market share it’s gaining. The
hardware is not a sustainable business in the long term, and a transition towards services will
be inevitable. The “digital hub” should be the Trojan Horse for new, innovative formats of
content distribution. Apple already lost the desktop war, I hope they learned from their
mistakes.

Apple: Some strategic considerations

5.1 Some strategic considerations

The erosion of its market share from competitors (especially in the key educational
channel) and the fact they’re niche products required a strong respons. Is the retail
the good one? With its top-notch brand and world renowned marketing abilities,
Apple should have good chances of improving on the terrible experience of Gateway
Country Store model. If they succeed they’ll gain fresh outlets to sell its own
products and would also likely to gain additional revenues as a reseller of other
electronic goodies and have more control over marketing and servicing of its
products. Moreover, Apple could boost margins by cutting out middlemen and
convince buyers to choose higher-priced models pushing on the “emotional
shopping” stimulated by these types of stores.

However this is a dangerous field. To have shops in high traffic locations means
huge fixed expenditures for rents and it is hard to say if Apple will be able to keep
alive the big hype they’ve created. Moreover other retailer were not happy with this
decision (some also sued the company, but the court ruled in favor of Apple).

There’s no way to know if the costs deriving from a more bitter relationship with
resellers will be enough to set off the additional expenses. Any increase in sales
could be due to cannibalization, which is probably the biggest threat.

Apple claim that their stores are less than 3% than the total number of resellers in the
USA, thus not constituting a credible competitor in terms of volumes. They thought
that if they’d be able to double their market share to 10% thanks to the store, the
resellers would be the ones to enjoy the biggest share of the additional sales.

5-1 SWOT analysis

Apple thought that since it had a huge brand equity, an excellent supply chain
management and already billion in annual sales (plus $4 billion in cash to invest) to
jump in retail would have been a bet worth to be taken. If we look at the financial
results we can see that were proved right.
The retail activities were profitable in just 3 years. Since the lunch they experienced
a steady growth in turnover close to 50%. Profitability is a record level: with a net
margin well above 10% the Apple Stores are among the most profitable retail
activities in the US. It is interesting to note that the margin of the retail division,
which should be a low margin activity, is not very far from the margin from
computer and devices, which are high margin operations. This means that there a
great level of service embedded in their operations.

Apple: c)Establish gold standard for Apple buying experience

c)Establish gold standard for Apple buying experience

Jobs synthesized “We want to set an example for all our resellers. Maybe they’ll
have better ideas, but if they don’t we want them to take our ideas and adopt them as
their own”. Apple Stores are designed for delivering an high quality buying
experience. Personnel is highly trained and motivated and there’s in every store an
Hot Line with technicians at the headquarters in Cupertino for difficult situations.
Along with the company’s products there’s a wide offer of third-party accessories
and about 300 software packages. It is possible to buy everything is exposed because
the stores have an inventory of about 300 SKU for every item. The stores collaborate
with the resellers for raising the experience levels, and provides data,
recommendations and consults to other dealers.

Apple: Convey the value

b)Convey the value

In the shops every product is exposed and fully operational and often the same
product is shown operating in different situations (for example imaging, music, etc.).
People walk in and browse through the store, trying the products and experience a
warm environment. The stores match very well with the “hit product” strategy
because they drive a lot of traffic. After Apple has presented in a spectacular show
some new trendy product people want to see it, feel it, and touch it. The stores helps
to convey the value. This has had also a positive impact on the brand because gave
an appropriate frame for the purchasing process of their devices.

Apple: Growth

a)Growth

At the time Apple’s market share was just about 5% and this meant that there was
another 95% that could be converted. This means that there’s room for growth. The
stores were designed specifically to drew in people who normally don’t buy Apple
products. The shop locations were choose according to demographic researches and
placed where there was an high density of Mac user but also many Windows users,
with a profile quite close to these of usual Apple customer. The shop were located in
places with an high level of traffic, where people go for shopping and being
entertained and design for catching attention immediately; with this strategy a causal
Windows customer had the occasion of going in a shop while having a walk and see
by himself what does Apple offer. If only 5 out 100 of those who don’t even
considered buying a Mac could be converted, the company’s market share would
nearly double. The “destination-location” option was dropped because a potential
computer buyer who don’t even consider buying a Mac is unlikely to drive 20
minutes just for visiting an Apple Store.

