BUOL 533 – Marketing Management Uvaraj DevarajanUniversity of CumberlandsWeek Three – Apple Case Paper IntroductionApple, the brand that overtook everyone with their innovation and creative ideas both in the mobile and watch industry. The watch integrated fitness and health-related technologies with the Apple’s operating system and other Apple related products and services. The innovation appeared as a game changer for Apple. In this paper we will discussing about the Apple watch and managing innovative resistance. Apple started making smartwatches in 2015 with the basic features, but in their next series they included many features that helped them to increase their sales. Apple Watch Apple watch was not the first smartwatch in the market. It had many competitors when it entered, and Apple had to be very innovative to mark their place in the market.

The device was designed in such a way that they can be linked to other iOS devices so that they can receive content in the watch. “For many years it was an abhorrent square wrist-computer, devoid of any style. To others it was sleek, opulent and classy.”1 Apple also introduced many features for it to seek a position in the market like health-related capabilities. In addition to that water resistance feature broadened the market where swimmers, surfers and other participating water sports people can use it.

2 Innovation Characteristics to Leverage Although not the first smartwatch in the market, Apple watch was different.3 The value of the watch is measured with scientific metric: EVE – Economic Value Estimation which is reflected by the combination of reference value – the next best alternative and differentiating value – distinctiveness of the product. EVE can either be positive or negative.4 Innovations like easy access to common activities that users can use like, calling features, messaging and many more in their wrist and in a touch. After introducing all the changes, they also introduced visual summary of information they had selected as notifications.

Maps is something new they introduced which is another bench mark in their production. Apple watch sought to function in the shadow of the iPhone,5 Fitness tracker is the core differentiating value for Apple Watches. They developed powerful health and fitness applications, integrating data that are captured by the sensors of the watch and display them on the iPhone.Reducing Resistance to Apple WatchResistance is a common behavior when it comes to a new change, they usually take three forms: outright rejection, postponement or opposition. There was lot of resistance from the crowd as soon as the watch was released, many people were rejecting saying there is no need of the smartwatch and many postponed buying watch and many were welcoming the new technology. Introduction of many new features especially one that is related to health monitoring was a major move for Apple and encouraged many people to buy the watch, it was introduced not become competitor for Jawbone Up, Nike Fuelband and Fitbit.6 The propagation mechanism is used to influence the buyers to buy a product, they can use external help like any mobile carriers or an external senders to help increase the sales.

Keeping the consumers very much informed is the main propaganda they follow to attract customers to the change they are bringing in.Apple Consumer Characteristics to Reduce ResistanceConsumer rejection is of three forms as mentioned earlier rejection, postponement and opposition. Rejection is considered as the extreme form of resistance by the consumers. The innovation must be worthy so that the consumers can go ahead and buy the product and don’t reject the product right away. Postponement is a very common form of resistance; any potential consumer will take time to adapt to the new change and they must prepare themselves for the changes. External motivation or any propaganda of mechanisms can be used for improving the sales.

They must be influenced with the advanced technology and market on the features that are not offered by other manufacturers will give Apple a shot to attract consumers to buy their product.Barriers & Sources of ResistanceThere are many barriers active and passive innovation resistance is a very common barrier and source of resistance in a consumer when a new product is released. Active innovation barriers are resistance that happens in an existing customer, the urge for them to buy a new product, they often consider factors like do the new product have value, do they have enough utility for the product. The utility of the product is a major active innovation barrier since it involves consumers decision to buy products that have all functionality and serve the purpose. Passive innovation resistance is the predisposed to resist innovations. These barriers is specific to consumers and it is very vital for apple to consider when to deploy a new product.

Consumer SegmentsPotential resistance has segmented based on the resistance – active innovation and passive innovation resistance. They can also be segmented based on demography, based on the demand and many more. Segmentation is important for Apple to know its customers and make products based on their use.

They use segmentation based on geography7 since their major consumers are here in USA and Canada. This helps them to improve their sales concentrating on the group of consumers.ConclusionApple is a great example when it comes to innovation attracting customers to buy a product. They have had many obstructions in their way to establish a market for their product since it was not something that is new in the market.

They had to very innovative in making the consumers buy their product and they have proven successful by adopting various marketing techniques in the process. This is very helpful for the company so that they can be successful if they deploy new products in the market in near future. References1.

Mike Murphy (2017), A Year After Its Launch, It’s Now Clear That Pretty Much No One Needs an Apple Watch”.2. Apple Inc., (2016) “Apple Introduces Apple Watch Series 2, the Ultimate Device for a Healthy Life”, press release, https://www.

apple.com/newsroom/2016/09/apple-introduces-apple-watch-series-2/ 3. Josh Smith, (2016), 29 Exciting Things You Can Do With the Apple Watch, GottaBe Mobile, https://www.techinvestornews.com/Mobile/Latest-Mobile-News/29-exciting-things-you-can-do-with-the-apple-watch1 4.

Tom Nagle and John Hogan, (2009), The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitability (4th Edition), New Delhi, India.5. Smith, op. cit.6. Imran Amed, (2014), 6 Core Beliefs behinf New Apple Watch, BOF, https://www.businessoffashion.

com/articles/bof-exclusive/6-core-beliefs-behind-new-apple-watch 7. Peter, J.P. & Donnelly, J.H. (2017) A Preface to Marketing Management.

(17th Edition) McGraw-Hill Education. New York, New York.