Apple Marketing and American Materialism free essay sample

This is perceived negatively by society, but since this increase in consumerism is fairly recent, it is hard to make conclusions on why this is happening. Many companies, along with technology, have contributed to the rise of materialism in the US and Apple is one them. By analyzing Apple’s marketing strategy, recent ad campaign, and success and failure of their promotions, people are buying more consumer goods now because they want to be entertained and want to make their life simpler. Apple Knows How To Appeal To Their Customers Apple has been very successful recently because of their creative way of thinking and how they do business.They have gained many customers by using â€Å"a winning combination of exceptional products, great style and design, great strategy, innovative marketing, and sleek and enticing communications† (Vertygo Team). By really taking the time and effort to think of great products and ideas and coming up with simple, clever advertising, Apple is able to appeal to a broad range of customers who want to buy their products. By doing this, they increase their sales and enhance their brand value. I agree that Apple has a unique marketing strategy, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe that Dell and Blackberry are similar to them. It states in the company’s mission statement that â€Å"Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store and has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store† (Apple). They always are up to date with technology and have really created their own markets for the products they sell. It is often hard to compete with what Apple has to offer since the company even stayed strong in 2009 during the recession and increased their sales and profits (LexisNexis 1). This just shows how loyal Apple’s customers are and how they are always excited about the new products they come out with.For some people, they can’t live without their iPod or iPhone, so Apple’s customers really trust the company in providing them with a product that will help them make their life easier. One of Apple’s main values is the environment. They are all about designing their products to be energy efficient to reduce greenhou se gas emissions and want to eliminate harmful substances. Apple designs are thinner, smaller, and lighter than other products since dozens of individual parts are replaced with a single piece of aluminum (Apple).This enables Apple to create more efficient products with less material and smaller packaging. All of their products are also free of toxic materials and the materials they use in making their products are recycled through their recycling programs. The weight of the materials they recycle is compared to the total weight of their products and Apple has managed to achieve a recycling rate of 50% (Apple). So on top of being a very successful company, they really care about issues going on in the world and this is shown in how their products are created.Customers can feel good about the product(s) they are buying. Although recycling may seem of concern to only a small group of environmentalists, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about being clean and neat because tons of waste is produced every day. If people like simple concepts, then recycling is one of them because all it takes is a swish in the bin and the Earth is becoming a cleaner place. iPad: What Apple Hopes To Be The Next Big Thing Just recently Apple has launched their latest new product the iPad.The words â€Å"iPad is here† are in bolded letters and a big picture of the product is shown when consumers go to the Apple company website. The iPad is stated to be â€Å"a magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price starting at $499† (Apple). Apple wants it customers to think that this is the best new product out there, so they also have guided tours and a list of features showing what the iPad has to offer. It also states on the website that it is â€Å"the best way to experience the web, mail, photos, and video hands down† (Apple).There are apps built into the device to take advantage of the large touch screen and basically anything can be done on the iPad. It is basically a combination of a mobile phone and laptop and Apple hopes to â€Å"define the future of mobile media and computing devices† (Apple). Apple’s goal is to have this product be as huge as the iPod and iPhone. Launch of iPad Received Mixed Reviews When the iPad first came on to the market over 300,000 were sold in the US and iPad users downloaded over one million apps from the App Store and over 250,000 ebooks from the iBookstore during the first day (Apple).Based on this, the launch of the iPad seems to be pretty successful. New York Times claims there are problems with the iPad, but we don’t need anyone to tell us that. Anyone familiar with technology has long known that any new product is bound to have flaws. Here is a list of some from an iPad review by David Pogue: * Certain models only get online in certain areas where Wi-Fi is available. * Ebook selection is limited and ebooks aren’t read well in direct sunlight and can’t be read on any other machine except the iPad. * iPad gets heavy in your hand after a while and typing can be a challenge. iPad can’t play flash video, which is the Web’s most popular video format. * Can only use one app at a time, no USB jacks, and no camera for video chats. * If you already have a laptop and a smartphone, why would you need a third machine? (Pogue 2) All of these things show that the iPad still has room for improvement. But this has happened with a lot of Apple products and they continue to update them by coming out with new versions. By doing this they can gain more customers and get more people interested in buying the iPad. The whole concept is still fairly new and it can be hard to persuade people that the iPad is the best new product if they are flaws with it. The people who bought the iPad right when it first came out probably didn’t think about these potential problems and just bought it on impulse because it looked neat. Increase In Technology Is Why Materialism Is Rising So how does all this relate to American materialism? When companies like Apple come out with new products, everyone is really interested in what they are all about and want to be educated on how this product can benefit them.If they think the product can make their life better, simpler, or easier, they automatically want to buy it. This is showed through Apple’s website. With close up pictures of all the applications and features of the iPad and detailed descriptions with phrases like â€Å"there’s nothing like the mail app on iPad† and â€Å"viewing photos on the iPad is extradordinary† (Apple), customers get sucked into the product and think that the iPad is something unique, which gets them more interested in buying the iPad. They see everything the iPad can do up close and personal, which is almost as good as trying it out by hand. This can speed up the process of buying the iPad or not and makes customers happy because they are getting the information they need on the product. They want to make sure the product will be useful for them. Technology is real and arguably, the most significant factor in American’s buying decisions. People want to keep up with the trends to live in a more revolutionized society. This is the sole reason why Americans want everything. Americans love the idea if something is new and innovative, and since new products and ideas are always coming out they are constantly being entertained and always want more to keep their interest.American materialism is probably going to continue through future generations, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This is just a current trend in society that people are researching and want to know more about. There is nothing wrong with wanting to buy new products. People can spend their money however they want and use products as they please, but consumers will always be interested in anything that looks fun to use and will make their life easier.