Impact of Digital Marketing on Apple Watch Customer Satisfaction

Submitted to: Dr Olivier Ratle

Impact of digital marketing on customer satisfaction- a case study of Apple’s Smart Watches

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MManagement Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MSc in Business Management.

UWE Bristol
University of the West of England

January 2022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Olivier Ratle for their precious and timely guidance throughout the research. The consistent help allowed me to rectify my mistakes and make changes at the right time.

Secondly, I would like to thank my other supervisors and colleagues for their valuable contributions and insights during the research.

Thirdly, I would like to thank the respondents of the questionnaire for their honest and unbiased responses that helped me in conducting the entire research with accurate data.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and my friends for showing their complete support and trust in me during the complete process.

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this research project is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge; it has not been submitted or accepted in substance for the purpose of any degree project or research by any other university or institute. This work is a result of my independent research and investigation, except the ones stated.All sources of information have been specifically acknowledged in the text.I also confirm that no third party or external source has been used as a source for help for my work.I give my permission to the University of the West of England to reserve the right for using my dissertation as a source for students to access and view for future use.

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Abstract

Motivated by the aim of investigating the impact of digital marketing strategies on the customer satisfaction of different products available in the market, this research has been conducted with the focus on digital marketing strategies of Apple Inc and their influence on the marketing of Apple watches. Research significance comes from the fact that despite being a highly prevalent topic in the present world, the empirical evidence on the impact of digital marketing on the satisfaction of customers is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the purchasing intentions of the customers on smartwatches using a case study of Apple watches. There was the use of primary and secondary data was collected using data collection tools like a questionnaire. With 50 random smartwatch users as the survey participants, the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategies by different smartwatch brands was analysed. Among the factors that have a significant impact on the purchase intentions of the customers and their satisfaction, the digital marketing strategies of Apple were found to be satisfactory. A few responses suggested improvements in the digital marketing methods undertaken by the brand to develop a better market for its smartwatches and ensure a greater amount of customers. The lack of literature available on this subject was a research limitation that was observed. Recommendations were made for the brand to become more active with its marketing on social media and incorporate traditional video marketing in the newly developed digital marketing strategies to ensure increased brand reach.

Keywords- Digital marketing, digital marketing strategies, customer, customer satisfaction, Apple, smartwatch, Apple watch

Chapter 1- Introduction

1. Outline

The introduction chapter will justify the topic of research, starting with the background of the topic and a brief overview of the selected product and company. The background will then be followed by the aim, research questions and research objectives of the research. After that, the significance of this research will be discussed and the structure of the dissertation will be described to give a brief outline of the research being conducted.

2. Background

Marketing is the systematic and strategic process of planning and implementation of the pricing, promotion and distribution strategies of a product. Companies and organisations offer goods and strategies to satisfy the needs of individual consumers or organisations that purchase their products. There is an increase in the sale of products and services of the organisations and companies when their marketing strategies are effective. With the introduction of the internet and the shift of consumer base towards online platforms, a type of marketing known as digital marketing strategy became prevalent in organisations.

Digital marketing is the promotion or marketing of products and services through online platforms by using digital technologies (Mail Chimp, 2021). The different types of digital marketing include Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Digital Advertisement, Marketing Automation, Content Marketing and E-mail marketing. Essentially, if any marketing campaign involves the use of digital media for any sort of communication, then it’s the digital marketing of services or products by organisations.

With time, the focus of marketing has shifted from product sales to customer satisfaction and their perception of the product (Kitsios et. al., 2021). The influence of online platforms has increased the power of the customers on the sale of products and its image in front of other customers. This has led companies and organisations including digital marketing to market their products and expand their reach (Pingo and Narayan, 2019).

Apple, the world-renowned brand, launched its smartwatches in the year 2015 (Apple Insider, 2021). First revealed by Tim Cook in the September of 2014, smartwatches are the first commercialised wearables for the customers. These smartwatches by Apple were originally marketed as fashion accessories due to the wide range of body and band styles available for the watches (Watch Ranker, 2021). With time, there was a shift in the marketing processes of Apple. The shift in the marketing of Apple was done over the years by keeping in mind the unique value proposition that it offers to its customers. In recent years, the organisation has shifted its focus towards marketing its products in a way that it reaches more customers by offering them services according to their liking.

3. Research Aim

To analyse the impact of digital marketing on Apple watch consumer’s satisfaction.

4. Research Objectives

To understand the importance of digital marketing for consumer electronics

To study the relationship between digital marketing and customer satisfaction of digital watches’ users

To study the different digital marketing strategies used by Apple 

To analyse the customer satisfaction for Apple smartwatches

To identify the level of customer satisfaction with digital service quality of Apple watches

5. Research Questions

What is the impact of digital marketing on customer satisfaction?

What is the importance of digital marketing in consumer electronics industry? 

• How is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?

• What are the similarities between traditional and digital marketing?

What is the relationship between digital marketing and customer satisfaction in context to digital watches’ consumers?

What are the different marketing strategies used by Apple?

• How are the digital marketing strategies of Apple different from its traditional marketing strategies?

• What are the traditional marketing approaches used by Apple?

• What are the digital marketing approaches used by Apple?

What is the level of customer satisfaction with digital service quality of Apple watches?

6. Research Significance

Through the conduction of this research, the impact of digital marketing on the satisfaction of customers can be analysed and a study can be presented to address the topic. The recommendations and suggestions made in this paper will help the organisations in improving their marketing strategies and focusing more on customer satisfaction. With the set aim, the focus will be on analysing digital marketing strategies for Apple and the need for the brand to focus more on developing its digital marketing.

The information presented in this paper will also help in identifying the customer preference and their perception of the smartwatches of different brands. Through the findings of this research, more effective digital marketing strategies for Apple can also be identified to improve the marketing of their smartwatches and smartly utilise the marketing resources available to them. This study will also help in identifying the future potential of Apple smartwatches in ensuring customer loyalty towards the brand and encouraging their repeat purchasing habits.

7. Research Limitations

The paper has certain limitations. For the research, the data will be collected by using primary and secondary methods which makes the entire process extremely time-consuming. As the research topic is wide, the data collection process required using a large amount of data but the limited resources available is a limitation.

The selection of participants for the questionnaire will also be challenging as the respondents have to be general smartwatch users. Other than that, the research topic is wide and the dissertation requires time to be prepared systematically but the deadline for work submission proved to be another limitation as there was not sufficient time to conduct a depth analysis of the topic. The consent of participants is another limitation that is associated with this research. If any participant withdraws their consent mid-dissertation, then the data analysis process will get disturbed and this will result in improper research.

8. Structure

The dissertation has seven chapters that are prepared systematically. The first chapter was the Introduction chapter that contained the background of the research, the aim, objectives, questions, significance and the limitations of the research. This chapter will be followed by the second chapter, i.e., a Review of the literature. In this chapter, the published articles and journals related to the topic of research will be critically analysed and the most recent pieces of literature will be reviewed. The research methodology will be the third chapter of the research that will discuss the methods that will be used for the conduction of this research along with the research ethics. The fourth chapter of the dissertation will report and analyse the findings of the collected data. This chapter will be followed by the fifth chapter, i.e., a discussion in which the results and findings of the selected literature will be discussed. After that, the sixth chapter of self-reflection on the research process and findings will be added. This will then be followed by the seventh chapter that will be the conclusions of the entire research to summarise the results and analysis of the research and the recommendations where the possibility of future improvements will be discussed. There will be a list of references at the end of the dissertation to specify the literature, articles and journals that will be referenced for the completion of the entire research.

Chapter 2- Literature Review

1. Introduction

In this chapter of research, there will be a review of national as well as international literature. The research topic will be discussed in detail and the different topics of literature associated with it will be discussed. There will also be the critical analysis of different literature published by the authors and the information available from authentic sources related to our topic of research. The definition, characteristics of digital marketing and its different types will be accessed in this chapter. Then the relationship between digital marketing and customer satisfaction as suggested by different authors will be stated. Apart from that, the methodologies undertaken by other researchers for the preparation of their papers and researches will also be explained in this chapter followed by the identification of the gaps in the selected pieces of literature. Finally, the outcomes and findings of the reviewed literature will also be addressed in this chapter.

2. Digital Marketing

Piñeiro-Otero and Martínez-Rolán (2016) researched the prediction done by Toffler about the end of marketing in the post-industrial era. This prediction suggested that the post-industrial societies will face demarketisation but there was no such change in the marketing world. However, the efficiency of the traditional marketing strategies did experience a dip. This led the marketing societies around the globe towards developing new methods of marketing and including the advancements in the process of marketing. One of the most revolutionary marketing strategies introduced during this time was Digital Marketing (Nayar, 2017). Introduced in the 1990s, this is one type of marketing that has never-ending opportunities associated with it.

