Southampton Solent University

School of Business, Law and Communications

A comparison of Apple Inc. advertising strategy

between the Czech Republic and the UK

Author : Q13733214
Course title : ENG199
Tutor’s name : Alexandra Brown, Rosemary Wilks
 Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 2
2. Apple Inc. and their global marketing strategy ............................................... 3
3. Apple's advertising in the Czech Republic ....................................................... 6
4. Apple's advertising in the United Kingdom ..................................................... 8
5. Conclusions ................................................................................................. 10
6. Reference list............................................................................................... 11
7. Image sources.............................................................................................. 12
 1. Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to compare the difference in advertising of Apple Inc.
company between the Czech and the UK market. I will focus on the following
segments: Apple global marketing strategy, their local advertising in the Czech
Republic and United Kingdom. Also, I have included a conclusion, which states what
differences in the advertising strategy for both markets were found. The Apple's
specific marketing strategy, which also controls the way the promotion is done, may
look quite complex. However, their tactic is relatively well known.

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 2. Apple Inc. and their global marketing strategy

What do we actually know about Apple company? As O'Grady (2008) states, Apple
Inc. is one of the most influential companies in the consumer electronics, but the
story behind this technological giant hasn’t always been so simple. In 1976 two
talented guys started working together in a garage in California, USA. Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak had a dream to create a computer for a personal use. Computers were
reserved to scientists, mathematicians and intellectuals. Wozniak was the head of
development because of his electrotechnical skills and his friend Jobs was more
focused on sales. They were working on the first computer in their free time, while
being employed. Later, they found an investor who help them to start the mass
production. Jobs has chosen the name “Apple” for their company, because he spent
some time helping his friends on their small apple farm. Their company slowly built
upon its successes, from the first simple Apple computers, Macintoshes, iMacs, iPods
to the latest iPhones. They found how to change the complex machines into the easy-
to-use personal computers. This concept started a big success of the company. The
second success began when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 who later focused
on the device called iPhone. This revolutionary device changed the way the mobile
phones were used before and made communication even easier. Apple hadn’t impact
just on the technology but also on the society, and the world. They created the
essential tool for people's daily lives.

Figure 1: The famous Steve Jobs – co-founder of Apple

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Basically, as Green (2012) states, there are many different types of advertising,
across different media or forms of mass communication. Main channels are TV and
radio, the Internet, newspapers or magazines. Part of them are also indoor or
outdoor media, such as billboards. In addition, advertising can be seen on packaging
in stores, or even tickets and receipts or freebies. Less usual channels include SMS
text messages phone or using plane for towing an advertising banner. Today the
companies also advertise products on social networking sites, such as Facebook and
Instagram. This includes creating a company profile and encourage people to follow
them to get the newest information regarding the new products and promo actions.
These social networks allow a company to create ad campaigns.

Figure 2: Latest Apple Christmas Ad

Apple's advertisements, based on the print ads in newspapers, can be described as a

one of the most elegant. Their ads are usually clear and crisp in their communication.
Apple commonly introduce the product with the white background and the contrast
of a splash of colour, which helps to differentiate their product. This is also the
major strength of the brand. They can have a lot of ads on different products and
with many differentiation points towards the advertised product. Apple's print ads
or video ads simply highlight the product features. Their famous advertising, showing
the differences between PC and Macintosh, is the basis of their current ads. This
promotion strategy of Apple will multiply when they are introducing a new product.
The hype created for each one of their products continues until the product is
successful on the market. Their distribution strategy is created by hundreds of own

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retail stores, mainly in the United States, which are more focused in helping the
customer in way of technical and advisory support and rather than selling the
product. Apple also has an online e-commerce presence. The last channel of
distribution is sell the products to the retail partners who are in the role of
authorised reseller and can also sell the Apple products online (Bhasin 2017).

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3. Apple's advertising in the Czech Republic

According to Zavrel (2012) many people think that Apple doesn’t do any
marketing in the Czech Republic as none of their posters, TV spots, or billboards
can be seen. As well as in the United States, the Apple does not support any of
these promotion methods. The advertising in Czech Republic is adequate because
of the number of potential customers there. The Czech market is under the
supervision of a group of managers who control the tasks and for promotion, they
are using the PR agencies.

The way the information about the products are distributed is through the
selected journalists, who will receive an advice prior to each conference or when
a press release is issued. All information communicated with journalists are
already publicly available at the time of their communication, and it is taken as
a warning that the information is spreading around the world. Apple also gives
their products for testing and reviews. However, just five well-selected reviewers
who work for world’s best-known media, gets the product before its official
introduction. The other journalists will receive products for testing once the
product is officially available on the market (Zavrel, 2012).

