Apple And Its Customer Product Service Marketing Essay

Apple And Its Customer Product Service Marketing Essay Introduction Strategic management involves the analysing of organizational tactics and factors that may contribute to results or performance. In view of achieving this, organizational culture must be looked at as it greatly forms the base of establishing good strategic management. In this essay, we will find out what defines organizational culture and its importance, its impact on strategic management, how the public views the culture and how the culture has affected its strategic decisions, choices, options, etc. We will also discuss about some successful companies and organizations to showcase their organizational culture to see how it has worked for them. Organizational Culture Oxford dictionary distinctly states that organisation is, â€Å"an organized group of people with a particular purpose, such as a business or government department.† (Oxford 2012) Culture on the other hand is, â€Å"the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.† (Oxford 2012) Organizational culture is then therefore essentially based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs or written and unwritten rules which the organization has developed over time and that have worked well enough to be considered valid. Factors of organizational culture that will be discussed are the company’s structure, decision making empowerment, the company’s hierarchy and employee commitment towards company goals. Depending on how these factors are effectively diffused through the company, the productivity and performance of the company will be affected directly as these factors serve as guidelines for customer care, safety, product quality, etc. They may also extend to marketing and advertising practices and to new innovations. Apple and its customer/product service To help us understand better, we will now look at a company which has an outstanding organizational culture in its customer/product service. Apple is a company that is very user/customer orie nted. When someone buys an apple product be it a MacBook or an iPod, they are guaranteed excellent customer/product service after they make their purchase. A standard warranty of at least one year is issued upon purchase and its offer is that the entire product can be sent for a ‘one-for-one’ exchange if the product is found to be faulty (Apple 2012). â€Å"A guarantee is not only an assurance that things will go right – it’s a promise that you will make things right if they ever do go wrong† (Kaufman 2012, p.168).Aside from the mandatory warranty on all products, all Apple products are able to be linked up online via iTunes for many updates and product software upgrades (Apple 2012). This culture of having the products constantly up to date even after purchase is a critical one which makes Apple stand out by keeping users constantly updated to the newest trends in IT and enables the user to accessibly and efficiently receive updates and upgrades fr om the internet. Denove and Power IV (2007, p.200) state to â€Å"Reach out to your customers and don’t wait for them to contact you. Smart companies proactively create and sustain a steady line of communications with customers.† This maintains the relationship that Apple has with the customer not only through the purchase of the product but throughout the customer’s entire usage of the product. Also, product servicing centres are available in several areas and are known as Epi Centres. At these places, any Apple product can be sent for servicing, warranty exchanges or troubleshooting, depending on the problem.