strategy

advertising / apple / creative / iPad / iPhone / iPod / observatory / strategy — 17 Comments
1
Feb 12

Where have Apple’s headlines gone?

Driving around LA with colleagues recently, we were greeted by iPad billboards just about everywhere we went. All shared the same clever headline: “iPad 2.”

That got my merry band wondering: when was the last time an Apple billboard or poster actually had a headline. (At least a smart headline in the Apple tradition.)

Before the “iPad 2″ headline, the headline was “iPad.” The old iPod “silhouette” billboards had headlines that seemed like novels in comparison — they said “iPod + iTunes.”

I don’t mean this as an indictment. It’s simply an observation. In fact, if I were so disposed, I could rationalize both ways of thinking.

Say no to headlines!
Apple makes things simple. What could be simpler than a beautiful image and a product name? Brevity is its own form of cleverness, and a minimal number of words makes Apple stand out even more from its complicated competitors. Apple has transcended the need to explain things. If you really want more words, there are plenty of them at apple.com.

You’re blowing a major opportunity — repeatedly.
Steve Jobs himself once told me that every single ad is an opportunity to build the brand. Every time you fail to do that, it’s an opportunity lost. Now Apple is missing what its smart headlines used to add, and therefore not connecting at the same level. Those headlines are what originally gave Apple its public personality — they put Apple in a class by itself. Is it too much to ask for a few clever words?

So what gives? Has Apple lost the ability to craft a good headline? Or does it truly believe that an image and a product name is the ultimate act of advertising minimalism, and therefore a perfect representation of the Apple brand?

One argument against the latter is that the most recent images Apple has given us don’t exactly come from the adrenaline-pumping school of photography. The current iPad 2 billboard (above), in which we see a side view of Mr. Fingers picking up an iPad, is about as sleepy as it gets.

So what do you think?

Personally, I miss the little smile that used to come with seeing a great Apple ad. I get that the products are cool-looking, and the visual reminder is helpful. But those three or four words that used to make you think, “Damn, those guys are good” really did add another dimension to the ads.

Clearly Steve Jobs came to believe that the headlines were no longer necessary. It will be interesting to see how Apple’s creative work evolves now that others have full responsibility.

advertising / android / apple / creative / observatory / strategy — 7 Comments
29
Nov 11

Ads: Apple’s unchallenged monopoly

Many observers credit Apple’s marketing for its astronomical success.

Few, however, credit Apple’s competitors for lending a hand.

It’s because the Android-makers keep churning out technology-centric ads that Apple continues to hold a monopoly on human-centric ads — which are often the most powerful of all.

The above commercial for the Samsung Galaxy IIS phone is just the latest example. It gets points for creativity. It’s fun to poke fun at Apple. But once the fun is over, its message is 100% technology — bigger screen, 4G speed — and 0% human benefit.

If Apple were to to adopt its competitors’ colder approach, a typical iPhone 4S ad would simply say “Now with triple-lens 8-megapixel camera and intelligent assistant.”

It’s not hard to understand how this advertising imbalance took shape — or why it will likely continue.

To do battle with iPhone, the Android-makers have to offer something better. So they engineer phones with measurable advantages — better cameras, bigger screens, faster processors, etc. But those advantages aren’t advantages unless they get advertised.

That’s why we often see futuristic ads with robots, lasers and lists of features, but little or no emotional context for those features.

Of course, there’s no reason why the Android-makers couldn’t create ads that show the human side of their technology advantages. They just don’t. Most likely because those who make the decisions (or the ads) are determined to do something different than Apple at all costs.

Even if that cost is giving Apple the gift of a monopoly.

advertising / apple / apple news / iPhone / observatory / strategy — 1 Comment
25
Oct 11

Siri makes her TV debut

Welcome to Steve Jobs Authorized Biography Week. Shame on me for not writing about the Isaacson book today — but hey, that thing is long. Meet me back here in a few days.

For now, let’s talk Siri, which is shaping up to be a giant leap for such a “disappointing” iPhone 4S.

What better way to celebrate a giant leap than with a TV commercial. And the verdict is…

Excellent.

Like Siri, this spot feels new. The music track has a sense of magic. What we see is simply a sequence of different people interacting with Siri in different ways. It may be an obvious way of demoing Siri, but when you have an extraordinary feature, obvious is your best friend.

