Apple: Evaluating SMART Goals and KPIs
Founded in 1976, Apple has become a powerhouse among product development and technological advancements. What started as a singular computer prototype in an old garage has evolved into a hugely successful company with multiple product lines including: computers, phones, watches, and much more. Apple has continued to advance their consumer electronics products to streamline performance and design. With every new product launch, they strive to do better than their best, fit the needs of their consumer, and maintain their simplistic yet attractive brand designs. They truly have become the major competitor within their market and have established a large following of loyal customers.
Company Objectives:
Apple strives to “bring the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals, and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software, and internet offering” (Apple, 2020). This objective outlines the company’s desire to develop and advance their technology in their products to reflect the needs of their target markets.
Parallel to their company objective, Apple is committed to engaging within five core values that guide their operational and production standards: accessibility, education, environment, inclusion and diversity, privacy, and supplier responsibility.
SMART Goals:
With Apple’s company objectives in mind, SMART goals will be set for better productivity to create innovative and accessible technology for their consumers. These goals will help to direct Apple’s social media marketing team to align within the parameters of the most recent 2020 Apple product launches of the iPhone 12 series and extend to other products with the latest technology.
Specific: Increase user traffic to Apple’s website through social media posts/advertisements to boost new product purchases by at least 5% from the release of the previous models. Grow leads 5% by the next product launch.
Measurable: Track relevant KPIs as indicated below to identify specific data points to analyze including: conversion rates, hashtag usage, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and competitive advantages/disadvantages.
Attainable: Utilize social media to direct consumers to announces about new releases and updates. Offer free, contactless delivery and Apple support online as an alternative to in-store purchases.
Realistic: By setting a goal to increase social media engagement and tracking KPIs by at least 5%, Apple can continue to sell products to existing and new customers as scheduled. Consistently using social media to illustrate and promote technological features of new products will maintain brand visibility.
Time based: With the recent launch of the new iPhone 12 models, tracking SMART goals and KPIs within a six month timeframe will allow for quick feedback and insight on these specific products. The data collected will benefit Apple as it moves forward with the newly introduced A14 Bionic processing chip in the upcoming years. Any necessary updates to software or products can be accounted for and properly addressed in this time frame.
Key Performance Indicators:
When determining the appropriate key performance indicators to track on social media, it’s important to focus on the reach of Apple’s brand, consumer engagement, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction. These key elements will help to facilitate Apple’s growth and identify their successes and where they can improve. The following are the KPIs specifically chosen to assess and analyze the most recent Apple product releases:
- Social share of voice (SSoV): This will help determine Apple’s reach compared to their top competitors in the market on social media platforms.
- Hashtag engagement: Promote followers to post using #ShotoniPhone and #iPhone12Pro to track customer engagement with new products.
- Social media conversion rate: Track purchases prompted by traffic from social media to online store.
- Customer testimonials: Track and repost highest quality customer testimonials on social media to promote product. Track views, clicks, and lead generation from user-generated content.
- Customer satisfaction score (CSat): Send out customer feedback surveys with every Apple product purchase and analyze data key areas of improvement. (Non-social media related KPI)
SMART Goals and KPI Evaluation and Desired Outcomes:
KPIs can be thoroughly tracked and collected from social media to help determine Apple’s aptitude for reaching their SMART goals. It allows for data to be collected within individual platforms, using analytic software, for ease of evaluation. Social media is the forward-most tool for customer engagement and product advertising. Understanding where Apple falls among their competitors and how satisfied their customers are with new products can help determine what goals are successes and what needs to be improved.
The desired outcome for tracking KPIs and outlining SMART goals is to increase the traffic to Apple’s website and boost sales around and after the time in which Apple releases new products. Social media is a key factor in customer retention and engagement in the ever-advancing age of technology so it is important to utilize when promoting anything new. By tracking the data from the most recent product launches, Apple can determine more efficient ways to promote and sell their brand in the future.
