New iPod Ad in Production?

[Dom]

Apple's marketing team sucks. If they were any good they would have been able to increase Mac sales. They failed. I think that they are probably too fixated on their current way of advertising, public relations, pricing, and design. I agree with the above posters that Apple should look to outside marketing firms for a fresh approach.

As an advertising copywriter I think you're being a little harsh on Chiat Day.

Macintosh is a great product if you're used to using Apple machines or have been brave enough to switch.

Light PC users (which probably constitute a very large majority of PC users) are happy to continue using what they know and are familiar with, and what costs them the least.

Most PC users don't give a damn what machine they have or what's inside it as long as it sends and receives email, maybe downloads a few tunes, lets them play solitaire, and allows them to write a neat letter to the bank when they've gone overdrawn.

That's one hell of a lot of inertia for a few 30/60 second TV commercials to tackle.

What Apple have done brilliantly, is to try and shift the balance by making Apple a lifestyle/style choice. Macs are good-looking lifestyle products that people would rather have in their living rooms rather than the cheap and nasty beige, black or scruffy white boxes PCs usually come in. The advertising and PR plays the same game and it works. I've heard more PC users wow at Macs over the last 4 or 5 years than I've ever heard before.

In fact, before the iMac, I was one of the only people I knew (outside design and advertising) who had any idea what a Mac was.

 

[yamabushi]

A large increase in sales is proof of effective advertising. Other effects can be helpful if they lead to future sales. However there appear to be at least as many people who are put off by the lifestyle based ads as are drawn to it. Therefore they don't seem to be helping sales in the long run either.

I am not overly fond of Dell but their advertising works. They seem to focus on the ease of purchasing and owning their computers - regardless of whether or not this is actually true. Since they use primarily the same marketing channels as Apple and most customers don't know or don't care about the technological differences Dell appears to have the winning advertising strategy.

They also often use a very low price model as a draw for further contact that externally appears just as good as more expensive models from their competitors. Most customers who visit their site, look in a catalog, or ask a phone representative will quickly find out that this is a bare minimum model that may not meet their needs and will purchase a more expensive model. This is good for Dell since they make very little profit on this budget model, but that isn't its purpose anyways. It only has to draw in potential customers to take a closer look at their products. I have never even seen any advertising at all for Apple's entry level eMac. The iMac's average price has inflated as sales have declined. Apple admitted that the primary reason for the failure of the Cube was pricing. Obviously there is a problem with the pricing strategy at Apple as well.

 

[Dom]

A large increase in sales is proof of effective advertising. Other effects can be helpful if they lead to future sales. However there appear to be at least as many people who are put off by the lifestyle based ads as are drawn to it. Therefore they don't seem to be helping sales in the long run either.

You can't be all things to all men. The same applies to product, brand, design and advertising.

So what you have to do is decide what you want to be, and who you want to be that to. ie; what are your brand values and what is your target market.

Yes, Dell and Dell's advertising might shift boatloads of PCs to boatloads of people. But do Dell's customers love their machines? I doubt it. Do they have any brand loyalty? I doubt it. Would they be excited about showing a friend their new Dell computer? No, probably not.

I know Apple is as intrested in profit as Dell is. But the difference is that Dell doesn't even attempt to disguise the fact (you know, with things like innovation, design, quality, corporate and product image...) Dell is a unit shifter and every time you see one of their computers or one of their ads, you're left in no doubt about it.

Is that what you want Apple to be? Because if it isn't, then their advertising can't be that either. Or would you rather Apple continue to earn their profits by genuinely thinking about their products and giving us something that equals more than the sum of its parts? If you do, then you have to understand that their advertising will reflect that.

And by the way, Apple has seen a bloody huge increase in sales. But no, sales are not the only guide to effective advertising. Apple is back in the minds of the general public in a way they haven't been since the Apple II. This is all down to product design, some bloody good PR and of course, advertising.

Apple may have never left our consciousness, but we are a very, very small minority. But thanks to their design, PR and advertising over the last few years, Apple is a mainstream brand again. And as long as they keep a presence in the mind of the consumer, their sales will continue to grow. And the more their sales grow, the more they will be perceived as a mainstream brand. And the more their sales will grow...

Get it yet?

 

[shadowself]

DISAGREE

You can't be all things to all men. The same applies to product, brand, design and advertising.

I will agree on this one point. Apple cannot be all things to all people. However, Apple is not even attempting to reach the majority of the population with the Mac. That is virtually a crime.