According to Bala and Verma (2018), there are a large number of papers that provide insight into digital marketing. This marketing technique has been simply described as the marketing strategy aimed at achieving the marketing objectives by applying different digital technologies that have been introduced in the market in the past few years. The basic idea behind this marketing is to analyse customer behaviour and offer them products and services that meet their needs. There are many other definitions of digital marketing that are prevalent in the market.

According to Omar and Atteya (2020), it is the type of marketing that utilizes a range of electronic devices like cell phones, gaming consoles, personal computers and other electronic devices to attract customers towards the products and services offered by an organisation. Digital marketing is a term that encompasses a variety of strategies that can be used for marketing along with a set of advantages associated with it (Nayar, 2017). The main focus of digital marketing is to reach the maximum number of customers. The most efficient digital marketing strategies that are prevalent in recent times include social media marketing, website making, search engine optimisation, affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing, mobile marketing and re-targeting the previous customers based on the reviews given by them (Omar and Atteya, 2020). The evolution of marketing strategies by organisations from traditional mediums to digital processes was not however identified in the research about different papers conducted by these authors.

Figure 1: Different types of digital marketing strategies

Source: (Reddy, 2016)

In relation to traditional marketing and digital marketing, Gunawan and Sulaeman (2020) suggest that e-marketing can be considered as the development of traditional marketing techniques where communication was done through traditional media channels and offline processes. However, Lawrence et. al. (2018) argues that both marketing techniques are dependent on each other. In fact, traditional marketing offers support to digital marketing to function effectively. The same processes that were followed by traditional marketing have been uplifted and enhanced with the use of technological advancements. It is also understood that the rise of the internet has greatly helped in using digital marketing for advertising products and services with no real limits and no restricted space (Marketing Evolution, 2021). Bala and Verma (2020) supported this argument by stating in their paper that the most effective method of meeting customer needs is to merge digital marketing with the traditional methods to create new trends and improve business opportunities for organisations. With more than fifty per cent of the population using the internet and the increase in social media interactions of brands with their concerned customers, digital marketing is becoming an increasingly important tool for marketing.

According to the research by Langan et. al. (2019), digital marketing has become so increasingly prevalent in the present times that universities and colleges all around the world have shifted their focus towards introducing courses related to digital marketing for facilitating the understanding of the marketing strategies in the students for future advancements. However, the increasing use of digital marketing must not lead to neglect in the traditional marketing mediums (Marketing Evolution, 2021). The traditional marketing channels must still be used in combination with the digital elements and advancements for the organisations to gain a competitive advantage over each other.

3. Relationship between Digital marketing and customer satisfaction

In the research study conducted by Bala and Verma (2020), it was reported through the analysis of the works of different authors that the shift in marketing techniques has also resulted in the shift of focus of organisations. With time, the preferences and satisfaction of the consumer have become the most important aspects of organisational profitability. Moreover, Reddy (2016) suggested in his paper that the shift in organisational marketing processes to digital marketing has changed the way organisations and their customers interact with each other. This research study was aimed at exploring the impact of digital marketing on the decision-making process of the customers and understanding their level of satisfaction. Based on the analysis of researches made by other authors and scholars, this study suggested that the digital marketing processes are designed in a way that increases customer engagement and keeps the customer satisfied by offering them products and services according to their liking. The success of a business is greatly dependent on the level of satisfaction of the customers and this is a factor that helps a business in growing and sustaining in the competitive environment for a long time (Forbes, 2018). One of the most positive aspects of the marketing strategies of Apple is that the marketing team work directly with their product managers (Apple, 2021, Marketing). This allows the marketing executives to clearly understand the specifications of the product and work on advertising them to present the product to the audience is a completely enhanced light.

According to the research framework developed by Bakri (2020), there are a number of factors that play a significant role in determining customer satisfaction. The different factors that help in increasing the effectiveness of digital advertising towards the satisfaction of the customers are tangibility features, responsiveness, assurance, reliability and empathy of the organisations.

Figure 2: Factors that determine the effectiveness of digital marketing towards customer satisfaction

Source: (Bakri, 2020)

According to Adam et. al. (2020), online platforms have gained significant importance in increasing customer satisfaction. This is one of the biggest impacts of digital marketing on customer buying behaviour. With the help of digital marketing, many businesses have started advertising and selling their products online. This has provided a larger number of options of customers to choose from and hence they become more satisfied. Additionally, Gunawan and Sulaeman (2020) analyse that with the help of digital marketing, it becomes easier for the customers to shop online as lesser time is consumed. This helps in increasing the long term engagement of the customer with the business and provides ample time to the businesses for keeping the customers tied up with the organisation.

Wang (2020) surveyed international firms and through the findings of the study analysed that the online marketing strategies and techniques contribute positively to their financial performance. According to the findings made by Reddy (2016), the influence of digital marketing on consumers can be measured through different metrics like conversion rate, click-through rate and engagement rate. Whenever a consumer takes any action on the online websites by either purchasing an item or subscribing to a service then their purchases are calculated as conversion rate. These figures offer the organisations a base for calculating the impact of their digital marketing strategies on customers. The improvements in these rates depict the increase in customer satisfaction.

The research conducted by Khan and Islam (2017) analysed the different factors that determine customer loyalty in the digital marketplace. This study was conducted by reviewing the previous year pieces of literature and analysing the feedback from the questionnaire that was prepared for the study. Through the results of the questionnaire, it was observed that there are plenty of opportunities for the customers to engage themselves in online platforms. Any customer from any part of the world can reach the site of their desired brand or product and purchase the required product (Gunawan and Sulaeman, 2020). The information obtained through the social media habits of the consumers help the businesses in understanding the needs of their target customers and offer them the products and services according to their liking. As the consumers build their relationships with the brands, their trust and loyalty with the organisation's increase and these customers are more likely to spread positive word of mouth. The good recommendations and reviews made about the brands also help in improving their image in the market and engaging a greater amount of customers with them.

The research by Khan and Islam (2017) offered significant insights on customer behaviour and the impact of digital marketing on their buying decisions. However, there are greater possibilities for future researches as the opinions of the people were not from a culturally diverse background. The feedback on the questionnaire lacked a few elements that could be added in the additional investigation by having a cross-national review about the different practices being followed in the nations.

4. Digital service quality and customer satisfaction

Zouari and Abdelhedi (2021) in their study included the dimensions of digitalization and compliance of the company products with the existing dimensions of providing quality service to the customers. When companies offer services that are digital and can be accessed from anywhere by the customer, then their relationship with the customers using the products also improves. The factor analysis of the digital service quality reported that different factors are impacted by the digital technologies that influence the lifestyle of the people and the habits of consumption of products offered to them. With the tech-savvy consumers in the present time, digital solutions for things are becoming the new trend (Iqbal, et. al., 2017). This also determines the quality that is offered to the customers by the companies and accumulates the capabilities of digital transformation into offering services with higher satisfaction rates.

To research deeper into this dynamic segment of digital services and their impact on customer satisfaction, Schiller, et. al. (2018) conducted a study on the impact of digital service quality on customer satisfaction related to the different products that they use. Through the conduction of secondary research by using the holistic quality models and the bottom-up approach of identifying the different components of smart products that are connected to different devices, this study was completed. It was observed through the study that the use of smart products with the introduction of digital services in them enhances the quality of services that the customers get. The emergence of such products makes digitalization important in the market and draw significant attention towards their smart usage. This study also determined the quality requirements that Apple Inc. uses in its different products. The influence of these digital applications and the usability of the provided application along with its user-friendly nature is a concept that helps in improving the user perspective on the quality of digital services offered to the customers.

