Re: MacBigot
Re: MacBigot
- Subject: Re: MacBigot
- From: Randolph Marshall <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 09:11:38 -0400
On 6/19/02 6:14 PM, Janice Kempf wrote:
>
I think if Apple had better marketing strategy that this would result in a
>
larger market share for Apple, and eventually Apple could reduce the price
>
even more to the average consumer on their hardware, which would increase the
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market shares. Ever watch the AOL ads? They are geared to the "common folk"
>
... that's why they are so huge!
I would have to concur with your viewpoint Janet.
In a book I am reading called "Eat that Frog" by Brian Tracy (I highly
recommend this book for everyone) he offers this thought:
"A major corporation was experiencing declining sales. The corporations
leaders concluded that the major constraint was the sales force and sales
management {snip} which they reorganized..... Later found that the primary
reason that sales were down was a mistake made by an accountant who
accidentally priced their products to high relative to their competition in
the marketplace.."
Does that sound like anyone we know?
Does this remind you of the cube fiasco?
It should.
While I am happy that Apple did make the switch ads, imho as someone who has
made thousands of ads, only three of these are remotely effective as
television commercials and the rest were a tremendous waste of resources.
I am happy that Apple is trying - but there needs to be way more planning
before executing. Three key thing you learn when you get out of the
incompetence of college are:
In a thirty second tv ad, mention the name of what you are selling three
times. These new ads do not do that. It should be apple, Apple, APPLE;
mac, Mac, MAC! Have a purpose. Have a call to action, or instill a call to
action, or at least instill a feeling that if you are in a similar situation
and have similar feeling that their is a solution.
Most of the new switch ads are annoying to watch, they are not visually
exciting, the people in them (with the exception of the hot girl and the
network admin) are unattractive and poorly spoken.
Some of the ads are remotely effective but given the amount of money that
was spent for a product that is only marginally effective and so poorly
executed make these ads a big disappointment for the Mac Faithful and a
large drain on the bottom line.
But, at least its a start in a better direction.
I would like to add a couple more things to this discussion. When the
switch ads and the new gartner study came out there was some discourse on
our CarolinaMUG elist about these topics. One thing that was said I felt
was very important and is not in any of these ads:
Our members Steve Lee said:
"Life is short. And I'd rather spend more of the time I have doing cool
things WITH my computer than doing things TO my computer."
When Steve said this it reminded me of an observation many people have
noticed: Windows People derive their pride of accomplishment from keeping
their computer running, whereas Mac people derive their pride of
accomplishment from the things they make on their Mac and from what their
Mac lets them do.
There is a big difference between the two that Apple could monopolize on.
This would be a great idea for an effective commercial. Do you want to
derive your sense of accomplishment from making your computer work, or do
you want to derive that sense of accomplishment from actually doing work
that you can use with your computer like movies, dvds, photobooks, emails,
websites, etc?
>
Apple has done an excellent job on reducing prices on almost all the Mac's,
>
but money is a major factor for 98% of the people.
Yes, again I agree that Apple has done some work keeping quality and
reducing price. BUT Apple may not have gone far enough in order to
penetrate the other 95% of the windows market.
Here is some discussion from our e-list from recent convert & someone we are
trying to convert:
On 6/16/02 10:24 AM, "wvasherinfoave" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
Average PC consumer looks at...
>
>
#1 Price
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#2 MHz
I totally agree. And what is worse when they do buy the decision is based
on how much perceived power and supposed features a wintel box provides
rather than realistically looking at what you can actually do with this box.
Like it or not, all computers are boxes full of wires, even Macs.
On 6/16/02 10:15 AM, "Juan Valencia" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
choosing between a Mac and a Wintel is a no-brainer. Apple made great strides
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with the new iMac. With a SuperDrive and iDVD, its price is well within the
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range - or less - of what one would pay for an equally-equipped Wintel.
>
Even though Apple lost the consumer OS war
This is where I have to disagree. Apple has not lost any war. They
have lost battles but the war is still on going - and Apple has cornered
niche markets such as television production that will keep them in business
for years to come if all else fails.
And people are still buying new computers to replace their old ones and
upgrading their software.
The industry is in a lull now as with the rest of the economy but it is far
from dead and the war is far from over.
Yet price continues to be a barrier for widespread adoption.
Which again leads me to ponder the what if... During a stock holders
meeting, Steve expressed in a round about way that Apple will never use
Intel Processors (even though they use Intel USB, PCI and AGP technologies).
Fine, but the reality is that the average consumer can get a piece of junk
(read moderately acceptable box) for $400. Which leads me to wonder if
Apple could offer a tiny mac-in-the-box cube type product with all the iApps
based on a G3 that would connect with an off the shelf VGA display at a
price point that would encourage mass adoption?
Those eMacs and iMacs are great. Yet the price point for the unconverted is
far higher than they are willing to spend in order to take that risk. If
you have never used an Apple Computer, and you do not know any better,
buying one requires a tremendous leap of faith.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
My best,
Randy Marshall
Pres., CarolinaMUG.com
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