What is promotion?
“Promotion refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service or brand. The aim of promotion is to increase awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. It is one of the basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four Ps, i.e., product, price, place, and promotion”, (Wikipedia (n.d)).
Fig 38. ‘Look at what you can do with iPadOS – Apple (2019) Introducing iPadOS. Now iPad is even more capable, with powerful new features, including effortless multitasking and desktop-class browsing’
Promotion as part of the promotional mix or promotional plan also consists of personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, publicity and may also include event marketing, exhibitions and trade shows (Wikipedia (n.d)).
Apple Promotion Strategies
Apple’s promotion
strategies focus on establishing a connection with its loyal customers and
attracting people who want to join its community of ‘brand enthusiasts’. In
promoting its products and services Apple effectively does the following:
- trains its staff ‘not to sell’ through it’s A.P.P.L.E philosophy of customer service, with the aim to inspire staff to create memorable experiences for customers rather than have them engage in hard sales pitches which may be non-traditional in retail terms but it has proven to be a successful business model;
- runs sales promotions and exchanges giving customers the opportunity to trade in their old iPhones to upgrade to the latest iPhone;
- using emotive storytelling (to inform consumers how Apple products will make their lives better) and functional/competitive advertising (comparing how Apple products are innovatively superior to and unmatched by rivals) narratives across traditional mass media, out-of-home and online/digital platforms;
- using publicity to generate buzz, mystery, rumor and hype leading up to the market launch of new products and this includes tapping into online communities of brand enthusiasts and electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM); and
- staging live promotional events to launch new products and streaming these events on its popular Apple Services sites and unboxing videos via YouTube generating interest in and desire for Apple products among followers and social media influencers.
On the flip side, what
Apple could do better is its use of social media for connecting with and
engaging its loyal customers. There is a glaringly noticeable distancing and lack
of enthusiasm from Apple in the use of the social media platforms such as
Facebook and Twitter as compared to its rivals Samsung and Microsoft.
Apple Advertising
Apple when promoting its high-end products predominantly use above the line promotional platforms such as television and print media to creatively and cleverly advertise (i.e. through comparative or competitive advertising) the functionality of their products and how they are different and better from competitors. Another clever advertising tactic used by Apple is they commercially use emotive storytelling to create more engaging and impactful advertisements that resonate with people and how their products fit into their lifestyle and make their life easier and better. In essence, the aim is making products that become an extension to the lives of people and families.
Fig 2. Bhasin, H. (2018) Apple iMac, iPad and iPhone
products
When marketing a new product Apple heavily runs television and radio advertisements up to the moment it is launched. Apple concentrates on print advertisements in popular print media such as upmarket magazines to target affluent consumers in middle to high earning customer segments, telecommunication company catalogues and consumer-created channels containing communities of Apple “brand enthusiasts” “which allows them to exchange product –related information, and better evaluate their purchase decision,” (Lo Dolce 2016). In her article (Lo Dolce 2016) says the consumer-created channels with the most number of Apple brand enthusiasts are MacRumors, AppleInsider and MacForums. As well as mass media and online consumer channels, Apple also places an elegant highly visual and easy to understand jargon free message in full page advertisements in newspapers and magazines. Print promotions may range from a full and front page ad on the launch of the product.
Fig 17. The Daily Egg (2017) ‘Why is Apple's Marketing
Just So Darn Good? Print Advertisement introducing
Apple iPod’ [photograph]
Apple 'Think Different' Philosophy
The whole Apple’s brand is built on the “Think Different” belief says (Lo Dolce 2016). As part of differentiating itself Apple uses secrecy when launching new products which in turn generates mystery, rumor and buzz among existing customers and consumers in general. Apple goes to great lengths to keep its upcoming products hidden from its competitors, customers and employees, a clever tactic to help in generating hype and spread rumor via word of mouth. “Apple controls everything from its traditional advertising and communication about upcoming products, ensuring everything is safely kept hidden until the company decides it is time to reveal its innovations,” (Lo Dolce 2016).
