What are some marketing strategies?

Marketing strategies/Strategic Marketing: What are the different marketing strategies used by Apple, Dell, Lenevo, HP,Sony to segment, target and position their products and also to retain or increase their market share?

• And also considering Apple as nicher, and other companies has Leader,Challenger and Follower what marketing strategies and corporate strategies (cost,differentiation and focus)are they following to increase or retain market share, or to attack their competitors etc.

• Answer:

  I am going to assume you are referring to the laptop market as it Is the one that overlaps the companies you mentioned.   Across these companies, it is surprising how similar is their segmentation. There is a famous story about Steve Jobs when  he returned to Apple: he simplified the product portfolio in a2x2 grid: mobile and desktop, consumer and professional. This is almost the same model that is used by Apple for their computer portfolio today   Apple Mac - Mac Air for the traveling /busy executive - Mac Pro for those who need high performance   Dell - Low cost 'everyday' - Portability (ultrabooks) - equivalent to Mac Air - Premium design and performance  - equivalent to Mac Pro - Gaming (maybe due to Alienware heritage)   Sony Vaio - Essentials - low cost 'everyday' - Vaio Pro - Performance and portability   HP - Everyday computing / students - low cost - High Performance - Thin and Light   Lenovo - Thin and Light - ThinkPad - Performance (Pro) - Essential (value) - IdeaPad (design)   This beyond the traditional segmentation of consumer / small business and enterprise. I believe most of these companies are realizing a personal computer is a personal purchase - which has been accelerated by the BYOD phenomenon in mobile devices.   The above answers the question of how their product portfolio reflects their product segmentation. Now let's look at positioning   - Apple continues to differentiate on design + performance. I don't think Apple can claim 'think different' anymore, but their essence has always been great design with top-notch technology at a premium price, and it works. (for them).   - Sony wants to be the Apple of the Windows world by focusing on innovation and design, but all indications are they are failing   - Lenovo seems to position their laptops as optimized for work. Their slogan 'for those who do.' is a good example. The six reasons why choose Lenovo on their website are pretty weak and oriented towards support and reliability.   - Dell is leading on price. Or at least trying to. Their website as of today is completely void of any other value proposition.   - HP claims to be the #1 provider of PCs to businesses. A pretty weak value proposition. Like Dell, they rely on their distribution channel and price to sell.   The bottom line is that the PC business seems like one where most vendors (aside from Apple) believe they are in the commodity business. No wonder why Apple has been so successful: all other players have taken a price oriented approach, there is no differentiation, their websites talk about two things: specs and price. There is very little creative marketing.   Maybe this is why IBM sold their Lenovo business to a Chinese company and HP wanted to jettison theirs (and changed it mind after getting a new CEO). Dell just became a private company again and Sony is struggling with identity and relevance.   I hope this answers your question, or at least that you found my POC interesting