Apple is one of the leading brands today.
We all know that Apple products are very highly priced. In spite of these high
prices, Apple continues to launch new products in the market and manages to successfully
sell them to a huge audience. What is it really about Apple that makes it,
well, “Apple”? Let us go deeper into the Apple products and see how they are
marketed.
Apple has very aesthetically appealing
products for all kinds of age groups. Apple products are not explicitly targeted
at a particular age group, although some features are designed keeping in mind
the larger chunk of the audience. For instance, the Apple iPods come out in
various colors, and we all know that colored gadgets are mostly a thing of the
youth. On the other hand we have more sophisticated looking Apple computers and
laptops, which would make them appropriate for use in offices and schools. Apple
sends out the message “Apple is for everyone” through its designs. This
definitely helps it capture a much larger audience.
Apple also uses brand recognition
through its products, and uses it more visually than other brands. While most
brands have some written material on their products, Apple just has its logo –
an Apple, far easier to catch the eye. Not just the logo, but also the designs of
Apple products are unique. Think of all the times you’ve seen someone with Apple
headphones in their ears and known that they are ‘Apple’ and every time you’ve
seen someone use a MacBook and known even from a long distance, sometimes even
without seeing the Apple logo, that it’s a ‘MacBook’. And all those times
you’ve made out someone’s phone is an iPhone by just looking at that one
button! We don’t even realize it, but we all know Apple products with just a
single glance.
Apple products are also designed in
such a manner that they appear to be easy to use. In today’s times, we’ll
probably find other phones that are capable of doing all that an Apple iPhone
does, but Apple presents it in a manner that looks so simple that anyone could
do it. Take for instance the Personal Assistant ‘Siri’; an Android phone can
probably do all that Siri is capable of doing, but you’ll have to press more
buttons, open different apps and it’ll probably take more time. Apple on the
other hand puts it all in one place, and markets it as a single simple use
tool.
We all know Apple has a great fan
following and Apple utilizes these Fanboys optimally to market its products. Every
time Apple is about to come out with a new launch, everyone is talking about
it, EXCEPT Apple itself. This creates curiosity and ambiguity in the minds of
the audience, and Apple happily lets them play the guessing game. It also adds
to the mischief by coming out with limited number of products immediately after
the launch, making it an exclusive product at that point. The human psyche is
such that you want to know what you don’t know and you want to have what you
can’t have. Apple uses this aspect to its benefit all the time.
Some critics of Apple are, however,
bold enough to say that Apple has this standing only because of its marketing
and has no substance. That’s not true. Apple does have substance, and it
optimally utilizes that substance and markets its products. Every brand that
has a fan following has to meet the expectations of the fans, otherwise the fan
base would disintegrate. For almost a decade we’ve seen Apple at the top,
maintaining that position very stably. Recently, however, with the launch of iPhone
5, we can see that Apple’s status has begun to wobble. It’s because of the
unmet expectations of the consumer market that this is happening. This is clear
testimony that the other Apple products have not just been successful because
of marketing, but because of marketing of what has been good in them.
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