5. Digital marketing strategies used by Apple Inc.

According to de Ruyter et. al. (2018), digital marketing has proved to be challenging for different organisations from time to time as with advancements in technology, the organisation bring about different changes in their strategies. While reimagining the key trends in digital marketing, it can be observed that the digital processes have a lot of opportunities to offer. With the surreal possibilities of the digital world, many organisations introduce changes and innovations in the marketing strategies that enable them to stand apart from the other brands in their field of functioning. Apple Inc. is one such corporation that has always been a leading organisation when it comes to digital marketing. Although the digital marketing practices of Apple are minimalistic, the brand name itself is enough for the customers to stay attracted to the brand (Unmetric, 2021). The digital marketing analysis of Apple Inc. has reported over 40 social media profiles of Apple that are active in the current time for the organisation to keep their customers updated about all the advancements and changes in the organisations. The regular updates on these social media platforms keep the customers aware of the new products and services that the brand has to offer. As per the statistics reported by Pratap (2020), the majorly used digital marketing platforms by Apple are Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Facebook is also one of the social media sites where Apple advertises its products but the major promotion and advertisement of the brand is on the other three platforms. Apple has 10 Facebook pages, 15 YouTube channels, 9 Twitter Handles, 5 Instagram Accounts and 1 LinkedIn Account to attract larger communities of customers. Apple is one of the large brands that even though a little less; but still uses social media for achieving the business and marketing objectives (Unmetric, 2021). Through the research conducted by Pratap (2020), it can be observed that all the Twitter handles of Apple are dedicated to different advertising purposes and each market has different products. They have a dedicated support page on Twitter to offer advice about any technical issue that might occur with Apple and keep the users aware of any latest feature introduced by the organisation. Moreover, the Instagram page of Apple shows a high level of engagement due to the album like the look that the posts on the pages provide. The brand is already famous and the recorded responses are also very high.

Figure 3: Digital Marketing Platforms majorly used by Apple

Source: (Author, 2021)

In the study by Moore and Tambini (2018) the theory explaining the dominance of Apple in the teaching market has been described. This theory identifies the reason behind the extreme economic scale of this company. Being one of the most loved brands around the globe, Apple’s success is primarily due to the innovative marketing strategies combined with the technological innovation of the brand (Bajaj, 2021). Although the digital marketing by Apple is somewhat limited, the unique ideas and strategies undertaken by the brand are smooth enough to make Apple and its products iconic enough among the people and generate a larger customer base for the brand. Digital marketing is considered to be a multipurpose solution for branding, advertising and introducing market-related trends by Apple. The heavy competition in the tech industry can also be addressed with the help of these digital marketing strategies. The study by Tien et. al. (2019) compares the product differentiation and marketing strategies of Apple with that of Samsung and identifies the similarities and the differences that lead to the varied position of the brands in the global market. One of the major factors, that is responsible for Apple being more dominant in the marketing world is its basic production unit. The brand manufactures products that are scarce in the world hence, ensuring a greater market for the items that the brand sells.

Traditional marketing of Apple	Digital marketing of Apple
The brand targeted the loyal customers and hired customer dedicated employees to increase their product reach.	The organisation relies heavily on desktop display ads.
The brand advertised its products on TV and through print media.	The desktop video formats are the additions to Apple’s digital marketing.
The Apple stores proved to be effective marketing mediums for the brand.	Social media and mobile advertising reliance of the organisation is very less.
The availability of the Apple products in only the brand’s store markets the other products as well.	Most of the ads are displayed on YouTube while the website of the brand is simple.
The correct product placement has always been a smart strategy of the brand. The products of Apple were traditionally advertised through famous shows on television and by famous celebrities.	The brand launches top creative campaigns for the introduction of new product in the market.
Apple created a USP for itself and never wavered from its price. This created a positive and reliable image in the market that they always advertised.	Apple relies heavily on the buzz created by positive media reviews on the social media platform.

With the use of its digital marketing, Apple became the first company to surpass the two trillion-dollar market cap, making it the most dominant player in the digital market (Pratap, 2020). With the technological advancements in the world, Apple has included augmented reality and virtual reality in its products. The outstanding track record of Apple to provide products that are easy to use, good quality, sleek design and so forth might keep Apple ahead in the race to provide a seamless user experience. This quality of the augmented and virtual reality of Apple has been integrated into their advertising strategies and has given Apple an advantage to market its products to its users at a premium price and secure its position in the market as well (Moore and Tambini, 2018).

With the shifting processes of Apple in advertising its products, the brand is working towards reshaping the digital marketing industry (Runge and Seufert, 2021). Apple will not only ensure enhanced protection of the user data stored on the personal devices including the Apple watches but will also keep the users safe from unnecessary advertisements and improve their safety. The online promotion of this facility being offered to the customers has been solely targeted at advertising the new services. Moreover, Runge and Seufert (2021) suggest that this will also help the brand in eliminating competition by offering a more personalised experience to its customers. The small businesses will find it hard to collect and organise the Apple user data for their promotions and in increasing their reach and make it harder for them to keep going.

It has been established that Apple does not put a lot of effort into enhancing their social strategies but it is necessary for every brand in the current time to have effective digital marketing strategies to stay dominant in the market and constantly rise in their respective industry (Unmetric, 2021). The study by Moore and Tambini (2018) has analysed the factors behind the digital dominance of Apple in the industry. Their findings have reported that even when the digital strategies of Apple are not very prevalent, the brand is still very effective in ensuring the satisfaction of their customers and keeping them engaged with it for a long time.

Apple also provides offers to its new customers to attract their attention. Moreover, the brand provides its products in any region by simply booking the required products through online processes (Apple, 2021). This improves the reach of the brand among people through digital marketing and contributes to customers being engaged with the brand for a longer period. However, as per Runge and Seufert (2021), the policy changes by Apple in offering more privacy services to its customers by having complete control over the digital advertisements shown to them has been resisted by brands like Facebook through a campaign. This digital marketing shift of Apple has been argued to be a step of the brand towards having more control over its users and thereby restricting the target audience of the other brands.

6. Impact of digital service quality on customer satisfaction of Apple watches

According to Rosman, et. al. (2020), the digital transformation in wrist-worn devices have greatly enhanced the potential of companies to provide full-time surveillance to people with health conditions. Similarly, Apple watches are also designed to keep track of the medical conditions of the users and respond to them accordingly. The fluctuation of heartbeat while having a panic attack or anxiety in the users automatically dials the emergency contacts and alerts the people around (Caring Home, 2022). Automatic fall detection, emergency calling and heart rate monitoring are the few positive attributes of the Apple watches. These features of Apple watches related to the safety and security of its users make it a viable option as a medical device as well.

In addition to heart rate monitoring and continuous surveillance, Trimpop, et. al. (2015) reported that the tracking behaviour of smartwatches is becoming an increasingly important feature that must be prevalent in the products. With the population of the elderly on the rise, it is vital to offer them emergency detection that is also comfortable. This opens up a new market for the digital support that can be provided by smartwatches. Therefore, for addressing the market demands and customer needs, Apple watches have also introduced such features to act as a companion of the health of people that are using the products. Apart from the health requirements, the other features offered by the Apple watches like step calculation and exercise time monitoring target the market of fitness enthusiasts (Caring Home, 2022). The quick and accurate response of the Apple watches in these situations ensure the customers top quality of digital service of the watches and even allows the customers to link their watches with the other devices that they own. Hence, the aspects of these smartwatches in recognition of the body movements, body changes as well as the tracking of other activities and time alerts are some of the advantageous digital strategies of Apple that make it a dominant player in the market (Moore and Tambini, 2018).

7. Impact of Digital marketing strategies on customer satisfaction towards Apple smart watches

“Not just evolved, transformed.”

“Apple Watch Series 4 resets the standard for what a watch can be.”

-Apple, 2019

The smartwatches by Apple; termed by the brand as ‘Apple Watch’ became the big thing that proved to be a great influence on the lives of people. The website of the brand describes these watches as the technological developments that have completely remodelled the existence of watches in the world (Li and Wu, 2019). These became the first kind of wearable that were technically sound. Moreover, the new and different features of the brand are considered to be the most advanced and powerful when compared to other brands. With products that are so advanced, the key to their success in the market is the enhanced digital marketing done by the brand. Only through improved strategies the product can successfully penetrate the market and engage customers by keeping them satisfied through the different things offered. The website and the advertisements by the brand all show that the product is not only completely water-resistant but with safe electrical sensors to protect the users from harmful powerful radiations (Apple, 2021). The all-inclusive and user-friendly features of the Apple watches makes them compatible with the existing values, experiences and comfort with the watches improve the customer perception and increasing their willingness to buy the product (Li and Wu, 2019). These features when marketed by the brand through different platforms work towards socially influencing the behaviour of the consumer and increase their intention of buying the Apple watch.

Figure 4: Market share of smartwatch unit shipments worldwide

Source: (Statista, 2021)

According to Kumar and Venkateshwarlu (2017), the advancements in the world of technology have highly contributed towards helping the smartwatch brands in including the most advanced features that are available in the world. The smart use of social media tools and techniques by electronic device brands significantly helps in retaining their customers.

