ABOUT APPLE

Apple is one of the most leading branding companies in the world. Apple is about imagination,
design and innovation. (KAHNEY, 2013) The company has about 137,000 Employees, with about
the sale of $267.7B as of May, 2020. Apple was founded in the year 1976 on April Fool’s Day. The
logo of Apple was designed with a bite so that the logo of the Apple wouldn’t be mistaken for a
cherry. The market cap of Apple is greater than the GDPs of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway,
Sweden and Saudi Arabia. Apple’s financial reserves were greater than that of the US Treasury’s
operating cash balance in the year 2011. (Levy, 2020) Apple Inc. designs, manufactures and also
markets personal computers, smartphones, tablets and accessories worldwide. AppleCare is also a
support services, cloud services, store services, offered by Apple including the App Store, that
allows the users to discover and download various other applications paid and unpaid. In addition,
they also offer services like Apple Arcade, a subscription to games, Apple Music, which offers
users a curated listening experience on demand with the radio station, Apple News, which is a
subscription to news and magazine services, Apple TV, which is a subscription to various TV
channels, Apple Card, a cobranded credit card, and lastly Apple Pay, a cashless service which
licenses intellectual property. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas,
Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. (Spence, 2020)
BRANDING STRATEGY

• The company has a unique visual and verbal vocabulary, expressed in product design and advertising:
• The current CEO, Steve Jobs, spent $100 million marketing the iMac, which was a run-away hit.
(KAHNEY, 2013)
• Apple Inc. uses the Apple brand to compete across several highly competitive markets.  It has evolved
as it has expanded its range of products and services.  
• Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions. The huge promise of the Apple brand, of
course presents Apple with an enormous challenge to live up to.
• Apple has expanded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening hundreds of its own retail
stores in key cities around the world, usually in up-market, quality shopping venues.
• Apple`s marketing strategy generally uses the segmentation of lifestyle as the company is itself the
most premium brand out there. The particular segment is usually the urban population with enough
buying power for purchasing Apple products.  (Bhasin, 2019)
• Without relying on circumstances, the product will sell itself with content and simple advertising,
Apple sells more than 1.5 billion products.  (Threlfall, 2017)
ABOUT MICROSOFT

Established in 1975, Microsoft is one of the world`s driving organization related to innovations
with items that incorporate the Windows working framework, office efficiency application, and
azure cloud administrations. Microsoft is one of the world's driving innovation organizations with
items that incorporate the Windows working framework, Office efficiency applications, and Azure
cloud administrations. Microsoft operates three segments of business which includes personal
computing, business and productivity processes and intelligent cloud. In addition, the company
also publishes multimedia and books titles, its own line of tablet and computers, email services and
sells electronic game systems and computer peripherals which includes input and output devices.
(Zachary, 2020)
Microsoft, one of the world`s largest and successful technology`s global revenue has
increased relatively and consistently since its conception with it reaching over 143 billion
US Dollars in their 2020 fiscal year. Microsoft reported net income of 44.3 billion US
Dollars in the same year recording highest for the company. (Liu, 2020)
BRANDING STRATEGY

• Maintaining its brand identity and keeping itself in front-of-mind for potential consumer and
commercial buyers is a key strategy to ongoing sales.
• Microsoft uses its strong brand name to launch new software products. Some examples
include Microsoft Word, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Internet Explorer
•  Microsoft was quick to expand its business beyond operating systems into software
applications for home and PC users, educational software, and computer games. The
company also expanded its operating system business.
• Microsoft invests in the flow of communication of marketing message through various mean
of marketing communication channels.
• Microsoft 7Ps of marketing focuses on the product element of the marketing mix to a greater
extent compared to other elements. (Dudovskiy, 2019)
• Microsoft targets retailers with a new B2B thought leadership campaign centering on how
data-driven strategies can drive customer-first retail engagement. (Viveiros, 2019)