So what you have to do is decide what you want to be, and who you want to be that to. ie; what are your brand values and what is your target market.

I want Apple to be back to the 19+% sales market share it enjoyed back in 1989/1990. I want the quality we had back then (or better). I want the MacOS to have the technology lead it had back then.

Yes, Dell and Dell's advertising might shift boatloads of PCs to boatloads of people. But do Dell's customers love their machines? I doubt it. Do they have any brand loyalty? I doubt it. Would they be excited about showing a friend their new Dell computer? No, probably not.

Dell is a poor example. Their whole purpose is to ship units regardless of anything else. They only want to increase unit sales. As the CTO of an aerospace firm (and IT reports to me) I have a standing rule: If you buy any Dell equipment with company funds it is grounds for immediate termination, for cause. Period. Buy Apple; buy HP; buy IBM; buy anything but Dell. Buy a Dell and you're fired.

Because of Dell's advertising this is most definitely NOT the position of the other aerospace CTOs I know, nor is it the impression 90% of people have of Dell. Dell is often ranked as people having a very high regard for its customer service and quality of product. Virtually every person (and this is more than a couple dozen) I know who personally has had a Dell box has disliked both their customer service and overall quality. So how can the general population have such a high opinion of them while the so many Dell users have such a low opinion of them? Effective marketing and advertising.

Apple has a much better product in Macintosh. Why is Apple doing so poorly in unit shipments and market share? Ineffective marketing and advertising.

I know Apple is as intrested in profit as Dell is. But the difference is that Dell doesn't even attempt to disguise the fact (you know, with things like innovation, design, quality, corporate and product image...) Dell is a unit shifter and every time you see one of their computers or one of their ads, you're left in no doubt about it.

Actually, most of the ads i have seen for Dell recently push their quality and service much more than their cheap boxes. I have even fairly recently seen an ad a few times stressing all the R&D and innovation Dell puts into their products. These ads have been running on CNN and Fox News. Lately it seems like I see at least one Dell ad every time I turn either of these two channels on. Maybe they are running their cheap box ads on other channels, but even when I watch the other channels I have not seen any Dell ads which don't mention quality or service or some other aspect other than just cheap boxes.

How many Apple Mac ads have I ever seen on either of those two channels (CNN and Fox News)? Never. Not a single one.

Is that what you want Apple to be? Because if it isn't, then their advertising can't be that either. Or would you rather Apple continue to earn their profits by genuinely thinking about their products and giving us something that equals more than the sum of its parts? If you do, then you have to understand that their advertising will reflect that.

I have already stated what I want Apple to be. Their advertising won't support getting there. Their advertising with regard to Macs is just inadequate. Period.

Their advertising does NOT stress that they are "giving us something that equals more than the sum of its parts". While I would expect Apple's advertising to do more than just that, doing only this would be much better than they are doing now.

And by the way, Apple has seen a bloody huge increase in sales. But no, sales are not the only guide to effective advertising. Apple is back in the minds of the general public in a way they haven't been since the Apple II. This is all down to product design, some bloody good PR and of course, advertising.

Give numbers for this "bloody huge increase in sales". I have looked at the unit shipment numbers and they have either been relatively flat or falling for the past couple years. The market share has fallen too.

Yes, sales is the "bottom line" of effective marketing and advertising. There are other nuances too (ranging from the nebulous "mind share" to the more obvious customer contacts), but the bottom line is either to increase unit shipments or increase profits on the same number of shipments or both.

Apple is "back in the minds of the general public in a way they haven't been since the Apple II" only with regard to the iPod and iTunes and iTunes Music Store. Also 99% of this increase in "mind share" is due to news articles and the fact that virtually all of the competitors compare themselves to these three things. That's free advertising. Everytime a competitor comes out with an "iPod killer" people recognize that the iPod is the standard everyone compares themselve to.

Where is that comparison with regard to the Macintosh? When was the last time you saw, or even heard of a computer maker claiming their machine was as good as, or better than, a Macintosh? The last time I heard of that was over 11 years ago. Even though the Mac and MacOS might be the gold standard in many areas of computing no one -- and I do mean no one -- outside of the Mac faithful treat it as such.

Apple may have never left our consciousness, but we are a very, very small minority. But thanks to their design, PR and advertising over the last few years, Apple is a mainstream brand again. And as long as they keep a presence in the mind of the consumer, their sales will continue to grow. And the more their sales grow, the more they will be perceived as a mainstream brand. And the more their sales will grow...