Fig 16. Innovation takes the stage
September 10, 2019 – Apple: ‘Apple CEO Tim Cooke announces the
all-new iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11, Apple Watch Series 5, and iPad and provides
the latest on Apple Arcade and Apple TV+’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rAeqN-Q7x4
[accessed 18 November 2019]
By not engaging in social media, the company makes it impossible for consumers to have something new to talk about other than existing products. “In this case, if Apple does not release any detail about the upcoming products and services, consumers engage in freely earned media i.e. social community channels to connect with like-minded people who are curious over the silence (Lo Dolce 2016). According to (Lo Dolce 2016) the aim of the secrecy is to encourage brand enthusiasts to communicate their own information and spread unofficial rumors through electronic eWOM. Without any effort in not keeping information hidden from the audience, Apple generates a massive wave of eWOM in online conversations (Lo Dolce 2016). Given the number of followers Apple has amassed on its various Twitter sites and on Facebook, such online conversations are likely to increase the reach among Apple brand enthusiasts across geographic markets.
Apple Online Advertising and Promotion
To leverage their television and print advertising, Apple runs advertisements about their products online on its website and YouTube site to generate interest among consumers. Apple smartly uses video to create promotional and educational video to generate excitement about its new products, and engages with the audience. What Apple does very well is that through its online videos helps customers to visually solve their problems and help explain to them how to use all the functions of their Apple product. This enables customers to relate to the product and apply it in their everyday lives. The educational videos are very important to Apple in helping their customers solve any problems they have with the company’s custom and complex operating system. The videos play a vital role in the marketing of products, attracting word of mouth from customers, creating strong demand for products and services and are a valuable medium to communicate to customers.
Fig
12. Milan, Italy - July 2018: ‘interior of flagship store Apple of Milan’
When people visit Apple retail stores they will seldom see Special Sale signage reinforcing the company’s premium pricing approach and the exclusivity of their products.
Fig 13. Apple Watch
Series 5 (Apple website (Australia) (n.d))
Apple Out-Of-Home Advertising
In conjunction to big spending on mass media promotional platforms, Apple continues to heavily invest in old school ways to promote its technologically-innovative products, more specifically out-of-home advertising. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America Apple Inc was ranked in the top six spenders on out-of-home advertising in 2017 (The Star Online 2018). The company has successfully adopted this below the line marketing approach to promote the iPhone through signage and point of sale advertising in major retail outlets. Also, using traditional roadside and digital billboards, traditional and digital signs at venues such as subway and train stations, as well as signs mounted in stadiums and arenas (The Star Online 2018).
Fig 19. A large advertising billboard for Apple's iPad2 covers the facade of a building on Canal Street in New York City's Chinatown [Dreamstime Stock Photography (n.d)]
In terms of encouraging customers to trade-in their outdated iPhones, Apple’s successful strategy has been to run sales promotions and make exchange offers to entice customers to upgrade by purchasing the latest version of the iPhone via below the line marketing tactics.
Fig 39. ‘Apple distances itself from social media
– no links to its social media sites’ [online] (Apple website (Australia) (n.d))
Apple Social Media Non-Engagement Strategy
As part of its “Think Different” approach, unlike competitors Apple distances itself from social media. Whilst Apple unenthusiastically embraces social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter on the periphery, the company can still amass a large audience of followers without relatively little effort. For example, the AppleMusic Twitter site has collected 9.59M followers, iTunes has 1.35M followers and the App Store has 4.6M followers on Twitter.Therefore, the company specific Twitter site and Facebook are largely untapped and neglected, and mean a lot of missed opportunities for the company to engage and communicate with its large follower base. Apple is missing out on the reach that social media platforms provide, “to promote new products or minimize damage if something goes wrong,” (Kapko 2015). According to (Kapko 2015), Apple’s minimalist presence on social media seems to bear no impact on the company and its generally positive perception among customers.
Unlike Microsoft and Samsung, Apple
has stand-alone Facebook and Twitter accounts with no links to these sites
available on the Apple website. In essence, Apple maintains 100 per cent
control of all information channels and dissemination. Apple instead relies on
its community of Apple-enthusiasts and loyal customers to disseminate via word
of mouth messages about new product launches and any news from the company.
