[G4] Apple's New G5 Marketing Approach

[Tracker at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/16/03 11:21:15, picasso at madflower.com writes:

<< The bottomline to this whole discussion is:
Apple is trying to sell computers and they don't do a very good job of it.

The obvious blatent point that hasn't been brought up is simply:
If they understood their product, who their product appeals to, and what
THOSE people are looking for in a product. Then simply they wouldn't need
to call.
 >>

I hate to throw cold water on a fellow who means well, but.........

Go back a couple of steps and take a hard look at Apple's marketing program.  
 Apple DOES NOT MARKET TO THE AVERAGE COMPUTER USER!!!!!!!!!

When have you seen an Apple commercial or advertisement that shows how easy 
it is for a novice computer user to set a Mac up and get it running? When have 
you seen an Apple commercial or advertisement in a general public forum? When 
have you seen an effective commercial or advertisement from Apple?

Apple has not hired an effective public relations/advertising company in 
years. The past marketing programs were not designed to reach the average market 
purchaser.

Who cares about "Thinking different" when you want to be able to use a 
computer easily and productively? Who noticed that the kid said he was going to his 
friend's house because "They have a Mac" when his dad used up the whole rest 
of the commercial trying to make a PC connect to the internet to research 
dinosaurs? What does getting blown through walls and damaging your house have to do 
with being able to work more effectively and faster?

If General Motors or Ford had used the same advertising agencies that Apple 
has been using, they would have gone out of business years ago. You have to 
gear your advertising campaign to catch the public eye, hold their attention, 
present your product in an effective setting, make your product price attractive, 
and show that other people are using it. Apple misses the mark on every count!

Don't get me totally wrong. I preach Apple to our user base and try to 
convince the local school system that Apple computers are not just more productive, 
but are also cheaper to maintain and operate on a daily basis in classrooms.

I have only owned one PC, and I won that thing at a county fair raffle for a 
dollar donation. I unpacked it, hooked it up, tried it out, couldn't make it 
do what my G3 is capable of doing, packed it back in the boxes, and shipped it 
to my son-in-law who was a PC tech with the USMC.

My current stable of Macs includes:
1 - Wallstreet G3 laptop with all sorts of extras (modules & cards).
2 - Lombard G3 laptop with a few extras (so far).
3 - G3 450MHz Desktop with maxxed RAM, 2 HDs, 21" NEC monitor, CDRW, Zip 250 
& Jaz 2Gb, external USB CDRW, external FW HD.
4 - G3 400MHz Desktop with maxxed RAM, 2 HDs, 17" Nokia monitor, CDRW, Zip 
250 & Jaz 2Gb, Altec lansing speakers w/subwoofer.
5 - G3 B&W 400MHz with maxxed RAM, 2 HDs, hooked to a KVM box to use all the 
peripherals listed above.
6 - G4 AGP 400MHz (starting to rig it up my way to work with everything else).

I am retired and do some volunteer work as the Mac System Tech with an 
organization that recycles donated computer equipment to place in schools at as low 
a cost as possible. I don't own any Apple stock or have anything to do with 
the company except use their products when I can get my hands on them legally.

I sincerely wish that Apple would hire an effective advertising agency and 
start telling the world that Apple makes a product that out-runs and 
out-performs all the rest and does it cheaper to boot.