Apple's Branding Strategy

Apple Inc. uses the Apple brand to compete across several highly competitive markets, including the personal computer industry
with its Macintosh line of computers and related software, the consumer electronics industry with products such as the iPod, digital
music distribution through its iTunes Music Store, the smart phone market with the Apple iPhone, and more recently magaine,
book, games and applications publishing via the AppsStore for iPhone and the iPad tablet computing device. !or marketers, the
company is also establishing a very strong presence to rival "oogle in the advertising market, via its Apps business and iAd network.
Steve #obs, Apple$s !ounder and %hairman, described Apple as a &mobile devices company& ' the largest one in the world (Apple$s
revenues are bigger than )okia, Samsung, or Sony$s mobility business*.
!or several years Apple$s product strategy involved creating innovative products and services aligned with a &digital hub& strategy,
whereby Apple Macintosh computer products function as the digital hub for digital devices, including the Apple iPod, personal digital
assistants, cellular phones, digital video and still cameras, and other electronic devices. More recently, the full impact of a very well
throught out brand strategy has come into focus ' and one in which customer e+perience is central
Apple$s core competence is delivering e+ceptional e+perience through superb user interfaces. The company$s product strategy is
based around this, with iTunes, the iPhone with it$s touch screen &gestures& that are re'used on the iPad, and the Apple Apps store
all playing key roles.

The Apple Brand Personality
Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions. The Apple brand personality is about lifestyle, imagination, liberty
regained, innovation, passion, hopes, dreams and aspirations, and power'to'the'people through technology. The Apple brand
personality is also about simplicity and the removal of comple+ity from people$s lives, people'driven product design, and about
being a really humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with its customers.
Apple Brand Equity and Apple's Customer Franchise
The Apple brand is not -ust intimate with its customers, it$s loved, and there is a real sense of community among users of its main
product lines.
The brand e.uity and customer franchise which Apple embodies is e+tremely strong. The preference for Apple products amongst the
&Mac community&, for instance, not only kept the company alive for much of the /0$s (when from a rational economic perspective it
looked like a dead duck* but it even enables the company to sustain pricing that is at a premium to its competitors.
It is arguable that without the price'premium which the Apple brand sustains in many product areas, the company would have
e+ited the personal computer business several years ago. Small market share P% vendors with weaker brand e.uity have struggled
to compete with the supply chain and manufacturing economics of 1ell. 2owever, Apple has made big advances in becoming more
efficient with its manufacturing supply chain, logistics and operations, and it can be assumed that as far as like'for'like hardware
manufacturing comparisons are comcerned, Apple$s product costs are very similar to those of 1ell. In terms of price to the
consumer, Apple$s computer products have an additional cost advantage3 the company does not have to pay another company for
operating system licences..
The Apple Customer Experience
The huge promise of the Apple brand, of course presents Apple with an enormous challenge to live up to. The innovative,
beautifully'designed, highly ergonomic, and technology'leading products which Apple delivers are not only designed to match the
brand promise, but are fundamental to keeping it.
Apple fully understands that all aspects of the customer e+perience are important and that all brand touch'points must reinforce the
Apple brand.
Apple has e+panded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening its own retail stores in key cities around the world in up'
market, .uality shopping venues. Apple provides Apple Mac'e+pert retail floor staff staff to selected resellers$ stores (such as
Australian department store 1avid #ones*, it has entered into strategic alliances with other companies to co'brand or distribute
Apple$s products and services (for e+ample, 2P who was selling a co'branded form of iPod and pre'loading iTunes onto consumer
P%s and laptops though in retrospect this may now -ust have been a stepping'stone*. Apple has also increased the accessibility of
iPods through various resellers that do not currently carry Apple Macintosh systems (such as 2arvey )orman*, and has increased
the reach of its online stores.
The very successful Apple retail stores give prospective customers direct e+perience of Apple$s brand values. Apple Store visitors
e+perience a stimulating, no'pressure environment where they can discover more about the Apple family, try out the company$s
products, and get practical help on Apple products at the shops$ "uru 4ars. Apple retail staff are helpful, informative, and let their
enthusiasm show without being brash or pushy.
The overall feeling is one of inclusiveness by a community that really understands what good technology should look and feel like '
and how it should fit into people$s lives.
Apple Brand Architecture
!rom a brand architecture viewpoint, the company maintains a &monolithic& brand identity ' everything being associated with the
Apple name, even when investing strongly in the Apple iPod and Apple iTunes products.
Apple$s current line'up of product families includes not -ust the iPod and iTunes, but iMac, i4ook, i5ife, i6ork, iPhone, iPad, and now
i%loud. 2owever, even though marketing investments around iPod are substantial, Apple has not established an &i& brand. 6hile the
&i& prefi+ is used only for consumer products, it is not used for a large number of Apple$s consumer products (eg Mac mini, Mac4ook,
Apple T7, Airport 8+treme, Safari, 9uickTime, and Mighty Mouse*.