Samsung outshines Apple on Facebook
with 161,893,124 likes compared to Apple’s 11,879,714 likes. As well on Twitter
Samsung has tweeted 37.4K tweets and Microsoft’s 44.3K tweets compared to no
tweets by Apple. However, Apple is strides ahead with its stand-alone Instagram
account attracting 19.7M followers compared to Samsung’s 63.8K followers and
Microsoft’s 54.6K followers.
The problem with this is, if there
is a product or service related issue Apple may respond via one of its
‘enthusiast or service sites’, but this important communication about issues
that may affect them may be missed by many Apple customers. So there is a real
issue in terms of geographic reach. This is the case when you consider the
company could reach a greater number of customers by communicating its response
to resolving an issue via posting information on its Facebook site and tweeting
information on its Twitter site.
It would be beneficial if the company assumed that the majority of customers don’t necessarily follow Apple-enthusiast sites. By sharing up-to-date information with customers via its social media sites is also a good public relations tactic as it helps the company to inform and engage with customers specifically with regards to product problems rather than them finding out about them when they are reported in the mass media or inaccurate information via eWOM. Plus this will enable customers and fans to alert the company to any problems or issues they are experiencing or may have been informed about and communicate to the company. This would add another dimension to Apple’s customer service and experience strategies.
It would be beneficial if the company assumed that the majority of customers don’t necessarily follow Apple-enthusiast sites. By sharing up-to-date information with customers via its social media sites is also a good public relations tactic as it helps the company to inform and engage with customers specifically with regards to product problems rather than them finding out about them when they are reported in the mass media or inaccurate information via eWOM. Plus this will enable customers and fans to alert the company to any problems or issues they are experiencing or may have been informed about and communicate to the company. This would add another dimension to Apple’s customer service and experience strategies.
Fig 34. Elmansy, R. (2014) ‘Former Chief Design Officer of Apple Jonathan Ive shows the iMac
wireframe’ [photograph]
By the same token, Apple generates a large following on social media and Apple-enthusiast sites when customers unbox their newly purchased Apple product. This in turn generates interest in loyal customers to purchase the latest product innovation.
Leveraging Traditional Marketing Ways with Digital Marketing Strategies
With the growth of social media, it is paramount for Apple to leverage old ways of marketing by developing and implementing contemporary digital marketing strategies to engage customers in new and novel ways, to communicate important information about products and services, and giving them as many convenient options to purchase or seek assistance. This could be through captivating Instagram stories, eWOM through various messenger services like Snapchat, photos and videos, instructional and educational YouTube videos, or appealing Twitter threads (Jennings 2018).
A further approach could be to give
employees who have strong social media awareness creative license with the
brand experience, within reasonable boundaries (Jennings 2018). It will be on
employees to come up with interesting ways to leverage technology and social
media to bring customers into stores, or once those customers are there, to
interact with them in a fun and unique way (Jennings 2018).
Apple does
not interfere in their conversations and
contribute with content, it provides “two online forums where to share
solutions or ask questions to other users: Apple Support
Communities and Apple Developers Forums,”
(Lo Dolce 2016).
Despite its lack of activity on
social media, many of Apple’s related services, including iTunes, Apple Music
and Apple Store, take an active approach on social media (Kapko, 2015), whereas
the company’s Twitter account has zero tweets, its Facebook page has 11,879,714 likes but no recent visible
activity, making Apple’s pages appear as digital ghost towns”
(Lo Dolce 2016). Apple’s Support twitter account has over 1M followers, with
the company sending 1.13M tweets and offering more than 1,100K photos and
videos.
Apple
found a smart way to dealing with social media indirectly, by silently keeping control over the innovative products
to launch and over the message to deliver through traditional advertising,
while letting people do the PR work through eWOM on social platforms instead
(Lo Dolce 2016).
In her
article about avoiding brand decay (Tesseras 2018) revealed a number of
insights from an interview with the ‘Father of Modern Marketing’ Philip Kotler.
She quotes Kotler as saying “brands have got
to get better at differentiation. Some brands ought to lock into a specific
customer problem so they are the only brand really talking about that aspect of
a customer’s [life]. Marketing is best when it is customer-driven and
need-orientated, when it is really solving a customer problem.” In her article (Tesseras 2018) states “Kotler
believes one brand that has done this particularly well is Apple. He singles
out the launch of the iPhone, and the introduction of iTunes in particular
because it cleverly “hooked” people into all the features they got alongside
the phone.”
