Apple vs. The US Government

The Justice Departments filings demanding Apple unlock one of the San Bernadino Gunman’s iPhone is a challenge for CEO Tim Cook and the Apple team.  Cook addressed customers in a letter  describing Apple’s strong views of customer privacy, etc.  Google, Yahoo! and others in Silicon Valley are standing with Apple on this important issue.

All of this got me thinking about how this could impact Apple’s marketing.  From my view, it’s nothing but “goodness.”  Think about it…

Apple is known for putting customer needs, preferences and privacy first… this stand supports this messaging.  Keeping customers privacy at the center of the marketing equation does nothing but strengthen Apple’s messaging.

Apple vs. Government — with all the political discussion around how broken Washington is, this fight shows corporate America will take on the US Government.  Again, strong messaging with little downside.

Losing the Battle — if Apple loses the legal war, it still looks good in that they “fought” for customer privacy.  Again, strong customer privacy messaging… little to no downside.

The Government is painting Apple as the bad guys by not fulfilling their request.  They’ve picked a moment and an opportunity to exploit the privacy issue.. Apple just happens to be the defendant in the trial.  But with new product shipping shortly, Apple’s name stays in the press and as we know… any PR is good PR.

Scott

iTunes Radio – The Great Cross Sell Platform

If you haven’t upgraded to the new iOS7 platform for your iPhone you’re in for a pleasant surprise – iTunes Radio.  As it’s similar to other internet radio platforms such as Pandora, etc. you would think it’s just another music streaming service…but alas, as you dig a bit deeper you’ll find iTunes Radio is the great cross sell platform.

What Apple’s done right with iTunes Radio

-          Access – it’s right there at the bottom of your music library where your playlist, artists, etc. is listed.  Easy to reach, easy to buy.

-          Features – easy navigation from the information graphic to an artist station, for the song, sharing the station (sharing also equals cross selling), ability allow (or not) explicit tracks.

-          Cross Sell – not only is the $1.29 buy button in it’s same graphic and placement you’re use to it… the announcer comes in very naturally/in no way obtrusive and briefly mentions a track you might want to download.

-          Individuality – the ability to “tune” the station from Hits to Variety to Discovery I found great.  If I wanted to hear the familiar – I kept it on the Hits, if I was in a more inquisitive mood I’d tune it to Discovery – more opportunity to Cross Sell. 

-          Clarity – reception via wifi was fine… but 4G seems to stutter a bit.

-          Fresh Music – although the music is probably the same as in my iTunes library, iTunes Radio creates a new playlist of music I normally wouldn’t listen too but fits the category.  And that becomes addictive… to the point, where I’ve downloaded 3 songs which I hadn’t heard for years – again Cross Sell!  And that data about my purchasing history is surely getting mashed up for additional cross sell opportunities in the future.

-          Integration – as all my music is on iTunes – buying integrates right into my catalog as you would expect it to…. keeping me from straying to another music service.

What Needs Improvement

-          Graphics – the same basic music genre has the same graphic images… It makes it tough for you to mental mind graph the music to an image.

-          UI – even after using it for a few days I keep stumbling with the UI trying to navigate my way around.

All marketers can learn another lesson from Apple.  This time, the lesson is subtle but just as powerful – sell horizontally and vertically.

Scott