Siri comes off like the practical application of the technology we’ve seen forever in movies like 2001 and Star Trek. (With slightly better results than 2001.) It feels like the cast is talking to a person rather than a computer, which of course is the whole point of Siri — and what makes it such an “on-brand” technology for Apple.

There are nice touches in the writing that add to the humanity. Like “How do I tie a bow tie again?” Siri doesn’t particularly care about the “again” part, but that’s how people talk. In the last clip, we get more of a lament than a question or command: “I’m locked out of the house.” Siri seems almost empathetic.

If Siri is a world-changing feature, Apple could have run a grand manifesto ad to boldly proclaim the beginning of a new age. Instead, they went the quieter route, demonstrating how Siri fits into our lives. We hear Siri speak only once — which is another part of the crafting, as too much of Siri’s voice would only draw attention to one of her weaker areas.

So congrats to Apple and Chiat for a job well done.

Anything to quibble over? One small thing. In a spot where “human and natural” is the theme, the shots of Mr. Hand holding an iPhone (first and last scenes) feel unnatural — because they are lifeless still images of a hand rather than film. I’m sure this makes it easier to add the screens in post production, but surely the technology exists to do the same with real film. I think I know what Siri would say:

“I’ve found three digital effects studios fairly close to you.”

Conan O’Brien has already done his version of this commercial. See that here.

apple / apple news / iPhone / observatory / strategy — 13 Comments
5
Oct 11

Tale of the misnamed iPhone

What’s in a name? Judging by the cries of despair echoing in the night, apparently plenty.

Before yesterday morning’s iPhone event at Apple, the world was consumed by rumors. Seemed like we’d either see an iPhone 4S, an iPhone 5 or both. The 4S would be the economy model while the 5 would be the giant leap that got us all excited.

What we got was the iPhone 4S only. Damn! They gave us the puny one. That little baby step beyond the 4. Woe is us.

I do think Apple made a mistake. But wasn’t the phone — it was the name.

The name iPhone 4S sent the message loud and clear that this new iPhone was an incremental improvement. Meanwhile, nothing could be farther from the truth.

If Apple’s new baby was unveiled as iPhone 5, I doubt that we’d be reading articles with titles like Apple disappoints fans with modest iPhone 4 update and No iPhone 5 and no Steve Jobs send Apple shares lower.

The changes in this generational shift are actually very much in line with the changes in the last one.

When we moved from 3GS to 4, we got the Retina Display (a big leap in displays), the A4 chip (a big leap in speed), FaceTime (major new capability) and a better camera (from 3 megapixels to 5).

In this move from 4 to 4S, we get the A5 chip (a big, dual-core leap in speed), Siri (a major new capability) and a better camera (from 5 megapixels to 8, plus face recognition). So iPhone 4 delivered four major advances while iPhone 4S delivers three. But then 4S tosses in full 1080p HD video with stabilization, plus an extra hour of talk time.

So why is the iPhone 4 a huge leap and iPhone 4S only a baby step? iPhone 4S looks just like iPhone 4. And design is a very big deal, for Apple more than any other company.

One could say that Apple was just being honest. They did the same thing in the move from iPhone 3 to iPhone 3GS. The body style was unchanged, so the model number stayed the same.

But Apple, of all companies, should understand the marketing impact of a word. Or, in this case, a number. The name speaks volumes, and this name said “modest update.” That’s why people are referring to it that way — not because its improvements are insignificant.

If they called it iPhone 5, I believe things would be different today. Some would have written that the changes were modest, but those comments would have been quickly forgotten as the lines started forming again.

The happy ending, though, is that this little episode will be quickly forgotten anyway. Just like Antennagate. The launch details may get technology writers in a stir, but they have little consequence in the real world. To most, iPhone 4S will simply be the latest version of a great phone with great new features.

So why do I even bother mentioning it? It’s because episodes like this are just unnecessary self-inflicted wounds. There was no need for a bad headline to appear on the front page of CNN.com, and little things do add up over time.

I wish Apple had just called it like it is. And what it is, is an iPhone 5.

apple / apple news / iPod / observatory / strategy — 2 Comments
3
Oct 11

iPod’s last gleaming

Damn, I love product announcement weeks.

The joy of the big reveal. The expert over-analysis. The traditional pouncing upon Apple for some perceived infraction.

But in all the guesswork going on about iPhone 5, I’m struck that there’s so little attention being paid to our old and dear friends, the iPod family.

