In this post I’ll list five more lessons from Apple. In these points the emphasis is on marketing and making digital products successful after launch.

#6    Be a purple cow; be remarkable. This flows naturally from the lessons on product design. You have to create a product that is remarkable, which Seth Godin calls a “purple cow,” something that stands out from the crowd. Your being a purple cow is your marketing. This is precisely what Steve Jobs did after his second advent: he said “by-by” to beige and created the bondi blue iMac. People took notice. And Apple began to slowly recover. Uniqueness, “purple-cow-ness” was one of Apple’s main tools for getting attention and sales. Ever since Apple has created remarkable products which stand out from the competition. This is the best marketing strategy.

#7    Be cool. Now, this matters less if you make utilitarian products like virus protection software. It matters little if you’re selling tractors. But if you sell consumer products, and especially if you have significant competition, you can get the edge by out-cooling your rivals. Apple did this in many ways: artzy iPod ads featuring sillouettes dancing to popular tunes and Apple stores in malls with sleek, minimalistic decor are examples of Apple’s mastery of the cult of cool. You can also become cool by convincing the public that your competition is uncool. This is the see-saw effect. Herein lies the genius of the Mac vs. PC ads. In those ads Apple tricked the viewer, who expected a debate over whether Macs or PCs are better; the viewer is surprised to see that Mac is a really nice guy and the two never debate. Viewers then let their guard down, allowing Apple’s real message to get to them: PCs are geeky and are only good for doing geeky things. If you have a remarkable product it won’t be hard to gain a “cool” image and to paint your competition as “uncool.”

#8    Become a big deal. Apple gets plenty of press coverage, inverviews, and attention because they’re a big deal. Now, most of us can never hope to become a big deal in the same way that Apple is. But we can find ways to become a big deal in our market or niche. Become somebody. Matter. Then people will pay attention to you and you will get lots of free advertising.

#9    Find creative ways of dealing with the competition. Apple finds real creative ways of dealing with its competitors. During the early 2000s Apple made mainly operating systems and computers and was competing with Microsoft, which had almost all of the market share. Instead of raging against Microsoft and going down in a Thermopolae-esque blaze of futile glory, Apple created a Trojan horse—three of them actually: the iPod, iPhone, and iPad (go here for a break-down of how this tactic is working). Millions of PC users who would never have contemplated buying a Mac bought these devices; and many began to be pleased by the artistry and craftsmanship of Apple’s product. A steady, increasing trickle began making the switch. In addition, Apple has taken hold of the direction of the computer industry, turning it in the direction of mobile devices in which it is king (if you can’t beat ‘em, pull the rug out from under them). Thus large market-share in the PC realm may become increasingly irrelevant.

Consider Google. The kingdom of Mountainview decided to take over the world by moving everything “to the cloud,” the place where they are king. To this end, they created free programs such as gmail, google maps, and began developing Chrome. This threatened Apple. So Apple hit Google’s homebase—search and targeted advertising. By introducing a world of specialized apps Apple has begun elimininating the need for many kinds of search (check out this article about how “Apple killed the future of search”). Also, Apple introduced iAds, making the app system a serious alternative to a Google-centric system.

#10    Pay attention to the market and overall consumer satisfaction rather than individual users, cranks, geeks, and critics. Many times, Apple’s non-inclusion of a certain feature causes many users, cranks, critics, and geeks to throw tantrums. Such cranks, critics, and geeks present themselves to Apple as a fountain of conventional wisdom. But if sales are up, consumers are generally satisfied, and there is no market pressure, why bother taking the time or using the energy to include that extra feature? This is especially true if the demanded features hinder many users from meeting their goals and will weigh down the product.

—Josh

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 1:51 pm and is filed under iPhone App Marketing. 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.