Do you know Apple? Which type of Apple first come up to your mind?
Apple that can eat?
Or the other bitten Apple?
Apple, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of mobile communication, media devices, personal computers (PCs), and portable digital music players (Forbes.com., 2017). It operates almost over the world. In the technology era, who does not know Apple? Most of the family will have a least one of their products. In our mind, Apple’s company is always successful but CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT APPLE ALMOST WENT INTO BANKRUPTCY BEFORE?
Are you shocked? Whether it is or not, just continue to read and figure out what had actually happened. 😀
But first, be familiar with the word “Attitude”.
What defined attitude?
An attitude in marketing terms is defined as a general evaluation of a product or service formed over time. ———– (Solomon, 2008).
So, is hard to change the attitude of someone but also might be a key to success… Let’s see how this help the Apple.
During late 1996, Apple’s sales have a DECREASED of 30 percent.
Thus, Apple was acquiring Steve Jobs’s start-up NeXT for $429 million. An acquisition is an obvious reason for an identity change. Steve Jobs were finally back to the Apple after 11 years he left the company. At the same time, Microsoft was investing $150 million in Apple and making a promise to develop Microsoft Office software for the Macintosh for the next five years.
The return of Steve Jobs has definitely changed the Apple’s brand image. In other words, Steve Jobs is the new brand image of Apple which is successful.
Changing brand image is a part of altering consumers’ attitudes.
The strategy of changing brand image consists of attempting to alter consumers’ overall assessment of the brand. ————– (Schiffman and Wisenblit, 2015).
Is not just a simple return, furthermore, he discovered that Apple had been producing various versions of the same product to fulfil the demands from retailers. For example, the company was selling variety versions of the Macintosh computer.
Jobs saw Apple as distracted by odds. Apple would drop its 20+ product lines and make just four great products: a consumer desktop, a consumer notebook, a pro desktop and a pro notebook (all about Steve Jobs.com., 2017).
By the end of that year, Jobs had decreased almost 70 percent of Apple’s products. The company had gained a profit of $309 million from first losses of $1.04 billion after a year.
So it’s the time for a new look!
In 1998, Apple introduced its new iMac which, like the original 128K Mac, was an all-in-one computer (En.wikipedia.org., 2017). Its design was different from the old Macintosh PC. The name of “Macintosh” was simplified to “Mac”. The iMac proved to be successful, 800,000 units were sold in 139 days. They made an annual profit of $309 million.
Steve Jobs re-established the company’s public image, achieved a successful and focused new strategy, attracted software developers, and launched highly innovative and inspiring products on the marketplace (all about Steve Jobs.com., 2017). The confused product lines had turned into a simple and powerful product matrix, filled with breakthrough computers:
Apple’s continued innovation was a plan of Jobs. The company introduced revolutionary products including the iPod in 2001, Apple iTunes Store in 2003, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010.
This shows that Steve Jobs is using the attitude-toward-object model which is the developing new products. Steve Jobs as a marketer is a successful example to refer to. This shows that how important to know what the consumer wants and how to change their attitude during a certain time.
Last but not least, I’m grateful and respect to him that he had brought great products for us. 🙂
The summary of the history of Apple:
To know more about the revolution of Apple’s products and other details you can visit these websites to know more about it:
https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/01/the-evolution-of-apple-design-between-1977-2008/
http://neatdesigns.net/how-apples-marketing-revolution-began-80-vintage-ads/
References:
all about Steve Jobs.com. (2017). all about Steve Jobs.com. [online] Available at: http://allaboutstevejobs.com/bio/longbio/longbio_08.php [Accessed 25 May 2017].
Cho, M. (2016). How Steve Jobs Saved Nike (and Apple) With 1 Simple Piece of Advice. [online] Inc.com. Available at: https://www.inc.com/mikael-cho/how-steve-jobs-saved-nike-and-apple-with-one-simple-piece-of-advice.html [Accessed 25 May 2017].
Dean, G. (2010). Understanding Consumer Attitudes. [online] Marketography. Available at: https://marketography.com/2010/10/17/understanding-consumer-attitudes/ [Accessed 25 May 2017].
En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Macintosh. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh [Accessed 25 May 2017].
Forbes.com. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/companies/apple/ [Accessed 25 May 2017].
Schiffman and Wisenblit (2015). Consumer Behaviour, 11th Edition, Pearson Education International.
Solomon, M. (2008). Consumer behavior buying, having, and being (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
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