Since the beginning of time, Apple has thrown a party every September to celebrate the annual refreshing of the iPod line. For Apple fans, the September iPod event has been the starting bell for the holiday gift-buying season.

This year, we didn’t get a September event. I didn’t see a lot of grousing about that from the press or the bloggers, which probably just reflects the reality. It was fun while it lasted, but iPod isn’t the big attraction anymore.

Recent rumors have it that the iPod shuffle and iPod classic will soon be sent to iPod heaven. This makes perfect sense. There really isn’t much point to the shuffle now that the nano is almost as tiny, attaches with a clip, and actually has a screen. A touch-screen, no less.

The classic is practically creaking with age, and could easily be replaced by an iPod touch with beefed up memory.

So it seems that this year’s iPod announcement will be more about end-of-life than new life. And if that’s the case, it hardly deserves a big party. In fact, it’s really more deserving of a demotion to One More Thing status.

Surely Tim Cook is looking for some fun and respectful ways to echo his mentor, and this would make perfect sense. With some cool improvements to the surviving iPods, he could present them as being so good that the other models aren’t even needed anymore. It’s either that or use the iPod news as part of the warm-up to the main event.

The real story, of course, is that with the widening audience for iPhone, iPods have simply become less important. The numbers are declining. Apple isn’t even advertising them anymore.

In fact, it’s not hard to envision a time when iPod nano becomes the last iPod standing. It can do the one thing iPhone can’t do — go anywhere, including the gym. Seems that one day iPod touch will just be an iPhone, with the option of activating the phone part.

If it’s true that the iPod line is contracting, we should have a moment of silence out of respect. It’s almost hard to remember now, but iPod is the device that changed everything. It was the first of Apple’s modern trilogy of revolutions, paving the way for iPhone and iPad.

So thank you, iPod, for everything you’ve done. See you again next September. Maybe.

dell / observatory / strategy / tablets — 5 Comments
20
Sep 11

Michael Dell’s world of fantasy and delight

Studies  have shown it’s natural and healthy for males to have recurring fantasies. But still, the ones dancing around in Michael Dell’s head may be pushing things.

To hear Michael tell the tale, life is sweet. All this talk of a post-PC world doesn’t phase him. Quite the contrary. With HP leaving the PC business, his eyes light up at the idea of gaining PC market share. So it goes in his recent comments to Financial Times.

Only a few problems with Michael’s logic.

First is the fact that HP decided to get out of PCs for good reason. Even though they sell more PCs than any company on earth, HP believes the smartest thing they can do is abandon ship. That’s because (a) PC profit margins are microscopic, and (b) it’s only going to get worse as PCs continue their descent.

Second, it’s hard to deny that demand for PCs is fading. Not only have the prognosticators lowered their global sales estimates, so has Michael’s own company. It was just one month ago that Dell cut its sales forecasts for PCs, citing “weakening consumer demand” and other causes.

Third, Michael was publicly downplaying his PC sales as recently as April, making sure we were all aware that Dell was now more focused on the enterprise, with PCs only representing one third of their business. The most positive thing he could say about PCs was that Dell made a “modest profit” on them. “I’m just level-setting what Dell is today,” he said.

He speaks optimistically of Dell’s prospects in tablets too—despite the fact that the 5-inch Streak is dead and the 7-inch model is languishing at best. For some reason, Michael’s fantasy here is that things will somehow be different when and if the tablet competition heats up. In fact, Dell will be one of dozens of tablet-makers all sharing the same OS, slugging it out for a sliver of the market.

“We are very distinct from our competitors,” says Michael in that Financial Times interview. Hard to argue with that.

At least IBM and HP stopped having those PC fantasies.

apple / dell / observatory / strategy — 7 Comments
13
Sep 11

Crapware: the search for lost profit

Apple enjoyed pointing out the difference

Everyone knows that crapware is just a fact of life in the PC world.

From my conversations with people, I’m not sure they understand why.

Basically, it has to do with profit margins in the world of PCs. Or, should I say, the lack of them. When competition became fierce in PC-land many years ago, the PC makers had to compensate for the fact that they were cutting their prices to the bone. So they started renting out their spare rooms to strangers, so to speak.

It was only about three years ago that I attended an advertising meeting with the chief marketer in Dell’s consumer division. He had crafted his plan to meet sales targets for the coming year.

(Note: in marketing meetings inside Apple, we absolutely never talked about meeting sales targets. We only talked about doing good ads. The operating theory was that if we did our job right, higher sales would be the result.)