Apple: The Apple retail strategy

5 The Apple retail strategy

In 2001 Steve Jobs announced that were going to open the first store directly owned
and operated by Apple and dedicated exclusively to Mac computer and related
product. This decision raised many perplexities, because at the time most
manufacturer were shutting down their retail operations and focusing on products
(especially Gateway had a very bad and expensive experience in the retail sector).
Apple thought it was the right thing to do essentially for 3 reasons:

a)Growth;
b)Convey the value;
c)Establish gold standard for Apple buying experience;

Apple: Some considerations about the distribution policies

4 Some considerations about the distribution policies

Apple adopted a multi-channel distribution approach for mainly three reasons:
1. Reduce pressure from buyers that could negatively affect margin.
2. Have more control in order to ensure a buying experience in line with
products standards of quality.
3. Reach high visibility.

4-1 Competitive pressure.

As many computer and consumer electronics manufacture Apple is exposed to heavy
pressure from large retailers and wholesalers. Although the company has a very
strong brand and well differentiated products the retailer has still a lot of power on
exposition, promotion customer service. A selective and differentiated distribution
helps to reduce the bargaining power of buyers.

The On-line shops are useful as a showcase for the company’s product, but it is
mainly used by people who already owns a Mac and that do not need to try the
computer because they already know how it works. They are more attracted by the
possible customization and by the wide selection of peripherals and accessories that
the website offers. For example it is possible to choose some components of a PC
and have a personalized write engraved on the back of an iPod and ask for a gift box;
moreover only through the On-line store it is possible to redeem gift voucher. At
their heart, the On-line shops are more a service to its customer, than a competitor to
large e-commerce website, like Amazon and eBay, which have a pricing strategy far
more aggressive.

Although having being pretty selective in the past, today Apple is far more open to
large mass retailer than it was in the ‘80s, when only authorized dealers were allowed
to sell their product. It was decided to jump in for taking advantage of the large
amount of traffic generated by large retailers. Since 95% of those who are going to
buy a computer didn’t even consider a Mac a presence in the place where most
people buy electronic was essential. However this strategy presented more than a
challenge.

Big retailers are used to deal with big OEMs don’t have the will and the capacity of
providing a comfortable buying environment. Mac were stored on the shelves with
other computers and the small range of products (3 desktops and 2 notebooks) almost
disappeared within the vast assortment of big shops. They were not getting the
exposure they needed and the low knowledge level was a barrier for those curious
the try the machines. In 2000 Apple realized that retailers were damaging the
relationship with its customers, at a time when the company was being heavily
pressured by Dell’s direct distribution model. Not only: this dramatically reduced the
possibilities for a significant user base expansion, since it was not possible to explain
the possibilities of a Mac to customers used to see Apple as a something exotic,
aimed mostly for computer geeks. Dell had a much better control of its relationship
with customers and Apple had to take countermeasures.

Apple: An overview on the company’s distribution strategies

3 An overview on the company’s distribution strategies

Apple sells its products worldwide through its on-line stores, its retail stores, its
direct sales force and third-party wholesalers, and value added resellers. Historically
the company was used to rely on a network of authorized dealers that served both
consumer and business customers and that provided customer care as well. They
tried to make sure that resellers were highly committed, well trained and focused on
sale. They wanted to provide an high quality service and were always very selective
and avoided mass market retailer, like Wal-Mart and Target.

During the ‘90s Apple begun to sell also through large retail chains and reached
agreements with Sears and CompUSA, two large outlet chains. There was the need to
get an higher visibility and the success of products like iPod, suggested a more mass
oriented approach. However the exposure they got was low and the service level
terrible. Moreover, staff in the outlet had an incentive to steer customers towards
Toshiba and HP products because these companies adopted a very aggressive
incentive strategy and paid a large bonus for every PC sold.

Apple decided to try with store-within-store concept. They built dedicated stands
within shops, with large posters, marketing materials and displayed computers that
were served by retailer’s staff. It didn’t work. Once again the salesmen were not
trained, nor motivated and Apple’s small product range didn’t received enough
exposure. When the company decided to use its own staff things improved
dramatically.

3-1 Distribution strategy

In 1997 Apple ventured in a completely new field: on-line sales. It was the first time
Apple sold directly to its customers. The On-line store offered the full product range,
with a vast choice of third party accessories and built-to-order capabilities, following
the path first pioneered by Dell. The good implementation and customization
capabilities determined its success.

The great response from well tailored sale services pushed Apple to take one the
biggest bet of its history: the decision to enter the retail business.
In 2000 were unveiled plans to build a chain of Directly Operated Stores, under the
supervision of Ron Johnson, a former vice-president of retail at Target and a veteran
in the retail industry. The first shop was opened May 19, 2001 in Virginia and
nowadays 230 shops are operative and in 2007 about 20% of global sales were
generated through DOSs.

