Apple's Marketing Research

Apple’s Market Research

MKT/441

March 19, 2014

Market Research

Market research is the research that a company or organization conducts to see how a product or service will perform in a target market. The research will allow the company or organization to make adjustments to its market plans based on the market research. The market research will help the company or organization determine if the product or service will do well or not. The research can be conducted by the company or by an outside marketing research company. Online surveys, focus groups, and product testing are a few marking research tools that can be used to complete the research. This paper will discuss the importance of online surveys.

For many years, Apple has said that it never does market research. During an interview with Fortune magazine, Steve Jobs said instead of conducting research Apple’s focus is on inventing and creating great products for customers (Heisler, 2012). Previous consumer studies on tablets suggested that inventing an iPad was not a good idea because tablets were not popular with consumers. Since launching the iPad, Apple has proved that if Apple had depended on the market research that suggested tablets would not do well with consumers, it would have never created and launched the iPad. The iPad is the most popular tablet on the market. During later years, Apple has admitted that market research in the form of online customer surveys has played a part in identifying the market and needs of its consumers.

Apple and Samsung have been in numerous court proceedings over patent infringements. Both Apple and Samsung have submitted documentation to the courts to have confidential data sealed from public view. Both companies content that the information contained in the market research reports may give competitors an unfair competitor’s edge in knowing why consumers purchase the products of the company.

Customer Surveys

Apple conducts market research in the form of customer surveys. The survey tells Apple what drives customers in certain areas and countries to purchase the iPhone. Consumers answer questions that tell Apple which features of the iPhone gives customers the most satisfaction. The survey also tells Apply why consumers prefer the iPhone over other phones such as Android products. The survey asked questions that determines