Classic marketing strategy has always taught us that in a mature market, you lower prices to better compete, but Apple is defying that logic and instead raising prices. Will this work?
The cost of the new iPhone is a staggering $999. Most of the early adopters I have talked with have said that’s just too expensive for them and they are instead looking at alternatives like Goggle’s Pixel. How many Apple customers will pay $999 for a new iPhone?
I’m sure Apple crunched the numbers and came to the rationale of selling less but making more per unit but what about the loyal Apple customers? I am one such person with an iPad, iPhone, iMac and MacBook Pro but the desire to put the Apple decal on my car to show that I am a loyal Apple person has passed.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]To me, as a customer and marketer, Apple has abandoned me[/inlinetweet]. The last four updated on their OS system have been putrid and the iPhone is now copying features from Samsung’s line of phones. To this day I still don’t understand the purchase of Beats headphones as their products don’t compare to many others in terms of quality and sound reproduction.
But let’s get back to Apple’s strategy…[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]The idea of selling less but making more money per unit has been tossed around a lot.[/inlinetweet] However, marketers always talk about market share and all their efforts seem to focus on increasing market share and gaining new customers rather than making loyalists out of current customers.
Last week at the Apple store I noticed that almost everyone there was a current customer. In waiting for almost an hour I didn’t see any customers leave with new Apple products. Apple seems to sense this as Microsoft, Google and Samsung are now surpassing them with innovative products.
I believe that brands could and should do more to keep current customers loyal but unfortunately Wall Street wants growth and brands are usually slaves to the street.
