I was bored and had a look around the Apple site. The iPod marketing bumf is not very good IMO.
No disrespect to Windows users but they are a prime example of consumers entrenched in their ways. To be won over to the Apple way they need to be led by the nose and then hit with a particularly big stick, not waffled to. It is possible to be politely blunt with potential punters about the virtues of an Apple product, but it doesn't seem to be the company way.
At the moment if you go to iPod information via the home menu in iTunes Music Store, assuming you can spot iPod, you get to see the 3 models with their prices and below, there is what to me is a rather low-impact explanation of what the iPod can actually do. I,d look at it and think, "Come on Apple, you'll have to try harder than quoting me a lot of pretty techno-babble if you want to sell me something that surely cant be that different to every other MP3 player out there."
Alternatively, if you go to iPod information via clicking on the Mac hardware range displayed on the Apple Store homepage, you get what seems to be a pretty clear "at a glance" explanation of the super MP3 player's features. It sounds pretty good, but if you read it carefully, or as I did, broke it down into points, the information is very waffly and not very coherently presented at all.
Apple of all people should know that less is better, and that particularly applies to the written word. iPods can only sell themselves to a certain extent
Compare my quickly edited PDF version to the version of the iPod page you currently get via clicking on a Powerbook icon on the Apple Homepage. IMHO I think Apple marketing need to tighten their act.
My strategy would be:
1 - iPod in bold in the current iTunes Music Store menu. Click.
2 - Welcome to iPod - In the top portion of the page have the existing image with the option of clicking on different views plus in another panel the option of a Quicktime movie playing the iPod in someone's hand, being used both on the road, and with iTunes. In the centre of the page there should be just simple bullet points of features and mono-syllabic one-liner explanations.
3 - To find out even more Click. This takes you to a more waffly Apple sales pitch, by which time the punter is going to be more receptive to the bigger picture.
4 - To buy. click. This takes them to the page you currently get sent to via iTMS.
Just a thought. Flame me!
No disrespect to Windows users but they are a prime example of consumers entrenched in their ways. To be won over to the Apple way they need to be led by the nose and then hit with a particularly big stick, not waffled to. It is possible to be politely blunt with potential punters about the virtues of an Apple product, but it doesn't seem to be the company way.
At the moment if you go to iPod information via the home menu in iTunes Music Store, assuming you can spot iPod, you get to see the 3 models with their prices and below, there is what to me is a rather low-impact explanation of what the iPod can actually do. I,d look at it and think, "Come on Apple, you'll have to try harder than quoting me a lot of pretty techno-babble if you want to sell me something that surely cant be that different to every other MP3 player out there."
Alternatively, if you go to iPod information via clicking on the Mac hardware range displayed on the Apple Store homepage, you get what seems to be a pretty clear "at a glance" explanation of the super MP3 player's features. It sounds pretty good, but if you read it carefully, or as I did, broke it down into points, the information is very waffly and not very coherently presented at all.
Apple of all people should know that less is better, and that particularly applies to the written word. iPods can only sell themselves to a certain extent
Compare my quickly edited PDF version to the version of the iPod page you currently get via clicking on a Powerbook icon on the Apple Homepage. IMHO I think Apple marketing need to tighten their act.
My strategy would be:
1 - iPod in bold in the current iTunes Music Store menu. Click.
2 - Welcome to iPod - In the top portion of the page have the existing image with the option of clicking on different views plus in another panel the option of a Quicktime movie playing the iPod in someone's hand, being used both on the road, and with iTunes. In the centre of the page there should be just simple bullet points of features and mono-syllabic one-liner explanations.
3 - To find out even more Click. This takes you to a more waffly Apple sales pitch, by which time the punter is going to be more receptive to the bigger picture.
4 - To buy. click. This takes them to the page you currently get sent to via iTMS.
Just a thought. Flame me!