As per the case study research conducted by Li and Wu (2019), the use of smartwatches has become increasingly prominent in recent times but the lack of research on the perception and level of satisfaction of the customers is an area that requires more attention. The primary study conducted with the help of a survey of smartwatch users and analysing the findings in accordance with a case study of Apple watches was aimed at deepening the understanding of the perception of customers while purchasing a watch. The insights about smartwatches provided in the research were aimed at helping the smart watchmakers in developing better strategies for improving the growth of the brands and improving the satisfaction of their customers.

Table 1: Shift in Apple's marketing budget to increase its products promotion

Year	2018	2019	2020
Apple’s marketing Budget	$ 16,706	$ 18, 245	$ 19,916
Shift from previous year	-	9%	9%

Source: (Apple Annual Report, 2020)

According to Dempsey (2015), the Apple watch is a wearable product that is designed with such an advanced engineered technology that is hard to fathom. The experimental research conducted by exploring the integration of all the items in the small body of the watch suggested that the strategies that can be developed by Apple for marketing the product can be varied. The competitive intelligence of Apple over other companies can recognise the potential for innovations and create new markets with time. However, in the initial phase the high level of innovation of the product can lead to the manufacturing process being very slow and generate low yields in the customer base. Vávrová (2017, p. 129) stated that the marketing of high technology products is a complicated process that needs to be conducted by keeping in mind the different parameters of marketing. Smartwatch being a highly advanced and enhanced product with a high level of innovations needs to be marketed by the organisation by understanding the Market Uncertainty, Technology Uncertainty and the Competitive behaviour of the industry. However, Apple being a big brand does not necessarily follow this trend of digital marketing in this way. Instead, it focuses more on the novelty aspect of the product and expects the customer to search for the Apple watches themselves. This is also due to the fact that most of the technological introductions by Apple become a technology standard itself, hence having complete control over the Technology Uncertainty aspect of marketing. Agreeing with the above argument; Li and Wu (2019) state that the contribution of Apple the continuous development and commercialisation in the present world greatly impacts the purchasing habits of the customers. The digital marketing dominance of Apple socially influences customer behaviour and offers the brand a relative advantage over the acceptance of customers.

Moreover, according to Moore and Tambini (2018), the digital marketing of Apple is highly dominant in the tech world owing to its dominant founder and even more dominant successors. The significant control of Apple over the market on which the customers are dependent is one of the major leading reasons behind Apple generating supernormal profits and showing extra growth. The limitless experience offered by Apple with the help of digital strategies in its business helps the customers in experiencing greater goods offered by the brand and continue the customer relations in the long run.

Real-time engagement of customers through AI-powered advertising videos and smart use of social media tools for providing enhanced knowledge to the customers. This affects the mindset of the customers positively. The brand does not do elaborate promotions of its products and mostly uses video marketing for advertisements (Pratap, 2021). The main aim of Apple is to mainly connect with its customers and keep the followers updated about all that is happening with the brand and also allows Apple to stay in touch with the customers. When looking at the pages and accounts of Apple on social media platforms, the customer engagement is very high. The eye-catching and album like series of pictures and videos posted on the accounts by Apple ensure an excellent level of customer engagement and depict that the brand is great at attracting the attention of customers (Li and Wu, 2019). These brands use these platforms to provide all the information about all the advancements to their users through the pages and channels and this ensures user engagement as stay regularly updated about the brand.

8. Literature Gap

The different papers reviewed in the above sections contained very limited information about the digital marketing strategies used by Apple for marketing its smart watches. This is due to the fact that the literature prevalent on the digital marketing of Apple is very limited. This research aims at addressing that issue and to generate new strategies and techniques that can be used by Apple in marketing their products in the global market. The limited research on smart connected devices and their impact on the stakeholders needs further studies in this domain. There needs to be the development of holistic models to comply with the quality of the products and the services offered and enhance the overall experience with the help of digitization.

Through the review of the above literature, it can also be observed that the marketing strategies of Apple used in present time are a combination of traditional and digital marketing. This shows the unification of both types of marketing by Apple and the effective promotion of its products. However, the impact of these strategies on customer satisfaction needs to be studied in more detail to develop a better understanding of the impact of the impact of the shift from traditional to digital marketing on the satisfaction of Apple watches customers. This will also offer more papers to conduct future researches by using the data based on this dissertation.

Therefore, this research’s aim is to analyse the impact of digital marketing on Apple watch consumer’s satisfaction.

Following are the objectives to address the aim:

To know the impact of digital marketing on customer satisfaction

To study the importance of digital marketing in consumer electronics industry

• To understand the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing

• To understand the similarities between traditional and digital marketing.

To identify the relationship between digital marketing and customer satisfaction in context to digital watches’ consumers

To explore different marketing strategies used by Apple

• To know the difference between digital marketing strategies of Apple and its traditional marketing strategies

• To assess the traditional marketing approaches used by Apple

• To identify the digital marketing approaches used by Apple

To evaluate the level of customer satisfaction with digital service quality of Apple watches.

Rosman, et. al. (2020) discussed the negative impacts of these watches that the customers face. The unlimited access to digital health and care information might prove to be motivation for some users while it might negatively affect the mental health of other users. The negative psychological impacts of smartwatches on the consumers have been neglected in major studies that have researched the way the smartwatch features impact the customers.

9. Summary

In this chapter, the background of the selected topic was given. For reviewing the existing knowledge and data on the topic, different published pieces of literature were reviewed and the perspectives of their authors were analysed. It was established through the entire review that digital marketing is becoming an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in the present world with the companies and brands shifting their entire processes of advertisements online. The main focus of the chapter was to analyse the overall behaviour and satisfaction of the customers through the use of digital marketing tools and strategies. The digital marketing strategies were also identified and the different perspectives on these techniques were discussed in one of the sections of this chapter. In the last part of the chapter, the focus was laid on identifying the digital marketing of the Apple watches and their impact on customer satisfaction. The level of engagement of the customers with the smartwatches and their long-term purchase was also reviewed.

Chapter 3- Methodology

1. Introduction

This chapter of the research will explain the path that was followed for preparing this research. The objective of this chapter will be to explain the systematic method used for obtaining the answers to the research questions. First, the research philosophy undertaken for this research will be identified along with the explanation of selecting the particular philosophy. This will be followed by an explanation of the approach used for this research and the methods used for collecting the data specific to this research. This part will also contain information about the tools used for data collection. Then the data analysis process will be explained along with the time horizon and the ethical considerations made during this research. Finally, the reliability and validity of the study conducted during the research will be emphasised. The main points covered in this chapter will be summarised in a section at the end of this chapter.

2. Research Philosophy

A research paradigm is the set of assumptions about the research community and the development of beliefs that influence the way in which the members of a community perceive the way in which a certain topic is being researched. The use of a research paradigm is to answer address the questions of research in a legitimate way that investigates the proper generation of knowledge and the procedures that will be followed to obtain the required knowledge (Johannesson and Perjons, 2014).

Selecting the correct philosophy for the research is the basic step of any research. The fundamental objective of this research was to analyse the impact of digital marketing on the level of satisfaction of the customers. The topic of this research will be an important topic for conducting future studies. Therefore, out of the different philosophies available for research, positivism philosophy was used for the purpose of this research. This philosophy was selected as it is based on the idea that only that knowledge is reliable that is collected by observation of authentic sources (BRM, 2021). The information about the latest developments and features of the Apple watches was collected from a range of sources including Apple website and the digital updated technologies. This was done to analyse the future trends of the digital market and the introductions that might be introduced in the future. Through the analysis and prediction of the future trends in this research, the future reliability has increased. Throughout this research, the study was limited to the collection of data from different sources and then interpreting it carefully to result in the findings. The strategies and the techniques that were used for research are somewhat dependent on the philosophy of the research (Melnikovas, 2018).

3. Research Approach

For conducting any successful research, it is essential to choose the correct methods of approaching a chosen topic and then collecting the evidence for analysing the data. As the positivism philosophy predicts the controllability of the future by analysing the knowledge of past and present so, the appropriate knowledge of the future will only be obtained by implementing the intuitive strategy (Melnikovas, 2018). Therefore, out of the deductive and inductive approaches, the inductive approach was selected as the data collecting approach. Any research is approached inductively whenever a researcher aims at developing a theory with the help of the findings of the research (Al-Ababneh, 2020). This approach was used to review the existing literature and the general theories developed on the use of digital strategy as an approach to market the products of Apple and the watches as well.

4. Research Strategy

A strategy for research is the step-by-step action that a researcher follows throughout their research. If the strategy of research is carefully devised, then it provides the correct direction to the researcher and allows them to prepare research that includes all the principal components of research. The different types of strategies of research include case study, experiment, survey, action research, ethnography, narrative inquiry and grounded theory (Melnikovas, 2018).

