Tag: marketing

The iPhone is obviously more than a phone

It’s a handheld mobile platform that does so much more than make phone calls after all, so using the phone aspect as the primary designation of the device when it’s probably among the least used function seems like a misnomer.

The moniker was probably the easiest one to go with back in the day. Apple wanted to distinguish the device from the iPod, which was still a strong seller in 2007, and people associated cellular devices with nothing else other than phones, at least back then, so it made sense to call it the iPhone even when it’s “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.”

It’s easy to see why Louie Mantia thinks the iPhone name is not a good fit but after 17 years the name has cemented itself as one of the strongest brands that has ever existed. The iPod seems like a more logical name for a multipurpose device and might have been great had Apple not felt the need to introduce the iPhone brand but I think that ship has sailed. The iPhone name has taken just as strong of a hold and recognition as the iPod in roughly the same amount of time, bland as it may be.

In four years the iPhone will be as old as the iPod was when it was retired in 2022. The iPod as a product category lasted 21 years. It doesn’t seem like Apple is a company that would make such a change after all these years and we don’t even know if the iPhone as a product category will still exist five years from now (probably will).

Might Apple resurrect the iPod name? Who knows, they resurrected the iBook name once (and retired it again in favor of Apple Books) but they no longer follow the i- convention of naming products so chances of that happening is probably pretty slim.

The iPod was a great name and its legacy lives on in podcast and AirPods and if the rumors of a touchscreen AirPods case ever come true, I’ve a feeling they’ll still be called AirPods.

The iPad only does less than a regular computer to us geeks

By giving people freedom to explore the app store without having to worry about anything (except their wallets), Apple has possibly made the best move they could make by locking down the iPad’s installation sources. That’s the one that’s the most helpful for the general state of technology. Apple is encouraging people to explore and play around. The iPad only does less than a regular computer to us geeks.

The iPad only does less than a regular computer to us geeks

Particularly with the Internet, everything that brands and companies do today is in the public domain. When I talk to brand marketers who are nervous about this, I say, “Interestingly, the answer to that is the same answer as it is for a person: When you have a very strong sense of who you are and what you stand for, and you always act from and operate on that basis, you have nothing to worry about in terms of wherever people encounter you, because you are simply being completely honest.” Authenticity, integrity, honesty means you don’t have to worry about what people think of you, because you are being true to yourself. It’s true of brands, and it’s true of people.

Cindy Gallop (on TED blog)

Reaching out to Bloggers

If you’re thinking of pitching your product to a blogger, it’s not as easy as you think. In fact, you could be in for a lot more work than you think. Naturally you need to know the reach of those bloggers, how they communicate, how they perceive and react to products, and so on. In short, get to know your bloggers.
Chris Brogan put together a few tips for vendors and PR people on how to get bloggers to talk about products.

A lot of the times you’ll get bloggers who aren’t interested in your products or find your product less than ideal. Don’t ever push them to retract or complain about them because you’ll tend to earn quite a thrashing and you’ll end up with an even more negative press. 
If your product is useful to them and works as expected, they’ll talk about it and say good things about it. If your product under-delivers, or is uninteresting, they either won’t spend their time talking about it or they will but negatively. These are just issues that you’ll have to live with. 

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Value

Reading this post at Navinot (Indonesian) and this one from Nindya sent flashbacks of business school to my head.

Perceived value is more important than real value. It’s what gets people to buy. Or not buy for that matter. Otherwise why would someone pay so much to fly first class? First class may offer better service than coach, or economy but think about it. Is it really worth the price just because that’s how much they charge for it? How do you monetize the term first class vs business class, vs economy class? How do you know they’re not actually overcharging you? Some even have exceptional economy class service that exceeds that of other airlines’ business class. The brand of the service or product also plays part in determining value.

Apple to some, is arguably one of the biggest offenders in this regard. An iPhone 3G is made up of components costing less than US$300 according to iSupply but a fully unlocked 8GB iPhone 3G costs about US$600 direct from the telcos that do sell unlocked or $700 direct from Apple in Hong Kong. In the US, if you sign up for an iPhone you end up paying in excess of $1800 over the life of the contract (2 years).

Is the Mighty Mouse worth $70? Probably not more than $50. iPods are in general more expensive than their competitors’ but should they be really that much more expensive or are they a bargain? Being able to easily manage music in them via iTunes and other iPod software capabilities add more to value but it’s difficult to be expressed in monetary terms.

And then there’s the Macs themselves. Are they really priced at premiums? Majority of perceptions say yes but perhaps not necessarily. Further to that point, the integration of Mac OS X itself with the hardware as well as across Apple’s other software line up such as iWork, iTunes, iLife, Final Cut or Logic series, and the general stability and seecurity of Mac OS X over XP and Vista present the Mac with an even higher intrinsic and perceived value which makes the seemingly premium price now a bargain.

Ticket price or printed price may be absolute but the value of the product is certainly relative to the eye (and mind) of the buyer.