How Apple Inc utilizes social media in promoting its products?

Introduction

 With the boom of social media in this generation, businesses great and small are gearing towards the utilization of social media to reach the maximum number of potential customers and thereby increase their revenues. The process of ushering people to web pages to gain greater website traffic and garnering more product visibility through social media sites is referred to as social media marketing. This type of marketing is one of the key strategies which enabled Apple to be where they are now in this line of industry.

Apple Inc is a widely known multinational company that designed and created the Mac laptop and desktop computers, the OSX operating system, iPod and iTunes, and the crowd favorites: the Phone and iPad. Records as of December 2013 show that Apple already has 422 retail stores which are situated in 14 countries plus an online store which is made available in 39 countries.¹ Having a global sale of US$16 billion in merchandise in 2011, they are now the leader in the US retail market due to their number of sales rendered per unit per area.²

This number is very impressive, to say the least, and Apple has indeed gained a level of success that few companies had ever reached.  As with every business, though, it is not enough to reach the peak, the real battle is fighting hard to stay as the leader in the niche you have chosen. So how does Apple do it, we ask? Is there a secret formula that they brew in their factories or are their magic words their executives utter to be able to drive hundreds of people to camp outside of their retail stores for days? In this article, we will go through Apple’s social marketing strategies to learn what role it plays in helping them achieve, and maintain, this success.

What is Social Media?

Before we delve deeper and discuss more, the details of why Apple’s social marketing strategy is a cut above the rest, let us define what social media is. Social media is the collective force of various communications channels which are the founder for interaction with others, collaboration, and sharing of different content may it be videos, pictures or mere words. The different types of social media with some examples are as follows:

·         Websites which are created for forums and discussions;

·         Micro-blogging such as Twitter;

·         Social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn;

·         Social bookmarking such as Blinklist;

·         Social news such as Reddit;

·         Media sharing like YouTube and Flickr; and

·         Wikis such as Wikipedia and Wikia.

The use of any or a combination of these platforms as a springboard to grab attention, promote and advertise is referred to as social media marketing. You could advertise by sending a tweet, maintaining a Facebook page, creating a website, documenting through blogs, starting discussions in forums or sharing pictures in Instagram or videos on YouTube, to name a few.

What are the strategies of Apple?

            With the definitions clearly in place, let us now move to the big reveal: what makes Apple’s social media marketing strategies so effective? The answer may surprise you because as opposed to the current trend, Apple’s strategy is turning out to be having no strategy at all. Or so it seems.

            The Apple devices are extremely popular tools for social media usage. Their products have been monumental in taking social media to new heights. Ironically, though, aside from the iTunes Store, Apple as a company itself, does not have a Twitter or Facebook account, despite fans asking for more than their one-way RSS feed for years now. Try typing the word ‘Apple’ on Facebook and all you will get are unofficial sites.  You may think typing in ‘Apple Inc.’will do the trick but you will also find that that site is completely abandoned.

Let us take one of their most popular products, the iPhone, as an example. While other macho brands try to outdo and outmatch each other through expensive advertising mediums, Apple had not advertised their mobile phones.  It almost seems like they do not have a marketing department as they are not on social media sites, television, the radio or any promotional ads. We might say that we see print ads of iPhones everywhere, but the truth of the matter is, these are the other companies (such as mobile phone carriers or mobile phone stores) advertising Apple products that they sell. Not only is Apple getting all this attention through free advertising due to other companies paying for them, they are also very clever because they impose branding restrictions on how these ads should be executed for alignment.  If you do not follow their guidelines, you will simply not get your stocks as promptly as those operators conforming to their branding guidelines to the letter. This is why advertisements and promotional materials for the iPhone seem to look the same. ³

If you would also notice, in most of the web pages we visit, we will hardly miss the ‘share’ buttons as they are perched in a location for everyone to see, ensuring that you spread whatever it is that you have read on that site over to Twitter or Facebook. In contrast to this, Apple’s site does not have any of these sharing options. If I am wrong and just missed them, then Apple had made sure those buttons are very hard to find.

And of course, we have heard about Apple’s strict implementation of its employee social media policies which, again, goes in contrast with other companies’ techniques in encouraging their staff to actively blog, tweet and post articles and updates about their brands. Their technical support staff is responsive in the forums, but the company apparently is not very forgiving with employees discussing anything about the company in these public avenues.

Indeed, Apple seems to shy away from the supposed winning formula of running after coveted Facebook ‘likes’ and is proving that the typical ways of social media marketing are not always the answer.⁴

Exposing Apple’s Social Media Marketing Strategy

            Apple has never been fond of transparency or communication.  There would be times when the company would announce having a press conference and keep an air of secrecy after the announcement. Curiously enough, because of this lack of official communications or details about what will be discussed during the event, intrigue and speculations would arise on what we would probably expect thereby creating unbearable crowd excitement.  “What is coming next?“ or “what features will it present to the consumers?” This continued buzz and hype prevalent in the social media scene put Apple in an apex position. And so, there goes the win for Apple: free, effective PR and a regular press conference getting more media coverage than most and turned into a worldwide event.

