Apple Inc.

Apple's first logo, designed by Ron Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. Almost immediately, though, this was replaced by Rob Janoff's "rainbow Apple", the nowfamiliar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the "bitten" logo, and Jobs immediately took a liking to it. While Jobs liked the logo, he insisted it be in color to humanize the company. The Apple logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be recognized as another fruit. The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible, and to represent the fact the Apple II could generate graphics in color. In 1998, with the roll-out of the new iMac, Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use monochromatic themes, nearly identical in shape to its previous rainbow incarnation, on various products, packaging and advertising. An Aqua-themed version of the monochrome logo was used from 20012003, and a Glass-themed version has been used since 2003. Slogans Apple's first slogan, "Byte into an Apple", was coined in the late 1970s. From 19972002, Apple used the slogan "Think Different" in advertising campaigns. Although the slogan has been retired, it is still closely associated with Apple. Apple also has slogans for specific product lines for example, "iThink, therefore iMac" was used in 1998 to promote the iMac, and "Say hello to iPhone" has been used in iPhone advertisements. "Hello" was also used to introduce the original Macintosh, Newton, iMac ("hello (again)"), and iPod. Apple Web Site Apple is primarily a consumer company, and makes most of its profit selling hardware, like its iPod music players and Mac computers. This

makes the target of Apples site much clearer marketing, selling and providing support for its products to consumers. They dont have to worry about selling licenses to manufacturers because theyre the only manufacturer, so the key purpose of the website would be to advertise and promote their multiple product lines, as well as selling them through their online store. 1. Homepage The homepage is one of the most important pages of the whole site because its the first, and in many cases the only chance you get to impress the visitor enough to keep them browsing. Youve got a few seconds to convince them that the site has enough value for them to keep using it, because if it doesnt, the visitors will leave. Apples approach to the homepage has been consistent throughout all the years that the site has been running. They use this page as a kind of advertising board that always shows a big ad of their latest product, followed by 3 other ads to another 3 products or news that is important at the moment. If youre not interested in any of the 4 suggested items, you can use the large navigation bar at the top, which is split into their core businesses: Mac, iPod and iPhone, followed by a couple of other important links, such as the online store and support pages. The navigation bar also incorporates a search field.

The interesting thing here is that the main ad at the top is huge indeed it almost covers the entire page. If this doesnt grab your attention then nothing will. Apple knows the importance of getting the customers attention using good marketing, so theyre not afraid to really go for it. One other thing to note is the lack of content. Youre not distracted by sidebars, notices or extra navigation items there are only a few items on the page, focusing your attention and making the decision of where to go next easier.

2. Flow What I mean by flow is this: is the site structured and laid out in such a way that I can easily find items to focus on? Do I know what to read after I focus on those items is the site design directing me across the page with less effort on my part, or do I have to work to try and navigate around the content to find what I need? Heres the MobileMe section on Apple.com: I think Apple has done a great job at structuring all of their pages. Here, the first thing you focus on is probably the picture on the right and then the large headline on the left. After youve read the headline you can proceed to read the marketing blurb below, which leads nicely into a call to action signup button for the free trial. If youre not interested in the trial, there

are more features below to persuade you, each one ending with a Learn more link to a more detailed feature page. This leaves no dead ends and keeps the user browsing. 3. Navigation Apples website has a large navigation bar at the top, which remains there consistently whichever section of the site you go to. The options available show the main sections split by its lines of business as well as a couple of essentials, such as support and the store. The bar also integrates search and branding as the home button displays the Apple logo instead of a label. Any extra sub-navigation is located on individual site pages and is placed within the context of that page, whether on a sidebar, or as a horizontal bar at the top.

4. Readability Because most of the content on the sites is text, its vital to ensure that everything is readable and legible. Here are the main things to consider when working on readability of your sites content: Make the text large enough so that its easy to see and read. Ensure that there is enough contrast between the text and background. Provide enough white space around the text to keep other content and graphics from distracting the reader. Provide plenty of headings or highlighted/bold text to allow users to quickly scan the content for key information. Add images and icons to make it easier to focus on individual sections of the text, i.e. product or feature descriptions. Keep the text short and to the point.