The list of Apple$s Trademarks reflects something of a -umbled past. The predominant sub'brand since the introduction of the Apple
Macintosh in #anuary :/;< has always been the Apple Mac. Products whose market includes Microsoft computer users (for e+ample
MobileMe, 9uickTime, 4on-our, and Safari* have been named so they are somewhat neutral, and therefore more acceptable to
6indows users. =et other product have been developed more for a professional market (eg Aperture, the !inal %ut family, and
>serve*.
The iPod Halo Effect
Though Apple$s iPhone and iTunes music business is profitable in its own right, Apple$s venture into these product areas was based
on a strategy of using the music business to help boost the appeal of Apple$s computing business.
Apple is using iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and now iPad to reinforce and re'invigorate the Apple brand personality. At the same time, these
product initiatives are growing a highly relevant, appealing brand image in the minds of consumer segments that Apple has not
previously reached.
In a so'called iPod halo effect, Apple hoped that the popularity of iPod and iTunes among these new groups of customers would
cause these segments to be interested in Apple$s computer products. This does seem to have happened. Since the take'off of the
iPod there has been a dramatic rise in Apple$s computer sales and market share.
A couple of years ago, Apple$s aspirations for the iPod halo effect was was highlighted most strongly when it used the slogan &from
the creators of iPod& in its promotion of iMac "? computers. In this instance, the Apple brand came full'circle ' having been built into
a branding system that originates in the personal computer market, then leveraged into the consumer electronics market, and then
back into the consumer personal computer market.
This halo effect is e+tended with the hugely successful Apple iPad tablet computer. "reat customer e+perience with iPhone (and
familiarity with Apple$s touch screen gesture controls*, combined with a great product in its own right, has made iPod a huge
success that in turn is drawing even more people to Apple$s Mac computer products. In a move which also brings matters full circle,
the 5ion version of Mac @S> brings to the Mac the same touch screen gesture controls which iPad and iPod users have learned.
This is e+tension of a common user e+perience across Apple products has been further strengthened by the introduction of the Apps
Store to Mac @S> in mid'A0::. Mac users can now buy their @S> applications with the same convenience as iPad or iPhone users
can buy i@S Apps.
Expect the Halo to Spea ! Siri and "eyond
Speech will be the ne+t dimension in which Apple will gaining synery across its product lines. 8+pect the natural language speech
processing and interactivity capabilities introduced in @ctober A0:: on the iPhone <S to be introduced first on the iPad (which uses
the same operating system and A? processor as the iPhone <S*.
Apple is giving substance to speech interactivity by giving it a character ' a personal assistant called &Siri&. Siri can be somewhat
customised by using different languages and idioms (for e+ample, there are three versions of 8nglish speech available with country'
specific accents and pronunciation ' BS, BC and Australian*. Presumably other customisation or personaliation features will also be
introduced (perhaps user choice of name and other &identity& characteristics*.
2aving taught customers to use touch gestures, Apple is now going to teach us how to speak to computers (almost unavoidably, in a
specific Apple dialect of speech interaction*.
Apple Brand Strength #o$ Creating Financial Success
So far, Apples$ branding strategy is bearing fruit. !or e+ample, Apple reports that half of all computer sales through its retail channel
are to people new to Macintosh, the company$s sales and margins have been growing strongly since A00D, and Apple has achieved
several &best ever& .uarterly financial results in recent years.
5everaging the success of the iPod, Apple launched the iPhone (released in #uly 0E* to e+tend the brand even further. Apple$s bu
marketing efforts in the first half of A00E were truly superb, culminating in the release of one of the most highly anticipated
products for many years ' and launching apple into a completely new market3 mobile handsets. 4y #uly A00; the bu about the F"
iPhone resulted in over : million units being sold in the first F days of its release in over A0 countries around the world. This success
was repeated in A0:0 with the introduction of the iPad tablet computer, and in March A0:: with the launch of the iPad A which sold :
million units within A< hours.
Apple %e!entering the Corporate &aret 'ia the iPhone and iPad Halo Effect
Though no'one at Apple would say so today, the ne+t phase of Apple$s strategy seems focused on the %orporate marketplace.
A long time ago, Apple had a fairly strong market share in large companies.
A long, long time ago (at the end of the :/E0$s* the first spreadsheet program (7isi%alc* was launched on the Apple II. The first P%
(the I4M P%* to run a Microsoft operating system (P% 1@S* did not appear until :/;:. 6hen Microsoft launched its 8+cel
spreadsheet in :/;< it appeared first on the -ust'released Apple Mac, such was Apple$s presence among accounting and finance
departments.
