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Apple's Spent $38 Million Advertising the Apple Watch on TV in the Last Month
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I've seen the ad a number of times during prime time programming over the past few nights. Really enjoy it! The music selection feels very inspirational and makes me want to march into a store and buy one. ha
Hey, that's a pretty good ad. No wonder everyone here is going bonkers over the watch. Man... I do not miss having cable tv.
I've never been fired from a job in my life.
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To your second point, I suppose somewhat, but it's very difficult to convince a person they need something they didn't want/need to begin with. No amount of advertising in the world is going to convince them they need this. And especially with something new, like a smartwatch, if you are going to convince them, it has to be through some sort of delight in discovery. Apple's best chance to win over people who had no interest is for someone who has one, to show off why it's so cool. If you can imagine needing or wanting that in your life, you might be swayed.
The people who are going to do that for Apple were going to purchase the watch anyway. In fact, despite less than glowing reviews of the the product, these people are still going to set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night tonight, to spend $1000 on something they've never even seen in person, and never tried on (which is something you kind of want to do with something you wear, and especially something that costs this much.) That's dedication. Did those people need to be advertised to? Not at all.
Maybe the only advertising Apple did that MIGHT have any effect at all is paying famous folks to wear them, and including them in fashion magazines, but my gut says that people interested in fashion aren't going to see this as fashionable, no matter how much Apple wants that to happen.
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To your second point, I suppose somewhat, but it's very difficult to convince a person they need something they didn't want/need to begin with. No amount of advertising in the world is going to convince them they need this. And especially with something new, like a smartwatch, if you are going to convince them, it has to be through some sort of delight in discovery. Apple's best chance to win over people who had no interest is for someone who has one, to show off why it's so cool. If you can imagine needing or wanting that in your life, you might be swayed.
The people who are going to do that for Apple were going to purchase the watch anyway. In fact, despite less than glowing reviews of the the product, these people are still going to set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night tonight, to spend $1000 on something they've never even seen in person, and never tried on (which is something you kind of want to do with something you wear, and especially something that costs this much.) That's dedication. Did those people need to be advertised to? Not at all.
Maybe the only advertising Apple did that MIGHT have any effect at all is paying famous folks to wear them, and including them in fashion magazines, but my gut says that people interested in fashion aren't going to see this as fashionable, no matter how much Apple wants that to happen.
to be fair--the iphone was a once in a generation paradigm shifting product that was released onto a maturing itunes ecosystem. Perfect storm. The smart watch is funky accessory that offers little promise for ecosystem synergy. In light of yesterday's reviews, Tim Cook's hyperbolic apple watch statements
seem delusional.
I think this needs to be thought a bit differently from the past Apple products, mainly because Apple is also targeting Apple Watch on a fashion angle. We've already seen a stream of MR posts about how AW showed up in fashion magazines, either on front pages or inlet ads. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think most of the past Apple products were showcased in this manner before its initial release. And I think this is where the bulk of the advertising money is being spent.
OTOH, I don't think I've come across AW being advertised all that much more than, say, iPhones or Macs in the "traditional (tech?)" angle. This segment is where many of the so-called Apple Faithfuls(TM) reside, and indeed Apple isn't spending the big bucks because there's no need to.
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OTOH, I don't think I've come across AW being advertised all that much more than, say, iPhones or Macs in the "traditional (tech?)" angle. This segment is where many of the so-called Apple Faithfuls(TM) reside, and indeed Apple isn't spending the big bucks because there's no need to.
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I dunno, I think you just need like, 5,000 Edition watches sold to break even, given its materials cost and such. Seems pretty doable.
Doubt if many of the Edition watches are actually sold though I do think Apple will move a ton of them. It was never meant to be sold.
To write off expenses since the company has huge profit margins. Coke doesn't need ads. People will buy from word of mouth, product displays (vending and fountain) as well as stocked store shelves.
How do I know this? Nothing coke or Pepsi advertises says anything about the drink anymore.
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The watch may be like the iPad. The previous likes weren't good enough. Apple changed that.
When the iPad first came out people had doubts but when they held it the first time it quickly became a hit.
Personally I think Watch 2nd gen will be that.
Apple has a tendency to make the first gen feel 2-3 years behind tech. That was great for iPhone (no 3G or App Store). But it's 2015. Apple needs to release something that's now and not 2010.
All Apple had to do was to wait for the technology to be right before releasing the watch, and it probably would have been as big as the iPad or iPhone.
For example, if the device had some substantial breakthrough, either by projecting an image above the device, or even projecting an image on a wall, to make the screen bigger, this would have been a hit. No doubt about it. But for some reason they decided to release something like everything else currently on the market, albeit maybe with better quality, but at a higher price point, and are trying to trick users into thinking they maybe want it by spending millions and millions on marketing and advertising.
I dunno, thinking about the high level meetings that were had over all of this makes me wonder about some of the leadership. Why was the direction they decided to go in all of this? Is this the really the best idea/product development they have at the moment? It's a tad worrisome.
For example, if the device had some substantial breakthrough, either by projecting an image above the device, or even projecting an image on a wall, to make the screen bigger, this would have been a hit. No doubt about it. But for some reason they decided to release something like everything else currently on the market, albeit maybe with better quality, but at a higher price point, and are trying to trick users into thinking they maybe want it by spending millions and millions on marketing and advertising.
I dunno, thinking about the high level meetings that were had over all of this makes me wonder about some of the leadership. Why was the direction they decided to go in all of this? Is this the really the best idea/product development they have at the moment? It's a tad worrisome.
"substantial" is making a smart watch people want to wear.
Go to best buy and look at whats there now, than tell me you or any normal person would wear that on their wrist everyday.
The Apple Watch is the start of wearable computing, Apple will take it mainstream like every other product line they have launched.
The masses will not choose a smart watch over a traditional watch unless you make it worthwhile. The masses will not put on a watch when they currently do not wear one unless you make it worthwhile. This product is like all the others, functionally speaking, and those do not sell. Why will this be any different? Because it looks better? There needs to be better function, otherwise the masses won't buy them.
We'll have to see how it pans out, though. Critics of iPhones and iPads said something similar along that line, too. Functionally, iPads are just big iPhones, and iPhones are just phones that can do "smart" things with a touchscreen, which is basically what smartphones were even before iPhones.
A) Tim Cook isn't the right guy for deciding the course of a company.
B) Tim Cook is under pressure to be innovative and release the next big hit.
C) Steve Jobs wasn't around to kick everyone's ass into shape and tell them, "NO! not ready."
they need to build up the hype because its mediocre
that......
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Watch,..Who gives a crap.
Fix the broken TV market, now thats something.
By your reasoning, Apple shouldn't ever have to advertise because only word of mouth will convince people to buy their products. Advertising can be many things depending on the company's goals. Since Apple Watch is so new and different, I'd say Apple's focus will be on building awareness, education and benefits... just like the early iPhone campaigns. Focusing on those things will lead to interest which leads to research which leads to sales.
The keynote, PR, product reviews, TV commercials, magazine covers, articles... this is all part of their integrated marketing campaign to generate awareness and educate the masses.
Of course, there's also product positioning and Apple is clearly positioning Apple Watch as a fashionable accessory. The fact that it graced the cover of Vogue and you have reviews with headlines like "The Apple Watch: Half Computer, Half Jewelry, Mostly Magical" tells me that they've been pretty successful at that so far.