Even if you don’t own an Apple product (yet), chances are you can name at least a few. The Apple brand has long been held as a marketing icon, particularly for their hype and innovative promotion. It is a media darling and has loyal customers who span the globe. So how did they get there? How did they make the jump from that garage based enterprise to the behemoth they are today?
The answer is simple. Hype.
Let’s take a look at a few of Apple’s strategies and see how you can apply them to your business – and no, you don’t have to be a huge corporation to make it work for you. Here’s how to do it, how to hype it like Apple.
They have “The Golden Circle.”
Communication is the core of building and hyping your brand. Most will lead with WHAT they do, their product or service, building their brand identity around that. From there, the funnel narrows as you get to the HOW and the WHY. Apple takes a different approach known as “The Golden Circle.” The WHY is their brand identity with the HOW and WHAT following. This lays the foundation for Apple’s relationship based marketing that has served it so well.
Hype it like Apple: Build your brand around your WHY to provide more flexibility for product development and relationship building.
They rely more on relationships than flashy advertising.
Yes, there are plenty of cool Apple ads out there, but the brand tends to lean heavier on influencers than advertising. They put their product in the hands of real people who can provide high visibility and use that as a catalyst to lead the hype. This opens the door reaching early adopters by enchanting and inspiring techno enthusiasts who end up carrying much of the promotional weight.
Hype it like Apple: Put your product in the hands of influencers in your target audience circles.
At their core, they understand their customers’ needs.
This should seem intuitive, but if you recall there was a time that Apple really struggled with acceptance. Coders didn’t want to touch an Apple product and many consumers found it cumbersome. This was not due to a faulty product, per se, but was more because the developers at Apple thought they knew more than their customers about what they wanted. Sure, they woke up and turned it around, but we’ll always have that valuable lesson from the early days.
Hype it like Apple: Put your customer first. Know what they want and don’t assume you know better what they need or want.
They create an air of scarcity to drive up demand.
Few things will increase demand for a product than making people believe that there isn’t enough of a product to go around and they’ll miss out if they don’t jump on it. Then if they do miss out, they go into “gotta have it” mode. Apple has done this brilliantly by creating a faux scarcity when they release new products. Remember the iPhone 5? Just one hour after opening the site for preorders Apple placed a notice on the page stating that due to heavy demand delivery would be delayed. This only served to drive the demand frenzy even farther.
Hype it like Apple: Consider creating scarcity of a product by restricting production or restricting the availability window.
Friendly customer experience is the name of the game.
Apple caters to the customer on every level from an easy to navigate website to gadgets that are innovative, yet easy to use to top notch customer service. They seek to meet the needs of the customer at every point of the experience so that each encounter they have with the brand is positive and fulfilling. Packaging and design are great, but what they experienced and felt will be remembered long after the packaging has hit the recycle bin.
Hype it like Apple: Take a customer centric approach to the entire experience consumers have with your brand. From website to product to follow up, let your customers know that they are always number one.
They cultivate a community of fans who are passionate about the brand and align with Apple’s values.
How you see yourself is what you project to the world and Apple totally gets that. Most tech manufacturers have a product focused view that comes off as geeky, functional, practical, and utilitarian. Not that that’s bad, but it isn’t all that exciting. Apple is like a burst of color in a greyscale world by creating a brand culture that is friendly, cool, and someone you really want to hang out with. The thing is, it isn’t really the product that draws you it, it’s the community of fans that has united and become a sort of techno cool kids’ table. They identify with Apple’s brand values and people want to identify with them. Check out Apple’s award winning “Think Different” campaign for inspiration.
Hype it like Apple: Define your brand culture and imbed it in your marketing strategies. Tie it in to every interaction you have, sometimes subtle, sometimes bold.
Building your brand starts with great content. Let Writer Access help you find the best freelancers to flesh out your unique brand culture and generate your own buzz in the industry. You don’t have to be Apple to hype it like Apple. Find your own voice and let us help you sing.
Stephanie M is a writer living in East Central, Alabama, but she didn’t always lead such a peaceful, carefree life. A few years ago she made a daring escape from the “cube farm” at a Federal Agency in Washington, D.C. (after eight very long years) where she worked. as an analyst focusing on disaster response, technical writing, program management, and FOIA.
