What's the Secret Behind Apple's Success?

Hello all,

Each one of us create a brand for ourselves. When people hear your name they get an image in their mind, whether they like you or hate you, they still get the image accordingly. When you hear the name Microsoft you know its something related to computers, or operating systems, or some new entertainment gadgets like Zune Player and X-BOX. Imagine on a fine day you are going on a walk and you see the alphabet "i" somewhere on the street or even in a book while you are reading. First thing that strikes you is "Apple". They stole the alphabet "i" from the list of 26 alphabets and created a brand out of it. 

Today whether its youngsters or elderly people, if they are planning to buy an MP3 player, it has to be an iPOD. How is this brand image created? What could be the reason for this tremendous success of this company? 

It is very easy for us to say Steve Jobs was the reason for the turn around and success. Well I agree! Steve Jobs is definitely a key factor in the success, but what did he do for the success is what I would like to discuss in this blog. 

Disclaimer: This is what I have understood from the discussions I had with various friends of mine and read in various places. This is just an opinion and observation but not intended to hurt anyone in any way.

According to me, the iPOD Nano's, the iPOD Touch, the iPhone and everything thats a huge hit today is an excellent combination of hardware and software integration. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of any product from APPLE has set a bench mark which only an APPLE product can break in the future. Their easy to use interface and great applications that can be used on their products needs no mention or special appreciation again.

Apart from all this hardware and software excellence, there is something which many of us do not recognize as a major step for the success of the APPLE as a company. That is iTUNES. This is where the marketing brilliance and master mind of Steve Jobs comes into picture. His skills to contact every major audio company and come to agreements with them to sell any of their audio songs through iTunes was extraordinary. What this did what mass advertising for APPLE. Every audio CD or advertisment has a line which says, you can download your favorite track from iTUNES for as less as 99 cents per song. 

By doing this, APPLE has been the only company to provide any song to the customer for only 99c and there by allowing the customer to not buy the entire album just because he likes one or two songs in the album. To use iTunes to good effect and get the best out of the deal of buying your favourite song for 99c, the only option or let me say the best option available for the customers was to use an APPLE MP3 players which are so well designed to be compatible with iTUNES. 

I can definitely not single out and say, this is the sole reason for the success of APPLE as a brand. But this is a commendable display of advertising skills and needs appreciation from all of us. Most of us who are into technical stuff day in and day out forget to appreciate the minds that take the pain of presenting the technology to the people and making us stand in the market. This is a true example of how a company can turn around with proper coillation between the technology, management and marketing sectors of a company.

Please leave your comments about what you think on this and whether I was write in analyzing the marketing strategy. I am no guru or even a good student in marketing. I am a Rookie in the field of Marketing and I am just trying to analyze and understand some strategies. 

Thanks you all for looking at my blog.

Sincerely,

Krishna C. Emani