At the proper point in the meeting, Mr. Marketer made mention of the crapware on Dell computers. And yes, he called it crapware. He pointed out that margins being what they were, crapware actually accounted for just about all the profit on each sale. He invited the agency to come up with new suggestions for companies who might want to join the club — and pay Dell for the right to clutter up their PCs just a little more.

Macs, of course, don’t have this problem. You might get a demo copy of iWork, but that’s about it. Two reasons for this: (A) Macs have a very high profit margin, and (B) Steve Jobs has taste. He was no more willing to bloat a Mac with crapware than he was to slap one of those perma-bonded Intel Inside stickers on his MacBook Air.

Macs have that higher profit margin because those who buy Macs place a value on what Apple brings to the party: design, simplicity and reliability. They’re willing to pay more to get more.

The end result: while Apple makes only 7% of the revenues in PCs, its products account for 35% of the entire industry’s operating profits. Seems to be pretty good incentive for Apple to continue working just the way it does. No crapware allowed.

Now that mobile devices are dominating technology, history is repeating itself.

Crapware wasn’t even a thought on the first smartphones. Now it’s becoming ubiquitous. Same reason as above: intense competition has carriers scrambling for profits. Apple continues not to scramble.

Interestingly, in this category, it’s not like Apple products cost so much more. Thanks to Tim Cook’s operating skills, it’s not easy for competitors to undercut the price of iPhones and iPads. So even at a similar price, Apple pulls in the lion’s share of this category’s profit as well — literally two thirds of the available profit, according to Asymco’s last report.

What’s a smartphone seller to do? Crapware to the rescue!

Mike Jennings reports his crapware findings for PC Pro. In a wide range of Android phones, he found a treasure trove of crapware installed by carriers: multiple app stores, security software, game demos, etc., etc. While you can remove this stuff from PCs with a little effort, not so with smartphones. Most of it is here to stay, installed in such a way that it can’t be removed by the user.

Of course, those who don’t care about such things will continue to point out the benefits of an “open” system. Those who do care about such things will go with the phone maker who also cares about such things — and help pump up their profits even more.

advertising / dell / iPad / observatory / strategy / streak / tablets — 2 Comments
15
Aug 11

The tough and brief life of Streak 5

Dell’s Streak 5 phone/tablet may now officially be classified as phone/tablet/dud.

Visitors to the Streak 5 page at Dell.com are now greeted by the above, with Dell giving it the happy spin: “Goodbye, Streak 5. It’s been a great ride.”

Interesting what qualifies as a “great ride” in Dell’s world: a product ill-conceived from the start, then sabotaged by some of the clumsiest ads in the business.

Trying to figure out how to cash in on iPad-mania, Dell decided it could wedge itself into success. “Hey, if tablets are so popular at 10 inches and phones are so popular at 3-4 inches, we could virtually own the 5-inch category.” And own it they did — for the nearly undetectable group of customers who actually wanted such a thing.

Rather than being the perfect size Dell proclaimed it to be, Streak 5 was too big to be a phone and too small to be a tablet. That much was obvious to anyone with eyeballs.

Not content to hobble Streak 5 with an awkward size, Dell went the extra yard by hobbling it in other inventive ways. Streak 5 was launched with Android 1.6, while the rest of the Android world was already onto version 2.2. And its unlocked version was actually priced higher than an iPad. Perfect.

Oh well, least they could make some good ads for it, right? Uh-uh. Not that this blog is the perfect measure of such things, but Streak 5 actually earned two posts here for advertising embarrassments in its short, tortured life. (See those here and here, if you are so disposed.)

If Streak 5 were a real child, Dell would be facing charges of neglect.

But don’t worry. You can still get a 7-inch Streak. And though they’ve certainly taken the scenic route to get there, rumor has it that Dell is finally working on the 10-inch size that’s been such a terrible burden for iPad.

So farewell Streak 5. At least you got to enjoy one great ride. Dell strapped you into the back seat and drove directly off the cliff.

apple / apple news / apple store / observatory / strategy — 7 Comments
11
Aug 11

Apple’s invisible advantage

Back in June, Apple covered up its landmark Fifth Avenue Cube in NY to begin a $6.6 million renovation project. The word was that they would be re-outfitting the glass cube itself — reducing it from 90 panes to a mere 15. Bigger pieces, fewer seams.

Now they’ve released an artist’s conception, above.

