Apples Personal Computer Brand - Term Paper Example

Introduction In the 1990s, the personal computer market was not doing very well due to intense competition and the presence of many market entrants into the market. Apple’s personal computer brand was performing poorly in the market facing intense competition from IBM and Microsoft. The personal computer industry was viewed to be a revolutionary innovation thereby requiring computers involved in the industry to spend their resources and market their products. Apple’s personal computers were highly differentiated more than any other technological company. The company was able to cut a niche in the market since it is molded in the counterculture phenomenon and it is characterized by innovative and revolutionary practices that has shaped its uniqueness, successes, strategies, products identity, and above all, its failures (Gallo, 2013). In 1990’s the failures of Apple’s strategies and brand loyalty was fast deteriorating. The company had lost millions in profits and jobs had been lost as the company tried to cut spending on personnel. Their popularity had further been worsened by their previous advertisement campaign which was perceived by the market to be way below their expectations. Furthermore, there was no single practical strategy that was working for the company at that time given that even their technological advancement was not ahead of other technological companies. Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple, returned to the company in 1997, displeased at the rate in which the company was sinking in his absence. Under his leadership, a new advertisement campaign was devised to restore the glory of the company, restore its market share and encroach into new markets for the personal computers. In the technological industry, especially where electronics are concerned, consumers were no longer interested in the basic features or acquiring products that everyone else has. Consumers wanted high quality products that are differentiated to define, not only what they say, but also to be the brand that defines what they drive, what they wear and what they possess. They wanted technological products that fit their lifestyles and add to the psychological meaning of what they possess already. Apple’s products gave the consumers products that had the potential to define their lives and needed an advertisement campaign that reminded them that (Yeshin, 2006). Apple’s Think Different campaign was pioneered by Jobs in an attempt to restore the counter-culture brand image that the company had lost. The transformational shift of the personal computer brand and ultimately the brand image of the company was left at the hands of a genius with intrinsic qualities, creative, innovative and a practical visionary. While people expected that he would focus on achieving technical breakthrough for the company, given that it was our months away from bankruptcy or acquisition, instead, he was focused on improving the advertisement potential of the company in a bid to remind the consumers of the high quality brands of the company (Deutschman, 2000). Since the company was aware that its brand was one of the most valuable in the market, they sought to spend their annual advertising budget of $100 million better. Campaign strategy and its rationale The campaign to restore the hip image of Apple’s personal computers ran from 1997 to 2002. The campaign utilized two main strategies; the print media and a TV commercial. The TV commercial was characterized by visionary figures who were featured such as Pablo Picasso, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Richard Branson, Dali Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Albert Einstein. There was less audio features while the runs were displayed other that the voice of American actor Richard Dreyfuss who read a narrated manifesto: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” (Apple, 1997) The print advertisement used several media such as magazine ads such as Time and Newsweek, billboards and posters. All the print media produced standardized ads which were black and white. The words “Think Different” were inscribed at the corner with a small colored Apple Logo as shown in the example below. The rationale for using the print media and the television to advertise their brand was based on the coverage they company would get (Segall, 2013).There are many people who are reached by the television especially since the 60 min advertisement was run on the prime time. The print media is also a very strategic form of advertisement and was chosen due to the value people have on news. As such, it makes it a viable media to pass important information. Magazines were chosen because it is rich in entertainment news such as sports, gossips, beauty, health issues and new trends, which fits well with the personal computers segment. Billboards were used as an outdoor advertisement structure especially in large cities with high traffic to enhance a large coverage of consumers (Yeshin, 2006). Evaluation of the campaign - application of advertising concepts & framework The effectiveness of the campaign used by Apple can be examined based on its success in restoring the performance of the company’s products in the market (Wells, Burnett & Moriarty, 2009). The campaign not only restore Apple’s brand image, but it’s also increased its sales to become of the leading market players in the electronic market (Belch & Belch, 2011). The campaign was heavily characterized by rhetorical appeal and reasoning through the application of pathos. By honoring the revolutionary and inspiring heroes from throughout the globe, the company was able to stimulate the common sense, values and beliefs of consumers across the globe. The creativity of these strategies was surely responsible for the production of positive change and opening of new markets. Given that Apple is a global brand, the range of the revolutionary leaders appealed to all the consumers across the regional divide to support it course (Paine, 2012). This is because the sense it revealed to the consumers was that the great revolutionary minds, regardless of their diversity and disconnectedness due to distance, culture and boundaries, shared common traits. Such great minds questioned the notion of status quo by striving to change the world into a better functioning