International Marketing Study Program 2005
Apple visit no 9
January 28th 2005
Hell hath no fury like the cold, windy and frozen streets of the big apple. But inside this metropolis of bars, clubs, monuments, buildings and people lays a smaller apple, a computer company with big store and open arms. Apple computers invited Monash University Marketing students out the cold and spent the day with them teaching us about integrated innovative marketing and technology that brought the company from a niche to one of the largest and coolest brand in today's modern global world.
The day started with a tour of the Apple Computers concept store in Soho by Adam Rackoff. This amazing piece of retail is Apple Computers way of directly connecting with their consumers and with over 900,000 people world wide passing through Apple stores each day the concept store has proved to be an absolute success. The tour took the team through the openness of the entrance and up to the theatre, where consumer can come in, sit down, plug in and receive free lectures of Apple products and services. We then made our way to the children's learning centre and up to the genius bar where apple consumers can have all the apple and computer related questions solved right before there eyes and in the nick of time. We then went into the basement were the educational facilities are housed and where taken through the process of Apple training courses, technology and any other aspects of service that apple can provide. We were also able to trial the technology, with some students getting carried away with the brilliance of the G4 I-Mac. At this particular point of the trip many students were interested in purchasing apple products but due the high demand for I-shuffles and Mac Mini's the store had sold out before the group had any chance.
After the store tour Christine Wedner from Apple guided us through the labyrinth of the city and subway downtown to the Apple corporate office and Executive Business Centre. Here we received an amazing lunch and put our heads down straight into a presentation by Patrick Dennard, Account Executive, about the corporate philosophy of Apple and their modern business practices. The presentation was very interactive with Patrick enduring to determine what we want to learn as well as providing us with a company summary and information on current marketing strategies.
Kevin Boland, Consulting Engineer, then took the reigns and gave us an overview of Apple Hardware and advertising strategies. Here we learnt about how Apple provided the world with a change in thinking, not only in technology but communications and process streamlining. Kevin taught us that Apples ground breaking adds during the super bowl of 1984 started the trend of super bowl advertising.
At the visit to apple we were given the honour of a presentation about marketing strategies by vice president of Retail Merchandising Jerry McDougal. Jerry gave us this presentation via video conference direct from Silicon Valley the home of IT brilliance. This informative demonstrating provided us with a detailed understanding of retail management and how the new Apple is able to reach the consumers and begin to attain real market share. The session was followed by an intensive Q & A where the Apple genius's brain in order to gain our own competitive advantage for our research projects. The day then ended with a special Australian wine presentation and a thank you to Apple for participating in the 2005 Monash International Marketing Study program.
The Apple team's bank of knowledge and experience allowed the Monash University Marketing Students to get the most out of the day. The information and presentation provided by Apple marketers and technology experts will prove to be an invaluable assets to each student, not only for their up and coming assignment but for the rest of their careers.
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