Last Friday, Apple held an online sales promotion, named Black Friday Sales for all its products which averaged out to a discount of approximately 8%.
It was one of the few sales promotions that Apple carried out each year. This is considered one of its very effective strategy as Apple realises the pros and cons of carrying out sales promotions. It takes into consideration the impact of the discounts to its current and future customers.
It is critical for Apple to care about the thoughts of its current customers in specific as it is building up its strong and loyal consumer base. In the war against PCs, Apple strives to maintain its prestige as a higher end products but with a reachable price range. It totally masters the psychology of its consumers that its consumers are more than willing to pay a higher price to get a PC than to get a Mac.
Apple does not provide a high discount on its products worldwide as they aim to minimize the post purchase dissonance of its customers who just bought its products just before its sales. A relatively low discount and a relatively short period sales make the current users feel good as they cannot save a lot from waiting till the sales period to buy the products. For the consumers who consider buying Apple’s product before the discounts, they act fast so that they would not miss the sales as it is very rare for Apple’s products. They are offered special incentives which is cash in this case, that facilitate their speed buying decision.
Its sales strategy is very effective and thoughtful as it works well to maintain its status and its sales. Frankly speaking, most of the consumers using Apple’s products are not really price sensitive. The demand is relatively more inelastic in this case. Apple is aware of the fact and that it develops plenty of sales strategies that works best for all customers.
As a result, Apple is able to not affect its long run benefit as it won’t allow its customers to stock pile their products. It can then carry out sales promotions that results in higher marginal benefit. All these thoughtful marketing strategies help to push its image and position ahead of other competitors in the field.
