Apple’s retail and marketing divisions are coming under fire lately. First, the newly-hired John Browett messed up. Now, ex staffers are telling a whole different story about what’s going backstage and, more recently, Apple has pulled its new Genius ads after causing widespread controversy.
The commercials seemed to cater to the customer who had only recently become acquainted with the Mac, not to the company’s longstanding army of fanatics.
The spots attracted controversy, prompting the Cupertino, California-based company to pull them from the Olympics.
Apple later said its actual intentions were to make a short run with the ads. The media didn’t buy it.
The commercials continued to be featured on Apple’s website for a while, but now they’re gone. Which really begs the question: is Apple starting to lose its touch?
Image credits: Apple
Those who follow the Mac maker in the news, particularly investors, will have undoubtedly noticed a few changes since Steve Jobs passed away last year.
- key executives are leaving the company one by one;
- OS X is suddenly less stable and lacks important features like the ability to “Save As…”;
- decision-making is not what it used to be (bad calls are being made more often than ever);
- horrible details are coming to light as if the truth was just waiting to be uncovered.
At least the controversy surrounding Foxconn workers has cooled down a bit. But it still doesn't look too rosy, and bad marketing doesn’t help the situation one bit.
To Apple’s credit, the company did say that “The ads were intended only for a ‘first run’ during the Olympics, which meant just the first weekend of the Games,” according to a company representative quoted by Mashable.
However, had the ads proved popular, Apple would have undoubtedly extended that run. After all, Apple is not the kind of company that pours tons of cash into a campaign only to see if it works. Apple knows what works before we do, right? Or so it claimed back when Jobs was running the show.
A good example is the former “Get a Mac” campaign, which ran for years. Why? Because even Windows users loved the ads. The characters were simply adorable, and they spoke to everyone. They were smart. And they set a standard for the Mac maker’s marketing.
Heck, they set a standard for marketing, period.
Image credits: Apple
Don’t get the wrong idea. The Genius guy was talented. But he didn’t stand a chance because of context. Had he done the same routine for the likes of Dell, you’d have seen a lot more laptops sold there.
In the end, we ask: does Apple need to get back to the drawing board? Did every department at Apple depend on Steve Jobs to foresee failure, or success? For the sake of future innovations, let’s hope not.
Disclaimer
This is a Personal Thoughts piece reflecting the author’s “personal” opinion on matters relating to Apple and / or the products associated with the Apple brand. This article should not be taken as the official stance of Softpedia on Apple-related matters.
Via: Apple May Be Losing Its Grasp
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