Good Research Paper About Online Marketing Strategies

The two multinationals that will be analyzed in this paper are Walmart and Apple Inc. Both of these companies are multinational corporations that have an established business operations. The headquarters of both the companies is located in United States of America.

Main line of business of Apple Inc.

The Apple Inc. has its headquarters located in California and is a multinational corporation operating since April 1976. The company was established by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, and the main aim of the business is to design, produce and sell electronic products, personal computer systems, and computer softwares. The Apple Inc. provides online services. When the company was established it was known as Apple Computer but after three decades of its establishment the word computer was removed, and the new name was given to the company and it became known as Apple Inc. in January 2007 (David, 2013). The company is well-established and has an international presence with offering of diversified products that provide varied choices to the customers and have an ability to simplify our daily lives. The most successful product offered by Apple Inc. is mobile and different products related to mobile that provide the customers with WiFi portable connections and make it easier for them to connect with the social world at any place (David, 2013).
There is a variety of products offered by Apple that can provide different services. The most popular product being iPod, their different computer systems, iPad and iPhone being the most famous one. These products come with pre-installed Wifi connections through which the internet can be connected at any time and anywhere. The key success factor of Apple’s product is that in each and every product some new feature is offered that provides the company with a competitive advantage. The world class and uncompetitive support services are offered to the customers that help in developing customer loyalty, credibility and long-term relationship with the customers. The customers feel satisfied with regard to the quality of the product along with the customer services. The product returns, warranties and exchange offered by the company are always honored if the customer intends to return or exchange any purchased item (David, 2013).

Main line of business of Walmart

The Walmart was established in 1962 by Sam Walton and became an incorporated company in 1969. The New York Stock Exchange listed the company in 1972. A single store was launched in Arkansas in 1962. The company is now operating as the world’s largest retailer and is considered to be the world class business innovator in the retail industry. The annual income of the company is over US$ 100 billion, with more than 4000 stores and 800,000 employees across the globe. Every single store of Walmart is controlled by the company itself, ranging from the stock the items to the speedy checkout of customers to stocking the front-end supplies. The company operates with the mission of everyday low prices and dominant customer service (Mallaby, 2005).
The Walmart main business line operates with six major merchandising departments. The most successful line is the grocery department that provides biggest revenue line of the company with items including bakery, dairy, meat, deli, produce, beverages and frozen food items along with beauty and baby products. The entertainment section is the second main successful unit that includes different mobile phones, music, CDs, books, toys, digital cameras, etc. The hardlines are the third major line which includes the sports goods, crafts, automobile accessories and stationery items. The apparel is another famous business line of the company that includes clothing, shoes and jewelry for boys, girls, women, and men. Home décor and furniture items are also provided. Hence, there are six major merchandising opportunities offered by the famous multinational Walmart store (Reuters, 2013).

How Apple utilizes internet as part of their marketing strategy

According to research, one of the most easiest and cheapest way to reach the consumers is through the Internet. With the rising trend and easy access to the Internet of all the consumers, it is feasible for every company to connect to their consumers through websites, social media networks, etc. The website offered by Apple Inc. fits the company’s mission and vision and is considered to be extremely clean, decent and sophisticated. The website is one of the major means to communicate with the consumers through the Internet by pursuing the marketing strategy. The company’s website is able to maintain the brand image of Apple Inc (Silverstien, 2001). The site features the product details and images comprehensively, but most significantly it directs the customers towards the Apple online store. The company’s online store is also designed sophisticated and extremely neat just like the brand image, and the experience is so pleasurable that the customer wants to purchase at least once to try the company’s services. The company’s website does an excellent job catering to its main market too via the website (Silverstien, 2001).
The online retail spending of the company has improved by 14 percent out of which around one-third of the sales are performed through mobiles. In order to encourage the customers to increase purchasing through mobile, the company has launched the Apple Pay initiative. The Apple Pay is a new initiative to make payment through a mobile system that replaces the need to pay through cash or debit / credit card when making an online transaction. This system will make it easier for the customers to make online payment through a secure medium. The debit/ credit card should be registered with Apple Pay, and the picture is verified through Passbook App. The Passbook App is not used for the first time by any company, but it will definitely help to improve Apple’s online sale and credibility. The kind of products and services offered by Apple will make it easier to make online purchases with the help of Apple Pay (Heitzman, 2014).