Lets see how Apple fare in this area. Heres a typical page on the Apple.com website: Apple does a great job of keeping everything easy to read. The text is generally small, but never too small so as to be a problem. Headings are set in heavier type and stand out, allowing you to quickly get the gist of each section. Apple also makes heavy use of white space to separate everything apart and adds images to make each text blurb more interesting. This is the Apple store. Really busy with lots of products and category links everywhere. Fonts get pretty small to allow more content to fit in, although good use of white space ensures things are still usable 5. Search Apples search is integrated into the navigation bar. When you type something in the search box you actually get live search results with AJAX, by way of a little box which pops up, showing you the results as you type. Its very well done there is no lag when typing, the results are grouped in categories and are fetched very quickly, usually before you finish typing your full query. Heres what it looks like:

If you want to see more results you can just hit Enter when youve finished typing and youll be taken to the standard search results page. Its very clean and organized by categories. You can drill the results further down by category, selectable from the menu on the right. Its functional and clean, and works well when youre trying to find any products that they sell. 6. Aesthetics Apples website aesthetics closely mirrors that of its product line. The navigation bar looks like its crafted out of aluminum and features gentle gradients and indented text. There are also plenty of reflections and minimalist design elements. Apple has always worked on unifying the look and feel of its interface across its entire product line, from the hardware to software, and their website is no exception. Do aesthetics have anything to do with usability? Actually, they do. Research shows that people perceive better looking interfaces as more usable.

Conclusion If youre looking at usability alone, Apple comes out ahead. They have a great designed homepage that offers less choice, which means the user needs to think less. They have consistent navigation across all of their pages. They use a lot of white space and sub-headings to make everything more readable, yet they keep things simple by not overusing too many different text treatments. The Apple site is generally user friendly and offers a great experience to consumers who use it to check out Apples latest products.

Apple's Original Apple Macintosh Marketing Strategy Stanford University has published contemporary records and original documents of the marketing strategy for the Apple Macintosh launch in 1984, including the original Apple marketing strategy and the Apple Macintosh product introduction plan written by Regis McKenna. It is now nearly 3 decades since the launch of the Apple Macintosh (on January 24, 1984). Having 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 quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on 22 January 1984. Apples brand marketing has been one of the key components to its success. A companys brand is the identity it presents to the public. This corporate identity plays an important role in how consumers view a company and its products. Smart companies put a lot of thought into brand management, crafting a brand character that will draw in customers. More than just a product name, a brand can make the difference in why consumers chose one product over another. Throughout its history, Apple has employed a brilliant branding strategy that has created a loyal community of customers. Apples Early Focus on Brand Marketing In the 1980s and 1990s, Apple focused on establishing a strong brand identity. According to a December, 2002 article in Wired called Apple: Its All About the Brand, Apples marketing strategy helped turn it into one the leading technology companies in the world. John Sculley, a former marketing executive for Pepsi, raised the Apple advertising budget from $15 million to $100 million. When Apple faced tough times in the mid-1990s, it was the Apple brand that helped the company survive. The Wired article quotes marketing expert Marc Globe, Apple is about imagination, design and innovation. It goes beyond commerce. This business should have been dead 10 years ago, but people said we've got to support it." 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, magazine, book, games and applications publishing via the AppsStore for iPhone and the iPad tablet computing device, and movie and TV content distribution with Apple TV. For marketers, the company is also establishing a very strong presence to rival Google in the advertising market, via its Apps business and iAd network. Steve Jobs, Apple's co-Founder, described Apple as "mobile devices company" - the largest one in the world (Apple's revenues are bigger than Nokia, Samsung, or Sony's mobility business). a

For 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 experience is central, and the Mac is no longer the hub of all things Apple. The company now offers a harmonised, synchronised, and integrated user experience across all of its main devices (iPad, iPhone, and Mac), using iCloud as the hub.

Apple's core competence is delivering exceptional experience 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-thepeople through technology. The Apple brand personality is also about simplicity and the removal of complexity from people's lives; peopledriven 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 just intimate with its customers, it's loved, and there is a real sense of community among users of its main product lines. The brand equity and customer franchise which Apple embodies is extremely strong. The preference for Apple products amongst the "Mac community", for instance, not only kept the company alive for much of the 90'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 exited the personal computer business several years ago. Small market share PC vendors with weaker brand equity have struggled to compete with the supply chain and manufacturing economics of Dell. However, 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 Dell. In terms of price to the consumer, Apple's computer products have an additional cost advantage: 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 experience are important and that all brand touch-points must reinforce the Apple brand.

Apple has expanded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening its own retail stores in key cities around the world in up-market, quality shopping venues. Apple provides Apple Mac-expert retail floor staff staff to selected resellers' stores (such as Australian department store David Jones); it has entered into strategic alliances with other companies to co-brand or distribute Apple's products and services (for example, HP who was selling a co-branded form of iPod and pre-loading iTunes onto consumer PCs and laptops in the mid-2000s - though in retrospect this may now just have been a stepping-stone). Apple has also increased the accessibility of iPods through various resellers that do not currently carry Apple Macintosh systems, and has increased the reach of its online stores. The very successful Apple retail stores give prospective customers direct experience of Apple's brand values. Apple Store visitors experience 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' Guru Bars. 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 From 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 just the iPod and iTunes, but iMac, iBook, iLife, iWork, iPhone, iPad, and now iCloud. However, even though marketing investments around iPod are substantial, Apple has not established an "i" brand. While the "i" prefix is used only for consumer products, it is not used for a large number of Apple's consumer products (eg Mac mini, MacBook, Apple TV, Airport Extreme, Safari, QuickTime, and Mighty Mouse).