In 2004 the whole distribution was restructured: the authorized dealers, known as
Apple Center or Apple Dealer become Apple Premium Reseller, a customized shop
highly committed to sell Apple products owned and operated under license by third
party operators; sales agreement with CompUSA were scrapped and a new
agreement with Best Buy was done that will lead to the creation of dedicated spaces
with 200 shops; agreements with Sears were renegotiated and Mac sales were
allowed only in selected spaces in shop with high affluence volume. At the same
time iPods, peripherals and accessories were distributed to wide variety of shops,
from small corner store, to music shops, to big brick-and-mortar supermarkets. For
the latest product entered in the catalogue, the iPhone, Apple signed exclusive
agreements with leading carriers in every country served and the device is sold
exclusively through the retail network of the phone operator.

Points of sale not directly operated by Apple are sourced through third party
wholesalers but it is possible, for any computer dealer who buys more than $2
million worth of Apple product a year, to buy equipment directly from Apple, rather
than through a distributor. This strategy was devised in order to reduce the markup
added by distributors: Apple applies a 3% discount for dealers who choose to buy
products directly from the manufacturer.

Apple: Company strategy

2 Company strategy

Apple relies on the unique integration of hardware and software, both developed inhouse,
to deliver the best possible consumer experience. Their devices sports a
unique design and some of them are recognized as icons of contemporary industrial
design. The target is extremely broad and the company has reputation of delivering
exactly what they promised, without fuss.
The product range is narrow and typically Apple chose to bet on few,
groundbreaking, hit products rather than on incremental steps. This strategy has the
advantage of creating a strong differentiation among other computer makers and
generates a lot of buzz around the company’s products, that leads to real brand
substance.

The product roll out process has more in common with the fashion industry, than
with other IT company; new products are unveiled two times every year, during
keynotes held in February and September; the keynotes are more similar to a show,
or to a catwalk, rather than a press conference, since they’re hosted by Steve Jobs
himself in a spectacular frame within the San Francisco’s auditorium.
Historically, Apple had little if none interest in market share; they preferred to sell
high quality product with a pretty good margin to a small group of extremely loyal
customers, rather than exploiting the mass-market with compressed margins.
However the scenario is changing. The pressure on prices is growing as competitors
are closing the gap and the computer hardware is increasingly becoming a
commodity, and thus hard to differentiate; moreover the expenditures for developing
new software products increases dramatically as long as programs becomes more
sophisticated. MacOS X has cost about $1 billion do develop in 2001 and Windows
Vista, released in 2007, required almost $3 billion. To amortize these large
investments over a small user base (Apple sold 9,715 millions of Mac computer,
compared with 140 millions of Windows Vista licenses sold by Microsoft) could
require to charge a premium too large even for Apple’s ultra-loyal customer base.
In order to overcome this limit Apple moved in two directions: tried to expand its PC
market share, with products that could appeal to Windows users and entered the
consumer electronic mass market, thus becoming more an horizontal hardware and
software provider. The two strategy are self supporting: while its customers will be
glad to expand the capabilities of their Mac with portable mp3 players or cell phones,
the company will also be able to exploit the “Halo Effect” generate by iPods and
iPhones.

The achievements of this ambitious results, as we’ll see in this paper, relies heavily
on proper distribution management.

Apple: Company background and products

1 Company background and products

Apple Computer, Inc. was founded in 1976 in Cupertino, a small town near San
Francisco, CA by two college students, Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak. The
company was a pioneer in the computer industry and their Macintosh II computer is
credited as the first modern personal computer. Apple experienced a strong growth
during the ‘80s, however, due to some wrong decisions (mainly a closed architecture
approach to computing) it lost the so-called “War of Desktops”, thus leading to a
long decline that lasted until the late ‘90s, when Jobs stepped back at head of the
company he founded.

During the second Jobs era the company tried to reinvent itself; it renewed
completely its product line and entered new markets following its philosophy of
offering high integration between hardware and software and superior industrial
design.

Nowadays Apple designs and manufactures personal computers, portable digital
music players and mobile communication devices and produces and sells a variety of
related software, services and peripherals. On January 9th, 2007 Steve Jobs
announced during a keynote that Apple would be known from that point on as Apple,
Inc. in order to reflect its commitment to a whole “Digital Lifestyle” range of
products, rather than merely to the PC business.

Apple: Summary

Summary

1 Company background and products
2 Company strategy
3 An overview on the company’s distribution strategies
4 Some considerations about the distribution policies
5 The Apple retail strategy
a)Growth
b)Convey the value
c)Establish gold standard for Apple buying experience
5.1 Some strategic considerations
6 Conclusions and recommendations
7 Bibliography

Apple: Distribution Policies at Apple Inc.

By Alberto ZANCO