            But how can Apple get away with such maverick moves? Apple had been applying a strategy called the Exclusivity Technique and the company craftily developed and customized this technique for their products. This technique basically involves offering products to a select few thereby making this group feel special. For Apple, this included stock shortages (whether real or perceived) and exclusivity of the products to certain outlets, mobile phone providers or distribution networks.  People who are able to obtain an iPhone, for example, feel very lucky and in their bliss, do not hesitate to tell the world about it through social media (of course), making those people who are waiting for their orders more envious. Their jealousy is also made public and those on the sidelines watching the action becomes intrigued as well that even if they did not plan on getting an iPhone on the onset, they end up purchasing them too just to discover what all this fuss is all about.

Demand fuels desire and this makes consumers more determined than ever to own an Apple device despite the high price. Procrastinators delaying purchasing their items also change their behavior with this threat of scarcity. Continuing with our example on iPhone 5, it had set a record for first day sales and orders had lined up weeks after the official launch, prolonging the challenge of owning it.  Apple has creatively used the psychology behind this technique so effectively to the extent that, when you turn on your televisions days before the launch, you can see hundreds of people dropping everything to camp outside of Apple retail stores. This marketing strategy has not only saved Apple tons of money on advertising but has steered their popularity exponentially.

            There is a conflict, though that came out of this strategy as the exclusivity technique has now given birth to oppositions: those with and those without. Opposing parties rally to defend their principles and their conflicts are verbalized by ‘netizens’ around the globe in public through social media everywhere. You will find iPhone haters debating with fans daily on who’s hot and who’s not and with little realization that they are doing Apple the favor of promoting the company for free.  Continually doing this will make Apple a hot topic without costing them a cent. ⁴

The company’s acquisition of the social media analytics company, Topsy Labs last December 2013 had the rumor mill spreading the news that Apple may already have plans in being active in the social media scene soon. We may just have to wait and see, but basing on consumers demanding Apple to be more reachable, especially for customer concerns, a lot of folks will be happy if the company indeed would have more than iTunes Trailers, iTunes Music or Scott Forstallas Twitter accounts. They already have a robust customer base, but surely, this may just grow more if customer complaints will not fall on deaf ears when they post them on an official Facebook wall.

Apple’s Social Marketing Trails

            Looking at the numbers, this looks like a winning formula for Apple so should other businesses follow suit? Apple has obviously succeeded in understanding the social media scene and staying away from these channels had proved as the correct move for them.  Other companies should learn from this, but the techniques Apple had employed may not work with everyone. Apple has already built a loyal following, it is now a class apart from its niche and they are a brand of their own.  We don’t call Apple mobile devices as smart phones, we call them iPhones. We don’t purchase a tablet, we buy an iPad. Every gadget you buy, you pause and linger to compare it with an Apple product first.⁶

            Apple has also ensured that they stick to their core values, especially quality. There is a certain style, sophistication, refinement, and luxury in their products and in their stores that makes them incomparable. This excellence in their products is what keeps them on top of this dog-eat-dog industry, despite such price difference from their competitors.  Other brands would call it suicide, charging twice as much, but Apple does so without skipping a beat because they are aware that they offer unmatched quality, exceptionality that only their products alone can deliver and above all, experience. Actually, a new term had been born during this generation which was derived from owners eagerly wanting to share their experiences upon receiving their new acquisition: unboxing. How many videos have you seen from your friends opening up boxes of their new iPhones or iPads? Too many to count, maybe? In fact, if you type the words ‘unboxing Apple’ on YouTube today, you will get about 2,240,000 results. It is amazing how a company can make a customer feel that having an Apple product is an experience to be cherished and to be proud of.  This sense of price prompts them to spend time documenting the memory by creating photo albums and crafting videos and then sharing them to the world through their Facebook walls, their personal blog sites, Twitter and Instagram accounts and the many other social media sites that one person is present in.

And so there goes another point for Apple for gaining free social media marketing. Now that is brilliant.

References:

1. "Apple Store". En.Wikipedia.org. Retrieved on January 24, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store. 
2. Segal, David. June 23, 2012. "Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay". The New York Times. Retrieved on January 24, 2104 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/apple-store-workers-loyal-but-short-on-pay.html?_r=0.
3. McCormack, Fion. October 27, 2013. “Apple’s iPhone Marketing Strategy Exposed”.  Yahoo! Small Business Advisor.  Retrieved on January 24, 2014 from http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/apple-iphone-marketing-strategy-exposed-032350605.html.
4. Moth, David.  July 18, 2102.  “The Apple Approach to Social Media: Just Ignore It”.  Econsultancy.com. Retrieved on January 24, 2014 from http://econsultancy.com/blog/10364-the-apple-approach-to-social-media-just-ignore-it
5. McCormack, Fion.  October 27, 2013. “Apple’s iPhone Marketing Strategy Exposed”.  Yahoo! Small Business Advisor.  Retrieved on January 24, 2014 from http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/apple-iphone-marketing-strategy-exposed-032350605.html.
6. Hangen, Nathan.(n. d.).  “7 Key Strategies That You Must Learn From Apple’s Marketing”.  Blog.kissmetrics.com. Retrieved on January 24, 2104 from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/7-strategies-apple-marketing.