“You readers are pretty well connected and you don’t need a TV campaign to know that Tiger exists. In fact, any Mac user who spends a little time pouring over the news pages on the Internet ought to be fairly well informed on the subject. The fact that even Windows-oriented publications cover Tiger doesn’t hurt,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Mac Night Owl.
“But there are far too many out there who never read the technology pages, watch technology segments on TV or read computer magazines,” Steinberg writes. “Most of them own PCs running Windows. How are they going to know that Apple has a brand new operating system? How will they know that it offers features that are still pipedreams on the Windows platform, and won’t appear until Longhorn is released, and maybe not even then?”
“Will they discover the Mac or Mac OS X simply by watching dancing stick figures dancing and prancing while listening to iPods? I don’t think so. But as I said, I don’t know all that much about marketing,” Steinberg writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple blows their current “Windows” of opportunity by not educating the general public about Mac OS X Tiger’s capabilities, they have only themselves to blame for not grabbing new users. Apple’s continued silence on TV, in print, and elsewhere about their Mac products could rival some of the company’s biggest blunders. We have absolutely no idea why Apple is not advertising the Mac. It’s simply unconscionable and Apple shareholders should be appalled and demanding answers.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple should hold ‘The $1,000,000 Apple Macintosh Ad Contest’ – May 04, 2005
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Mac fans line up for new operating system as passberby asks ‘what is a tiger?’ – April 29, 2005
Apple should advertise.. theya re working on it.. you cant stop the revolution!
Just a guess, but I think Apple may be holding off until it can deliver something like iTunes for HD movie downloads that will only work for Macintoshes -something other than just an OS to drive computer sales.
Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.
Maybe they think that their commercials have not been effective.
I suggest that they get rid of their spokesperson for the G5 commercials. (The Fly Guy)
How about a commercial featuring positive quotes about the mac mini and Tiger from prominent editorials like they do when showing previews of movies. They could incorporate cool features of their products.
The Fly Guy – that’s Jeff Goldblum. I agree that they should dump him for a better voice.
This is the golden opportunity Apple needed to promote their new OS and hardware!
Apple should be advertising, drilling into people minds that the Mac is a better solution to their computing needs. Just word of mouth can only take you so far! An advertising campaign even with something as anoying as the “Dell dude”, or maybe something else entirely, but something that’s catchy and in as many media outlets as posible. Apple you have a YEAR maybe more or advantage before Micro$oft releases Foghorn, use this time wisely!!!
Who knows, rumors say that a new advertising campaign is coming. Now that they have the Mac mini (and the high price myth has been shattered for good) there is no excuse for not advertising Macs and OS X heavily. Let’s hope Apple gets moving on this by the summer.
Apple’s advertising in the UK is non-existant while ever ad-break is plagued with that annoying intel inside jingle :-((
We were saying the same before the G5, and then before the new imac, mini, and tiger. Maybe if we shut up Steve will open his purse and advertise a bit, while he claims it was his bright idea.
Maybe Steve thinks that the Apple retail stores, the iPod phenom, and word-of-mouth advertising are enough.
MaWo: “woman”. As in, ‘Whoa, man. Is Apple ever going to make people aware of the benefits of using a Mac over everything else or not??? People are often like little children; they need to have things explained to them.’
Most people are clueless about Apple. They need to advertise.
Speaking as someone in the biz, I’m guessing there may be a couple of reasons for Apple’s lack of advertising: they may still be ramping up production of the Mini (creating demand and then not being able to supply product would be a disaster). And they may be waiting for us Tiger early adopters to report the bugs in the new OS before they advertise it to Mom and Dad.
That being said, there’s absolutely no excuse to not advertise this stuff. The products are brilliant, and they certainly have the cash to do it.
Be careful what you wish for. It may may be that this is a ‘brilliant’ strategy. To have consumers purchase products or adopt a pltform from word of mouth is more stable than through advertising. If I tell a friend about OS X and convince that person it is a good choice – that is much stronger than a Commercial doing the same thing. My friend is more likely to stick with it if the refernce came from word of mouth over a tv spot.
Let it be. I do not want this thing to turn into a Windows fiasco – however I would like more support (that happens when market share increases).
Or wait until they release OS-X on Intel one week before Longborn.
RJ
cedreca: “Just word of mouth can only take you so far!”