Looks pretty cool. But I’ve already noticed some snide comments to the effect of “$6 million? For that?” … “Apple has way too much money to play around with” … and “Hell, they just built the place less than five years ago.”

Those who think this way really don’t get Apple. They don’t get why a company that makes cool little devices just became more valuable than one that supplies the world with the energy essential to life.

For everything you see in Apple, there are a hundred things you don’t see — all of which add up to the feel of quality and caring you don’t get from other companies. It’s a subconscious effect that Apple pursues quite consciously.

I had the pleasure of working on the “Making Of” video for the Cube, which appeared on apple.com when the store was first opened. That video called out the extraordinary effort that went into procuring the quality components necessary to create this store: the stone flooring from Sicily, the stainless steel surfaces from Tokyo, and the glass staircase and cube structure from Germany.

Apple doesn’t expect a single visitor to the Fifth Avenue Cube to think much about the floor they’re walking on. What they’re trying to do is create an overall feeling — that this is a place where people care about design and quality.

It’s the same principle Apple uses when they design product packaging. For items like iPhones and iMacs, they create an “unboxing experience” you will appreciate only once, lavishing attention on parts few people will ever notice. But overall, the experience contributes to the feeling of quality you get before you even touch the product.

Granted, some people think this is overkill. Or, even worse, it’s one more reason to hate Apple. This is how the Great Satan hoodwinks people into buying their overpriced technology.

Fortunately, Apple doesn’t give a hoot about people who don’t recognize or care about quality. That’s not their audience.

As long as they continue to care about the invisible things, the crowds in those Apple Stores will be anything but invisible.

advertising / creative / hp / iPad / observatory / strategy — 8 Comments
5
Jul 11

HP’s off-kilter shot at iPad

Congratulations. You’re a creative guy who just got the biggest break of his career. You’ve been asked to come up with a multimillion-dollar campaign for HP’s iPad-killer, the TouchPad.

Your head hurts from all the celebrating last night. Unfortunately, it’s about to hurt more — because it’ll be pretty darn hard to come up with an idea that will even put a dent in iPad, which virtually owns the market. Especially with a product that exists only because iPad blazed the trail before it.

What to do, what to do…

Trust me, I’m sympathetic to the challenge here. I was once hired to come up with a Sony campaign that would “bring down the iPod.” Somehow iPod survived that massive creative threat.

So the big idea for TouchPad turned out to be a celebrity spokesperson. That’s not a bad idea in itself. Some of the greatest campaigns in ad history have employed the celebrity spokesperson. It’s just that when you go this route, you have to think long and hard about the celebrity you’re choosing.

Is he/she:

1. Compatible with the brand?
2. Appealing to those you’re trying to convince?
3. Capable of presenting the product well?
4. Truly entertaining?
5. Likely to be busted for lewd behavior?

If you don’t have all the right answers, you risk spending a lot of money on a very big zero. Or, worse still, a negative.

HP decided that Russell Brand was the right guy for the job. Not exactly a household name. In fact, when a commercial starts by telling you the guy’s name, it’s a good indication that most people won’t know who the hell he is. Again, not a deal-killer, but something to consider.

Russell is a quirky English personality with some bad-boy behavior in his past, legal and otherwise. Clearly HP is looking to be “edgy.” To me, he seems like an unrefined Ricky Gervais.

And this is the problem. To most, Russell comes across as just plain bizarre — and not all that funny. His humor comes with some awkwardness. When a joke falls flat (which it does often — like the “dental joke” in this spot), it feels like open-mike night down at the comedy club.

What about the content of this ad? Well, that’s problem #2. The product features we see in this ad are supposed to be things that are missing in iPad. However, simply because of the way Russell presents, very little of his demo seems extraordinary. Hardly enough to make one stop lusting for an iPad.

Russell’s most grievous offense comes at the end. That’s when he openly makes a play for his paycheck by reciting a line that sounds like it was written in the marketing department: “My life is like nothing else. So is yours. HP TouchPad. Works like nothing else.” So much for whatever shred of authenticity Russell was supposed to bring to this party.

But let’s look at this ad in context.

Is HP’s approach any better than Motorola’s high-tech, robotic, spec-laden ad for Xoom? I think so. Though the personality they’ve chosen is questionable, at least the ad has a personality. Will it turn TouchPad into a serious iPad threat? Don’t hold your breath.

(This ad appears to be the launch spot of the HP TouchPad campaign. See a bunch of other spots in this campaign strung together here.)

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