Business Report

GAC013 Assessment Event 2: Project- Written Report

Recommending a Marketing Mix for a Product or Service

Student’s Name: Aaron Chen
Student ID#: WSMS21534
Teacher: Claude
Due Date: 19 July 2012
Word Count: 676
1.0 Introduction:
This report introduces the comparisons of 3 products, which are Nexus 7, Surface and the new ipad.1.2 I think the new ipad has the best marketing among these three pads. The ipad is used in entertainment, study, work, contact and etc. There are greater than 300 000 applications in the apple store provided for downloading. The new ipad is designed for all the people regardless of age, gender or occupation because of the popular and easy-to-understand operation system; people are attracted by its retina screen and superior experience. The new ipad is satisfied by 98% owners and it dominates the market. The new ipad is shipped with IOS 5.1, which provides audio-visual media and built-in siri. In hardware, it has Apple A5X processer, retina screen 1080P high quality camera, 4G (LTE) and ( LiPo) battery. As the third-generation of ipad, it attracted people’s attention successfully. However, some weaknesses still exist. It is heavier than ipad2 and emits more heat. Drawback of its high-capacity battery is more time should be spent on charging. The price, promotion, place of brand and capability of 3 different pads were compared. Overall, the price and capability have the main effect on choice of marketing mix.

2.0 Methods:
The data is collected on the Internet. Official websites usually have the most reliable and comprehensive information about the products themselves. So, the software and hardware data were collected on the official websites. The evaluation information was collected on some reliable technology weblog about consumer electronics, such as ‘Gizmodo’. This kind of websites have already organized or collected the evaluation of products. They did the research or vote about products, so they have comprehensive data of products and have the qualification to make the evaluations. Some promotion and advertisement information were collected on some online shopping websites, such as, ‘Ebay’ and ‘360buy’.

.3.0 Finding:
The main competitors are Surface which produced by Microsoft and Nexus 7 which produced by Google. Nexus 7 is produced in the USA; it has the cheapest price $199. The surface has 2 versions, one is windows RT, cost $799, the other is Windows 8, cost $599. The new ipad has different storage versions for costumers’ choice, including 16G, 32G and 64G, which cost $499, $599 and $699. Customers can choose the suitable version according to individual situation.

The following table shows the specific data of 3 products

As we can see the table, Nexus 7 has the cheapest price among these 3 products and the small and light body is easy to carry while the storage isn’t enough, also it doesn’t have 3G version and FT slots. Surface has abundance of input and output. 2 microSD and 2 USB make it extremely easy to connect. The ivvridge i5 works together with solid disk drive make it works fast and fluency. However, the price is too expensive and the weight is too heavy. The new ipad has the best display ever on a mobile device. The brilliant camera can record 1080P HD video. Built-in 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery can provide enough time. Last but not least, it has build-in IOS5, which has outstanding stability and capability.

4.0 Discussion:
Obviously, the new ipad won the market because both of hardware and software. To compare ipad and Nexus 7, since Nexus 7 is cheaper, it just can take position on the low-price market because of its normal hardware. The new ipad is acceptable to most of the costumers, so it sell better than Nexus. To compare with the new ipad and surface, surface has better capability on hardware, such as, processer, RAM and input and output. However, it has expensive price because of these advanced hardware. The battery can’t provide much because of the big screen and the windows system. The new ipad does the brilliant job in battery; it uses the most advanced technology to upgrade the battery. It can provide up 10 hours surfing the Internet and up 40 hours listening to music. However, there are some factors could have affect on the finding results. First, the evaluation of the products could be effected by public relationship. The companies donated lots of money to the charity in order to get a good social evaluation. So, the evaluation could not be very objective. Second, the advertisement can also effect the data, in order to improve the sales. Companies use the fake data to attract customers. For example, apple used to exaggerate the capability of its CPU, but the CPU can’t reach that practically. The hard storage shrinks a lot, it you buy the 16G version, you just can get 13.6G in fact. In addition, personal sale and directly is one of the factors. Among these 3 products, just the new ipad has personal sale and all of them have direct sale. Personal sale could affect the marked mix. Lastly, more research should be done to determine if this is true.

5.0 conclusion and recommendations
This research was conducted to determine which product has the best marketing mix. Overall, the new ipad has the dominated market. Since the Nexus 7 has the thin and light body and the cheapest price among these 3 products; the Surface has the best hardware and abundance of input and output, people prefer to buy the new ipad because of its brilliant battery, screen, fluency experience and the easy-control system.

Reference
CNET Editors (2012), Apple iPad review (March 2012, 16GB, Wi-Fi, black), CNET [online] Available at: http://reviews.cnet.com/ipad-3/[Accessed 15August 2012]

Kidman. A, (2012), ‘New’ iPad Review: Is A Better Screen Enough?, GIZMODO [online] Available at: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/03/new-ipad-review-is-a-better- screen-enough/[Accessed 15August 2012]

Apple iPad 3 WiFi 16GB (Black) with Full Apple Warranty (2012),Simply Electronics[online] Available at: http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mainproduct.php?pid=17604&sd=specs [Accessed 15August 2012] APPLE(2012), The new ipad, Apple[online] Available at: http://www.apple.com/ipad/