I have to disagree with this one in the extreme. Apple is no more a "mainstream brand again" than it was three years ago when it comes to the Mac. For the first year or two after the original iMac came out Apple was a more accepted computer brand than it is now.

Most of the people I know do not use Macs. Many large companies (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Sandia National Laboratories, etc., etc.) used to have huge installations of Macs. Now they are 99.9% Windows machines. Apple has done NOTHING to win back those desktops.

Most of the general public are using Windows machines. Apple's advertising and marketing does nothing to attract them.

Advertising in MacWorld or MacAddict or MacHome or some such magazine (which Apple does routinely) does nothing to expand the installed base. In these cases Apple is purely "preaching to the choir". Apple needs to put a LOT of ads (and I do mean a LOT of ads) in Forbes, Time, Newsweek, USNew and World Reports, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc., etc.

Also I would like to see more Apple Macintosh ads on TV. Even if I saw one Apple Macintosh ad for every 3 HP ads or even one Apple Macintosh ad for every 10 Dell ads it would be something. It has been almost a year since I have seen any Apple Macintosh ad at all on TV. That is far too long.

Get it yet?

Do YOU get it, or are you just so sure that we are all wrong because you think you know how marketing/advertising works and just won't bother to see that no matter how well intentioned the efforts of Apple's marketing team is ... it is totally ineffective when it comes to the Mac?

With the recent spate of malware relating to Windows and Internet Explorer why are people suggesting changing to a different browser (which only solves half the problem) rather than suggesting getting a Mac and running Safari or Firefox or iCab or any other of a whole raft of browsers? The only people I hear suggesting a change to the Mac are the Mac faithful.

If Apple's advertising and marketing were effective, the computer media would be suggesting changing browsers or changing platforms and browsers for a complete solution. Apple's marketing has not done well enough to have the computer media even consider Macintosh as a viable alternative.

There are many, many other examples that I and others could list.

To the general populace Macintosh is not even thought of as a viable alternative. THAT is the fault of Apple's poor marketing and advertising and nothing else.

 

[Dom]

reply to shadowself

It is a large task to educate people as to why the Mac OS is 'better' than Windows. And I don't believe their advertising can do it for several reasons, which I'll come back to.

Recently, my PC using partner used my old iBook (with 9.2). She had a webpage open, and was writing an email. She wanted to attach an image from the webpage to the email but, as she was a PC user she didn't know how to do it on a Mac. She didn't believe me when I said to just drag the image from the webpage and drop it onto her email, and she was pleasantly stunned when it worked. I was stunned when she told me she couldn't do something that simple on her PC.

She likes Macs now. Every time she's used my iBook or iMac (with Panther) she's found something new to like about them. But she hasn't bought a Mac.

Why? Well she summed up perfectly why millions of PC users don't switch to Mac. Even though she's seen loads of benefits of Mac OS on the most simple level, her answer is that it doesn't matter to her because 'she knows how to use a PC'.

She actually sees her proficiency on a PC as a skill she's aquired over the last few years. And she doesn't want to 'throw that away'. How many Mac users would regard using the Mac OS as an actual skill? Not many I presume.

A similar thing happened with my mother. Around 5 years ago she wanted me to help her choose a PC. I told her to get a Mac. She didn't want a Mac because she was used to PCs "and I know the IT man at work who can help me out when it goes wrong". (Please note the 'when' and not an 'if'.)

I spent several months talking her into a Mac. And eventually she got a basic strawberry iMac. The reason? I put my foot down and told her that if she wanted help using a Mac, she could call me and I'd sort it. If she got a PC she'd be on her own because I knew sod all about repairing problems on a PC (I don't think she believed me but I assume it was a risk she was unwilling to take). Her original reluctance to get a Mac was for the same reason as my partner. She knew how to use a PC. It was familiar and safe, and a Mac was a step into the unknown. The story has a happy ending. She's now talking about upgrading, and she hasn't mentioned getting a PC once. She has a fondness for her Mac that she certainly doesn't have for her PC at work.

Now, back to the advertising. I do not think for a minute Apple's advertising can convince a PC user that Mac OS is simpler than the OS with which they are familiar and know how to use (regardless of Window's annoying quirks and foibles). They just do not see Windows as the illogical and annoying OS the way Mac users do. They see Mac OS as 'different' rather than 'better'.

So how does the advertising show that Mac OS is better? You can't. It's too complicated and subjective.

