Analysis of Apple's Marketing Strategy

Since launching the industry-revolutionary iPhone and iPad and the application store model that subverted the traditional business model, Apple has become the new darling of users and the media. Any movement can trigger a flood of discussion on social media. It can be said to be the "king" of this era with its own traffic halo. Today, this company, which was originally born in a garage and was once on the verge of bankruptcy, has become one of the companies with the highest market value and the greatest brand influence in the world.

Not only its products, Apple's unique brand philosophy, marketing strategy, advertising campaigns and minimalist copywriting have also become business legends that people talk about with relish. Some people even commented that there is a kind of marketing called "Apple marketing"!

So, what is the marketing philosophy that makes Apple the top player in the industry? How does Apple build a simple yet efficient marketing system? Why do advertisements always bring surprises to people?

Key points:

1. Apple's three marketing philosophies: resonance, focus, and infusion

2. Apple's full-chain marketing innovation: products - press conferences - creativity and content - user experience - social responsibility

3. Innovation is full of humanistic spirit

4. Products and retail stores become a lifestyle

5. Incorporate brand values ​​into every detail

Apple's three marketing philosophies: resonance, focus, and infusion

Apple’s brand marketing is inseparable from the three key words “resonance, focus, and infusion,” which was the “Apple marketing philosophy” established as early as 1977 when Apple was founded.

At that time, Jobs hired Mike Markkula and wrote a business plan. Markkula told Jobs that you should never start a company with the purpose of making money. Your goal should be to make a product that you believe in and start a company with strong vitality.

To this end, Markkula wrote down the three most important marketing concepts, which were later called "Apple Marketing Philosophy":

Empathy: closely connecting with customers and understanding their needs better than any other company.

Focus: In order to do what you decide to do, you must eliminate all unimportant opportunities;

Impute . A good company must learn to impute. Everything must be done to convey its value and importance, from packaging to marketing.

It is the "Apple marketing philosophy" that has been throughout and created Apple's "brand myth".

Apple's full-chain marketing innovation: products - press conferences - creativity and content - user experience - social responsibility

The ultimate pursuit of brand building, value resonance and product marketing is integrated into the entire process of Apple product launches. With eye-catching product innovation as the core, a press conference with explosive effect is held. Through humanized copywriting, advertising, content and celebrity communication planning, as well as experience store marketing with universal participation, and combined with valuable corporate social responsibility, users are reached and touched in an integrated manner.

>>Product-oriented: Develop truly exciting products

Apple's core competitiveness lies in making great products that resonate with consumers. This is also the basis of all marketing. From the iMac personal computer launched in 1998 to the iPod music player that became popular all over the world in 2001, to the MacBook that received rave reviews as soon as it was released in 2006, the iPhone that ignited the smartphone revolution in 2007, and the iPad tablet computer that created a history in 2010, Apple has always played the role of a "leader" to promote the development of software and hardware in the entire smart industry.

As an evangelist of "humanistic technology", Apple has been supported by a large number of fans for its outstanding product design and experience since its inception. As Jobs said, "The key to Apple is that we want to develop truly exciting products." During the product development process, Jobs often started over again for the sake of perfection, which caused the team to suffer, but they made products that resonated with consumers.

>>Press conference: Stimulate the secretion of dopamine in the audience's brain

Apple’s annual fall new product launch, when the new iPhone is released, has become the “Spring Festival Gala” of the technology industry, attracting countless attention. The reason behind this is also related to the importance that Jobs attached to it. Previously, Jobs always made careful preparations for Apple's product launches, including the scene, props, slides, etc., and rehearsed them repeatedly.

Jobs' wife Lauren said:

"He would revise each slide six or seven times. Before each speech, I would spend several nights with him preparing." He made each page of content into three different styles of slides, and then asked Lauren to choose the best one. He was so absorbed in it that he repeated every sentence over and over again, changing one or two words and repeating it again.

In his book, The Magic Speech by Steve Jobs, Carmine Gallo wrote: “Steve Jobs’ speeches tend to stimulate the secretion of dopamine in the audience’s brain.”

>> Copywriting: The more "lazy" you are, the more popular you become

Continuing the minimalist product style, Apple also achieved extreme simplicity in its new product copywriting, and resolutely did not use two words when one word could be used. Every time an iPhone is released, it always triggers heated discussions on social media, whether it is praise or complaints.

Specifically, Apple-style copywriting is good at using repetition, pun, parallelism, misuse of idioms, arbitrary deconstruction of idioms, and the rhetorical techniques of "A is B, B is still B". Some people commented that this highly recognizable copywriting comes from the fact that Apple has created a language style that is unfamiliar, colloquial, down-to-earth, and unique.

For example, the new product copy of iPhone 12: "Big refresh, small freshness", "huge huge huge 5G", "Charging, overspeed", "Mix and match, perfect match"...

Another example is Apple’s “overlapping” copywriting model: iPhone 4S is “the great iPhone, now even better.” iPhone 5 is “much more, much less.” iPhone 5S is “ahead of its time, unprecedented.” iPhone 5SE is “a big step in a small part.” iPhone 6 is “even bigger than bigger.”

>>Advertising creativity: Innovation contains a humanistic spirit

Apple not only creates classic products, but also classic advertisements. It always perfectly blends technology with emotion. There is a humanistic spirit hidden in its innovation, which resonates with users.

For example, the classic "1984" ad and the "Extraordinary" ad. The “Think Different” campaign, which lasted from 1997 to 2002, set the tone for Apple’s subsequent marketing. John Lennon, Gandhi, Picasso, Muhammad Ali, Einstein... Apple's "Think Different" advertisement pays high tribute to those who have moved the world forward. A series of iconic faces form a sharp contrast with IBM, whose motto at the time was "Think", and fully demonstrates Apple's image as a "disruptor".

