Marketing Techniques to Learn From Apple

Everyone knows the Apple brand. You know the logo – the silver apple with a bite taken out of the top right side. Everyone can learn a thing or two from Apple on how to market. Think about it: Mac users are fiercely loyal to Apple and the Mac and will fight to the brink with anyone about Mac versus PC.

Customers camped outside stores to get the iPhone, like people camping outside for hard-to-get concert tickets. No one has seen quite as many people lining up for the release of Microsoft Vista. The marketing strategies that Apple uses, anyone can use. You just have to learn to take the lessons and create your own unique marketing techniques. Read on for a few marketing strategies that Apple uses that you can use for your own business to make you operate like a rock star:

Have some awesome eye-candy

No, this doesn’t mean scantily clad women and men posing seductively all over your products. This means that your product and marketing materials need to look good. You need eye-catching, sleek design that appeals to your target market. Everything Apple makes, from its Web site to its iPod to the instructional booklets that come with their products are just plain bee-yoo-tee-ful. I don’t know even one person who doesn’t like Apple’s design, or can’t at least appreciate it.

You can make your product materials and marketing materials shine just as well as Apple’s. The most important element to good design is your people (or person) that design your products. If it’s you and you don’t have a design degree, consider outsourcing or hiring a graphic designer on contract. Your Web site, brochures, posters, packaging materials – everything that the customer sees – should look professionally designed. Everything should also create the same feeling whether you’re looking at a business card or an instruction manual.

Use big pictures

If you browse Apple’s Web site, you’ll notice a lot of photos. A lot of big photos You don’t need to zoom in there! Using large pictures in your brochures, flyers and Web site helps customers to digest the information quickly and a photo can convey feelings that aren’t achieved with text. Also, people just like to look at colors, and having multi-colored text on your brochure is not going to look good.

Don’t convolute your message

Keep it simple. Simple messages can be understood faster, they have greater memorability and it’s easier for someone to pass on the message. Apple’s description of the iPhone showcases this point wonderfully: “Revolutionary Phone. Widescreen iPod. Breakthrough Internet Device.”

That’s it! Keep your message focused, as Apple has done, and use as few words as possible. Don’t convolute your message by adding a bunch of details that won’t draw people in. You can tell them about the details later, when people show they are interested (by clicking through to your Web site, for instance).

Let your consumers market for you

In almost all of Apple’s commercials, a consumer is featured. A consumer using the product, that is. Apple doesn’t just tell its potential customers that their products are cool – they don’t have to because prospects can see for themselves by watching consumers use the product.

Plus, Apple just makes cool products that exceed people’s expectations, so people brag to their friends and family about the product – free word-of-mouth marketing. Make your products or services exceed customer expectations and you’ll get automatic, free marketing.

Believe it or not, I don’t own a Mac. I do have an iPod nano though, and I love it. Just goes to show you how well Apple’s marketing campaign is – even though I’m not personally in the Apple fan club, I do like the product I do have from them, and I admire their techniques.