Figure 3: Apple gives iPhone to selected journalists for testing

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Based on these statements and after the research, I found that only the Apple's
official online store “Apple.cz” is customized for Czech market. All marketing
materials for products as well as the customer information, such as terms and
conditions, FAQ, technical support and news sections are translated into the Czech
language.

Figure 4: Official Apple online store for Czech Republic

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 4. Apple's advertising in the United Kingdom

It has been stated that the Apple use created official accounts on Facebook and
Twitter in English language for itself but both accounts show zero activity. Apple
instead uses these accounts to promote its latest products through the advertisement
system of those social network. Recently, they created social advertising campaigns
for iPhone 7, MacBook Pro, and Apple Watch. These posts don't show up on the main
account's feed (Leswing 2016).

Figure 5: Apple's advertising campaign on Facebook

Apple has about 38 own retail stores in the UK, among them we can find stores in
London, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow or Southampton
(Apple 2018).

Figure 6: Apple Store, London Covent Garden

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According to my own research, I found that Apple company also promotes their
products through outdoor form of advertising. For example, the advertising
promoting a new iPhone can be found in the London underground.

Figure 7: Apple's London Underground Advertising

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 5. Conclusions

Although Apple Inc. is applying a global promotion strategy, I found out in my

research, that there are differences between the Czech Republic and the United
Kingdom in terms of advertising. Their global strategy includes the strength of Apple'
brand, which is mainly the ability to clearly differentiate their product. Unlike the
Czech Republic, Apple products in the UK promoted through a wide range of their
own retail stores (Apple 2018), as well as outdoor and social media advertising.
However, the advertising in United Kingdom is appropriate because the number of
potential customers is much higher, than on the Czech market (Zavrel 2012).

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 6. Reference list

1. O'GRADY, J.,D., 2008. Apple Inc. Westport, Conn. ; London: Greenwood Press

2. GREEN, J. (2012). Advertising. New York: Rosen Publishing Group.

3. Bhasin, H. (2017). Marketing Strategy of Apple Inc – Apple Marketing Strategy.

[online] Marketing91.com. Available at:
https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-apple/ [Accessed 8 Jan.
2018].

4. Zavrel, R. (2012). Jak funguje marketing Apple v CR. [online] Letem svetem
Applem. Available at: https://www.letemsvetemapplem.eu/2012/03/23/jak-
funguje-marketing-apple-v-cr/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].

5. Leswing, K. (2016). Apple needs to hire some teens to help with its social
media strategy. [online] Business Insider. Available at:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-has-no-social-media-strategy-2016-
12?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

6. Apple. (2018). Apple Retail Store - Store List. [online] Available at:
https://www.apple.com/uk/retail/storelist/ [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

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 7. Image sources

Figure 1:
The famous Steve Jobs – co-founder of Apple. (n.d.). [image] Available at:
http://time.pd.ak.o.brightcove.com/rtmp_uds/2111767321001/2111767321001_44
64578817001_steve2.jpg [Accessed 4 Jan. 2018].

Figure 2:
Apple 2017 holiday commercial. (2017). [image] Available at:
http://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/apple-holiday-2017-
commercial.jpg [Accessed 4 Jan. 2018].

Figure 3:
Novak, A. (2017). Je to nejvetsi iphonova revoluce. Recenze Apple iPhonu X -
iDNES.cz. [online] iDNES.cz. Available at: https://mobil.idnes.cz/recenze-apple-
iphone-x-test-df3-/iphone.aspx?c=A171104_211520_iphone_ada [Accessed 4 Jan.
2018].

Figure 4:
Apple (Ceska republika). (2018). Apple (Ceska republika). [online] Available at:
https://www.apple.com/cz/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2018].

Figure 5:
Apple's advertising campaign on Facebook. (2016). [image] Available at:
http://static5.uk.businessinsider.com/image/5842e4ffdd089536448b48aa-
502/screen%20shot%202016-12-02%20at%2041603%20pm.png [Accessed 5 Jan.
2018].

Figure 6:
Apple Store, London Covent Garden. (n.d.). [image] Available at:
http://ninofilm.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cg-courtyard-2.jpg
[Accessed 6 Jan. 2018].

Figure 7:
Apple's London Underground Advertising. (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://pro2-
bar-s3-cdn-
cf.myportfolio.com/eebed5691204fb9b0a24296f30a513a0/bbea94bace4a8dde8fc26
56b_rw_1920.jpg [Accessed 8 Jan. 2018].

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