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Apple does it again

Business | Sponsorship | Technology

Well that is another solid quarter from Apple to say the least. Profits and revenue were up 50% and 31% respectively over a year ago while growing gross margin 3 points to 40.9 at the same time. They sold 33% more Mac computers in the quarter, 100% more iPhones and 21 million iPods which was an 8% drop. And tomorrow they are launching “a major new product” that they are “very excited about”, widely believed to be the iPad or iTablet or iSlate or whatever they call it, which is likely to boost figures even further.

So let’s look at this success from a marketing perspective and compare it with another giant of marketing, Red Bull. Apple has always focussed on being a “cool” technology company and to a large extent has let the products do the talking. Just as we are seeing with tomorrows launch much of their marketing is based on anticipation as a result of controlled and limited release of information. If you think about it control is a word that will keep cropping up whether in a marketing or proprietary technology sense. Once the products are out advertising has always been the communications vehicle of choice ever since the 1980’s. The business has always avoided sponsorship which probably harks back to the control thing again. There are some confident egos at play and sponsorship generally puts the brand into an uncontrolled or potentially diluted environment. Advertising though very one dimensional is, within the bounds of trade standards legislation, a totally controlled message.

That has not hindered Red Bull. They have combated any possibility of dilution head on with blanketed coverage across every sponsorship category. Neither brand suffers from a lack of awareness. One could argue that Red Bull have less, or in fact nothing to spend on product development unlike the R&D efforts at Apple. Perhaps Apple can’t find a sponsorship opportunity with the right attributes to match its wide audience. But perhaps they just haven’t realised that preference is more than just cool products and confident advertising. Sponsorship is a tool that if used properly can support all the Apple values and attributes and maintain growth in shareholder returns.

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