Apple gets $400 million iPhone marketing campaign for free
USA Today has a fascinating article discussing Apple’s adroitness at marketing:
The avalanche of headlines and TV news stories about the iPhone - which hits the market in June - already have generated $400 million in free publicity, says Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie. “No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch,” Yoffie says. “It’s unprecedented.”
Some of the techniques are not really news, but more Apple knowing how to use them. No company has the reputation for ‘One more thing’ like Apple. When was the last time Microsoft came out with a product that was completely out of nowhere, catching everyone off guard? Surprises like these are great for building anticipation and buzz, with websites devoted to guessing what tricks Apple still has up its sleeves.
Apple’s use of product placement is also not exactly unknown. Whether it was the PowerBook defeating advanced alien technology in Independence Day, Sarah Jessica Parker typing her columns on a PowerBook in Sex and the City, or Seinfeld having a series of Macs in the background of his apartment, TV and movies would have you think Macs were in the majority.
The article also notes how Apple excels at making their customers feel like they’re special and part of the elite by presenting rival companies as the enemy. The extensive network of fan sites, user groups, etc. makes the success of this strategy abundantly clear, even if it does annoy many of those who don’t use Macs. In the words of Cosmo Kramer, you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle.
Filed under: iPhone News
Didn’t windows 95 generate enough attention comparable to the iphone? I remember that everybody was jumping ship from Apple to MS and it certainly caught Apple off guard.
I don’t believe that Yoffie is correct in saying that no other company has received that kind of attention for a product launch. What about console games? Or when a car manufacterer makes a concept car into a reality? I think that based on what Apple has done OUTSIDE of the general computer market has shaken the electronics industry and made them aware that the general public will no longer tolerate poorly designed devices anymore.
Palm guesses that too, but it may be too late for them.