Hi guys! Thanks for reading my recent post, I really appreciate that!
As promised, today's story will feature the new iPhone (iPhones) and the marketing side of the product launch in particular. First of all, I have seen them both already, touched and used the new fingerprint scanner. Moreover, my flatmate has already got a brand new iPhone 5S in granite colour. (Happy Birthday Song!) Yes, actually black&white Apple phones are in the past (unless we are talking about 5C), they are now silver, granite and champaign (at least from my colour perception standpoint).
Another thing I was happy to know is that Glasgow is one of those places where you can get a new Apple product at the date of actual release, which was September 20th (and pre-order from September 13th). By the way, according to some 'street statistics' (the number of people I saw queuing in from of the Apple Store) at least in Glasgow new iPhones where successful. My friend told me that the store opened at 8.00 and at 8.30 everything was already sold out! In case you would need some more authoritative figures - 9 million copies were sold on the opening weekend. More info here.
With all the negative stuff, like bugs, fingerprint scanner hack and so on, my verdict is the following - I would still want to get a new iPhone, because it is cool, even the 5C (for me C actually stands for cool), but like I would not spend my last penny on it (which I did with my iPhone 4s). It is like the excitment is over.... Wait, iPhone advocates, before hating me, let me just explain my point in more details. I would not talk about the technology and 64-smth processor, because I don't really care, but Apple`s marketing strategy - this is what caught my attention. And yes, new iPhone is successful, but there was this thin line Apple people have almost crossed.
1. The art of keeping secrets. Me, and I believe all the Apple fans, where quite dissapointed when long before the date of official release, it was possible to find everything (95% of information, to be precise) on the new phone model - colours, design, innovative features etc. Yes, I get that every other year data licks happened, that`s ok - this makes the excitement stronger and adds to the intrigue (is it true? did you know the new iPhone will be crystal? similar rumors). The thing is that we never knew the whole truth before Jobs or Cook revealed the big mystery. Therefore, what I don`t get is why was it so hard to have the secret kept this year. You might disagree, but the stock market defends my opinion - the very same day after iPhones 5S and 5C were released, company`s stock went down by 5%! And experts say due to the lack of new information: we did not heard anything new - everything has been seen in advance.
2. The power of brand. In the new university course I have just started doing online, brand was defined as a relatonship between the manufacturer (creator) and the customer. It kind of like a promise, supported with additional value company gives to their customers. People are irrational about their consumer behaviour, therefore, what they want from brand is not so much the substance, but emotion. It is all about iPhone making you feel happy/excited/on top of the world/chosen/rich/whatever. I believe iPhone equals luxury. At least few years ago, back at home one could rarely find young people using the expensive Apple masterpiece.
They used to buy it to make a statement - every celebrity, fashion, art people prefer (prefered?) iPhones, because they were so deifferent and so much better than other smartphones. Nowadays, HTC and Samsung are not far behind (I`d say it`s rather arguable which smartphone has it all and which does not). Subsequently, Apple must stick with the basics - be luxurious. However, they decided to conquer the new markets and make the cheap, sorry, colourful version. Here I would like to quote this witty review on Wired by +Katie Collins:
To illustrate the point, according to the report by We Are Social, 81% of social media buzz around the iPhone 5C launch was negative, with almost a half of mentionings being critical about device`s design and more than a third dissappointed with the price.
On the one hand, the cheaper model was inevitable, because of the modern market enironment. Moreover, the same strategy seemed to work pretty well with the iPod and iPad mini. On the other hand, iPhone 5C is not that cheap to compete with the competitors and 'damages' (?) the luxury brand attribute.
3. As the result, we can see the changing face of Apple brand. As I mentioned above, I guess 'C' now stands for 'cool'. This idea is proven by the recent research (12th annual CoolBrands survey) on brand perception, where Apple tops the list of the coolest brands, and not so much the list of luxury ones. I don`t know where the new marketing strategy is good or bad, we will see in a couple of years. Anyway, that`s a great topic for discussion - how big brands should adapt to the changing environments and how adaptable can the marketing strategy be.
As promised, today's story will feature the new iPhone (iPhones) and the marketing side of the product launch in particular. First of all, I have seen them both already, touched and used the new fingerprint scanner. Moreover, my flatmate has already got a brand new iPhone 5S in granite colour. (Happy Birthday Song!) Yes, actually black&white Apple phones are in the past (unless we are talking about 5C), they are now silver, granite and champaign (at least from my colour perception standpoint).
With all the negative stuff, like bugs, fingerprint scanner hack and so on, my verdict is the following - I would still want to get a new iPhone, because it is cool, even the 5C (for me C actually stands for cool), but like I would not spend my last penny on it (which I did with my iPhone 4s). It is like the excitment is over.... Wait, iPhone advocates, before hating me, let me just explain my point in more details. I would not talk about the technology and 64-smth processor, because I don't really care, but Apple`s marketing strategy - this is what caught my attention. And yes, new iPhone is successful, but there was this thin line Apple people have almost crossed.
They used to buy it to make a statement - every celebrity, fashion, art people prefer (prefered?) iPhones, because they were so deifferent and so much better than other smartphones. Nowadays, HTC and Samsung are not far behind (I`d say it`s rather arguable which smartphone has it all and which does not). Subsequently, Apple must stick with the basics - be luxurious. However, they decided to conquer the new markets and make the cheap, sorry, colourful version. Here I would like to quote this witty review on Wired by +Katie Collins:
'When Apple finally confirmed that it would be releasing a cheaper plastic iPhone, almost no one was surprised -- rumours and leaks have been rife for many months. What was more of a surprise was that the cheap, plastic iPhone wasn't quite so cheap and plasticky after all.'
To illustrate the point, according to the report by We Are Social, 81% of social media buzz around the iPhone 5C launch was negative, with almost a half of mentionings being critical about device`s design and more than a third dissappointed with the price.
On the one hand, the cheaper model was inevitable, because of the modern market enironment. Moreover, the same strategy seemed to work pretty well with the iPod and iPad mini. On the other hand, iPhone 5C is not that cheap to compete with the competitors and 'damages' (?) the luxury brand attribute.
3. As the result, we can see the changing face of Apple brand. As I mentioned above, I guess 'C' now stands for 'cool'. This idea is proven by the recent research (12th annual CoolBrands survey) on brand perception, where Apple tops the list of the coolest brands, and not so much the list of luxury ones. I don`t know where the new marketing strategy is good or bad, we will see in a couple of years. Anyway, that`s a great topic for discussion - how big brands should adapt to the changing environments and how adaptable can the marketing strategy be.
Let me know what you think!
Best regards,
M
No comments:
Post a Comment