5 ms·

It's called marketing. Apple understands branding and marketing; very few other hardware makers do. What's remarkable is that Apple has been using the same play

It's called marketing. Apple understands branding and marketing; very few other hardware makers do. What's remarkable is that Apple has been using the same playbook for decades now, and nobody else has quite figured it out. It's the Nike playbook (Steve Jobs once said that he learned a lot from Nike's example). Don't market your tech specs; market your lifestyle. Apple's competitors are still running commercials about the dimensions, specifications, and miscellaneous stats of their devices. Such commercials basically announce "Hey consumers, here's a commodity. For the time being, it's slightly differentiated from other, more or less interchangeable commodities by way of some wonky stats you don't understand. Please buy it." Apple commercials, by contrast, show use cases and lifestyles. They use metaphorical and superlative language. That stuff works. It establishes an emotional bond with the consumer. Apple commercials aren't even really about Apple; they're about making consumers feel cool, special, hip, and creative because they use Apple products. It's the ultimate in feel-good messaging. Seriously: watch a Motorola Droid RAZR commercial, then watch an iPhone commercial. The difference is extraordinary.

pinaceae 15y ago
you're wrong. your comment is typical for tech-circles, but completely wrong. Apple understands products. Apple invests heavily into really good design, usability and compatibility. Their stuff WORKS, out of the box, without any fiddling. their products stay useful for a long time, longer than any crap of their competitors. This is what makes Apple successful. And it is clear why many "nerds" just don't get it - cause it means in reverse that they are wrong and the tools hey're building are second rate. such a nerdy thing to reduce apple to "good marketing". just like SJ was just a great "showman". It is people like you (sorry) that make Apple's competition looks like the clowns they are. You think a great ad would suddenly make Motorola sell more than Apple? Consumers are NOT idiots. They understand quality and value. They reward that with loyalty and word of mouth advertising. MS has understood this now and is trying hard with WP7. Let's see how that goes. They are lucky XBox 360 competed against Sony, not Apple.
- jonnathanson 15y ago
  "Apple understands products. Apple invests heavily into really good design, usability and compatibility. Their stuff WORKS, out of the box, without any fiddling. their products stay useful for a long time, longer than any crap of their competitors." This is not mutually exclusive with what I am saying. The two go hand in hand. Of course Apple focuses on product. But as far as its consumer messaging strategy goes, it talks about that product in a very specific, lifestyle-oriented way. Obviously it wouldn't be able to talk that way about its products if it products weren't great. "such a nerdy thing to reduce apple to "good marketing". just like SJ was just a great "showman". This is not at all what I said, and if that's the impression I gave you, then I'm sorry for not having been clear enough. But you're taking what I said in a tangent that was never intended. I am not "reducing" Apple's success to marketing, but rather, am explaining why consumers seem to have a love for Apple that they don't for its competitors (in response to the grandparent comment about not understanding why consumers have an emotional bond with Apple). Marketing and product reinforce one another for Apple; it's not one to the exclusion of the other. "think a great ad would suddenly make Motorola sell more than Apple?" Again, you're pretty wildly misinterpreting my post and making inferences that just aren't there. I'm not sure what else to tell you. Either I wasn't being clear enough, or you misread me, or some combination of the two. But I'm not saying any of what you're accusing me of saying. At all.
  - pinaceae 15y ago
    consumers don't really care about marketing at the end of the day. i live in austria. no official apple store. no apple billboards, tv ads, etc. apple marketing is non-existent. and still they sell. like hotcakes. die-hard apple haters succumb and by an iMac. because the products are great. great value for their money. and i don't get your backpedalling. your comment starts with "it's called marketing" and then you're piling on. no consumer "bonds" with a company because of marketing. that's pure drivel. consumers bond with value. if they feel they are treated nice, that they get value for their money. that's the "secret". classic marketing hates it, MBAs too. products matter? wtf. Zappos understands this. Porsche, BMW, etc too.
    - 15y ago
panic 15y ago
Apple commercials aren't even really about Apple; they're about making consumers feel cool, special, hip, and creative because they use Apple products. It's the ultimate in feel-good messaging. Seriously: watch a Motorola Droid RAZR commercial, then watch an iPhone commercial. The difference is extraordinary. I don't know which particular commercials you meant, but here are the ones I watched: Droid RAZR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9yisLa4ao http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9yisLa4ao (the first video for "droid razr advertisement" on youtube) iPhone: The first video on http://www.apple.com/iphone/videos/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/videos/ The Droid RAZR advertisement has very little footage of the phone itself, and doesn't demonstrate any of its features. Most of the ad is an action movie sequence. The iPhone advertisement shows people using the Siri feature in realistic scenarios. The focus is on the phone itself and what you can (purportedly) do with it. I've never understood this meme that Apple wins because of feel-good marketing. Apple's ads typically just show people using their product. This strategy wouldn't work if the product didn't have something intrinsically desirable about it.
- jonnathanson 15y ago
  "Apple's ads typically just show people using their product. This strategy wouldn't work if the product didn't have something intrinsically desirable about it." I didn't say anything about product quality in my original post. That wasn't my focus. My focus was on explaining -- in response to the grandparent comment -- why it is that Apple is able to establish an emotional connection to consumers. Marketing and product design are not mutually exclusive. And I did not intend to imply that they were, or that one takes precedence for Apple over the other. Since at least two people have incorrectly taken this from my post, I must have phrased something incorrectly. I'm really not sure how to have been clearer, but I'll accept responsibility for the misinterpretation. That said, it is neither what I meant to say nor imply.

