Distribution and Channel Management : Describe the channel strategy in place, give your opinion about its effiency and describe how to could be in the 10 coming years.
The company Apple sells lots of technologic and innovative goods and services, like the famous iPhone, iPod or Macintosh. The success of this firm is due to the innovation, an excellent communication, design, the ease use, and in other hand due to the adapted channel distribution strategy.
As we can see, Apple Products aren’t available in every store, which sells mobile like Nokia, LG or Alcatel. The California company control exactly where the user can buy an Apple product:
In Apple store: it’s rare, only 17 in France.
In Apple website.
In selected retailers (and their websites)
With their own store and own website, Apple is sure that the strategy is exactly applied. You need to enter in the « APPLE area », like the « 3rd dimension» to buy one of their product. It means the image is very controlled; the strategy of luxury and beauty is omnipresent.
The seller in Apple store are very competent so it’s guaranteed that the target can’t have wrong features, and other mistake, most of the time passionate and user of Apple product.
Apple store are very rare, for example you just have 17 stores in France, this strategy create a luxury feeling. You need to go on a famous city if you want to find an Apple store, like Paris, London, Amsterdam, New York… This rarity contributes to the legend of Apple, it make this product not a banal product, it make not a simple mobile, it give the feeling that it’s difficult to find one of them, like a rare product. To illustrate it, we can use a French expression « fuis moi je te suis, suis moi je te fuis ».
This strategy contributes to make a buzz when a new product is set up. Such you have not few Apple store, the trading area is very huge, and all of people who want to buy it in the first days need to go on a rare Apple store like everyone in the