Essay: Ipad hungary kft

I.Introduction

Ipad Hungary Kft is looking for investors for the introduction of Ipad on the Hungarian market. Invest and Co. has shown interest in the investment, and the leading investment manager asked for a summary of the marketing strategy focusing on the potential customer base size and their interest. This request arrived to Ipad Hungary Kft on 1st April, 2010 with a deadline of 1st May, 2010.

II.Findings

1.Categories of Customer Base

The potential customer base can be divided into three main groups – these are listed below in priority order:

• Currently using Apple products (IPod, IPhone, Mac etc.)
• Currently not using similar products
• Currently using concurrent products (smart PC, palmtop)

Based on market research results received from Apple Global Alliance, the marketing strategy is planning to focus on the first two groups in the first 2 years of introduction, because these are considered to be potential customer base of the new product.

2.Analyzing Potential Customers

An extensive market research has been completed on the week of 12th April to understand the interest and preferences of the potential customer base. The research method used during this period contained telemarketing calls and also an online vitrual game where the interested people voted for products including IPad according to different questions. Altogether 356 participants answered the questionnaires through one of these input channels.

The potential customer base was divided into 2 groups:

• A: Customers currently using any other Apple devices (200 customers)
• B: Customers currently using similar devices in functionalities (156 customers)

Results:

As it can be seen in Appendix 1, results significantly show that interest is much higher in Group A, than Group B.73%of customers in Group A have interest about the new product, while the same is only 35 % of the customer in Group B.

Similar observation can be made, when analyzing the question whether they plan to buy Apple IPad in the next few months or not. Customers in Group A are more likely to buy the products than customer in Group B. Only 12% of customers in Group B are planning to buy the device. Despite this low ratio, in Group A66%< of the people are planning to purchase an IPad in the near future. The reason for the difference of ratios between interest and “planning to buy” customers can be explained by the fact, that not all of those who are interested can afford themselves to buy the product.

Potential customers were also asked how they evaluate this brand-new product on a 1-10 scale in terms of attractiveness. The average score in Group A was 8.6.. The average score in Group B was less than this, it was only 6.7.
It is interesting to observe that the difference between the scores is lower than that of the ratios when willingness to buy the products was asked as a question.

3. Estimation of Group Sizes

To be able to provide an estimation of sales volume, once we knew how many percentages of the identified groups were willing to buy the product, we needed to define the size of the groups in Hungary.

According to the national statistics provided by Apple Store Center Hungary, since 2008 830.000 Apple products have been sold in Hungary and 75% of this was purchased by different individual customers. The size of Group A is about 622.500 people. Similar calculation method for Group B provided the result of 160.000 people.

III. Conclusions

The main conclusion of the findings is that the most potential customer is base is Group A – people who are already using Apple devices, such the IPhone, IPods, IPod Touch or Macintosh computers – with 66% of them planning to buy Apple IPad in the near future, which is in total more than 400.000 individual customers (622.500 x 0.66 = 410.850).

Another important conclusion is that this customer base finds the new device very attractive, on average they gave 8.6 score on a 1-10 scale.

As an overall conclusion we can set the order of the customer base categories in terms of interest in the new products:

1. Currently using Apple products
2. Currently using concurrent products
3. Currently not using similar products

IV.Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusion, the main recommendation of IPad Hungary Kft is to target Group A in the first instance and later on concentrate on Group B if necessary. In the first period the marketing strategy should concentrate specifically on Group A.

Due to the fact that Group A found the device very attractive, our company also suggests to highlight the design and “look and feel”-related characteristics of the IPad in the advertising campaigns, therefore the recommendation for advertising method contains the followings: online videos, large city posters, city-light posters and colorful brochures which will help to emphasize the attractiveness of the device with graphical elements.

It is also recommended to cross-check the expected sales volume from Group A with the financial plans, because targeting Group B might be necessary from the beginning, however this cannot be decided based on the market research. It can be stated that Group B is a potential customer base as well, but needs to be approached differently, since they are already using a concurrent product, so comparison and highlighting new features should be on focus.

V.Appendices

Appendix 1.

Cumulated results of market research projects of April, 2010.