Marketing Apple: Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine

Apple Retail Strategy

2012-04-12T14:41:20-04:00

Getting ready to publish some new content related to Apple's retail strategy and I came across Carmine Gallo's Forbes' blog on the reinventing businesses the Apple way. Thought I'd share.

Apple Marketing Strategy drives Apple stock price past Google

2012-04-05T16:32:28-04:00

Following on to last week's post about Apple's retail strategy making them the most successful retailer - ever, comes today's news that for the first time, Apple's stock price is higher than Google's.

A pretty big milestone considering that Google hit $700 some 4 years ago and has not seen that level since while Apple as we know has grown from sub $200 share price to reach today's milestone. Here's a handy graph for those playing at home:

Apple Retail Success

2012-03-29T12:00:16-04:00

Even though Apple never sold directly to consumers before they opened that first store ten years ago in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, Apple now boasts some incredible bragging rights for its retail channel:

Apple operates over 360 retail stores which employs over 40,000 people;

Apple plays host to more than a million visitors every day;

Apple’s retail operations are on track to generate more than $20 billion in 2012

Amazingly, Apple’s stores average over $7,000 per square foot which is more than twice the former gold-standard Tiffany & Company.

It is estimated that Apple’s Fifth Avenue store generates over $35,000 per square foot making it the highest grossing retailer in New York - ever.

Amazing what great Apple marketing and great customer experiences have done for Apple...Apple Stores are the highest performing stores in retail history!

Just as Apple used these 5 secrets of marketing to become the world's most valuable company, Apple used 5 other secrets of retail to become the world's best retailer. I may reveal those secrets here soon so stay tuned!

Apple iPad Marketing Innovation meets...clothing?

2012-03-10T18:10:30-05:00

So I've been looking for a good way to carry my new iPad (once it arrives on March 16th that is) without wearing a backpack or carrying a bag. I want to be able to ride a bike, walk to a park, hop on a bus, or even see a movie without the extra burden of being tied down to a bag...or worse yet advertising to everyone that I'm carrying an expensive toy.

So I Googled "iPad clothing" - and I discovered the Scottevest Transformer jacket. While I haven't yet pulled the trigger on my Blaze Red XL purchase, it seems to me that this product is in need of some Kickstarter-type marketing love. They are clearly Apple, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs fans (and even have a tongue-in-cheek "Keynote" presentation where their CEO tries his best to channel some Jobsian love) and it seems they are really trying to bring innovation to clothing.

I doubt the words innovation and clothing have rarely been used in the same sentence - but when was the last time you saw jacket sleeves attached by magnets? I know some people like Mark Cuban think Scottevest's patent for TEC or "Technology Enabled Clothing" is a joke - but it got me thinking that while more than 300 million iOS devices have been sold I doubt that the attach rate of devices to clothing is very high. But it seems to me inevitable that clothing and technology will one day fuse.

I realize their CEO, Scott Jordan was recently on Shark Tank in an effort to get funding and/or free marketing (and some folks were really put off by his performance) but I think he's on to something. Pockets on our pants somehow predated the car keys, phones and wallets we have today and I'm pretty sure we're now all out of places to hold our tech comfortably. Perhaps some day we'll see a line of official Apple iClothing on sale in an Apple store.

Apple iPad Marketing Has Begun

2012-03-07T00:17:14-05:00

Photo taken at 9:10 PM PT on eve of iPad HD or iPad 3 launch. Apple Marketing rarely plays with colors in the Apple logo and in fact has strict branding rules against it.

This signals a potential hidden feature or app that could be huge. We will see in about 13 hours.

Btw, there are half a dozen satellite trucks parked outside ready to eagerly (and freely) spread the Apple marketing gospel!

Apple Marketing and the Education Opportunity

2012-01-18T20:47:11-05:00

UPDATE: Video Link to iBooks Textbooks overview

When I worked for Steve to reconstitute the Apple University Consortium in 1997, it was clear then how passionate Steve was for the education market. Not only did he believe (then) that technology could change the way students learn - but he also believed that the Education market could be an important foothold for Apple's business over time. Get students excited about the Mac in college and they become lifelong purchasers and evangelists.

Yet Steve learned an important lesson over time (and his experience trying to sell NeXT exclusively at Higher Education cemented this belief): that technology alone could not change the way students learn. Students - and teachers - needed more than just access to technology to change the world of education.

Apple has quietly been working with publishers and textbook providers to help them see this vision: while Kindle has helped some well-off consumers experience a better way to consume their New York Times Bestseller's fix, it has done nothing to help reduce the burden on average cash-strapped student wallet or back(pack). Apple aims to change this.

While not for everyone, Apple's new iBooks Textbook platform will apply Apple's ease of use to a traditionally murky process: publishing ebooks or textbooks. Naturally Apple's solution will make it simple to publish directly to the iBookstore and is aimed squarely at students' iPads. This becomes something of a virtuous cycle: faculty can easily publish custom books for their classes and require their students to use that book...which requires them to purchase an iPad.

The economic are simple: just a few textbooks can cost a student more than an iPad and are likely to never be used again. And the missing element is finally provided: interactive content that compels students to learn anywhere and everywhere. Apple hopes this revitalizes the textbook industry with the iPad at its center - just as it put the iPod at the center of the rebirth of digital music. Companies like Kno will give up building their own dual-screen tablet and instead focused on building great software with the iPad as their delivery tool.

