Can I ask you to stop whatever you are doing as I’m going to bring something to your notice. It’s about the brand that launched the Jesus Phone, not a Smartphone (because it doesn’t do it justice to be called just a Smartphone. It is an iPhone). Exploding stock prices, cascading tweets, the craze and the back orders are not without a reason.

Apple has made people worship the brand. Besides doing this, it is doing something else very right. The marketing bible of Apple is something which any marketer would never want to miss.It is not too early either to know its holy-grail because it has already been 10 years of its monopoly with iPhone and almost whatever it launched. They became a symbolic leader of the product segments instead of being just another brand of each segment.

Needless to say that you don’t buy a Smartphone, you buy an iPhone.What did Steve Jobs say that to make everyone start believing him? How did he say it?Drop everything; we’re revealing iPhone’s under-the-cover popularity tactics!

Here is your ride-to-remember because it is very much inherited from Apple’s marketing ride:

i) Rhyme with the users

Steve Jobs core philosophy was ‘users don’t always know what they want’. Make consumers identify with what your brand markets with.

Nobody knew that they wanted an all-touch screen phone until it was in their hands. The customers’ mind was read correctly and was understood well enough by the company that they instantly started adoring what they received.

Here’s a hint that might help: Multiply your efforts on market research, it reveals the qualities of what your customer wants precisely.

ii) User- Reviews hold the reins

Positive reviews from users do magnificence in building the buzz. Word-of-mouth reviews speak about your product with an honest and non-commercial intent.

Phil Schiller, senior VP of Apple’e marketing, denied any need to pay for advertising. Several rave reviews from users do a better job than advertising to build a buzz.

iii) Design a customer-experience not just a product

 Phone was a drastic departure from the PC, it was a transformative product that made the lives of millions (it had sold its billionth phone in 2016) better.

The secret lies beyond its product line and design standards. The welcoming approach of Apple’s interface built a legacy of unique experiences that are hard to find from any other product.So, when are you starting to carve out the enriching experience that will be the feel-good pillar of your brand to keep customers coming again and again?

iv) Build a cult following

Identify your loyal users, the ones who cannot do without your product and market it exclusively to them. Let the rest of the crew follow desirably.People fail to understand why Apple-fans are so dedicated.This love-story remains a cliff-hanger to the non-users.Even the bickering about it makes a spot-light and contributes to the discussion on this hot topic.It’s like a tribe which is so difficult to get into until you buy the pass for it.

Start fanaticising your audience until you push your audience to fall in love with your brand, irretrievably.

v) Build beautiful

Apple’s product-details are just information that remains like a dusky detail to its users. Definitely, they cannot deny the pull to its irresistible exteriors that do not fail in overwhelming any random onlooker as well.

vi) Use customer’s language

Make your customers feel and say to you, “Amazing, you get me “.Your potential customer is not a techie, a chemist, a physicist and or any subject-matter expert that marketers, unfortunately, forget often.A consumer can’t decipher, decode or understand and he/she won’t even try to do so.

Apple directly spoke in the language of users by saying that iPod could store 20,000 songs instead of saying that it had “80-gigabyte” memory. After all, one doesn’t need to know the alien jargon ‘gigabyte’ to be a user.

The reason is simple that any marketing pitch is not about you or your company; it is about your customer and selling to the customer.

vii) Make simple

When did you start assuming that the way to stand out amidst loud and flashy marketing industry was to be even louder and flashier?

Enough evidence, statistics, and research findings indicate that consumers are tired of being bombarded with loads of information. It is distracting.

Simplicity is the best a customer can ask for, in any form, be it advertising, marketing, servicing or as simple as an user-experience. Reward them with your best possible simple form and they will be glued as your fan forever.

viii) Exclusivity & Secrecy paradigm
Marketing without marketing actually but with one exclusivity technique.

How?

The first iPhone model was made exclusively available from just one mobile provider for its’ entire life span.Which other company could turn an ordinary press conference into a Live-global-event? The eye-rolling scene of long queues of the loyal customers of iPhone on the launch of every new model defines how exclusivity is engendered.

Generating a faux scarcity among the iPhone-deprived users, it continues to be the benchmark product for others, all by dint of its supreme-secrecy technique.If you noticed carefully, it was not its tool; it was the behaviour of this uber-cool brand.

ix) Tinge of difference

I can gush philosophies to prove how ‘being different’ is the essential thing required to bring a revolution.

A new page is written with a new storyline of content and not with copying the past page storyline.

Similarly, for a new product/service/marketing deliverable, if you want to claim it be your own and importantly new, it has to have a distinct idea, the newest idea on the horizon that nobody has. Any resemblance/copying won't make it your own.

You may choose to copy his slogan ”Think Different “as your credo; at least it will inspire some different thinking.Stick-to-your-guns, no matter what comes in the way.

Takeaway: Apple has created a mind-set rather a sentiment with its iPhone (all its products) in a world of people who think walking out of the house without a phone is strange..

Apple’s marketing is the classic among the trends of marketing.

1- Apple’s had a formidable ‘marketing strategy’, the elements that you just read above.

2- Mobile is the future of marketing. With the dire need of increasing mobile marketing,  iPhone users continue to dominate your target audience. Play your game accordingly.

3- iPhone has launched a ‘business chat’ feature in iMessage that is on the lines of Facebook messenger chatbots but way more advanced than it because Business chat does not use bots. Business chat is a powerful way for brands to connect with customers via messages.

Dear digital marketers, it’s proved again that iPhone users are among your target consumers. Broadly speaking mobile users are crucial and make them notice you through your digital marketing!

To explore business opportunities, link with me by clicking on the 'Invite' button on my eBiz Card. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.