A round of applause for Apple

By Molly Flatt

The iPad furore has pretty much washed over my head. I’ll eventually get version 2 or 3, minus the glitches and the early adopter price. But today I did see something on my Facebook wall that made me want to buy one, right now.

I know, it’s not exactly original, right? Just a less impressive version of the barber shop quartet who pop out when you finish the supersize ribs?

But this is clever because of the context.

It wouldn’t work for everyone. My sister would be mortified if someone applauded her for buying yoghurt in her local shop. But it most probably works for the sort of self-appointed trend-leaders likely to want an iPad in its first week of release.

They’ve done it before: applauding the first customers into the Manchester Apple store, via -nathan

Apple don’t usually bother actively seeking WOM - they let the products speak for themselves. But maybe they’re realising that nowadays people are expecting brands to go to a bit of extra effort to make them feel loved (they’ve also been distributing Krispy Kremes to queuers in the US).

The Apple store is somewhere people go to see and be seen, to feel special, to broadcast their devotion to the Jobs empire. The place where being marked out as a brand lover is odds on a very good thing.

So this works because it’s relevant to the customers, the setting, and indeed because it feels authentic to the brand, with its Americanised smiling service ethic and slightly cheesy edge. Try applauding a customer buying a handset in Carphone Warehouse, and they’d probably think you were taking the piss.

Moreover, as my mate Kenny’s update attests, it’s the kind of tactic that spreads online instantly, and it produces the sort of WOM that really grabs your attention, amongst all the anguished thought-pieces and partisan reviews.

Emotion rules. Good on the Apple crew for cutting through the mountains of techie iPad WOM and bringing the sheer joy of the purchase experience to the fore.

Brought into the world on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 and filed under 1000thoughts, Case Studies, Offline/Online.

  • Why is that your first reaction?

    It's largely bloggers too, and hardly a small handful.

    If this was drawing the conclusion that Apple's staff truly embody the brand's values (as I suspect it's not actually marketing led, but a random act of kindness from one or two great shop managers), we'd agree.


  • But *all* Apple do is actively seek WOM. It's entire PR and marketing strategy is based on that notion. With classic 'big company' comms ethos, the team send out invites to event previews to a select few - and fanboys and girls everywhere go nuts as the hype starts to ripple across the globe.

    Not only that, but look at the ad campaigns, the print ads - they all push feelings, irritations, problems with usability - rarely product. The reason the Mac vs. PC campaign worked so well is because it humanised Apple in order to draw emotive connections between the man on - and in front - of the screen.

    Pulling in a quote from Victor Castroll from Valcent Financial about the day of the iPad. "Apple has been able to generate over $75 million in revenue in one day on a product that 99.9% of purchasers haven't touched or for that matter, even seen in person."

    It's far too easy to say that Apple doesn't even try. It does, very hard in fact, but the genius lies in the fact that we don't even see it most of the time. Most of the time, they're working with bloggers in the very same way 1000heads does.
  • My first reaction would be to say 'I don't believe it', but then that would lend credence them doing such a good job...

    You are right in that they do specifically work with a small handful of journalists and developers.. perhaps the above sentence should read:

    "Apple don’t usually bother actively seeking *such public-facing* WOM, instead preferring to move behind the scenes and speaking to their chosen few..."

    Agreed?
  • This to me highlights another important thing about offline and online WOM.

    Creating a fantastic online strategy is one thing, but ensuring that the sense of direction, feeling and achievement seeps through to your staff in the very store doing the face to face selling, that's another thing entirely.

    Often, the first problem with any real world product happens just there - in the real world. There's no point having a kick-ass online reputation management strategy if your staff on the ground can't execute in store.

    This is kind of on point and kind of not.. but you know what I mean.

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