How Walmart utilizes internet as part of their marketing strategy

There are different ways how Walmart has utilized Internet to promote its marketing strategies. Walmart is extremely vigilant about their performance on social media networking and has placed a huge effort in developing its Facebook presence with brand growth and determination. The company has more than 26 million fans on Facebook, and the company is able to engage them and keep them attracted to the company through different updates on the page. The majority of the online posts is mere suggestions regarding the product, but they also provide various deals, promotions and new product details (Moth, 2013).
The company also operates a Twitter account to post various questions on different topics such as contests, sports, etc. and also retweeting if the users agree to a certain topic or argument. The company responds to more than hundreds of tweets on a daily basis from the users and also uses hashtags to attract the customers who are looking forward to availing the deals, promotions, and free gifts. It has managed to attract around 310,000 followers on Twitter which is impressive but still has a long way up to catch its most obvious competition the Target store. Various other Twitter accounts are also operated to promote different community programs, health and nutritional series and corporate social responsibility initiatives (Moth, 2013).
Since the online purchasing system has increased over time, the mobile devices are increasingly used to make purchases and the companies are taking advantage of this rising trend and facilitating their customers so that they can make more purchases through their mobile devices. Hence, Walmart has also launched a similar mobile application which will specifically assist the customers when they are in the store. Through the Store Mode option of this application, the customer can scan the codes in order to find out the product prices and discount deals. Another application is created where the customers can make all their purchases online through the Walmart mobile application and just go and pick up their packed shopping list. This way, not only the customer save their shopping time, but also avoid long queues (Florence, 2013).

Potential problems and recommendations

One of the major problems with the Apple Inc. marketing strategy is that they are still following the traditional television marketing to a greater extent and even their marketing agency has less experience with the new means of marketing that focuses on the internet and social media marketing. The website is decent and sophisticated whereas it should also cater to the customer base who are attracted to a more vibrant and flashy marketing medium. Even though the company does operate a Facebook page, but it is not extremely interactive like Walmart page or even close to that of its competitors. Hence, in order to compete in the changing business dynamics, it is important that the company must increase its presence online.

Conclusion

The two multinationals that are analyzed in this paper are Walmart and Apple Inc. The company is well-established and has an international presence with offering of diversified products that provide varied choices to the customers and have an ability to simplify our daily lives. The most successful product offered by Apple Inc. is mobile and different products related to mobile that provide the customers with WiFi portable connections and make it easier for them to connect with the social world at any place. The Walmart main business line operates with six major merchandising departments. The most successful line is the grocery department that provides biggest revenue line of the company with items including bakery, dairy, meat, deli, produce, beverages and frozen food items along with beauty and baby products. The website offered by Apple Inc. fits the company’s mission and vision and is considered to be extremely clean, decent and sophisticated. The website is one of the major means to communicate with the consumers through the Internet by pursuing the marketing strategy. There are different ways how Walmart has utilized Internet to promote its marketing strategies.

References

David Fred (2013) The Nature of Strategic Management, Pearson Education.
Florence de Borja (2013) Walmart Uses Big Data For its Mobile Marketing Strategy, Cloud Times, http://cloudtimes.org/2013/06/07/wal-mart-big-data-mobile-marketing-strategy/
Heitzman A. (2014) How Apple Pay Will Change Retail Marketing Forever, http://www.inc.com/adam-heitzman/how-apple-pay-will-change-retail-marketing-forever.html
Moth D. (2013) How Walmart uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ https://econsultancy.com/blog/61827-how-walmart-uses-pinterest-facebook-twitter-and-google/
Reuters (2013) Wal-Mart Stores Inc, http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=WMT.N
Silverstein B. (2001) Business-To-Business Internet Marketing: Seven Proven Strategies for Increasing Profits Through Internet Direct Marketing, p.28.