Nicole Bornales

Test I Competitive Profile matrix Apple Critical Success factors Samsung Weight Rating Weighted Score Rating Weighte dScore Marketing Strategy 0.20 3 0.60 3 0.60 Product Quality 0.10 4 0.40 3 0.30 Price Competitiveness 0.10 2 0.20 3 0.30 Management 0.10 3 0.30 4 0.40 Financial Position 0.15 4 0.60 3 0.45 Customer Loyalty 0.10 4 0.40 3 0.30 Global Expansion 0.20 4 0.80 3 0.60 Market Share 0.05 4 0.20 3 0.15 Total 1.00 3.5 3.1 Table 1: Competitive Profile Matrix of two multinational rival companies namely Apple and Samsung Among the two multinational companies, Apple has the highest weighted score with 3.5 followed by Samsung with 3.1. It can be perceived that Apple has the edge in terms of most of the critical factors with an exception to price competitiveness and management. CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS ● Marketing Strategy (On Innovation and Technology) Both organizations see the foreign market as a new area for their company operations to thrive. In recent years, Apple's business model has proven to be successful. Samsung has also had a lot of success as a result of its business tactics. However, there appears to be a shift in consumer taste and preferences, based on the current business situation. Customers are no longer focused solely on pricing at the expense of quality. The importance of quality appears to have overtaken the importance of price among today's consumers. Because Apple has always pursued a high-end market strategy and its products have constantly been well-received, this appears to be the basic principle underpinning the company's success. (IvyPanda (2021) ● Product Quality Apple and Samsung are both highly innovative corporations, but they approach innovation in slightly different ways. Folding phones, display manufacturing, and display design are all areas where Samsung excels, whereas Apple excels in chip design, machine learning, wearable computing, and music. (Squared, J., Cipriani, J., ZDNet Writers (2021). (User Experience) Although iOS provides an excellent user experience, many aspects need to be redesigned or optimized. Samsung does a fantastic job of taking stock Android and improving it with their add-ons. (Industrial design and product durability) Some functions were deleted from the larger devices by Samsung. Apple, on the other hand, unveiled four separate iPhone 12 models, each with the same fundamental features except for the bigger sensor on the 12 Pro and the IBIS-stabilized main camera sensor on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Nonetheless, Apple and Samsung have some of the best product designs in the business. In recent years, Apple and Samsung have upgraded their phones to IP67 and IP68 classifications, making them waterproof and with significantly increased glass tensile strength. (Product Performance)While Samsung's smartphones may perform better on paper in some areas, Apple's current iPhones often outperform Samsung's current generation phones in real-world performance with the mix of applications consumers and companies use on a daily basis. And this is due to the fact that Android consumes far more resources than iOS. ● Price Competitiveness Apple maintains a high-market strategy that bears little or no importance to the lowend market. Though Samsung has also focused on the high-end market in recent times, its pricing strategy cannot be compared to Apple’s. Apple’s pricing strategy is relatively expensive and charges a higher premium for their products. Apple products are often expensive, but they do not fall into the category of luxury items, which is ideal given the company's target clientele are entrepreneurs and young people. Apple's pricing policy is well-suited to the company's development strategy, because if the product price is cheap, profit will be diminished, and the company's brand will be lost. As a product reaches saturation, prices tend to drop in order to attract more customers and compete with competing items. This is a flexible pricing policy for the corporation; depending on market conditions, Apple has modified the price accordingly. (Tien N., (2020) ● Management Samsung has increased its investment in human resources and won prizes for talent development. Apple's ideology, on the other hand, is a work in progress. Although training is provided, Apple does not supervise the process. Furthermore, Apple has issues with Human Rights in China, where it was complicit in abuses. Both businesses have proven to be very reliant on quality management. Samsung and Apple, as evidenced by evidence, use quality techniques such as VOC and NPS to establish a long-term competitive edge in the industry. Aside from product-related quality difficulties, issues involving employees, customers, and the environment emerged as a major source of worry. Needless to say, both digital