truth in advertising

[Charles Martin]

> From: Donald Keenan <dkeenan2 at nycap.rr.com>
> I did a Google search on Limbaugh and found several references to his
> devotion to macs. What surprised me was George W. Bush was mentioned as
> a mac devotee (MacCentral). Well, he's got the money, but he just seems
> like a MS platform type.

The Bush administration's Justice Dept. is certainly "the MS type."

Actually, I remember reading that Bush was a Mac user during the 
campaign, but I've not seen even one picture of the President using a 
computer since then. I doubt he uses one -- of either platform -- very 
much. He strikes me as someone who prefers phone and "face time" to 
email (the preceeding is not intended as an insult, btw -- geeks 
sometimes forget that!).

> I'm into Apple's advertising/marketing, especially the print ads. I
> don't know if the "Switch" ads have produced the numbers they want, but
> the campaign is going on and on, so perhaps so.

There are many goals to advertising. The Switch campaign has two main 
purposes: to increase Apple's mindshare and press-share (I think I just 
coined a term there), and to get people who wouldn't normally consider 
Apple into the stores to see the products. Its *secondary* goal is to 
get those "new" people to buy Macs (or at least it was at first -- that 
end of it has been pushed forward a bit more as the holiday buying 
season has begun). The ads are also intended to help push OS 9 users to 
upgrade to OS X.

The Switch campaign has been a solid success in its primary goals. 
Anyone who reads around the Mac web and Mac areas of Usenet (and 
mailing lists like this one) can tell you that more PC people are 
considering, buying and falling in love with Macs. It's helped Apple's 
mindshare and press-share *tremendously*.

Sadly, some or even most of these gains are cancelled out by the poor 
economy -- people aren't buying new computers in the numbers they 
"should" be, and veteran Mac users are just as affected by this as PC 
people are. If the economy were more solid, there would be more "proof" 
that huge numbers of people have "switched."

But here's another dilemma -- even if you could say with certainty that 
the Switch campaign has produced one MILLION switchers, that's not even 
enough to make Apple's marketshare go up ONE percentage point. If we 
accept Microsoft's statistics (which claim there are about 36 million 
in-service Macs around the globe, roughly 20 million in the US), then 
we'd need TWO million "switchers" before Apple's marketshare would rise 
one percentage point.

On top of that, it must be said that the "Switch" campaign by its 
nature kind of ignores the established Mac user base. Other moves by 
the company have made some veteran Mac owners feel their needs are 
being neglected. I happen to be one of those people who excuse this by 
saying that in a period of major transition such as we are in at the 
moment (and will be for at least another year), this is bound to 
happen. Apple *has* to pay more attention to gaining NEW customers than 
keeping old ones, at least at the moment. This will probably start to 
change as early as this summer, but there's still a lot of rocky road 
ahead.

So, is the Switch campaign a success or not? I say it is, and that with 
the company still producing profits where almost nobody else can (Dell, 
incidentally, is producing profits but slitting their own throat doing 
it -- if the economy doesn't improve pretty soon they are going to be 
in trouble too), Apple's future (which is what they are trying to focus 
on) isn't looking bad at all.

They must, however, continue to dance through a real minefield in 
balancing the need to expand their base while risking the alienation of 
a certain portion of that base -- the part that doesn't like feeling 
it's being taken for granted.

Maybe it's because I'm old and remember the Ed Sullivan show, but to me 
Apple is like that guy who spun plates on sticks at the moment. You 
know something terrible may happen at any moment, but you can't stop 
watching and rooting for him.

> Charles mentions a campaign with famous writers, which I think would
> work, but only if coupled with film and television celebrities and God
> knows there are a ton of them out there who use and love macs.

There are several reasons why you don't see more celebs in offical 
Apple ads, too complex for this already-long message. I kind of wish 
they'd let a few more filmmakers and famous writers or composers -- 
recognised creative visionaries -- speak up on behalf of the Mac and 
it's products.

Apple doesn't want to descend into hucksterism, which is what you 
eventually end up with if you rely too heavily on star power to sell 
your stuff. But putting on Francis Ford Coppola or George Lucas or 
Peter Jackson or Stephen King or Tom Clancy or Sir Paul McCartney or 
other people of that level of creative calibre just talking about how 
empowering Apple's products are might strike the right balance between 
intriguing the largely-PC-using public (something they are trying to do 
now) and reinvigorating the evangelising core audience (something they 
aren't doing of late).

_Chas_
Come to  ... The CHASbah!
http://thechasbah.blogspot.com

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