ny consumers saw that action as a desperate bid by the company to generate cash, and stayed away from the sinking ship.
The third "P," place, is becoming an increasing problem for Apple Computers. As the market share for the company's products declines, computer retailers reduce the selling area allocated to Apple Computers products. The result is that even for those consumers would like to buy an Apple computer it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to either find the product or to find a good selection of Apple Computers products.
The fourth "P," promotion exposes a huge flaw in the Apple Computers corporate psyche. The company's envy over the success of the so-called "Wintel" machines is evident in the "put-down" character of the company's comparative advertising. By contrast, Microsoft, the company that produces the operating systems for the "Wintel" machines, and the manufacturers of the IBM compatible computers completely ignore Apple Computers in their advertising. Apple, however, likely is "preaching to the converted" hoping to stem further market share loss, as opposed to an attempt to gain market share. Unfortunately for the company, however, the promotional campaign appears to be failing on both counts.
The problem in the spring of 1996 is for Apple Computers to determine a way to stop the decrease in market share. A plan for determining how the company should approach this task is to survey consumers to dete
...