Steve Jobs’ Marketing Strategies
Steve Jobs is credited with one of the greatest turnarounds in history, when he rejoined Apple and invigorated the company to bring out a slew of innovative products. Jobs complemented Apple’s innovation with unique marketing strategies, which deserve equal credit for Apple’s historic success.
Turn the Ordinary into Something Beautiful
While PCs were becoming ubiquitous in the market, with standardized and interchangeable hardware, Jobs pitched Apple products as aspirational and unique, despite the fact that the Macbooks and iMacs were essentially nothing other that PCs. Once Jobs had elevated Apple’s PCs into higher realms of esoteric design, he removed the comparisons about price points vis a vis products running on Windows operating systems (Hangen).
Justify Your Price
Jobs justified the premium prices of his products by incorporating beauty, and including features and benefits that could not be matched by the competition. For instance, the cross platform compatibility between iMacs, Macbooks and iPhones makes the entire Apple experience seamless, and this aspect plays a major role in justification in Apple’s premium pricing (Hangen).
Communication in the Language of the Audience
Jobs did not pitch his products in computer jargon of gigahertz and megabytes. Instead, he focused on aspects that the customers more readily identified with and appreciated, such as ‘edge to edge glass’ and ‘retina display’. The language drew in more numbers of potential customers, who could always delve into the technical aspects if they so wished (Hangen).
Extend the Experience
One of Jobs’ strategies was to ensure that the Apple experience did not merely end on a sale concluded at the cash register. Rather, the Apple experience continued with the customers when they unboxed the product, used it and were hand-held through the ownership cycle with high quality after-sales service (Hangen).
Build a Tribe
Through advertisements and social media platforms, Jobs created a legion of fanatical fans of Apple, who became its most vociferous brand ambassadors. The long queues of fans waiting overnight outside shops, awaiting the newest release of an Apple product added to the hype and halo of Apple (Hangen).
Become a Name
Jobs differentiated Apple products with their unique names. The prefix ‘i’ gave a unique personality to all of Apple’s products, whether iMacs, iPhones or iPods. The marketing of products with their unique names, together with superior quality, gave a unique aura to Apple products (Hangen).
Works Cited
Hangen, Nathan. “7 Key Strategies That You Must Learn from Apple’s Marketing.” Blog.Kissmetrics.com. 2010. Web. June 27, 2015.
