Early stage marketing plan for the Apple iPad

1. Adam Benson<br />BUS 388: Integrated Marketing Communications<br />Professor Gallianetti<br />April 29, 2010<br />Apple iPad<br />Innovators <br />To attract innovators to the new Apple iPad, I would suggest advertising through the internet, trade shows and tech magazines. Knowing that the innovator types are not price sensitive and like having products due to their newness it will be important not to include any promotional like pieces in these advertising vessels (i.e. buy one get one free, 20% off with coupon). Instead the advertisements will focus on the newness and innovativeness of the product (How there is nothing else like it. It is one of a kind). Another thing to know about innovators is they are a smaller market then later groups. I feel that internet, trade shows and tech magazines will be the best to reach these limited amounts of people because of the focus they have on the specific target market. Advertising through the internet would be the best way to reach these tech savvy innovators. This is because the Apple iPad is a technologically advanced instrument and most of the innovators would be fanatics of the tech industry. A main way to get across to these people is go through mediums they use: internet and tech magazines. A final way I would advertise to this target market is through the distributors of the iPad. I would achieve this by advertising at trade shows such as, the International CES, which is the largest technology trade show in the world. Advertising at trade shows would encourage distributors to buy the product and they could also advertise to the innovators. <br />Using the internet, trade shows and tech magazines would be the best advertising vessels to use, while using telemarketing and the newspaper would undoubtedly be the worst. In the past six months alone newspaper circulation has dropped 8.7 percent, this coupled with the already huge losses they have seen, it is eminent that the newspaper will not be around that much longer(Trujillo). Knowing that innovators are likely to be tech savvy, it is probably that they will not read a hard copy of the newspaper. The decline of the newspaper, along with the unlikelihood of an innovator reading the newspaper, makes this a horrible advertising tool to communicate the message about the Apple iPad. Another advertising tool that would be a poor means to communicate with the innovators is telemarketing. Although this leads to one on one communication with potential buyers, telemarketing can come across as naggy and create a poor image for the brand. <br />Early Majority<br />When advertising to an early majority consumer a different method must be taken. Instead of stresses newness and innovativeness an early majority consumer is more concerned with price and the features of the product. An early majority consumer tends to avoid risk and adapts the product once the innovators and early adopters test out the waters. Because of this new message, a slightly new marketing mix must be put together: Billboards, TV advertisements, and the internet. The combination of these three will appeal to the early majority because the early majority is a larger market then the innovators and these three media vessels will help reach more people. The message to this group will be more price orientated and also include the features and services (advertising the features and services are usually used with the early adopters but I feel with a more technologic product that it would be appropriate to use this strategy with the early majority). It still might be too early to send out promotional advertisement because it might devalue the product in the consumers’ eyes. This however could be used if managed with precision and great management skills. <br />While using billboards, TV advertisements, and the internet are great ways to advertise to the early majority consumers there are also some poor ways to advertise to this target market: direct mailing and newspaper. The newspaper will also be ineffective for the early majority for reasons stated for the innovators. Direct mailing would be ineffective due to the cost and might be looked at as junk mail. If the correct advertising tools are used to advertise to the early majority the Apple iPad will surely surpass everyone’s expectations. <br />Continuity between Target Markets <br />When using different advertising tools for different target markets it is vital that the IMC plan has continuity. This will be achieved in my examples by keeping the themes of innovativeness (more so in to the innovators, but Apple prides themselves on innovativeness) and the service they provide to the consumers. These themes will easily be able to be achieved throughout the different media by incorporating the theme with the message that is trying to get sent to the target market. For example, the early majority message is communicating the features and services along with the price, to incorporate this with the themes of the plan an ad might have something to the effect of this: The innovative features of the new iPad include Safari, iBooks, iTunes(Apple) ,… and is priced at a reasonable $499. The same can be used for the other means of advertising. The importance of keeping the separate target markets connected to the IMC plan is just as importance as the product itself. <br />Works Cited<br />quot;
Apple.quot;
The Best Way to Experience the Web, Email, Photos, and Video. Hands Down. . Apple INC, 20 APR 2010. Web. 28 Apr 2010. <http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/>.<br />Trujillo, Ron. quot;
Business Journal.quot;
Daily newspaper circulation plummets, Sacramento Bee's decline larger than industry average Read more: Daily newspaper circulation plummets, Sacramento Bee's decline larger than industry average - Sacramento Business Journal:. Business Journal, 26 APR 2010. Web. 28 Apr 2010. <http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2010/04/26/daily20.html>.<br />