Business Analysis: Apple - Value Proposition and Culture

Organisation Analysis

Apple - Value proposition and Culture

Apple - Company Description

Apple Inc., was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on 1976, 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 is the world's second-largest information technology company by revenue and the world's third-largest mobile phone maker. “Fortune” magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012.

Customer Value Proposition

Functional benefits - based on a product attribute that provides the customer with functional utility. The goal is to select functional benefits that have the greatest impact with customers and support a strong position relative to competitors. The phone capability of an iPhone, the cross platform data transfer of iCloud, iPad lightness and powerful abilities : games, movies, office work etc.

Emotional benefits - provide customers with a positive feeling when they purchase or use a particular brand. They add richness and depth to the experience of owning and using the brand. Apple doesn't just sell functional benefits for today; it is selling the excitement of a product that would change the future. Apple’s advertising creates emotional triggers such as consumers’ desire to belong to a larger gro...

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...shed these devices with added features and improvements. However, they are still the same basic devices. These products, built upon incredible foresight and attention to detail, carried tremendous customer loyalty and high margins.

Apple management must bridge the perceived innovation gap with some sort of product breakthrough. Otherwise, it is reasonable for the company to accept lower Street expectations built upon the premise that while the company remains an exceptional production, distribution and branded business, the days of unparalleled enterprising innovation and leadership may be ebbing.

The best things to do, by Cook, would be to have a VP that replace the innovation brought by Jobs and be in charge only on innovation. As described in ‘Figure 1’ the role that is mostly missing is VP of innovation to help Apple bring to the market the next iPhone / iPad.