For this research, a questionnaire was prepared and the survey strategywas undertaken to collect and analyse the data (Ponto, 2015). 50 participants were surveyed on a random sampling basis and their responses were recorded. Moreover, as Apple was selected as the organisation therefore, this research also included a case study of the organisation and its digital marketing strategies. Survey of the respondents helped in identifying the customer perceptions and the areas of improvements that the brand can inherit to improve their marketing strategies. Due to the comparison of the Apple watches with other brands, the strategies used by competitors of Apple were also analysed and certain improvements were observed. The benefits associated with this research strategy were that the psychological and social beliefs of the customers could be interpreted. This offered a greater opportunity for getting appropriate results.

5. Research Choice

To address the key objective of research, both qualitative and quantitative data was used. Moreover, the sources for the study were both primary as well as secondary. The different pieces of literature published by authors and researchers were reviewed and an in-depth analysis of their findings was done. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected for reaching to the conclusion in this research (Sileyew, 2019). For the purpose of primary research, a questionnaire was prepared of 10 questions and the results of the questions were analysed for achieving the research objectives. For reporting the findings of the questionnaire, quantitative data was used. Therefore, mixed-method choice of research justifies the use of both qualitative and quantitative data from different sources. Mixed method research helped in getting both quantitative and qualitative data for the research and this improved the reliability of the research.

6. Time Horizon

Research can either be longitudinal or cross-sectional depending upon the requirements of the study. For this study, the data was collected from recent years past as the topic of the research is associated with recent developments in technology. This research was hence, cross-sectional for which the papers reviewed were published in either 2014 or the years after that. The cross-sectional time horizon was selected to maintain the relevance of the information for future researches. Moreover, the survey for getting the answers to the questionnaire questions was conducted over one period of time. This ensured that the same features and services were available to the participants at the time of research.

7. Data Collection Methods and Tools

Primary and secondary data were both collected independently yet simultaneously. The questionnaire for collecting answers about the different questions for the research was prepared on software Qualtrics. By using this software, it was easier to collect the data and represent it in the form of bar graphs, pie charts and tables. The data about the customer perceptions of the digital marketing strategies of Apple compared with the strategies of other brands was easily collected and arranged through this software. The participants were asked to answer the questionnaire online. The selection of questions was in relation to obtain the research aim with the help of different sources like Bakri (2020) and Vávrová (2017). At the same time, the different works of literature were selected from online platforms like Google Scholar and were reviewed to analyse their findings. The Likert scale was also included in one of the questions presented to the research participants for measuring the direction and strength of an individual’s opinion.

Figure 5: Data Collection and Analysis

Source: (Author, 2021)

8. Source and Rationale of Questionnaire

10 questions were developed for the survey. The questionnaire consisted of a variety of questions including multiple-choice questions, multiple answer questions and Likert Scale question. This questionnaire was developed for people who used smartwatches of different brands. Then the findings of the questionnaire were used to observe the preferences of the respondents who used Apple watches through the spreadsheet formed on Qualtrics. This helped in differentiating the responses of other brand smartwatch users from the Apple watch users and their experience with the digital marketing strategies of the respective brands.

The questionnaire was prepared in a systematic manner to make the flow of the questions from general to specific. The first two questions of the questionnaire were general questions aimed at understanding the participant demographic. The age and gender of the participants were asked. The age of a respondent also results in their varied perception about the different marketing strategies that they have observed over time. This was the importance of this question in the questionnaire. The next question i.e., number 3 was aimed at gaining knowledge about the prevalence of different brands of smartwatches in the market and their rising share amongst the customers. With the help of this question, the customers of Apple can be identified. This question helped in identifying the competition that Apple watches face and the different digital marketing strategies followed by other brands for selling their products.

Continuing with the flow of multiple-choice questions, question 4 of the questionnaire was aimed at identifying the best features that smart watches have considering the aspect of tangibility as highlighted by Bakri (2020) in knowing customer satisfaction. Apple can highlight the most voted features during the digital marketing and increase its reach. The next question was aimed at identifying the promotional medium that influenced the buying decision of the customers. Question 6 asked about the influence of different promotional mediums in convincing the customers to buy a specific product. Then the next question was majorly focused on identifying the most prevalent and most used digital marketing platforms by customers for buying the smart watches. The digital promotional mediums used by Apple watch users could also be identified through this question as stated by Vávrová (2017) that there is ambiguity in marketing tools used by high-tech companies so this question can be helpful in collecting information about the same. Question 8 was a Likert Scale question that marked the effectiveness of digital marketing of Apple watches in comparison to the traditional marketing strategies. With the next question, the participant response about the effectiveness of their smart watch brand was asked. This was done to analyse the responses and identify the brands that have better strategies than that of Apple. The last question of the questionnaire asked the participants about their satisfaction with the digital marketing strategy of Apple watches.

9. Sampling

The sampling techniques undertaken for selecting the participants was random for the primary research. Participants for the questionnaire were random smart-watch users who were 50 in number which have been approached through random sampling by providing them the link generated over Qualtrics. While selecting samples, there has been no inclusion criteria applied on the participants that only those who can purchase directly from Apple can be the part of the research. However, with the help of third question the segregation of respondents who use Apple watches can be known so their responses would be contributing in fulfilling the research aim as they will be providing responses as per their experiences. For the secondary research, the articles, papers and journals were selected by using certain keywords. Most of the research papers that were selected and analysed were related to the role of digital marketing in improving brand reach and enhancing customer satisfaction.

10. Data Analysis

This is the most crucial part of any research. The process of interpreting, understanding and summarising the collected data is called analysis of the data. This study is research based on answering the questions of the research based on the findings of the research techniques used. The descriptive analysis method was used to analyse the results from the questionnaire. Qualitative data is a more reliable form of data as the text and data that is received through it is non-reduceable and static (Bansal et. al., 2018). The qualitative data for this research was taken from the articles and journals and was carefully interpreted. This data was collected from reliable sources to provide authenticity to the research conducted and generate the most appropriate understanding of the research topic that was considered.

The inductive method of reasoning was also used for this research. The general discussion on the topic of research was then utilised to make generate specific theories about the digital marketing strategies of Apple watch. Recommendations for improving the Apple watches were also made with the help of specific literature available on the Apple watches and their marketing procedures used by the company.

11. Ethical Considerations

The protection of the primary data and identities of the survey participants was the primary focus of the entire research (Arifin, 2018). The information about all the participants was kept confidential and their data was used only through informed consent. None of the participants was forced to answer the questionnaire and their participation was voluntary. The anonymity was also preserved by not revealing the names of the participants during the entire process of data collection and research (Ruggiano and Perry, 2017). The collected data from the participants was received on the server but not stored anywhere to ensure that the privacy of none of the participants was violated.

This research has been prepared by analysing the work of different authors. The data collected from different sources was given due citation wherever necessary and the information from any source was not misinterpreted (Suri, 2020). The data was collected from open and authentic sources like Google Scholar to avoid any issues regarding privacy that might occur (Fiesler, 2019).

12. Data Reliability and Validity

Researchers invest a tremendous amount of time and effort to design the questionnaire and ensure the reliability of the data that is collected from the participants. For a questionnaire to be effective, certain things must be ensured. The key areas that are to be focused upon are; the length of the questions, the words used in the questions, the sequence of questions and the layout of the questionnaire. For this research, the questionnaire prepared consisted of two general questions and eight research specific questions. The questions were arranged from general to specific to give the participants a clear idea about the research topic that they were required to answer. Every attempt was made to ensure that the questions given to the participants were concise, to the point and easy to understand. The relevance of the questions to the research topic was also maintained to achieve the research objectives. Moreover, the authentic sources were the Apple company website and other journal articles that contained information regarding digital marketing strategies used by different brands. This made the secondary data for the research reliable and valid.

13. Summary

A mixed-method approach was used for this study with both qualitative and quantitative data used for preparing the research. Both primary and secondary research was conducted for the preparation of this research. The positivism philosophy was undertaken to make this research relevant for the future studies that will be conducted on this topic. The approach selected was the inductive approach and the data collected was from a cross-sectional time horizon. Primary data was collected with the help of a questionnaire in which 50 random smartwatch users participated and the descriptive method of research was then implied to analyse the findings of the research. The reliability and validity of the data were also ensured to generate appropriate findings for the research that will be applicable in the future as well.

Chapter 4- Results and Analysis

1. Introduction

Following the methodology described in the previous section, this chapter will report on the outcomes of the data that has been collected using a questionnaire.