The list of Apple's Trademarks reflects something of a jumbled past. The predominant sub-brand since the introduction of the Apple Macintosh in January 1984 has always been the Apple Mac. Products whose market includes Microsoft computer users (for example MobileMe, QuickTime, Bonjour, and Safari) have been named so they are somewhat neutral, and therefore more acceptable to Windows users. Yet other product have been developed more for a professional market (eg Aperture, the Final Cut family, and Xserve). 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 G5 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 extended with the hugely successful Apple iPad tablet computer. Great customer experience 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 brings matters full circle, the 2011 Lion version of Mac OSX brought to the Mac the same touch screen gesture controls which iPad and iPod users have learned. This is extension of a common user experience across Apple products was further strengthened by the introduction of the Apps Store to Mac OSX in mid-2011. Mac users can now buy their OSX applications with the same convenience as iPad or iPhone users can buy iOS Apps. Apple has announced that in mid-2012 it will further harmonise the user experience of Mac and iPad users by introducing even more features from iPad into the new Mountain Lion version of the Mac operating system. With the introduction of Mountain Lion, Apple will drop the Mac part of the name from the operating system, so that it will be called just "OS X", rather than "Mac OS X". This small but important branding change opens the way for Apple to consolidate, perhaps into a single Operating System, the software used across its multiple devices. Apple Brand Strength Now Creating Financial Success So far, Apples' branding strategy is bearing fruit. For example, 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 2006, and Apple has achieved several "best ever" quarterly financial results in recent years, and in early 2012 when Apple's share price passed $500 per share for the first time, the company was the most valuable business in the world with a market capitalization which exceeded oil company Exxon, the previous top business. Leveraging the success of the iPod, Apple launched the iPhone (released in July 07) to extend the brand even further. Apple's buzz marketing efforts in the first half of 2007 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 market: mobile handsets. By

July 2008 the buzz about the 3G iPhone resulted in over 1 million units being sold in the first 3 days of its release in over 20 countries around the world. This success was repeated in 2010 with the introduction of the iPad tablet computer, and in March 2011 with the launch of the iPad 2 which sold 1 million units within 24 hours. The Key to the Apple Brand Success Apple continued to focus on brand marketing in the 2000s. The introduction and marketing of the iPod in 2001 was its first strategic brand marketing move of the new millennium. The iPod was not the first portable digital music player on the market, but it soon cornered the market by creating a brand character that was irresistible to many people, especially young people. The iPods design, packaging and publicity combined to convince consumers that their lives would be enhanced by an MP3 player that carried the Apple brand. Other MP3 players could not compete as consumers flocked to the iPod. The Apple brand name became inextricably linked with portable digital music. In addition to pushing the iPod brand, this decade has seen Apple focus on the brand character of the Macintosh personal computer. A wellknown series of television commercials have emphasized the usability of the Mac OS vs. Microsoft Windows. Apples brand marketing strategy for the Mac has convinced many people to pay more for a computer that is perceived to be cooler and more fun to use. Apple has succeeded in creating a cult around the Mac, despite the fact that the majority of personal computers are still Windows-based. This is brand marketing at its finest. The third prong of Apples brand marketing strategy has centered on the iPhone. As the naughts drew to a close, smartphones and mobile applications dominated the consumer electronics market. Apple got a head start with the iPhone and integrated iTunes App Store. A catchy tagline (Theres an app for that) and clever advertising campaign established the iPhone as the must-have smartphone brand. Future Benefits of Apple Brand Marketing Besides increasing product sales, brand marketing brings additional benefits to Apple. New products from Apple are eagerly anticipated, as evidenced by the buzz surrounding Apples new tablet computer, which according to rumors will be announced in January of 2010. The tablet is expected to compete with Amazon's Kindle e-book reader, which Amazon has reported as its top-selling item over the 2009 holiday

season (though according to a Reuters article from Dec. 31, 2009, Amazon has been tight-lipped about exact sales figures). Many feel that Apples tablet stands a good chance of surpassing the Kindle to become the reader of choice. Consumers who feel great loyalty to the Apple corporate identity are expected to line up to purchase the Apple tablet and other new Apple products. When it comes to creating standing out in a crowded field of technical product, Apple has shown that strategic brand marketing can be just as important as functionality and price.