place. As such, the message was to inspire people to honor revolutionary minds like Apple since they were striving to change the world by producing valuable and high quality revolutionary products which promises the future. In this case, the status quo metaphorically refers to IBM and Microsoft while Apple is the revolutionary heroes. Apple’s Think Different campaign was effective in relying on the creditability of the professional American actor Richard Dreyfuss, who was doing the voiceover as the names of the revolutionary leaders were displayed on the screen. The values and the characters of the heroes used was also a strategy to make sure that consumers would support his view of being different (Wells, Burnett & Moriarty, 2009). By so doing, the message challenges the consumer’s individual values and ethics where it is said that people considered the revolutionary heroes as trouble makers, rebels, misfits and even crazy for attempting to think differently and that they could change the world. Such a message prompts individual consumers to questions their ethics of they only think of retaining their status quo, and eventually, they are expected to agree with Apple since it does not matter whether they agree or disagree, the message makes it clear that, the revolutionary heroes would change the world for the better eventually (Belch & Belch, 2011). Consumers are reminded that they should always focus on the strong charters and to reflect on the good values so that they can see the worth of saying with the opinion that is moving towards the genius that promotes thinking differently. In this case, the genius is Apple. The campaign was very successful in the application of emotional appeal with an effect on awakening desires, feelings and even fear in their audience which led to arousal of connection, wonder and inspiration for people who viewed the advertisements (Paine, 2012). It was great joy for most viewers to watch the TV ad featuring most of the prominent revolutionaries in history. Most people have read about them but it was the first time such heroes who are responsible for sculpting civilization were visualized in a compilation like that. As such, such images have an immense power and influence in eliciting emotions of pride, peace, love, joy, inspiration, happiness, delight, confidence and awe. It made a majority of the people resonate with the message and therefore think differently. The achievement of this goal would remind that people would think differently about the brand they were going to purchase since Microsoft and IBM were already in the market, thinking differently meant that people would make a wise decision to purchase a product from Apple since it was a revolutionary brand (Farber, 2012). How could consumers not buy Apple’s products when it had the support all major revolutionary leaders who cut across the cultural divide? This positioning was creative in prompting people to thinking that if they agree with Apple and rally behind to support its products, then that will be a step towards change the world. That was a strong marketing message (Wells, Burnett & Moriarty, 2009). Apple’s advertisement campaign also appealed to creativity and use of common sense as the greatest way of generating positive change (Yeshin, 2006). The print advertisement only featured a single image of a revolutionary and there were no message to describe the reason why consumers would chose to buy Apple’s products. The simplicity of the print media was derived from creativity so that it could stimulate the consumers who saw the ad to use their common sense and relate the heroes on the media with Apple’s products. The new slogan Think Different was also used creatively to stimulate people into thinking that the world was changing and they would left behind if they were not to join the revolutionary move of Apple. The campaign was very effective considering that it was the first time after the return of Jacob Jobs. Jobs was one of the pioneers of Apple and he is also considered a revolutionary in the technological industry. His association with the great minds in the ad was the turning point for the company’s performance which miraculously saved the company from any form of acquisition or bankruptcy. Furthermore, the success of the campaign can be seen in how it transformed the company into a great productive company with leading technological advancement of the 21st century (Siltanen, 2011). Conclusion The technological industry is a very competitive industry given the fact that products get obsolete quickly and are thus replaced by others. Apple has had poor market performance in the 1990’s and an effective marketing campaign in 1997, spearheaded by its founder Jacob jobs enhanced its powerful come back into the industry. The success of the "Think Different" campaign was bolstered by the creativity in the message and the tactics employed to deliver the message. The campaign not only saved the company from looming bankruptcy, but it’s also led to increase in the sales of the company and the overall recovery. That enabled Apple to effectively competent heavily with Microsoft and IBM. In the light to this successful campaign, I would recommend that Apple utilize the same strategies in its future campaign. Employee the skills of creative personnel and invest in R&D in order to ensure that they always have fresh ideas for their consumers. References Belch, G.E. & Belch, M.A., 2011, Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, McGraw-Hill Maiden head Deutschman, A. 2000.The once and future Steve Jobs. Salon. salon.com/2000/10/11/ jobs_excerpt Farber, D. 2012. Apple tries out new 'Think Different' campaign. CNET. news.cnet.com/ 8301-13579_3-57504432-37/apple-tries-out-new-think-different-campaign Gallo, C. 2013.10 Powerful Quotes From The Steve Jobs Movie And What They Teach Us About Leadership. Forbes. Paine, R. 2012.Writing Today, 2nd Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. Segall, K. (2013). Think Different. Ken Segall 2013, Observatory: A watchful eye on technology & marketing. Ken segall.com Siltanen, R. 2011.The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign. Forbes. forbes.com Wells, W., Burnett, J. & Moriarty, S.2009, Advertising: Principles & Practices (International) Prentice Hall Harlow Yeshin, T. 2006, Advertising. Cengage Learning, Thomson Learning London Read More