behemoths see quality management as a cost-effective approach to boost productivity, customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, revenues. (Mavlyanov A,. (2020) ● Financial Position Table 2: Worldwide Unit Shipments of Smartphones (1000s) in Q4 2020 Apple shipped 69.5 million iPhones in Q4 2019, compared to Samsung's 70.4 million. However, a year later, in Q4 2020, Apple sold 79.9 million units to 62.1 million for Samsung. Now, while this is a significant increase for Apple and a significant decrease for Samsung, keep in mind that overall smartphone sales declined by 12.5 percent globally. (Perlow, J. (2021) ● Customer Loyalty According to a survey, Apple's brand loyalty is at an all-time high of over 92 percent (up from 90.5 percent in 2019). Meanwhile, Samsung's customer loyalty has decreased by 11.7 percent, from 85.7 percent in 2019 to 74 percent in 2021. Apple customers are roughly 18% more loyal to the brand than Samsung customers. When it comes time to upgrade, 26% of Samsung consumers will switch to another brand. The majority of Samsung defectors (53%) will upgrade to an iPhone the next time they update, with the majority (31.5%) citing privacy concerns as the primary reason for the transfer. Value for money appears to be a prominent reason for migrating away from Samsung, with a rate of over 25%. Brand loyalty among Google Pixel consumers has declined 18.8% from 84 percent in 2019 to 65.2 percent in 2021, similar to Samsung. Customers of Motorola and LG are the most disloyal, with roughly 71 percent and 62.6 percent of existing users reporting that they will be looking to upgrade when they upgrade, respectively. 46.6 percent of respondents believe the new iPhone 12 series is the finest, while 30.4 percent believe the S21 series is the best. (Mahipal A,. (2021) ● Global Expansion Apple's geographic expansion includes sales on continents where it may make significant gains. With a profit-driven mentality, the corporation has extended its Technology operations in Europe, Japan, Greater China, and the Asia Pacific area. The firm announced its largest regional growth ever in April 2020. Apple Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud are now available in 20 new countries, with Apple Music in 52 additional countries. After opening Apple shops, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud in African nations such as Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Libya, Morocco, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Tunisia, Apple's ambition for expansion in Africa gained traction. In addition, the Apple Store is now available in 175 countries and territories. It's worth noting that Europe accounted for 23 percent of Apple's revenue in 2019. Apple has a large workforce of 22,000 people. Between 2020 and 2024, Apple's global market size is expected to grow by 3.42 million tons. When it comes to AI products and services, Apple's future outlook appears to be positive. Apple will continue to grow in the near future, now that it has crossed the $2 trillion mark. (Analytics Insight,. (2020) Apple commits $430 billion in US investments over five years. The accelerated commitment will fund a new North Carolina campus and job-creating investments in innovative fields like silicon engineering and 5G technology. (Newsroom apple (2021) Samsung Group has launched a 240 trillion won ($205 billion) expansion plan that will see the South Korean conglomerate hire 40,000 workers over the next three years, as part of a massive investment plan aimed at extending the company's lead in next-generation technology. Samsung Electronics Co. and its subsidiaries, such as Samsung Biologics, strive to be at the forefront of research and development in fields ranging from telecommunications to robotics to corporate acquisitions. The country's largest business has put aside 180 trillion won for its own country alone, and the company now plans to hire an additional 10,000 workers over the next three years, on top of the 30 thousand new jobs already planned, according to a statement. Samsung Electronics' stock finished 3.1 percent higher on Tuesday. (Bloomberg,. (2021) ● Market Share Apple is at the top of the global smartphone sales chart (refer to Table 2 under Financial Position; Worldwide Unit Shipments of Smartphones (1000s) in Q4 2020) for the first time since 2016, thanks to a successful fourth quarter 2020 sales season with the four new iPhone 12 models. While the newest Gartner smartphone sales data predicts a 5% fall in global smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple has reclaimed the top rank for the first time since 2016. For a few years, Samsung and Huawei battled for the top spot, but after the debut of the four new iPhone 12 models in the fall of 2020, Apple surpassed them both with 20.8 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the fourth quarter. (Miller, M. (2021) References: IvyPanda (2021,August 2).Comparative Study of Business Strategy for Apple and Samsung Research Paper retrieved from https://ivypanda.com/essays/comparative -study-of-business-strategy-for-appleand-samsung/ Squared, J., Cipriani, J., ZDNet Writers (2021, February 26). Apple vs. Samsung: Who makes the better phone? Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-vssamsung-who-makes-a-bettersmartphone/ Tien N., (2020, January). Price policy in international marketing comparative analysis between Samsung and Apple retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication /-_Price_policy_in_internation al_marketing_comparative_analysis_bet ween_Samsung_and_Apple Mavlyanov A,. (2020, December). Quality Management practices of Samsung Electronics and Apple retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication /-_Quality_Management_pract ices_of_Samsung_Electronics_and_Appl e Perlow, J. (2021, February 26). Tech Broiler retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-vssamsung-who-makes-a-bettersmartphone/ Mahipal A,. (2021, March 16).Report: Brand loyalty at an all-time high of 92% for Apple as Android brands take a dive retrieved from https://www.sellcell.com/blog/cellphone-brand-loyalty-2021/ Mahipal A,. (2021, March 16).Report: Brand loyalty at an all-time high of 92% for Apple as Android brands take a dive retrieved from https://www.sellcell.com/blog/cellphone-brand-loyalty-2021/ Analytics Insight,. (2020, September 30). APPLE’S GROWTH STRATEGY: HOW IT REACHED US$2 TRILLION IN MARKET VALUE retrieved from https://www.analyticsinsight.net/applesgrowth-strategy-how-it-reached-us2trillion-in-market-value/ Newsroom (apple),. (2021, April 26). Expanding Apple’s US Operations. Creating American Jobs with Manufacturers and Suppliers Nationwide Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/ 04/apple-commits-430-billion-in-usinvestments-over-five-years/ Bloomberg,. (2021, August 21). SAMSUNG UNVEILS $205Billion retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/companies/ne ws/samsung-to-invest-206-billion-by2023-for-post-pandemic-growth-.html Miller, M. (2021, February 03). Apple beats Samsung in smartphone sales for first time in five years retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple- beats-samsung-in-smartphone-sales-forfirst-time-in-five-years/ Test II– Goals and Objectives 1. Apple company 2 The three critical success factors of the Apple company with the lowest ratings are Marketing strategy (rated 3), Price Competitiveness (rated 2) and management (rated 3). 3. A. Marketing strategy: (Goal) To provide the world with the best innovations and technologies while retaining its faithful customers as they build new relationships with future customers. (Objective)To keep Apple customers happy, as they continue to use Apple products for all their technological needs. To have a number of programs in place to encourage people to use their products, one of which is the Genius Bar, which can be found in all of their retail locations. Employees at Apple Retail Stores are trained to answer any inquiries customers may have and are prepared with the tools to resolve any problems they may encounter. They can also assist consumers in selecting the appropriate products based on their requirements. Training workshops for third-party application developers are another action program. Apple thinks that by providing these training opportunities, it will be able to offer application developers with the tools they need to create programs that are appealing to customers while simultaneously providing them with ways to profit. B. Analysis on Price competitiveness/ Product pricing: Apple products are premiumpriced, making it harder for low-income users to purchase them. (Goal) The company's product and pricing approach will try to appeal to a broader range of customers. Previously, the company only catered to customers with a high income. Nonetheless, as more competitors enter the market, the company will broaden its appeal in order to attract middle- and low-income customers. (Objective) to sell a great phone and provide a great experience, and we figured out a way to do it at a lower cost. C. Analysis on Management: Apple's brand reputation has suffered as a result of reports of dangerous working conditions in several Chinese manufacturers. (Goal) To protect the environment, as well as the health and safety of its employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate. (Objective) To reaffirm its long-standing commitment to advancing global justice and making the workplace more inclusive. To foster workplace ideals of inclusiveness and diversity, emphasizing that behavior that denigrates or discriminates against people because of who they are has no place in such an organization.