Strategic Choice and Evaluation - Apple Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic Choice and Evaluation - Apple - Essay Example These strategies are adopted by the firm to achieve better performance help the firm to deliver a better than average performance. Cost leadership A business firm following cost leadership strategy aims at beating its competitors by producing at the lowest cost in the entire industry. The producer can now produce at a large scale and at a very low cost, thereby, enjoying huge economies of scale. The producer exploits the economies of scale which allows the company to maintain competitive pricing (Richardson & Dennis, 2003). Differentiation Under differentiation strategy the company focuses on the products that it offers for sale. It aims at making the products unique by identifying specific product dimensions, which are found to be most valued by its customers. The company develops its marketing strategies in such a manner that it would be able to satisfy the demand of its customers to the most desired level and therefore receive premium price due to the uniqueness of these products (Thompson & Martin, 2010). Focus Focus strategy is followed by a firm when selects one or multiple segments within the single in industry in which it operates (Dinitzen, 2010). The company aims at optimizing its product and marketing strategies to cater to these segments in the most efficient way, such that, it might gain competitive advantage over all other firms that competes with the particular firm. Focus strategy can be applied by the firm by following either of the following strategies; creation of cost advantage within a targeted segment (cost focus) or development of a differentiation strategy within a targeted segment (differentiation). ... follows the differentiation strategy in order to achieve competitive advantage over its competitors in the technology service industry. Differentiation makes its products (or services) unique. By following this strategy, Apple can make its products different from the products or service offerings of its competitors and makes the products of this company highly appealing to its customer base. However, the fact that the company has become one of the most successful companies in the world and that the customer preference for this company is significantly high compared to the rest of the companies in this market, is established by a number of internal and external factors. Performance of the company with regard to these factors has led it to the current level of success. These factors are environment of the industry, customer service, market segmentation and nature of products or services offered to the target market and its global presence. The company’s innovativeness makes its products as well as technology services shine among the crowd of modern technology industry. There are certain negative sides or risks of following the differentiation strategy. Companies that pursue differentiation strategy can command a price that is higher than the prices of similar products offered in the market by other firms. The differentiation factor allows the firm to command this premium price. It eventually increases per unit sales for the company and also improves loyalty of the buyer. Differentiation is the right strategy to follow only when the target market segment has customers with specific needs, but, are not adequately served. Also, the differentiation strategy focuses on bringing premium price for the firm. This implies that the strategy would be