I have heard the Apple formula for success reduced to 5 components. Component One: Don't sell a product...sell what the product does.
"Don’t sell a product….sell what the product does" means that the marketer does not sell an MP3 player by showing the menu and how easy it is to download songs from a computer, etc. Show cool people having a fantastic time using your product.
This is Basic Marketing but no one does it. I have stopped saying "This is Marketing 101" because that statement usually precedes an example of very rudimentary marketing. Nothing Apple does is rudimentary.
Marketers who think about it will agree that “No one goes to the hardware store because they want a quarter inch drill bit. They go to the hardware store because they want a quarter inch hole.” We understand that concept but we often forget about it and market the drill bit. It is easier.
Apple understood that people don’t want an MP3 player. They don’t even want music. You have to get more visceral to reach the Apple level of marketing genius. People want fun. If the purpose of your product is to provide fun, then show people having fun with your product. Apple did an amazing job of this. In the first iPod commercial, the viewer could barely see the product. The product name did not appear until the last 5 seconds of the commercial (and then, only for 2 seconds) and company name did not appear at all. Only the company logo for the final second of the commercial.
Most marketing managers would be furious with this ad, but then, most marketing managers have never harnessed the power of marketing to the emotion.
James Snider is the Business Development Director for Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC == Marketing, Communications and Design. Corporate Marketing Department ... one hour at a time. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessnider
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