The results of the different questions achieved from the questionnaire and the findings made in the section will be reported in this chapter. There will also be an analysis of the different responses given by the participants. Through the analysis, this chapter aims at understanding the different factors that drive the people towards a product (more particularly smartwatch) and identifying the marketing techniques that prove to be the most beneficial.

2. Questionnaire Results

Demography Profile of Respondents

Table 1 presents the data about the profile of the respondents of the questionnaire. Out of the 50 participants that were surveyed, 23 participants were male (46 %), 44% of the participants were female. The maximum number of respondents (58%) was in the age group 21-25 years. The main purpose of this survey was to understand the impact of digital marketing patterns on the choices of consumers and understand their preferences according to their smartwatch selection procedures.

1. What is your gender?

2. What is your age?

Most prevalent smart watch brand among the participants

From the results of the survey, it can be analysed that most of the smartwatch users owned Apple watches and a few participants had other smartwatches that they used as well. While 56% of the smartwatch users owned Apple watches, 18% owned Samsung, 10& owned Fitbit and 18% owned other brands like Fastrack, Noise, Boat and a few other local brands. The level of engagement of Apple smartwatch users with the brand shows its digital dominance in the market. This also helps Apple in staying on the top of the lists of companies and maintaining a high potential market for itself in the future.

3. Which brand’s smart watch do you use?

Most preferred Feature of Smart Watch

Tracking the activities and checking the phone notifications are the most used features of the smartwatch by the users. The other features of the smartwatches like sleep tracking and heart rate monitoring were also highly preferred among the participants of the survey. It can be interpreted through the responses that most Apple watches users use their watches for tracking their daily activities and their sleep schedule. Seeing the phone notifications was also a highly preferred feature of the smartwatches. This feature of the smartwatch must be particularly valued among the users for getting their activity updates, messages and to get information about the incoming calls. Among the other suggestions, calling and clicking pictures were also suggested. Smart watches are highly preferred and demanded wearable that has been introduced in the market in recent years. The market for smartwatches is constantly increasing and this creates great opportunities for organisations to improve their digital marketing strategies. The further development of the least suggested features can provide great opportunities to the brands in developing their services and products accordingly and offer the customers products according to their preference.

4. What is your favourite feature of your smartwatch?

For instance, after analysing the responses of people according to their age, it can be observed that the people that are in the age group of 21-29 years of age prefer using the smartwatches to track their activities and check the notifications that they received on their phones. Whereas, those of 30 years or above mostly prefer the features like sleep and activity tracking, different from the pone notification checking. It was also observed that the people in the age group of 15-20 years not only used the smartwatches for their phone notifications but also use the camera to click pictures. They found the wearable handy and easy to use for different purposes. This depicts that with the change in the age group of people, the preferences of selecting the product features also changes. With Apple watches having almost every feature that is expected by the customers, they are highly used by many people. Apart from the four preferred features of activity tracking (26.72 %), heart rate monitoring (22.41%), sleep tracking (15.52%) and phone notifications (27.59%), other features were reported through the survey. Those features were the camera present in the smartwatch, the calling feature available in different smartwatches and even the exercise tracking & reporting feature. Although these features were comparatively less preferred by people as they grow up, working upon developing them can provide the brands better opportunities for staying somewhat unique and different than the others in the field.

Factors influencing choice of Smart Watch

The choice of a smartwatch by people varies according to different factors. Many things influence the choice of a product by people. In the case of smartwatches, the survey respondents also based their choice of smartwatches according to three different factors. The brand name, features and the suggestion by someone they know are the different factors that influence the choice of the customers. Through the survey results, it can be observed that the features offered by the smartwatch brands play important role in attracting customers towards selecting the smartwatch. It constituted 53.06% of the total per cent of factors that influence the choice of the customers. The name of the brand also plays a huge role in influencing the decision of selecting a smartwatch. This finding can be used to understand the dominance of Apple watches over the other brands that offer the same product. This brand has always been very advanced with its products and the services that it offers to its consumers.

5. What influenced your choice for selecting a smartwatch?

Most effective promotional mediums for smart watches

From a list of five different promotional and advertising mediums for smartwatches, the most preferred marketing channel was social media marketing. Digital marketing has been seeing a rise in its usage, following this the results of the survey that 28 out of the 50 participants found out about the brand of their respective smartwatches through the social media advertisements. 21 other participants found out about the smartwatches by browsing through online stores like Amazon and others. This shows the power of digital marketing over the decision making of customers. Although the other mediums of advertisements like television and the suggestions by someone known also have a great impact on offering assurance to the customers.

6. How did you come to know about the brand of the smartwatch that you are using?

Preferred online platform for getting information about new products

The survey results reported that social media and the shopping applications are the most preferred mediums by customers to get information about the new products that are introduced in the market and the advancements that are done in the products by the organisations. 36.99% of the users depend upon online shopping applications while 34.25% of them depend upon social media as well.

7. Which platforms do you use to get information before purchasing a product?

Effectiveness of different marketing mediums for the promotion of products

Among the five marketing mediums prevalent for the brands, the most effective promotional medium was found to be social media and television. For people in present world, the only medium of getting most of the information about new things is social media or other online mediums. Therefore, the social media was rated as the most effective medium and the companies must use it to promote or market their products for enhancing their sales and revenues. The customers can also get complete information about the products through the digital platforms, hence increasing their level of satisfaction and building their trust with the brand.

8. On a scale of 1 to 5, how effective do you think these marketing mediums are for the promotion of smartwatches? (1 being extremely unsatisfactory and 5 being extremely satisfactory).

Level of satisfaction of the smart watch users

22 of the participants found the promotion strategy of their smart watch very effective while 7 found it extremely effective. This shows that the smart watch users are highly satisfied with the promotions and the features offered by the smart watches. This also helps the smart watches in progressing in the market.

9. How effective is the promotion strategy of your smartwatch brand in satisfying its customers?

Apple’s digital marketing strategies

Out of the 50 participants of the survey, the majority of them responded that the digital marketing strategies of Apple can be improved to some extent. This means that the brand should work more upon promoting its products through online channels and methods. Instead of just promoting their products through video marketing on social media, there are other ways to make the brand and its products reach the potential customers.

10. Do you feel that Apple should improve its digital marketing strategies to enhance customer satisfaction?

3. Summary

This chapter of the research reported several noteworthy findings. First of all, out of all the participants that were surveyed, most of them owned Apple watches. This helped in observing that Apple is the most preferred brand of smartwatches among people. It was also reported that the features offered by Apple watches were the ones that were mostly used by people in their daily routines to either track their activities or sleep schedule or even check their phone notifications. It was also reported through the findings that the digital mediums of promotion, advertising and purchasing of products are the most prevalent methods in the present time. Most of the customers depend upon social media channels and online shopping sites for updates about products and purchasing them. The information about the existence of products of any brand is also mostly gained through online platforms and then from other mediums. Furthermore, it was observed that the current promotional strategies used by different smartwatch brands are significantly effective but Apple can work upon improving its strategies to some extent for maintaining its position in the market.

Chapter5- Discussion

1. Introduction

Continuing with the results observed from the questionnaire and their analysis, this chapter will combine all the findings from both the primary and secondary data collection. This will be done by analysing the data gathered from the literature in the literature review chapter and comparing it with the findings of the questionnaire. This chapter aims to identify the different factors that influence the perception of the customers while learning about a product online. This chapter also aims at understanding the impact of the different digital marketing strategies used by different brands on customer buying behaviour and their perception of the products.

2. Discussion

Power of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a system of interconnected mediums used for the promotion of the products and services offered by a brand or an organisation (Bala and Verma, 2017). The analysis of the results shows that online media platforms help organisations in strengthening the demand for their products in the market. The digital marketing platform is used as a support by companies in enhancing the knowledge of their consumers about the products that they offer and supply. The internet is now the most powerful tool for advertising and using online platforms to identify the marketing strategies to meet the goals of the organisations. Digital marketing is also a medium of enhancing the business of an organisation with the least possible capital investment (Technomist, 2017). With the help of digital marketing, the business does not only get better exposure but also becomes easily accessible to customers from all parts of the world. The opinions of the customers and their ratings on the online platforms also play a major role in refining the way businesses’ function. Any problematic area or feature can be fixed by the organisations and advancements can be introduced in the products to make them more likeable and preferred among people.

