Apple Inc.

is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California,

that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal
computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media
player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. Its consumer software includes
the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and
the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites.

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976 to develop
and sell personal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977,
and was renamed as Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007 to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer
electronics..
As of May 2013, Apple maintains 408 retail stores in fourteen countries as well as the online Apple
Store and iTunes Store,
[15]
the latter of which is the world's largest music retailer. Apple is
the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an estimated
market capitalization of $446 billion by January, 2014. As of September 29, 2012, the company had
72,800 permanent full-time employees and 3,300 temporary full-time employees worldwide. Its
worldwide annual revenue in 2013 totalled $170 billion.
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As of Q1 2014, Apple's five-year growth
average is 39% for top line growth and 45% for bottom line growth. In May 2013, Apple entered the
top ten of the Fortune 500list of companies for the first time, rising 11 places above its 2012 ranking
to take the sixth position.

3-Point Marketing Philosophy

1. Empathy We will truly understand their [customer] needs better than any other company.
2. Focus In order to do a good job of the things we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the
unimportant opportunities.
3. Impute People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest
quality, the most useful software, etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be
perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the
desired qualities.

Six key principles that make it very hard for competitors to compete with Apple.

1. For any product that Apple creates, the people who create it have to want it themselves
2. The products have to be easy to use.
3. Keep things simple
4. Offer great customer service and in-store experiences.
When you go into an Apple store and are greeted by one of the sales staff, youre not asked,
How can I help you? Instead they ask, What would you like to do today?
5. Apple only makes a product if Apple can do it better
Our goals are very simple to design and make better products. If we cant make
something that is better, we wont do it.
6. Apple stays at least two years ahead of its competitors






Apples Management

Apples success is embodied in a system the people, processes, and machines that together
allow Steve Jobs, or any other industry field general to marshal his forces and win on the market
battlefield the management style at Apple is tough command and control one. The vice presidents
of the firm are held strictly accountable for their success. When they fail, they can only point the
finger at themselves.

Second, Apples 40-or-so top managers have functional responsibilities all right, but its not as if
they can lord over their own fiefdoms and operate somewhat independent of corporate. At Apple,
the line managers take their marching orders from a weekly management team meeting overseen
by Jobs. And its in this way that one executive can truly bend an $88 billion corporation to its will
and quickly seize market opportunities.


Best Practice - Apples 5 Steps of Retail Store Service

1. Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome. Every customer should be greeted
by an employee who is friendly, passionate and committed to customer service. A customers
perception of their experience begins to be formed in the first ten seconds of an interaction. Make
those seconds count.
2. Probe politely to understand all the customers needs. This simply means to ask a series of
closed and open-ended question so you can match the customer with the right product, not the
most expensive product. In the Apple Store, a closed-ended question elicits a simple yes or no such
as, Will this be your first Mac? An open-ended question is more general and gives the sales
associate (specialist) more information to guide the conversation. For example, What will you be
using the iPad for?
3. Present a solution for the customer to take home today. Apple likes to remind its store
employees that they are not in the business of selling computers. They are in the business of
enriching lives. A sale isnt the only way to enrich the life of a customer and to build loyalty. For
example, a customer might be frustrated to walk into an Apple Store expecting to see a technical
specialist (a Genius) only to be told they need an appointment at the Genius Bar. A trained
specialist would offer an alternative solution such as, We have appointments available tomorrow.
May I sign you up or show you how to reserve an appointment on our web site?
4. Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns. Customers have what are called
unexpressed wishes or concerns. Specialists are trained to pick up on these concerns during the
probing step, which is why it is important to ask good questions. For example, some long-time PC
users might be reluctant to learn a new operating system but they dont necessarily express that
concern. A specialist who uncovers this information might spend more time describing One-to-One,
a unique program for Mac customers who want to learn more about the computer in one hour face-
to-face sessions with a creative. The program, which a customer can purchase for $99 upon
buying a Mac, is good for one year and includes a transfer of data from a PC to Mac. It was
intended to build a customer for life and often does just that. Its also a good recruiting tool. Many
people who work in an Apple Store were One-to-One customers.
5. End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return. How a person feels when they end a
transaction significantly impacts how they perceive the brand and whether they are likely to
recommend the brand to others. For example, a creative teaching a workshop might say, I really
like the presentation youve started with Apple Keynote. Please drop in again when youre close to
being finished and well give you more tips on how to refine it. Even after a purchase, its not
uncommon for a specialist to give a customer a business card should they have more questions.
Above all, give your customer a reason to return.