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Apple's secret: teen marketing mastery

updated 03:35 pm EDT, Fri August 17, 2007

Apple: teen marketing


A BusinessWeek editorial opines that one of the secrets to Apple's success is the efficacy with which it markets to teenagers, generating a "unique cultural cachet. "[...] widespread teen affection for the iPod didn't happen overnight. Like most trends among youth, it began with the cool hunters and early adopters telling everyone this would be the next big thing and it spread until it became a cultural phenomenon." The article says that Apple accomplished this cachet by fulfilling several requirements: meeting a real need ("Music has always been teens' No. 1 love. It's the soundtrack to their lives."), knowing that design matters ("Other brands teens love extend the aesthetic in their advertising to physical stores, too"), and letting the media do their marketing ("whenever Apple began to get lots of media attention, it would scale back on marketing").


by MacNN Staff

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  1. guzzi

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    Joined: Jun 2006

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    08/17, 04:03pm | report spam | Reply |

    30 and 40 year "teens"

    Not many "teens" waiting in line for an iPhone.

    I was a lot of 40 year old teens in line.

  1. guzzi

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    Joined: Jun 2006

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    08/17, 04:08pm | report spam | Reply |

    30&40 year old "teens"

    Not many "teens" waiting in line for an iPhone.

    There were a lot of 40year old teens in line.

  1. aross99

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    08/17, 04:19pm | report spam | Reply |

    MIssing Teen Features...

    Teens are full time users of their cell phones, and things like the lack of ringtones, no MMS, no missed message reminders, etc, are going to be killers for any teens I know (ie my kids). of course there is the the cost of the phone AND the extra $15-$20/month would be an issue too.

    The early adopters (including me) are willing to overlook these things, but I don't think the kids would...

    They love the look, the iPod functionality, the ability to see their FaceBook and MySpace accounts on the go, etc, but they would complain about the missing phone features they see on every other cell phone they have seen.

  1. dliup

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    08/17, 05:27pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: Missing Teen Features

    You can add ringtones to iPhone. Google it.

    MMS is just a different implementation to email. Google it: "iPHone MMS workaround." Very easy, and guess what? It costs nothing and it's unlimited.

    Just because you regurgitate other people's misconception does not mean the features are not available. And yes, you can IM and do alot more with the iPhone.

    iPhone is in the same class as a "smartphone." Phone plans for other phones in this class starts at $80/month and do not have easy way to access the internet. So the iPhone plan is really a $20/mo discount.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

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    08/18, 03:51pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: missing

    You can add ringtones to iPhone. Google it.

    I googled it. It requires you to hack your phone, telnet into it, run jailbreak, and then copying files. Not exactly easy nor without problems. And you can't download ringtones from the phone, or set up new ones on the fly. But, hey, you're right, you CAN do it.

    MMS is just a different implementation to email. Google it: "iPHone MMS workaround." Very easy, and guess what? It costs nothing and it's unlimited.

    Again, its possible. But its also a 'workaround'. Why isn't the ability just there in the first place, without having to switch over to email to send the picture?

    Just because you regurgitate other people's misconception does not mean the features are not available. And yes, you can IM and do alot more with the iPhone.

    Sure you can 'IM', but, again, its a workaround needing to go through a website to do it. And you can't video-IM, but that's a different story. But people expect these features to be integrated with their phone, not something they need to jump through a hoop or two to do something every other semi-decent phone does right out of the box.

    iPhone is in the same class as a "smartphone." Phone plans for other phones in this class starts at $80/month and do not have easy way to access the internet. So the iPhone plan is really a $20/mo discount.

    And that's the other reason its not a kid phone. Teens don't want nor need a 'smart' phone. Push email is of little importance. Nor is non-stop internet access. As well as the fact that, for $100, they can easily get a phone that does everything they want and need, and be left with $400 to spend on other things, its kind of an easy call.

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