Short Discourse — Using Bowman’s Strategy Clock to analyze Apple’s competitive position.
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Critical analysis — using Focused Differentiation as our strategic position.
We can define Bowman’s strategy clock as a tool that is used to plan strategic placement in a market depending on two factors — price and perceived value. It shows the different directions or positions that a company can take to strategically place its services or products in the market using price and perceived value. Using Bowman’s strategy clock, a company should be able to decide which position is best for them — for a competitive edge. The different positions around the clock show various strategies for how companies can succeed in their select market.
For the sake of this discussion, we will be using Focused Differentiation as our strategic position and Apple Inc. as our company of choice. Focused Differentiation is described as a strategy where the company or business sets its product or services at a high value and a high price. The consumers of Apple products have perceived the company as a manufacturer and distributor of luxury technology gadgets or items globally. Apple has strategically positioned all its services and products at the highest possible price ranges against the current market prices and the buyers of these products and services still go ahead to buy these products because of the perceived value and luxury feeling they experience when they purchase them. Apple products are extremely pricey, but their target customers are always ready to pay a price that is a lot higher than the current competition within the industry.
While this focused differentiation strategy may be tasking for many other companies, Apple has been able to successfully use it as a competitive advantage in the market and the company has yielded high profits over the years. From the statistics provided online, we can see that the company’s revenue has grown by 60% with year-on-year steady growth over the last 5 years, with the iPhone being responsible for about 50% of the company’s revenue growth. For there to be year-on-year steady revenue growth, this means that the company has been able to use maintain and sustain this focused differentiation strategy for a long time and will continue to do so because it is evidently profitable to their business.
Apple is a company that makes a great effort and invests a lot of finance into their marketing plans and campaigns, they do target advertising and distribution which helps them hit their profit targets for each of their product or service. Alongside other high-earned brands, Apple adopts this focused differentiation strategy by carefully segmenting, targeting, and distributing to its own market segment, which is not usually the largest market. What differentiates them from other similar brands are majorly the brand perception and the durability of their products and services.
REFERENCES
Apple Key Statistics Available at: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/apple-statistics/ (Accessed: 29 May 2022)
Bowman’s Strategy Clock: How to Position your Product https://thinkinsights.net/strategy/bowmans-strategic-clock/ (Accessed: 29 May 2022)
Introduction to Bowmans Strategy Clock Available at: https://getlucidity.com/strategy-resources/introduction-to-bowmans-strategy-clock/ (Accessed: 29 May 2022)