8ven though Apple effectively stopped competing for corporate business during the ://0s, the Apple Mac is still used in corporate
environments. Microsoft still has a vigorous applications development team totally dedicated to writing business software for the
Apple Mac. )ew versions of Microsoft @ffice for Apple Mac still come out appro+imately A years before similar functionality is placed
in the ne+t version of Microsoft @ffice for the 6indows operating system.
@ver the ne+t few years it seems likely that Apple will re'focus on the %orporate marketplace3 The company provides regular
updates on the proportion of !ortune ?00 companies which are either trialing or deploying iPhone (currently over /0G*, and the
iPad. In A00/, when Apple announced &Snow 5eopard& (the current version of the Apple Mac operating system* it included features
allowing Mac computers to fully support Microsoft 8+change. This enables corporate IT departments to support business users who
wish to use Apple Macs for their main email clients. Apple latest version, Mac @S> 5ion (released in Summer A0::* includes all the
functionality needed to use a Mac as a business server.
Also, Microsoft continues to bring out advanced versions of Microsoft @ffice for Apple Mac, and ' very significantly ' in mid'A00;
Apple announced a software upgrade for the iPhone which allows iPhones to be fully supported by Microsoft 8+change email servers.
%orporate IT departments can now include iPhones as email clients.
@ne aspect of Apple$s strategy seems clear3 to use the popularity of the iPhone and iPad to break back into large corporations, sell
lots of those devices, and have Apple Mac back on the desks of large businesses (or more probably ' in the laptop bags of middle
and senior managers in most large businesses*.
The Macbook Air and iPad are clearly designed for business markets as well as for consumers, and Apple continues to display its
mastery in smoothly morphing customer e+perience and brand preference from one product category to another.
As we say, no one in Apple will currently admit to such ambitions, but Apple$s branding strategy is clearly e+panding to include
business and corporate markets once again.
After Halos ! Clouds
The ne+t step in Apple$s marketing strategy is the Apple i%loud, which delivers a seamless e+perience for using and sharing content
across all your Apple devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Mac*. i%loud enables a common &it -ust works& e+perience for using content
across all of Apple$s mainstream products. i%loud positions the company for a future where customers e+periences and their digtal
lives transcend the hardware devices which they use, and enables Apple to e+tend the brand e+perience well beyond individual
products.
Apple has invested in a ?00,000 (soon to be one million* s.uare foot Apple data center in rural )orth %arolina. This data centre this
will be used as the core of a data repository for Apple$s i%loud services, which will enable Apple to leverage it$s customer franchise
into an even broader market space. Apple i%loud is one of many ways in which Apple and "oogle are fast becoming arch rivals.
i(no$ Siri)
@nce Apple hand'held device users have become acustomed to this style of interactivity, presumably natural language speech
interaction will also be e+tended to the Mac ' in whatever form'factor Apple$s full'function computers have evolved into by then.
Perhaps longer'term, it can also be assumed that a user$s Siri personal assistant will be used to embody and create a feeling of
continuous e+perience across different devices, with Siri seemingly moving with us from device to device.
This continuity across devices will be possible because Apple is using i%loud to offer customers device'independence and multi'
device synchronisation ' so that whichever Apple device you move to the e+perience continues because the new one will &know&
what you were doing on the last one and can pick up dialogues such as chat messages where you left off.
Apple's *riginal Apple &acintosh &areting Strategy
Stanford Bniversity has published contemporary records and original documents of the marketing strategy for the Apple Macintosh
launch in :/;<, including the original Apple marketing strategy and the Apple Macintosh product introduction plan written by Hegis
McCenna.
It is now nearly F decades since the launch of the Apple Macintosh (on #anuary A<, :/;<*. 2aving proven itself and already gained
considerable popularity with the Apple II, Apple chose to announce the Apple Mac in one of the most famous'ever commercials,
aired during the third .uarter of Super 4owl >7III on AA #anuary :/;<.
The formal product release came a couple of days later on #anuary A<th, :/;<.
In addition to the innovative Apple Mac graphical user interface (based on concepts from >ero+ PAH%*, the Mac$s industrial design '
shown below ' was revolutionary for the time. Interestingly, it share$s the same screen sie (/ inch* as a relatively new P% format3
)et4ooks, and had a -ust slightly smaller screen sie than Apple$s :0 inch iPad and Macbook Air products.
The first Mac (above* had -ust :A;C4 of HAM
and a <00C4 F.?'inch floppy disk drive, and a
/'inch, ?:A+F<A pi+el monochrome display.

The original Mac graphical user interface was revolutionary in
its day. It introduced the use of the mouse and features such
as icons, fonts, folders, and audio to mainstream computers.