>> Spring Festival Advertisement: The Care for “People” Behind Every Story

Giving cold technology the warmth of humanity and realizing the combination of art and technology, this value is reflected in Apple's various marketing activities. In the Chinese market, the most representative marketing campaign is the Spring Festival marketing campaign. By focusing on people, their creativity, emotions, and beauty, the Apple brand showcases its humanistic value.

Since 2015, Apple has started producing Chinese New Year advertisements. The strong emotions expressed in "Made in New Year", "Congratulations" and "Old Records" are moving. Since 2018, he has tried to use the iPhone to shoot short films, "Three Minutes", "A Bucket" and "Daughter", which have sparked heated discussions among the public.

Chen Kexin used iPhone X to shoot the short film "Three Minutes", which tells the story of a train conductor who is unable to spend time with his children every Spring Festival due to work, and reunites with his children on the platform for just 3 minutes during the New Year. A high-quality and touching story is the starting point of Apple’s commercial marketing. There is no product preaching, but rather the transmission of brand value and humanistic care.

>>Celebrity and celebrity marketing: There are no spokespersons, but "spokespersons" are everywhere

As we all know, in today's extremely fierce competition in the mobile phone market and the prevalence of entertainment marketing, Apple insists on not signing spokespersons. However, this does not mean that Apple has given up its celebrity strategy, but rather that it is truly trying to discover celebrities who identify with Apple's values ​​and products.

Apple started the Behind the Mac video series in August 2018 and has shared various videos showing how people use its Mac computers. One of the ideas was a black and white slideshow of celebrities using a MacBook. The images are all from found footage, and the ad lasts just over a minute, with images of a dozen famous musicians, activists, artists, scientists, and industry leaders flashing across the screen.

Famous faces include:

American rapper and songwriter Kendrick Lamar, feminist and activist Gloria Steinem,

American singer Billie Eilish, "Game of Thrones" actor Jonathan Van Ness, Lady Gaga,

Professional tennis player Serena Williams, drag queen RuPaul,

Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, and filmmaker Spike Lee,

Well-known late night talk show host Stephen Colbert, American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams,

Takashi Murakami, Solange Knowles, Jane Goodall, Donald Glover, Iris Apfel.

If these people rely on Apple products, why shouldn't others?

>>Outdoor advertising: User co-creation allows every user to become the protagonist of the creation

Among the changes brought about by the iPhone, one particularly prominent one is that it has transformed photography from a hobby and a technology into a part of daily life. Everyone can become a mobile phone photographer.

Apple has launched a global outdoor advertising campaign called "Shot on iPhone" to cooperate with mobile phone photography enthusiasts around the world. In cities around the world, you can see those big, bright, memorable photos that say “Taken with iPhone” and the name of the person who took the photo. This series of creative ideas eventually won the grand prize in the outdoor section of the 2016 Cannes International Creative Festival.

In order to emphasize the night scene shooting function of iPhone 7, Apple also held a marketing event called " One Nignt on Earth ". Artists from various places completed their creations on the night of November 5, 2016, such as the neon lights on the streets of Shanghai, the active volcanoes in Java, Indonesia, the Arctic caves in Iceland, the nightclubs in Johannesburg, etc. These mobile phone photography works also appeared on outdoor billboards in 25 countries and regions around the world.

>>Movie marketing: Using product strength to obtain free placement and ensure the brand image is maintained

Director Rian Johnson once revealed two pieces of information. First, Apple allows you to use the iPhone in the movie, but the voice-over is that Apple will not pay for it; second, the use must abide by its own regulations and bad guys cannot be allowed to use the iPhone.

In the 1990s, Jon Holtzman was Apple's marketing director. At that time, many filmmakers wanted to use Apple products as movie props, but they often couldn't get the latest products. Holtzman successfully persuaded Apple management to give priority to filmmakers, along with the media and employees' relatives, in the supply of Apple products. Since then, Apple products, especially the latest ones, have begun to appear in Hollywood movies in large numbers for free.

In 1996, Apple agreed to work with the film production company of the first Mission: Impossible. Holtzman said that in this cooperation, "it saved nearly $500,000 in production costs and got a commercial directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise." In 2011's Mission: Impossible 4, Apple products appeared in the movie for more than 8 minutes. Market research company Smallwood estimated that the value of these scenes was $23 million.

>>Retail store experience: Turn the store into a "work of art" so that users can experience the charm of the product in person

Apple’s largest “advertising investment” is actually in offline physical stores. Jobs once said: "Unless we can communicate our ideas to customers in stores, we're doomed." So, Jobs decided to open his own retail store. However, the retail industry is difficult to operate, and the plan was not favored by the board of directors and the outside world. But the retail store that Jobs carefully planned achieved unprecedented success as soon as it was launched.

The Apple Store, located in the most expensive area of ​​the city, is itself an invisible advertisement. Moreover, the Apple Store always leaves people with an unforgettable experience. From the glass staircase to every service staff, they all reflect the unique charm of Apple. Here, consumers can not only experience the latest products, but also get a comfortable service experience. To the extent that every user who walks out of the Apple Experience Store has the potential to become Apple's "voluntary" promoter.

Customers can comfortably try out various products in the experience store and freely take the products displayed in the store. It is more like a club than a store. Customers do not feel oppressed at all and there is rarely any commercial atmosphere.

>>User Operations: Apple's products and retail stores have become a lifestyle

>>Social responsibility: Integrate brand values ​​into every detail