“What is more troubling than the businesses who want to sell a ton of merchandise during the holiday quarter are the businesses who seemingly to want to cater to the consumer but completely ignore a major segment of their business during the busy season. The culprit here is, of course, Apple Computer,” Chris Seibold writes for Apple Matters. “Apple, predictably, will advertise the batteries out the new iPod and possibly the iPod nano… Which is great, in the last quarter the iPod accounted for 33% of Apple’s income. The iPod is obviously a popular product and hence it should be advertised. Still Apple is giving short shrift, at least from a marketing perspective, to the new iMac. It is important to remember that Macintosh computers still account for 43% of Apple’s sales, the largest percentage of Apple’s revenue.(Is Apple a computer company that happens to sell iPods, or an iPod company that sells a high priced iPod add-on computer? The line between the two grows more blurred daily).”
Seibold writes, “Windows users, in general, are unaware of the goodness that is Macintosh… Apple has an eminently marketable product in the new iMac. Therefore they should take a tip from the other corporations dotting the business landscape and advertise the thing. Please.”
Full article here.
[UPDATE: October 28, 2005: 4:40pm ET: Corrected “eminently” in Seibold’s article.]
But, if Apple advertised the Mac, people might buy more Macs! People might actually understand that their insipid Word documents will work fine on a Mac. People might figure out that, yes, Virginia, “Macs have the Internet” and can do email. People might even get a glimpse of GarageBand or Dashboard or Front Row or something equally cool. They might see something that’s refined and elegant inside and out instead of dull and mediocre through and through. Can’t have that sort of stuff, now can we? Seibold must’ve lost his mind. Yeah, yeah, we know: iPods sell Macs.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
More would switch from Windows to Mac if Apple advertised more effectively – September 04, 2005
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
Mac fans line up for new operating system as passberby asks ‘what is a tiger?’ – 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
Why doesn’t Apple show its patented Mac OS X ‘Genie Effect’ in TV ads? – October 07, 2004
Top Ten things Apple needs to show the world about Macintosh – July 30, 2003
Oh, shut the hell up. The minute Apple enjoys success from television commercials, the Mac Faithful will cry, “Apple’s gone commercial.”
yeah yeah, I’m really rich. And, my quarterly profit rises 24% to US$3.14 Billion!!! And that’s just software!!!
But I’m ugly, I have a small pecker, nobody likes me, and my products make everything suck.
Steve gets up every morning and states, “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges—(I mean)–advertising.”
Steve gets up every morning and states, “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges—(I mean)–advertising.”
For Balmer–substitute “Towels”.
“The last thing Apple needs is new switchers thinking they got screwed.”
But they’re used to that already, aren’t they?
C’mon Apple! Advertise the Mac Already! Just enough to dispell all the myths would be great.
they have a commanding lead in the MP3 player space. Dominating! X-mas is still an important quarter and it’s important to maintain market share. Apple finally has a market in control.
No amount of advertising of the Macs or OS X will gain them large percentage gains in the desktop/laptop space. They are already gaining their double digit growth from the halo effect from the iPod. People are already flocking to the Apple Stores. Any retailer would die to have that much traffic and mind share. It’ll all come down to merchandising and sales staff to generate the Mac sales after the easy iPod sale. A million people in the Apple store is more effective advertising than the few million who might see your ad during an episode of CSI.
Resistance is futile… you will be assimilated…
Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha….
Not only television, but magazines. My wife subscribes to some family magazines like Parenting and others like it. Open up the cover and what do I usually see? An ad from Microsoft. But no ad at all for OS X or the iLife apps. These are exactly the type of magazines that Apple should be advertising in.
Stores are the advertising. The ad budget props up the stores.
MDN is advertising for Apple.
Wonder why Apple never advertises on MDN???? MDN has to resort to using the lowly affiliate program just like you and me. Hmmmmmmm….
Oh, that´s right, I forgot – Apple owns MDN – it is part of the Apple Marketing dept.
Apple sells computers?
Where can I see one? Do they come in Black too? Do they also have click wheels? Love that click wheel.
Chris:
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Could the iMac G5 be characterized as imminently eminent?
Aren’t the Apple Stores a form of advertising?
Yet, I agree about more TV ads. OS X Tiger seems like one of the best kept secrets in the world and that’s a real shame.
So we think Apple should advertise its computers eh…
I think Apple’s lack of marketing savvy, specifically with its computers, will be a mystery, on the level of Roswell and UFOs, for a long time to come. The fact that it sprang out of the marketing starting gates with iPod and has relentlessly consumed the consumer market for portable music players only makes the mystery that much deeper.
And the few ad campaigns that have been launched in past years for it’s computer lines have been mystifyingly stupid. I think back on the intoduction of the PPC line where the person in a fire proof suit comes out and demonstrates how the Mac smokes or burns the Windoze machine. And who can forget the deeply philisophical 1984 commercial – An excellent start with zippo follow-up.
Apple needs, and has always needed, a good ongoing campaign that educates (without condescending) the public about the Mac: Why is it a good business machine (and it really is an excellent business machine); Why is it a good graphics machine; Why is it a good machine for the home and general computing needs? “Think Different” wasn’t horrible, but where is it now? No where, a flash in the pan. (UNLIKE Apple computers which are neither a flash-in-the-pan, nor No-where.)
