Financial Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financial Management - Research Paper Example Apple Inc, on one hand, is a multi national corporation in California that designs, develops, and sells computer hard ware, software and digital electronics. The best known electronics of this company are Mac, iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. The selling of these electronics and other products is through its online retail store, retail stores and direct sales force. Amazon.Com Inc, on the other hand, operates as an online seller internationally but headquartered in Seattle, Washington, in addition, this online seller company operates such websites as amazon.com and amazon.ca (Gutow, 2011). These websites enable retailers to sell their products through online advertising. In addition, Amazon offers other services such as website development, marketing, and company branded credit cards. In 2008, the financial challenges that faced the world led to reduced profits by these two tech companies. The profits reduced because the two companies’ products are not basic necessities that are co mpulsory for human survival. Basic necessities are food, housing, and basic health care. To the contrary, iPhones, iPod and iPad are that a human being can survive without and, therefore, forgone (Higham, 2009). Financial analyst and other world leaders, however, put in place measure that saw the crisis recede and thus an increase in consumer purchasing power. The measures worked because, in mid 2008, the crisis slightly diminished shown especially by improving sales in the New York stock market (Michalowski, 2011). Elsewhere, sales reports of leading multi-national businesses across Europe were picking up. Apple thus diversified four strategies to help it recover the lost profits. Apple marketing strategies were product design, price of products, promotion and their distribution. In product design, Steve Job, the Apple Chief Executive Officer, creativity contributed to more sales. He designed specifically, the operating system MAC OS X, which helped distinguish the Apple computer f rom other competing PCs. He was also responsible for the Mac Book Air, the first lightweight and thin laptop computer. More creative products developed were iPods, iPhones, iPad and iTunes. These products were bought in large numbers because the consumer enjoys media and entertainment at his or her convenience. Further, they substituted other devices like TVs and some laptops. Concerning the price, Apple products though expensive, are quality and durable. Various consumer research companies rated the products as the most fairly priced products in the world. Apple-loyal consumers also care little about the price they had to pay to buy an advanced release of Apple product. In addition, they bought Apple product whenever launched and released to the market regardless of the financial situation. In promoting its products, apple made its products known in conferences, meetings and in US trade expos where they would showcase these new gadgets (Buonopane, 2010). The final strategy is distr ibution strategy in which newly released products that customers are unaware of were located in specialized stores. In these stores, a customer who bought these new releases took some time with an Apple expert who was educating and providing customer service. The education on new products was to ease the switching to them. In comparison, other Apple’s less expensive products that required less consumer