pinaceae 15y ago

you're wrong. your comment is typical for tech-circles, but completely wrong. Apple understands products. Apple invests heavily into really good design, usability and compatibility. Their stuff WORKS, out of the box, without any fiddling. their products stay useful for a long time, longer than any crap of their competitors. This is what makes Apple successful. And it is clear why many "nerds" just don't get it - cause it means in reverse that they are wrong and the tools hey're building are second rate. such a nerdy thing to reduce apple to "good marketing". just like SJ was just a great "showman". It is people like you (sorry) that make Apple's competition looks like the clowns they are. You think a great ad would suddenly make Motorola sell more than Apple? Consumers are NOT idiots. They understand quality and value. They reward that with loyalty and word of mouth advertising. MS has understood this now and is trying hard with WP7. Let's see how that goes. They are lucky XBox 360 competed against Sony, not Apple.

jonnathanson 15y ago
"Apple understands products. Apple invests heavily into really good design, usability and compatibility. Their stuff WORKS, out of the box, without any fiddling. their products stay useful for a long time, longer than any crap of their competitors." This is not mutually exclusive with what I am saying. The two go hand in hand. Of course Apple focuses on product. But as far as its consumer messaging strategy goes, it talks about that product in a very specific, lifestyle-oriented way. Obviously it wouldn't be able to talk that way about its products if it products weren't great. "such a nerdy thing to reduce apple to "good marketing". just like SJ was just a great "showman". This is not at all what I said, and if that's the impression I gave you, then I'm sorry for not having been clear enough. But you're taking what I said in a tangent that was never intended. I am not "reducing" Apple's success to marketing, but rather, am explaining why consumers seem to have a love for Apple that they don't for its competitors (in response to the grandparent comment about not understanding why consumers have an emotional bond with Apple). Marketing and product reinforce one another for Apple; it's not one to the exclusion of the other. "think a great ad would suddenly make Motorola sell more than Apple?" Again, you're pretty wildly misinterpreting my post and making inferences that just aren't there. I'm not sure what else to tell you. Either I wasn't being clear enough, or you misread me, or some combination of the two. But I'm not saying any of what you're accusing me of saying. At all.
- pinaceae 15y ago
  consumers don't really care about marketing at the end of the day. i live in austria. no official apple store. no apple billboards, tv ads, etc. apple marketing is non-existent. and still they sell. like hotcakes. die-hard apple haters succumb and by an iMac. because the products are great. great value for their money. and i don't get your backpedalling. your comment starts with "it's called marketing" and then you're piling on. no consumer "bonds" with a company because of marketing. that's pure drivel. consumers bond with value. if they feel they are treated nice, that they get value for their money. that's the "secret". classic marketing hates it, MBAs too. products matter? wtf. Zappos understands this. Porsche, BMW, etc too.
  - 15y ago

panic 15y ago

Apple commercials aren't even really about Apple; they're about making consumers feel cool, special, hip, and creative because they use Apple products. It's the ultimate in feel-good messaging. Seriously: watch a Motorola Droid RAZR commercial, then watch an iPhone commercial. The difference is extraordinary. I don't know which particular commercials you meant, but here are the ones I watched: Droid RAZR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9yisLa4ao http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9yisLa4ao (the first video for "droid razr advertisement" on youtube) iPhone: The first video on http://www.apple.com/iphone/videos/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/videos/ The Droid RAZR advertisement has very little footage of the phone itself, and doesn't demonstrate any of its features. Most of the ad is an action movie sequence. The iPhone advertisement shows people using the Siri feature in realistic scenarios. The focus is on the phone itself and what you can (purportedly) do with it. I've never understood this meme that Apple wins because of feel-good marketing. Apple's ads typically just show people using their product. This strategy wouldn't work if the product didn't have something intrinsically desirable about it.

jonnathanson 15y ago
"Apple's ads typically just show people using their product. This strategy wouldn't work if the product didn't have something intrinsically desirable about it." I didn't say anything about product quality in my original post. That wasn't my focus. My focus was on explaining -- in response to the grandparent comment -- why it is that Apple is able to establish an emotional connection to consumers. Marketing and product design are not mutually exclusive. And I did not intend to imply that they were, or that one takes precedence for Apple over the other. Since at least two people have incorrectly taken this from my post, I must have phrased something incorrectly. I'm really not sure how to have been clearer, but I'll accept responsibility for the misinterpretation. That said, it is neither what I meant to say nor imply.