I am in the process of doing a marketing paper on iPod, for which I have to compare the marketing strategies Apple uses in the UK and in France.
Understandably, all French websites are unreadable to me, so I am finding it difficult to locate articles on the French MP3 player market.
Is there anybody here who is French? And if so, could you put me in the direction of any resources that might be useful? I need to have a solid grounding of the market in France, such as:
Competition to iPod (is it Sony, Creative, a home company etc?). And how much market share does iPod hold.
The iPods reputation / perception from the public. Is there any anti-American sentiment when it comes to buying products? Or is that just political.
The price of the iPod - I can easily find this out, but is it relatively the same as it is in the UK as a % of average earnings? I guess I could work this out by finding out the national French wage, and dividing the price of the iPod by it, then doing the same for the UK.
Taxation in France. Is there sales tax applied as there is in the UK (VAT)?
The situation of the iTunes music store - is there much French content? TV shows? Is the music tailored to the French market, or is it US concentrated content (music artist and tv shows)
Where is the iPod sold? In the UK, it was initially quite a narrow channel of distribution. But now everybody on the high street sells them. Does France have the same wide channel of distribution?
Marketing - I know that you have pretty much the same television adverts, such as the Eminem one, but what about print and other media. Is it in French? The Eminem advert has nothing French about it aside from www.apple.com/fr, meaning that localisation is kept to a minimum for Apple, thus reducing cost. Is this the case for all other iPod advertisement?
Who is buying iPods? Is it a wide spread of ages, but very popular amongst the teens like here? We have people from 7 - 70 with iPods... is it the same in France?
Apple stores. Is there many?
Sorry to make the post so long, but help with any of the questions would be appreciated, as well as any other information you might have.
Understandably, all French websites are unreadable to me, so I am finding it difficult to locate articles on the French MP3 player market.
Is there anybody here who is French? And if so, could you put me in the direction of any resources that might be useful? I need to have a solid grounding of the market in France, such as:
Competition to iPod (is it Sony, Creative, a home company etc?). And how much market share does iPod hold.
The iPods reputation / perception from the public. Is there any anti-American sentiment when it comes to buying products? Or is that just political.
The price of the iPod - I can easily find this out, but is it relatively the same as it is in the UK as a % of average earnings? I guess I could work this out by finding out the national French wage, and dividing the price of the iPod by it, then doing the same for the UK.
Taxation in France. Is there sales tax applied as there is in the UK (VAT)?
The situation of the iTunes music store - is there much French content? TV shows? Is the music tailored to the French market, or is it US concentrated content (music artist and tv shows)
Where is the iPod sold? In the UK, it was initially quite a narrow channel of distribution. But now everybody on the high street sells them. Does France have the same wide channel of distribution?
Marketing - I know that you have pretty much the same television adverts, such as the Eminem one, but what about print and other media. Is it in French? The Eminem advert has nothing French about it aside from www.apple.com/fr, meaning that localisation is kept to a minimum for Apple, thus reducing cost. Is this the case for all other iPod advertisement?
Who is buying iPods? Is it a wide spread of ages, but very popular amongst the teens like here? We have people from 7 - 70 with iPods... is it the same in France?
Apple stores. Is there many?
Sorry to make the post so long, but help with any of the questions would be appreciated, as well as any other information you might have.
J'habite a Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Je parle francais, mais ma langue maternelle est anglais.