Compare it to a car. You advertise a car on its beauty (if it is beautiful), you can advertise it on its technological brilliance, you can advertise it on price. You can also tell people that the driving experience is better than their current car. But how believable could this be? Not very. The enjoyment of driving a car is a personal experience, not a second hand experience. That's why car manufacturers offer test drives.

The same applies to Mac. You need to get people to try it for them to love it. And Apple are achieving this, although granted it is a slow process. But I really do see it as a domino effect. The more people who start loving Macs, the more they tell people, the more people they tell, the more people will consider Apple.

I remember the Apple ads from the mid 80s. That was Chiat Day as well. And they did some brilliant advertising about why Mac was easier and better to use than PC (which was still command line OS).

Today the distinction is a lot more vague for the average consumer and harder for the advertising to tackle directly.

I'll end this rather lengthy post with another anecdote. I remember being in a store looking at the new FP iMac with OSX 10.0. Which looked wonderful. Then a woman stood beside me and looked at it. She turned to her husband and said "it looks much better than our PC, it's a shame that it didn't come out first".

And that just sums up the-person-on-the-street's view. They just did not have a clue that Apple existed before iMac. That is the battle that Apple advertising has. And it's a bloody difficult one.

 

[MacMan913]

I was thinking Nathaniel Hornblower as director,

ch-ch-ch-check it out

heh,

Ok I am unemployed and bored


sorry

Thanks to Bush

 

[davecuse]

I've read through some of the posts here, not all of them. I just wanted to add my two cents. I believe that Apple's advertising team understands one thing, there is a cult aura around Mac OSX and it's users, their advertising will not do much to convert the PC users of the world. So they advertise to current users, and in turn those users advertise through the most powerful medium, word of mouth. I've convinced 8 of my friends to switch in the past 3 months. In turn I have no doubt that those friends will do the same. The bottom line is, who do you trust most, your friends and co-workers or the talkie box in your living room?

 

[laurawallace799]

Has he worked on previous iPod commercials? The name is not familiar to me..

he does Bjork and Beastie Boys videos. Very famous. Google him.

 

[Dom]

I've read through some of the posts here, not all of them. I just wanted to add my two cents. I believe that Apple's advertising team understands one thing, there is a cult aura around Mac OSX and it's users, their advertising will not do much to convert the PC users of the world. So they advertise to current users, and in turn those users advertise through the most powerful medium, word of mouth. I've convinced 8 of my friends to switch in the past 3 months. In turn I have no doubt that those friends will do the same. The bottom line is, who do you trust most, your friends and co-workers or the talkie box in your living room?

Yep, I think this is exactly the kind of advertising Apple rellies on. Their advertising might only convince a relatively small number of PC users to switch to Mac, but in turn, those converts will convert others.

And the brand awareness that Apple currently have is higher than it's been in more than 2 decades, which possibly goes to prove that their advertising and PR is having more effect than some people on here would like to believe.

 

[stevehaslip]

they just need to get someone like TBWA on the case, that'd shift a few units!

 

[mrkite]

they just need to get someone like TBWA on the case, that'd shift a few units!

Chiat/Day is part of TBWA...

 

[alexhb]

First, I don't think the BMW ad is Apple's. It looks like something done by BMW (although I'm not entirely sure about that).

Yep, thay ad was made by BMW, you can tell because the narator in that ad is the same as in other ads by BMW. Also, the BMW ad uses "iPodYourBMW.com" in Helvetica, BMW's font, as apposed to Myriad, Apple's corperate font

 

[bonehead]

Here's the scoop

The new iPod ad is for the HP branded iPod. It is not being directed by Spike Jonze, it is being directed by Paul Hunter.

 

[Montserrat]

Advertising styles

ALSO... I think I would give a kidney to see a Chris Cunningham Apple ad.

Damn, that would be ****ing cool. Have you got the Director's Label DVD of his work. Essential viewing.

Someone else mentioned that the ad's should focus on the benefits of Mac OS X, and, although I think this is a real selling point for Macs, and one that relatively few people know about, advertising is sadly about lifestyle. People don't respond well to technical information or even really the pros and cons of a particular product, but companies try to show them the "cool" lifestyle that they will be living once they purchase the product.

If you look at most product ads (ie. excluding retail outlets/services ads etc.) they focus very little on the specification of the product more on ways to make the product funky. The iPod ad is a classic of this genre and has been cited as one of the reasons the product has become so iconic. The geeks among us (including myself) may prefer the hardcore information, but that won't sell Apple any iPods or any Macs.