Why Apple is the ‘Supreme’ of Consumer Tech
No, they do not sell the Box Logo Tee.
Apple is known to deliver high-quality consumer tech products with its roots in innovation and modern design. After all, the brand innovated a lot of categories like personal computers, smartphones, and wearables.
With a ton of good reviews and awards their products receive, there’s no wonder why the company has grown throughout the decades. But what made Apple the trillion-dollar brand that we all know today goes beyond just the products. It’s all about the image.
Apple is the best. And you won’t settle for less.
The company and its leadership speak with conviction that their products are the best in the market. In their presentations, they even use words and phrases like “magical,” “gold standard,” and the famous “it just works.” These influence the audience to think about how good the products are and how they are necessary for enhancing the lives of its users.
These keynote presentations are also essential in building the hype — treating new Apple products like designer goods admired on the runway. And these presentations are not limited to mere product reveals but are usually a showcase of the process and thinking behind each masterpiece. Just recall product launches where Jony Ive talks about chamfered edges, mirror-like finishes, and an all-glass displays.
These media-covered events — bundled up with great ads and videos — amplify Apple’s message that they are the best out there and you want nothing but their products. Effectively, people perceive all these to be true — that owning an iPhone means you afford the smartest phone, wearing the AirPods means you live a life without wires, and sporting an Apple Watch means you have the latest tech right on your wrist.
This image-building does not stop there. What’s interesting is how Apple uses price to dial-up perception about product quality and being the number one in their industry. After all, people think that expensive means excellent.
Remember when Apple launched the first Apple Watch? They also revealed the high-end luxury model made from 18-karat gold called Apple Watch Edition. At launch, it retails for around $15,000.
In December 2019, Apple launched its latest Mac Pro — the most powerful Mac ever. But what got the media’s attention? The Mac Pro wheels kit which retails for $700.
It doesn’t stop there. The Apple Pro Display XDR — a $5000 display monitor — does not come with a stand. Instead, you can purchase the Pro Stand for an additional $1000. Apple could have tweaked the pricing structure and said it’s a $6,000 display kit with the option to remove the included stand for $1000 less.
But they didn’t. Why?
These extremely expensive and unreasonable products are not there to be sold. They are there to create the perception that Apple is expensive, therefore, Apple products have the highest quality and best design. And they can only apply this kind of pricing to products that do not matter — extremely high-end models, CPU wheels, and monitor stands. The products that are not expected to sell in big volumes but will yield returns in building the image.
What’s next? Purchase.
Now that we accepted that the Apple brand is expensive but high quality, it’s now easier for us to shell out $1000 for a new flagship iPhone, $1200 for a Macbook, or $400 for a smartwatch. The mainstream products are now perceived as affordable compared to CPU wheels or monitor stands. And as we go out using or wearing our Apple gadgets, the mentality that we have the best remains. At this point, we did not purchase products — we purchased the image.