The question that has become most interesting to me is, is Apple hardware or software? Till now I’ve always believed it was both, now I’m not so sure. Maybe Apple should start thinking of a way to advertise its OS with an advertising campaign that has practical meaning and less philisophical mumbo jumbo, and that has longevity, (like the OS itself).
PC users, do us a favor. Stay with your PeeCees. No need for losers hanging around here. Could not care less you like Windows: Sadomaso is not new.
…And close the door when you leave.
Advertising won’t happen until the Intels are inside.
The change over the next few years may be unpleasant and why put new mac consumers through that.
No, no, no. I fully agree with Apple’s strategy. Save advertising bucks, continue to innovate and make good profit with a stable and sustainable level of growth and product innovation and development. Don’t market what you can’t make enough of, don’t expand manufacturing in a volatile industry where a down-turn forces huge losses (take a lesson from other companies and industries).
Don’t grow so large you become number one and begin sacrificing quality and innovation for mass market appeal.
I like Apple best when they are lean and mean. Not fat, full, and slow. I like my elitism. I like it that my computer is unique. I like being able to offer something new, better, and DIFFERENT to my friends and family. And I don’t mind paying a little extra for it. Deep down, many of you feel the same way.
If Apple Computer becomes too successful, they’ll crash and burn again, or they’ll become the next Microsoft, and we’ll all wish for a new ‘David’ (as in David and Goliath).
I’m a little… late to this party, but the reason Apple doesn’t heavily advertise the Mac is because they are unable to fullfill the demand they would cause by doing it.
The iPod of course is a different story and when the Intel switch comes there won’t be any resistance to the flood.
It also takes time to build up to fill a large demand for products, Apple is building stores and taking steps to handle more sales as well.
Apple is growing and that’s good.
Please don’t advertise. (too much)
MW= they, as in ‘they’ don’t need no stinking advertising
An attempt to sum…
OSX: Yes, Apple does thru print ads and product placements. No, they don’t use television ads which would be everywhere in many folks best case scenario.
Target Market: 95% of computer users is their ultimate target market — hard to miss that. Which segment of that 95% is easiest to convince first?…there are many TV shows which can come close to whatever segment they choose.
Capacity: It would be a good problem to have if they had supply contraints due to the advertising actually turning into rapidly increasing mkt share.
iPod ads: That’s their best ad $ value as they sell more iPods *and* Macs thru this advertising and the Apple Store concept. Excellent execution.
Potential OSX ad: They have already done more than enough to position themselves as cool and cutting edge. Within the 95% are many segments of folks who worry about how OSX will or *won’t* work….
1) Simply show email being received in Mail/OSX, opening the attachemnt in Word, pasting some numbers into Excel and then end with some cool iLife apps.
2) Or just show Office and OSX on the same screen for 30 seconds sending files back and forth. You get my point
Will they?: Highly likely…when the Intel swich begins. Laptop ads are a good place to start as there are many tv shows that can zoom in on the 18-34 mkt. A
Are they missing a valuable opportunity pre-Vista: Hard to argue that they are as the hardware sales are rapidly increasing year-over-year.
Final Thorn: If MS pulls the Office plug, there has to be an plan B in place. However, I think that’s the least of their worries as MS won’t, from a financial and legal standpoint.
MDW: Want – We all want to be Apple marketers.
“PC users, do us a favor. Stay with your PeeCees. No need for losers hanging around here. Could not care less you like Windows: Sadomaso is not new.
…And close the door when you leave.”
Sorry, but I can’t resist coming to this site – the entertainment value of the fanboy delusions being posted in this echo chamber is absolutely priceless… they really make my day.
Why don’t you ask the site owner to just ban my sig? But of course he won’t – I generate hits and add to his bank account. Too bad for you, puppy.
I can’t beieve how elitist some of you sound. Like your little club will be ruined if more people find out about the Mac. Stop being so goddamn smug! “Oh well, I’ve got a Mac and nobody had to advetise t to me” etc etc – well good for you! It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to have a fantastci product and continue to keep people in the dark about it – I just don’t get it!
I have a vague recollection of Jeff Goldblum advertising the old iBooks at some point…
…and in England we also see Macs on TV as the News Reader’s computer and on MI5 spy programme spooks.
Last one, I promise!! Evil_MS_User, I bet you have never even tried a Mac, as you seem to be so terribly misinformed about the superior OS. Perhaps you simply enjoy a challenge – namely, trying to get Windows to ACTUALLY WORK, and keep it free of viruses, spyware, registry errors…. *Yawn*
Sometimes I do wish more people knew about the benefits of using a Mac in what they already do with their computers- which frankly, in the majority of folks, ain’t much. Surfing, burning, ripping, typing- nothing beats a Mac in simply perfomring even those basic duties with minimal hassle.
Then once they get to know how they can take the Mac to more advanced levels- well, those myths (as oft referenced in previous resposes) would dissipate.
Then again, there’s a part of me that feels like someone “in the know”- that I’ve stumbled onto an impressive piece of industrial-grade equipment that just works, long before it’s milked for all its worth based upon the name alone.
I’m relatively new to the Mac scene- and I’m blown away. I too was pretty foolish and blind- if I’d known before… well, I know now.