If fact, this revolution already begun.

became

UPDATE: Brand new BBC Program on Steve Jobs

2011-12-17T16:49:34-05:00

Just learned that this will be broadcast in the US on CNBC Feb 2, 2012. Set your VCRs/DVRs now. Learn more here

Very proud to be part of this brand new BBC Special called "Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippie" on the life and times of the Apple Marketing genius himself. This program is filled with rare details from some of the people who worked closely with Steve and stars Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Andy Hertzfeld, Steven Levy and more (even me!)

Double-click the video to view fullscreen

My New Book on Apple: "One More Thing"

2011-11-07T00:22:59-05:00

As mentioned in a previous post, Steve's death inspired me to write a new book titled "One More Thing" which will be both an insider's view of Apple that tells what it was like at Apple before, during and after Steve's return, as well as details of my own personal journey. This post is just the first few paragraphs of that book. I'm looking for any guidance, help, or feedback to make this better. If you like what you see (or you don't) please let me know!

One More Thing By Steve Chazin

Chapter 1. Near Death Experiences
I’d like to tell you the story, largely unknown, of how Apple went from the brink of bankruptcy to changing the way the whole world experiences music, movies, the Internet, even our mobile phones.

It’s hard to imagine a world without Apple. For more than 30 years Apple has defined, reshaped and cajoled the staid PC market with one innovation after the other. It is no overstatement to say that the entire modern computer experience we enjoy today was perfected by Apple. And yet in the 1990s, amid a huge worldwide expansion of computer technology, Apple was less than 2 weeks from bankruptcy. Its products were overpriced and underpowered. It experienced an epic defection of developers and talent. It had no product roadmap or strategy to deal with the Windows 95 juggernaut. Then, in a fairytale turnaround business schools will teach for decades -the company found itself managed by its previously disgraced co-founder.

In order to tell that story, we have to wind the clock back to a time when Apple was a bit player in the backwoods of a sleepy personal computer industry. A time when Microsoft Windows had caught up and largely eliminated the gap between what differentiated a Mac from a PC. A time when Apple nearly died. We’ll learn that Apple’s brush with death was precisely what it needed to wake it out of its self-inflicted near mortality and return its mercurial founder to emerge phoenix-like to the man he became. But before I can tell that story, you need to know something else about me. In the same year Apple nearly died, I nearly died.

Next: My Near Death in Cancun.

Inspired by Steve: My New Book on Apple Marketing

2011-10-21T04:59:54-04:00

After spending the last few weeks thinking about Steve and the impact he had on the world, I've decided to write a more detailed book about my life and Apple. This book will reveal what it was like to work at Apple during the dark days before Steve returned as well as how Apple changed the world under Steve's leadership. You'll learn some secrets about Apple that I've shared in some of my keynote speeches including how I almost died the same year that Apple almost died, why the original iMac was translucent, and how iTunes was an accident.

As an experiment, I will begin by releasing some of chapters on these pages under new posts. My hope is that you will enjoy my writing and give me some feedback and in return I may release some chapters for free as I've done with my short ebook.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your help on this labor of love.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T12:22:53-04:00

Steve Jobs' death hit me in a way I wasn't expecting, even though I was expecting Steve Jobs' death.

I'll write much more on these pages soon, but I was inspired to quickly create this tribute video to him: Here is Steve Jobs narrating and starring in his own Think Different commercial. I couldn't wait for Apple to do this so I had to - of course using all Apple tools.

Steve Jobs Died

2011-10-05T20:01:10-04:00

Enough said.

First Apple Launch without Steve Jobs

2011-10-04T16:54:29-04:00

So I already knew that Apple wasn't releasing an iPhone 5 today - remember gang, there was no iPhone 2 or iPhone 3 (we went from iPhone to iPhone 3G to denote the new carrier). We also don't have an iMac 3 or an iPod 5, and the numbering scheme for iPhone 4 was really an anomoly.

So don't read too much into Apple product numbers. But I am concerned about three rare product launch slip ups that never would have happened if Steve was minding the store.

The first problem: Apple.com was unreachable for more than an hour today. Ok, the Store is something Apple always takes down before a product launch and then they time the home page to update as soon as Steve (er Tim) is done with his keynote. But here is how Apple.com looked for hours after today's launch:

Apple.com was down? That's huge news by itself. And if that wasn't bad enough, look at what the images of the iPhone 4S looked like on the Apple website after the Apple pages were finally brought online:

Really? Look at those white corners in the images of the iPhones? Anyone who knows web graphics knows you need to make those white corners transparent so the shadow effect is preserved. Here they look like they were hastily posted without someone noticing that problem.

And finally, around an hour before the keynote all the details of the iPhone 4S and the new iPod nano was announced on Apple's Japan website for the world to see. Whoops.

While none of these issues are earth-shattering in their own right (well, Apple.com going down is pretty big) I only hope this isn't the first visible signs that Steve's steady hand is required for Apple to continue to deliver great products - and experiences - that truly surprise and delight.

Come on Tim, your team has done better! (and we're all rooting for you)

P.S. I do take some delight in noticing that all the dates on the iPhone Siri screenshot - May 19 - is my birthday.

World's Largest iPad 2

2011-08-31T18:51:32-04:00

Where do they get these things? It works and has multitouch too. Perhaps Steve gave it to Marc after Marc gave him the trademark for AppStore.

Sent from my iPhone

Guy Kawasaki @Dreamforce

2011-08-31T15:30:31-04:00

Most people don't know this but Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was once a summer intern at Apple. Story is that Guy Kawasaki, the original Apple evangelist hired Marc into that role. Here he is greeting the Dreamforce faithful.

Sent from my iPhone

40,000 people

2011-08-31T12:27:50-04:00

Just a small snapshot of the numbers of people here to hear from Marc Benioff. More soon

Sent from my iPhone