While Apple is not a model company for other organisations to follow in terms of their social media use, it must be said the company has been successful in achieving its marketing and business objectives through its integrated marketing and communications plans and strategies without relying on using popular social media platforms. On the flip side, there would be issues if Apple uses social media but does not achieve its marketing and business objectives. In regards to this logic, Apple has plenty of good news to share on social media but misses out on the opportunity to live stream its product launch events on their Facebook site and live tweet events on their Twitter site. Instead, Apple uses popular social media platforms advertising tools to buy advertisements promoting its latest product releases. Given the cult following Apple already has on Facebook and Twitter, it would be wise and as good a place as any for the company to re-invent its social media profile.
Is Apple a 'Model Company' For Other Organisations?
While Apple is not a model company for other organisations to follow in terms of their social media use, it must be said the company has been successful in achieving its marketing and business objectives through its integrated marketing and communications plans and strategies without relying on using popular social media platforms. On the flip side, there would be issues if Apple uses social media but does not achieve its marketing and business objectives. In regards to this logic, Apple has plenty of good news to share on social media but misses out on the opportunity to live stream its product launch events on their Facebook site and live tweet events on their Twitter site. Instead, Apple uses popular social media platforms advertising tools to buy advertisements promoting its latest product releases. Given the cult following Apple already has on Facebook and Twitter, it would be wise and as good a place as any for the company to re-invent its social media profile.
Other than revealing new products
and with more aggressive competition in the marketplace there is plenty more
reason and opportunity for Apple to reach out and connect with consumers on
social media platforms. While people buy
Apple products and use Apple services there’s even more of a need for the
company to communicate with its customers (Leswing 2016). These people might
pay for an iPhone every two to three years ‘but they live with Apple every
day’, (Leswing 2016).
Fig
35. Apple at Work – The Underdogs (2019)[online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9TdA8d5aaU [accessed 18 November 2019]
Apple’s marketing is customer-driven where the customer is number one priority and offers products to improve their lives. According to (Tessara 2018) Kotler says “the customers are the voters and they can make a brand or destroy it by a shift in their purchases. You need to state who you want your customers to be and the need you’re trying to satisfy better than anyone else.” Apple does this successfully through integrating its product, price, place, people, process, physical aspects and promotion strategies in order to achieve and maintain the formidable market position afforded to the company today in the global marketplace.
References
Jennings, M. (2018)
‘As Retail Reconfigures Into Click and Mortar, a New Kind of Employee Is Born’ Entrepreneur Asia Pacific [online].
Kapko, M.
(2015) ‘Inside Apple’s odd, yet effective, social media strategy’ CIO [online]. Available at: https://www.cio.com/article/2979114/inside-apples-odd-yet-effective-social-media-strategy.html [accessed 24 October 2019]
Leswing, K, (2016) ‘Apple Needs to hire some teens to
help with its social media strategy’ Business
Insider [online]. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-has-no-social-media-strategy-2016-12?r=us&ir=t [Accessed 12 November 2019]
Lo Dolce, A. (2016) ‘Brand management for a wired world: Apple’s
indirect social media strategy — Leveraging on EWOM through silence’ Brand Base [online]. Available at: http://www.brandba.se/blog/2016/4/26/apples-indirect-social-media-strategy-leveraging-on-ewom-through-silence [accessed 28 October 2019]
Look at
what you can do with iPadOS – Apple (2019) Introducing iPadOS. Now iPad is even
more capable, with powerful new features, including effortless multitasking and
desktop-class browsing [video]. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Glc2mHLPRM
[accessed at 18 November 2019]
Tesseras,L. (2018) ‘Father
of modern marketing’ Philip Kotler on avoiding brand decay and preparing for
disruption’ Marketing Week [online]. Available at: https://www.marketingweek.com/philip-kotler-modern-marketing/# [accessed 28 November 2019]
The Star Online (2018) ‘Big
tech is spending big in a decidedly old-school way’ [online]. Available at: https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2018/08/07/big-tech-is-spending-big-in-a-decidedly-old-school-way [accessed 28 November 2019]