Actually, don’t ever underestimate the potential of word-of-mouth advertising. It is almost always MORE effective than any paid-for or concocted advertising campaign because it’s guaranteed to hit the talking points (pun intended) that speak to people most effectively. There’s little that can compete with the recommendation of someone a person respects, or the leading-by-example of seeing someone you like using a product, or even the general buzz that occurs when people gather in certain social situations and notice a trend among acquaintances or friends once-removed.
I think that once Apple has its ducks even more in a row than they are right now — Mac mini shipping full-bore, Tiger at maybe 10.4.2, iPod-style cell phone available — you will see a push of some kind in the media for OS X as well as the mini. But I wouldn’t expect it to be what we anticipate.
Word of mouth advertising is some of the best, but in this case I think taht more is needed. Word of mouth for ipods was huge cause people carried them around with them and people would ask “whoa what’s that”
with a mac, you arent carrying it around and you arent just going to randomly start talking to your friends about how awesome macs are out of nowhere.
Whilst I have the utmost admiration for Steve Jobs his arrogance can sometimes get in the way of quality business decisions
One example is to get rid of a publisher’s books from all Apple stores because of a critical biography. That’s bad publicity.
Another is Apple’s decision to sue websites who made the mistake of acting like journalists in scooping Apple on the news of some of their products. That’s also bad publicity.
My point is that Steve Jobs IS Apple and if the company fails to launch a worldwide campaign to publicise its products then the buck will stop with the man who is paid a buck. And that would be because of no publicity.
Here’s an ad idea:
Just show Tiger’s RSS Screen Saver, set to Apple’s “Hot News” feed (or, rather, a slightly doctored version that highlights all the favorable Tiger reviews we’ve been seeing from the Tech industry lately). 25 seconds of that, then the camera pulls back as a kid (with eager friends?) wakes her iMac, quickly checks in with some widget on Dashboard, then gets to work on her next great iMovie production or Keynote presentation … or, heck, a Quartz Composer project featuring equally snazzy graphic effects. Fade to logo.
Perhaps a series of ads, with the news feeds featuring some particular aspect of Tiger (or an iApp), When the Mac wakes, the user begins using that aspect … Spotlight, Dashboard, Parental Controls, etc.
You’d get the attention-getting eye candy (reproducible by the user!), some facts and industry opinion, and a snippet of a demonstration.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple has a big surprise in store for getting the word out to the masses. They’re just waiting for the right moment to begin.
Far be it from me to second guess what it is. But if they don’t, and they miss this uniquely golden opportunity they will live to regret it — big time!
I just hope that whatever they come up with will be powerful, unique and very informative (no silly stuff) and yet humble enough not to offend their target — the Windows users.
repeat: all money budgeted for apple advertising has been moved over to mac retail stores to prop them up and make profitable.
there is no ad money available – it has already been spent in the retail stores for signs, people, lights, rent, etc.
the store is the apple ad.
I had been thinking about this for a bit and bsceptor’s post made me think some more.
Apple has always had a bit of a problem keeping up with demand. How many of us had the unfortunate task of waiting six or more weeks before we could put our hands on the Mac of our dreams after shelling out the dough for it. A huge national campaign for the Mac would only exascerbate the problem. Instead of a few thousand impatient people calling the Apple hotline, it would be tens of thousands. There might be an awareness that the Mac has not reached critical mass for a huge campaign.
That said, Apple needs to open the spigot and get Macs on the market in speculation, rather than to order. If you make it, advertise it, and they will buy it.
MDNMW: Brown – as in: What can brown do for you? DELIVER MY G@DDAMN MAC ON TIME!
Apple has over $7,000,000,000 in a big pile and is a debt-free company. WTF are they waiting for?! Jobs, pull the trigger on the ad blitz already!
I dont recall M$ ever advertising Windows back in the days … and look at them now.
Henry, Microsoft pitched windows with zeal back in the day, they had balmer selling the thing like it was a used car. Check it out:
http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/footage26_4.html
It is awful but it was pitched.
Some people think Apple should shut up and not advertise, clueless blogger of the moment:
http://applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/please_apple_not_another_switch_campaign/
I have nothing to add, except to agree that Apple should advertise. If I had a little more time, I might even put together my own commerical, edited in iMovie, of course.
Magic word: “hell”. As in “At work I deal with forty Macs and four PCs, and for the last week I’ve been in Windoze hell!”
The Apple advertising agency must be a full of moles from Microsoft. If they’re not, then they are truly pathetic. Take your rich finger out Stevie boy.