Present marketing strategies

Based on the results of the research conducted above, it can be experienced that there is a huge influence of digital marketing on determining the reach of a brand. The marketing methods that were traditionally used for promoting the products in the market and explaining their specifications to the customers are now being transformed with the use of digital marketing methods (Gunawan and Sulaeman, 2020). Traditional marketing includes television and radio marketing along with print media. Digital marketing is the use of the internet to market the products of a company. With the integration of the traditional promotional strategies with the new age technology and the promotional mediums, the reach of the companies can be increased significantly and also help the companies in entering a market with very tight competition. Technological advancements also have the potential of improving the product specifications and making the device more enjoyable and stress-free for the consumers. Although television advertisements are still helpful mediums in marketing the products and services to the customers, the use and influence has greatly decreased due to the fast-moving life of people. The innovations and the manufacturing of new products by Apple help it in getting major breakthroughs in the global market. This brand uses technologies that are less prevalent in the market, hence generating a larger customer base for the product introduced (Tien et. al., 2019). The marketing of the product by highlighting its unique specificationsincreases the requirements among the customers. Through the findings of the literature, it can be analysed that even though the marketing of Apple is less aggressive than its rival brands like Samsung, the innovations and the unique features offered by the Apple products are advanced enough to generate a large customer market for themselves.

Influence of digital marketing on customer satisfaction

This study provides a clearer understanding of the digital marketing strategies and channels that are available for the organisations to develop a healthy relationship with the customers and their brand name. Throughout the years, the attention of the companies has shifted towards improving the customer experience instead of just developing their product. From customer satisfaction to customer relationship management, organisations focus on all aspects of a business to gain a competitive advantage (Kita and Haví?, 2017). The customer experience must be holistically based on the personal interactions of the customers with the brand and the others who are using the products offered by the brand. The results from the survey reported that most of the customers were satisfied with the promotional strategies used by the brands of their respective smartwatches. However, it was also analysed that Apple needs to bring improvements in its digital marketing techniques for reaching out to more customers and map the customer journey in a way that all the customers gather information about all the features that a particular product has to offer. The increasing inclination of customers towards social media platforms also shows that this aspect of digital marketing is becoming more and more prevalent in the lives of customers (Li and Wu, 2019). The brands need to increase the engagement of customers through those platforms and manage their touchpoints for enhanced customer experience.

Browsing through social media channels and online shopping mediums offer the customers insights into the actual quality of the product. The reviews and ratings given by other customers who have already purchased and used the products help the new customers in gaining a clearer picture of the product that they are about to purchase. This also provides them with the assurance that they are selecting the right product (Adam et. al., 2020). The positive reactions and the trust of customers shown on the online platforms have a significantly positive influence on the purchasing done by other customers. Therefore, digital marketing can be used to understand the opinion of the already existing customers and develop better product features to offer new advancements and developments to the people (Li and Wu, 2019).

The advertising strategy of Apple to offer slots in the App Store where the Search Ads appear above the search result also helps the brand in increasing its market share. The transformation of Apple in only one year is a clear indicator of it being a majorly purchased brand among the customers (Benton, 2021). The maximum number of participants of the survey also owned Apple watches, showing that the strategies of the brand are effective. However, certain improvements are needed according to some people. The digital marketing of Apple can be improved to some extent.

3. Summary

All in all, the research outcomes were satisfactory enough to address the objectives of the research. Specifically, comprehensive literature was reviewed and then a survey of the smartwatch users was conducted. The findings and results from the literature and the questionnaire were analysed and discussed in this chapter to improve the credibility of the research. The discussion of the different findings in this chapter will also provide a clearer understanding of the conclusions made on the different results obtained through the primary data collection. The challenges that the organisations might face in successfully implementing the digital marketing strategies for the promotion of their products and the factors that might result in a lack of customer satisfaction with the brand were also discussed. Throughout the discussion, it was observed that digital marketing is becoming increasingly important with time. It was also analysed that there is a strong relationship between digital marketing and customer satisfaction which in turn influences the brand performance as well.

Chapter 6-SelfCritical Reflection on Research

1. Introduction

This chapter of the research is a reflection of the overall journey of research that was undertaken to prepare this paper and report the self-development throughout the period. There will be a description of the new things and techniques learnt during the process. There will also be the introspection of the internal thoughts, feelings and ideas that were generated and developed during this research. The difficulties and challenges faced during the preparation of this paper will also be observed and analysed in this chapter.

2. Self-Reflection on Research

While doing a Masters course on management, the topic that interested me the most was something related to marketing. When we were asked to prepare a dissertation on a topic of our choice, I had to research a lot to select the company and the product offered by the selected company. During the selection, my main aim was to select a brand that is highly renowned in its respective industry. The purpose behind this was to ensure that the reader feels connected with the data presented throughout the research and stay engaged with the content presented in the paper.

The overall preparation of the dissertation was a tedious process that required a lot of attention and time, but I feel that this was also a good thing as the time that I spent while researching helped me in improving my knowledge. Although I faced some problems in the beginning phase, the guidance and continuous feedbacks and comments by my tutor provided me with a direction and helped me in identifying my problematic areas. The corrections suggested while proposing itself helped me in understanding the approaches that I must avoid while preparing the dissertation. I will always be thankful to my professor for providing the right guidance at the right time.

After submitting my proposal and getting approval for it, I started with the dissertation. The first step was to choose the relevant papers, literature and news articles for understanding the basics of the topic to be presented and also get an idea of how I must start writing the paper. I prepared the structure of the dissertation with the help of the structure given in the brief as well as the different papers that I analysed. One thing that I adhered to during the entire research was to follow a systematic manner. Not skipping any chapter and following the sequence helped me greatly. I was not lost during the research and was able to follow the timeline that I prepared.

There were also a few challenges that I faced during the research. I feel like the limited time was the biggest constraint for me as if there was more time, I could have researched more sources and collected information from varied places like the local universities. Other than that, the limited interaction with people due to Covid-19 also minimised the range of participants for collecting relevant information for the questionnaire. I also feel that interviewing the smartwatch users could have provided a vaster database but this possibility was restricted as well.

The overall experience of preparing a dissertation was exhilarating as it was something that I have never done before. Improving my knowledge about the selected topic will also help me in future. I have become more confident with my ability to research any specific topic and gain in-depth knowledge about anything that I wish to. This project has also enhanced my analysing abilities and skills and offered me better opportunities to use them in the future.

3. Summary

This chapter of research was the reflection on the entire process of the research that was followed during the completion of this project. The experience from selecting a topic to conducting complete research on it was reviewed in this chapter. There was also the description of the different challenges and difficulties faced during preparing the dissertation. The future relevance of the research and the improvement in the knowledge was also highlighted in the end.

Chapter 7- Conclusion and Recommendations

1. Introduction

This chapter of the research will conclude the findings and the analysis of the entire research. The steps of the research will be described in this chapter followed by the different strategies undertaken for collecting and analysing the data. Then the findings that have been reported in the research will be summarised along with the main discussion. At the end of the chapter, the recommendations for future improvements in the products and digital marketing strategies will be made to offer insights into the potential areas that can be developed.

2. Conclusion

This research showed that how impactful can the digital marketing strategies of any brand can be in determining consumer behaviour. With the shift in customer purchasing decisions and habits to online processes, the importance of digital marketing is increasing in the global market. Therefore, the organisations and brands should also develop digitally advanced marketing strategies to increase their reach among the customers and become more active. The inclusion of digital marketing can be done in a number of ways that can be either in the form of social media marketing, search engine optimisation, content marketing, influencer marketing or mobile marketing.

The research was a case study of the Apple smartwatches and the impact of the digital marketing strategies of Apple on the satisfaction of its customers. Through the review of the literature, the importance of digital marketing was analysed along with the review of the different digital marketing strategies that Apple uses for the promotion of its products. A survey was also conducted through which the satisfaction of the users of the smartwatches was analysed and the impact of different marketing strategies on the customer buying behaviour was analysed. In terms of customer satisfaction, the digital marketing strategies of many smartwatch brands were reported to be satisfactory, however, improvements in the digital marketing of Apple were highly recommended.

Though smartwatches are becoming popular with time, the studies conducted on their marketing strategies used by different brands and their effectiveness on the customer perception is limited. This research can facilitate the other researchers for conducting further studies on the digital marketing strategies used by different brands for promoting their smartwatches and understanding the level of satisfaction of the customers with the different processes. The organisations can also take suggestions on improving their digital marketing and penetrate the market in a better way for enhanced customer satisfaction about the methods undertaken for the promotion and advertisement of the different products.

