Is Apple better at developing technology or at selling it?
The original Macintosh or the 1984 superbowl ad? The mouse or the keynote presentation style? The iMac or the ‘I’m A Mac’ ads?
If it’s a question of which is more important it’s kind of silly, but you can’t deny that they’re great at both. In both product design and marketing, they’re one of the most envied and imitated companies in the world.
One thing that their products and marketing have in common is their simplicity. Their mouse famously has one button, so does the iPhone, and the MacBook enclosure is cut from a single piece of aluminium. And then there are the wonderfully simple headlines that accompany their product launches. Apple understands that the more special a product is, the less they need to sell it.
Here are a few from recent years:
It’s overpriced, totally impractical, and I want one.
They had journalists at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal calling this one “the Jesus Phone.”
That tiny little thing shoots video? Where the heck does it put it?
So how do you explain this:
Wait—what is going on here? It’s “advanced technology”? It’s “magical”? It’s a “revolutionary device”—and it’s “at an unbelievable price”? And did they just intentionally rhyme “device” and “price”?
Does this sound like the kind of marketing you do when your product doesn’t need marketing?
Why didn’t Apple’s marketers edit the tag line down to,”A revolutionary device at an unbelieveable price”???
Maybe they were too busy wishing they had the iPad MK II, or MK III, which will have a stylus and camera, respectively, I presume?
Steve needs you, Sam!!!!!
Good catch, Sam.
I think you are on to something . . . they are trying way too hard. “Unite and Conquer” would have been a lot better . . . (inside joke for Nail team)
Good point but what does the marketing have to do with if it’s a flop or not? If people want it they will buy it…to bad for steve jobs it looks like they don’t….
I still think the ipad will change everything. It might take a while but eventually this the final death to printed news print. Unite and Conquer that’s a good one.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1928558
the real flop for me happened when i figured out it doesn’t run mac OSX and runs the software that the ipod touch and iphone run. I was under the impression it would be a giant iphone with a computer harddrive….which would’ve been awesome. However, not being able to have more than one app open at a time seems frustrating to me.
oh and the video’s very funny if you’ve seen steve job’s ipad keynote