The Practical Magic of Apple’s Branding
On how the branding of Apple has appealed to consumers, keeping it at the top of the market.
Wherever you go, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll see multiple if not crowds of people walking around with their faces stuffed into any given version of the Apple iPhone. At the gym you’ll find people glancing at their Apple watches while using earphones plugged into an iPod. At the school library you’ll walk past students frantically typing away on smooth, silver MacBooks with glowing white Apples on the back.
Apple as a company has been around since April of 1976 and has escalated in becoming one of the forerunners of technology in our generation. In the past, Samsung has been known as the main competitor against Apple and a common discussion even among my friends is whether the Galaxy or iPhone is better. However, according to Business Insider in 2015 and 2016 Apple made “twice as much revenue from mobile devices” than Samsung did.
From this data, it is evident that Apple has dominated the market and is only continuing to do so. The question is how has the company managed to grab the attention of the majority of the population and convinced them to buy their products? I am convinced that Apple has achieved this grand accomplishment in a large part through their branding. According to CampaignUS, Apple’s spending on advertising rose “50% to record $1.8 billion” in the year 2015 and they stopped disclosing how much they spend on advertising in 2016. The amount of time and energy spent into advertising their products may be the reason why they have been able to climb the ladder of success and make twice as much revenue than Samsung.
The idea that selling a brand has taken over the selling of the actual product is seen in Naomi Klein’s book, No Logo. In the section called “No Space,” Klein serves to make a point that today, major companies are going after the youth and trying to figure out what kinds of products and ideas are “cool” in their culture. This makes companies spend loads and loads of money on branding and advertising not only the product they wish to sell, but a kind of lifestyle. Klein writes that companies have found that using famous musicians, athletes and even social movements to advocate their brand as a lifestyle changes the game of selling products and thus making revenue. Nike is presented as an example of how brands use marketing to dominate the area of the type of product they sell. In this case, Nike’s slogan “Just Do It” shows that the branding can have absolutely nothing to do with the actual product, and yet it can create a whole empire because it makes people want to be a part of the Nike lifestyle and trend. In the same way, Apple has incorporated subtle yet powerful messages in their commercials and ads that grab peoples’ attention.
In November of 2016, Apple released a commercial for the holidays called “Frankie’s Holiday.” This commercial features an outcast in society, Frankie, who seems to represent Frankenstein. Frankie goes out into the public square on a Christmas night and tries to sing a holiday tune as people stare at him with fear and contempt. The mood shifts and the towns people welcome Frankie when a small child reaches out to him and sings along with him. At the end of the commercial is a simple message: “Open your heart to everyone,” followed by the iconic Apple logo. This commercial is two minutes long, and yet the total amount of time an Apple product is seen is less than ten seconds.
The fact that the message at the end does not have anything to do with an iPhone only further proves what Naomi Klein writes about. It shows that Apple is selling more than a product in this commercial, but a sense of community and belonging. The commercial intentionally targets the emotions of the audience with the implication that Apple is for everybody, even the outcasts of society, and that it brings everyone together.
Another aspect of Apple that correlates with what Klein talks about is the attempt that companies make to go after the youth. In April of 2016, Piper Jaffray surveyed approximately 6,500 teens with the average being 16.5 years of age. He found that “sixty-nine percent…are iPhone owners,” and “seventy-five percent said they expect their next phone to be an iPhone.” These shockingly large numbers show that Apple has definitely taken the teen population as one of their target audiences and has succeeded in doing so.
One aspect that Apple does an especially good job at is presenting their products as the next best thing, glimpses into the future of technology. In our society, young people are always searching for the newest inventions and they always want to follow the latest trends before anyone else. Apple advertises in a way that makes people think the newest Apple product is the newest form of technology, and that you’d be stuck in the past without it. Take this airpod ad for example.
By saying that “cables are past,” Apple creates this mindset that wireless is necessary to be up to date with the times, and it’s no wonder that people buy into it. No one wants to feel like they are being left behind in a culture, so it’s easy for people to quickly grab what big corporations tell them is needed to be included. In social circles for teens, having an iPhone 7 vs an old iPhone 4 makes all the difference. It only makes sense that Apple’s marketing towards the future draws in the younger demographic with the illusion that in order to be “cool” you have to have the latest gadgets.
As the Apple empire grows larger and larger and more people are seen carrying around products marked with the famous logo, it is important to see how these big corporations are influencing societies through everyday branding. Naomi Klein describes this as “no space,” and it is really and issue to consider. Is it possible to actually feel included in the community and lifestyle that these brands seem to promise, or is it all just a marketing technique to gain the trust of the public and reel in large sums of profit for the company?
