Welcome to Nineteen Forty One, the newest addition to the list of creative concepts from Zoom Creates. This is the Etc. post; it will happen without fail every Friday. Sometimes it will feature a rant, other times a rave.

Let me first begin by saying that my name is Lisa Harvey, and I am an account executive at Zoom Creates. But more importantly I am a recovering PC, also known as a Mac. Although a blog is far too short to go on at length about why I switched over from PC to Mac, one thing I can tell you is I will never go back. There is something to be said for the feeling you get when you are owned by a Mac. Life becomes easier, prettier, more organized and more fun. You get to join a group of elitists, but why? Why is Mac the creme de la creme? Besides a fabulous user platform and interface, what it comes down to is marketing.

Ask any Mac fanatic what the pivotal moment for Apple Computers was and they will tell you that things really took off with a little ditty of a Superbowl commercial back in 1984. The commercial was a play off of George Orwell’s totalitarian vision of the future, and the tagline stated “Why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” And it wasn’t.

Apple has long been heralded as a leader in marketing their products, but why? What have they learned and utilized to make their company the most popular kid in school? Let’s pare it down to what they do and what they know:

Looks aren’t everything, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Take a look at any product from Apple and you’ll notice right off the bat that it sure does look good. Aesthetic appeal is a huge plus for Mac. They spend monumental amounts of time making their products look far better than the competition. This also goes for their packaging. The simplistic design of their boxes have a tendency to make the recipient feel like a member of an exclusive club. Opening an Apple box is like opening that one gift at Christmas where the paper is almost too pretty to throw away.

The WAY Apple markets is unique as well. Nearly all new products are introduced to the public personally by Steve Jobs, CEO. Not only is he friendly and approachable, but he is a member of upper management, which shows that from top to bottom, Apple cares about what they do.  They have developed a fan base that basically does the selling for them. By ensuring they create customers for life, they also ensure that those customers will spend a fair amount of time talking about their choice to be a Mac and use Apple products, convincing their friends that it is, indeed, the only smart choice and thereby selling products far better than any sales rep in the industry ever could.

Finally, what Apple does better than most is to keep it simple. Things are easy in the Mac world. If I recall correctly, neither my iPod, iPhone or Macbook came with a user’s manual, and not because Apple forgot, but because it was so simple there was no need for instructions.

When it comes to marketing, from 1984 and with each and every ad or commercial today, what we are seeing is strategic forward thinking from a company who knows who they are and what they have achieved. The beauty of Apple is that regardless of their long list of achievements, the growth doesn’t stop. You will never see Steve Jobs present a keynote that says something to the effect of “well, we ARE the best and that is why we are going to take a little break now and bask in our glory.”

Always more to come from that clever little company that got started in a garage.

This entry was posted by Lisa on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under Etc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: advertising, Apple, mac, marketing