3. Recommendations

In a world where the families are becoming contemporary and the processes are becoming fast, the parents are becoming more concerned to leave their children at home. In the fast-moving world, it becomes difficult for them to continuously keep a check on them and ensure their safety even when the parents are not around (Vaz et. al., 2017). To resolve this issue, companies can use their technologies for producing devices that stay with children at all times and allow their parents to know about them. Smartwatches can be selected as the best alternatives for this purpose as they are the first technologically developed wearable that is handy and lightweight. The features of Apple watches include GPS trackers in them and this makes it one of the top choices for safety (Apple Support, 2021). This enhanced feature of the watch can be digitally marketed by the brand to help people acknowledge the GPS tracking system and the other family-friendly services that the brand has to offer. The other services like the child lock available for parents to lock the apps that their children should not use and the location tracker are also of high value in the present world. The ineffectiveness of Apple in marketing its products on an even larger scale sometimes lead to the potential consumers being unaware of the features that the brand has to offer. Therefore, Apple must focus more on marketing its AI charged features through different digital marketing channels (Theodoridis and Gkikas, 2019).

Another recommendation for the brand is to analyse the aspect of erosion of privacy and consumer manipulation. With the concern of erosion of privacy becoming a major issue among people, the brand can also focus on eliminating the manipulation of data for pursuing their interests (Darmody and Zwick, 2020). This will make the consumers more autonomous and empowered in the world of digital marketing, thus enhancing customer engagement with the purchase of products. Apple main focus Apple is on social media marketing along with posting video advertisements on YouTube and television. Although this type of marketing is already getting very popular in recent times, the brand can include the practice of affiliate as well as influencer marketing to reach out to a varied consumer base (Lal and Singh, 2017). Influencer marketing is also a smart way of digital marketing that Apple can incorporate into its strategies. The existing reputation of the brand can be improved with the help of promotions from the influencers. The distinct features of the Apple watches offer brand new and unique opportunities to enter the market with the products that the customers need. With the use of smart and strategic management, the brand can utilise the highly advanced and talented resources available with it to digitally market its products and improve its reach to stay one of the most digitally dominant players in the global market.

One of the biggest changes that Apple can bring in its digital marketing strategies is that it can track the activities of the people on their social channels and divert their attention by suggesting to them the products that the customers wish to purchase (Moore and Tambini, 2017). In such cases, the band can also use the method of pop-ups on the channels and increase their customer service frequency. This will not only assist the brand in mapping the ultimate buying journey for its customers but also help in increasing the long term value through increased customer engagement.

It is also recommended for the brand order to retain its position in the digital marketing world and be a top global player to enhance its digital marketing initiatives and transform the opinion of its customers. The digital services and strategies of Apple can be improved to create a link of both direct (within the market) and indirect (cross-market) networks for offering personalised services and continuously improving and updating the smartwatches (Moore and Tambini, 2018). The upgrade in the products will result in maintaining a recursive relationship between the usage and adoption of the products and successfully operating in multiple markets all around the globe. The results of the research can become valuable lessons and recommendations for future researchers and their projects.

4. Summary

In this chapter, the conclusion about the findings, discussion and the results that were observed throughout the research was made. Then, the limitations that were faced during the research were described. It was then followed by the recommendations made for the organisations for improving their digital marketing and introducing changes in their strategies to increase the level of customer satisfaction. This chapter was the concluding chapter of the entire research.

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Appendices

Appendix 1- Questionnaire

1. What is your gender?

Male

Female

Non-binary / third gender

Prefer not to say

2. What is your age?

15-20 years

21-25 years

26-30 years

30 years or above

3. Which brand’s smart watch do you use?

Apple

Fitbit

Samsung

Other (Please Specify)-

4. What is your favourite feature of your smart watch?

Activity Tracking

Heart Rate Monitoring

Sleep Tracking

Phone Notifications

Other (Please Specify)

5. What influenced your choice of selecting smart watch?

Brand Name

Features

Someone’s suggestion

6. How did you come to know about the brand of the smartwatch you are using?

Television advertisements

Social Media advertisements

Friend/Family Member/ Colleague

Browsing through online stores (like Amazon)

Others (Please specify)-

7. What online platforms do you use to get information before purchasing smartwatch?

Social Media

Search engine

Shopping applications

Others (please specify)-

8. On a scale of 1 to 5, how effective do you think these marketing mediums are for the promotion of smartwatches? (1 being extremely unsatisfactory and 5 being extremely satisfactory)

Television marketing

Social media marketing

Radio marketing

Print media

9. How effective is the promotion strategy of your smart watch brand in satisfying customer?

Not effective at all

Slightly effective

Moderately effective

Very effective

Extremely effective

10. Do you feel that Apple should improve its marketing strategy to enhance customer satisfaction?

Yes

To some extent

No

No comments

Appendix 2- Ethics Form

Faculty of Business and Law

Ethical approval of Research: Undergraduate and taught Postgraduate students (not applicable to Postgraduate research students)

‘Research’ involves a specific research question or area and a project to investigate that, guided by a supervisor. An important part of research is to consider its ethics. This may include the consequences of your research topic. You must consider whether your research topic is in itself sensitive or potentially harmful. Seek clarification and advice from your supervisor on how to proceed. There are also ethical aspects to how you carry out research. It is essential that you and your supervisor consider these. You must not commence your research until you have ethical approval from your supervisor.

Please complete this form and pass it to your supervisor for their consideration. They need to sign it and return it to you. They also need to record that ethical approval has been granted.

If you are doing research within an organisation (eg. on placement) you must ensure that you have the organisation’s permission to do the research, and then to use the data you have collected. It is particularly important to check if your work is in/on health sector organisations (i.e. the NHS) because additional permissions will be needed.

See Research ethics policy and procedures - UWE Bristol: Research ethics

If you are doing research you must demonstrate that you have considered ethical issues. Specifically, if you are collecting data from human participants, again you must demonstrate that you have considered ethical aspects of the research.

You must include the completed form (signed by you and your supervisor) with your completed assignment.

Applicant Details (complete all sections):

Name of student (applicant):
Student number
Student’s email address:
Faculty and Department:
Details of course/degree for which research is being undertaken:
Name of supervisor:
Supervisor’s email address:
Supervisor’s telephone number:
Project title	Impact of digital marketing on customer satisfaction- a case of Apple’s Smart Watches Research Proposal

Please continue overleaf…Your first question is: “is my research ‘high risk’?” Please answer these questions:

Does your research involve….?	Yes/No
Children	NO
Other vulnerable groups, including those who lack mental capacity	NO
Sensitive topics, eg. sexual behaviour, experience of violence	NO
Human tissue, such as body parts	NO
Administrative data which is secured or not publicly available	NO
Deception of the participants (eg. Not saying what the research is really about)	NO
Accessing sensitive information (eg. personal or confidential data)	NO
Potential harm or stress to participants and/or yourself	NO
Methods which place physical or mental strain on participants	NO
Potentially sharing data beyond the scope of consent given	NO

If you have answered ‘yes’ to ANY of the above, your research may be ‘high risk’. You must discuss this with your supervisor. If your supervisor views the research as high risk you must apply to the Faculty Research Ethics Committee for full ethical approval, using this form http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/research/researchethics/applyingforapproval.aspx.

If your research is not classed as ‘high risk’ you still should ensure that you have considered ethical issues, been granted ethical approval by your supervisor, and conducted your research appropriately.

CHECKLIST QUESTIONS		Y/N	Explanation
1	Have you informed participants about the nature and purpose of the research and how data will be used?	NO	The questionnaire will be shared without informing the purpose so that the responses remain biased. No personal information will be shared to anyone.
2	Will participants be clearly asked to give consent to take part in the research?	YES	The participants will be given the option to not answer the questionnaire if they wish to do so.
3	Can participants withdraw themselves and their data from the research project at any time if they choose? Are they told this?	YES	The identity of the participants will not be required at any step of the process.
4	Are measures in place to provide confidentiality for participants?	YES	The identity of none of the participants will be revealed.
5	Have you ensured secure management of data, (eg. ideally stored only on UWE computers with passwords)?	NO	Received responses will be kept securely but will not be saved over computers of UWE as this will violate privacy feature.
6	Is it clear to participants for how long their data will be kept, and that it will be destroyed after that time?	YES	Their data will be used for the purpose of research without revealing their identity. After the submission of the paper, their information will be destroyed. They will be informed about before they start filling the form.

If you have answered ‘no’ to any of these questions please work with your supervisor to amend your research design.

Signature of applicant ……………………………………………… Date………………………..

Signature ofsupervisor……………………………………..……… Date………………………..

For further guidance please contact your supervisor.

FBL Faculty Research EthicsCommittee

June2014