Welcome to The Price Point! Every week, media expert Holly Cara Price, who does everything from research television projects to run this sexy website, will analyze the corner of the entertainment universe that is most consuming her.
For her first installment, Holly’s tackling subject that we love to discuss here at The Critical Condition: Advertising. Take it away!
The Price Point ~ by Holly Cara Price, Agent Provocateur
Two TV ads have been sticking in my craw lately – constant use of DVR notwithstanding – and ironically, both of them are for products made by Apple Computer. That says a couple of things about the company: They consistently hire great advertising firms that know how to make compelling ads, and their plan is to eventually take over the world.
By the by, I have no doubt that the vast world of television advertising, as it feels its grip on our TV screens slipping away, is currently developing a way to read our thoughts and, using algorithms, broadcast ads directly to us in the air above our heads. Think me wrong on this? Check back in ten years.
(1) I’m A Mac. I’m A PC.
Well, I have to say I always make a point to view the latest ads in this series because they engage me. Note the most recent one, where a girl tells the PC guy what she wants and doesn’t want in her new computer. Of course, the PC can’t meet any of her specs and she’s left with the cute Mac guy – who is always uncomplicated, casually dressed, calm. Nothing ruffles him. Everything’s under control. He’s kind of the Obama to PC’s John McCain. The PC guy is older, overweight, overdressed, wearing a suit and tie. The implication is that he comes with a lot of baggage, emotional and otherwise. The PC is rife with viruses and updates and problems. You can never get customer care on the phone. Who would want one? These ads almost break things down to a math problem – do you want life to be easy or hard?
(2) There’s An App For That.
Gotta admit, although I have no desire for an iPhone, these commercials are very appealing. The beautiful notion that a cellphone can solve all your problems, no matter what they may be –snow conditions for skiing, how many calories are in your lunch, where did you park the car – is sexy and very 2009. As time goes by, products have to get faster and better all the time, or we’re moving on to the next thing. Our attention span shrinks exponentially with each passing moment, thanks in no small part to the way media is edited with quick cuts, for which I say, thank you MTV in the 80’s.
As a bonus, the potential parodies of this ad are endless. Want to break up with your girlfriend? There’s an app for that. Want to adopt a baby? There’s an app for that. Want to buy a handgun? There’s an app for that.
6 responses so far ↓
1 jen // Jun 5, 2009 at 8:35 am
Hate those apple commercials, but mostly the Justin Long ones. I feel like that whole series skims the truth so lightly that they verge on fraud. Every advantage they attribute to a Mac is NOT one that is unique to Macs- PCs can do that too. Every bad thing that they attribute to PCs (with the implication that their own system is free of these things) is certainly not unique to those systems. This ad is in direct response to the Microsoft ads that point out that sure, if you have a lot of money to spend on a computer, get a Mac. but if you’re not rich and you still want something good- like most real people in the real world- get a PC. Notice how they counter this- not by denying that their product is WAY more expensive for less actual applications- which it is- but by acting like they do so much more in functionality for that higher price. but who wants a virus free computer when you can’t afford to do anything with it? Every reason they give is a half truth. And you got sucked in by the “cool”. Apple certainly does cool better than anyone else though, i’ll give you that.
2 Rae // Jun 5, 2009 at 9:42 am
@Jen: Now who is buying into ads? If you made up a PC that has the exact same specs as a MAC, they’d be about the same price with the same “starting” applications (the days of PC’s coming pre-packaged with lots of applications are long gone). PC companies just give you a lot more options of customizing whereas Apple doesn’t. Whether you need the level of hardware Apple offers is certainly a valid question but you aren’t getting a lesser computer for more money.
Of course, the ads are still disguising some of the truth. Because, as I said, if you paid the same price for either computer, you would end up with similar apps. Meaning it’s not true that you wouldn’t be able to do the same thing on the PC that you can do on the Mac. Still, what the majority of the Apple ads are really claiming is that the Apple applications are more fun and easier to understand/use. Whether that’s true or not is up for debate but I don’t see how it’s fraud. What company doesn’t claim that their product is the better one in their own ads?
And since this might get me accused of being a Mac, let me just say that I use both on a daily basis and pretty extensively. If I had a label, it’d be a PaC.
Hence why I’m aware of what you get when you buy one or the other. My lack of a preference means I price with hardware in mind… not what company made it.
3 Rae // Jun 5, 2009 at 10:07 am
What Apple does well and what I think you’ve captured with two ads you highlighted, Holly, is tap into the populace’s vernacular. The marketing firms they hire excel at understanding their audience. I don’t know the history of ads between Apple and PC companies well enough to know if they created the idea of being a Mac or a PC BUT they certainly took the idea and cultivated it. The same with the “there’s an app for that” slogan. My friends and I now use it all the time. Even though we’re using it to make fun of how Apple’s commercials make it seem like the iPhone can do ANYTHING, it’s still achieved its goal. We use their slogan and think about their product while doing it.
It’s also why I think Microsoft’s new PC ads fail. I actually understand why they thought it’d be a good idea but, in the end, the cornerstone of those ads are the Apple ads. It’s why I watch them, I instantly start comparing them to the PC vs Mac ads and, even as I’m watching a Microsoft commercial, I’m thinking about Apple. I feel like they’re just endorsing the idea that Macs are cooler than PCs, after all why else would they have to try so hard to show us all the people who do use PCs? (The newer ads that focus on the cost of PCs vs Macs? Much better. If only they’d get rid of the “I’m a PC” part at the very end.)
Of course, the great irony in the Mac vs PC ads is that John Hodgman is in fact infinitely “cooler” than Justin Long could ever be.
4 ferretrick // Jun 5, 2009 at 1:37 pm
The MAC ads do exactly what they are designed to do very well, which is carving out a small market of fiercely loyal customers by setting them apart from buyers of competitors products. There’s an actual term for this marketing strategy but I can’t remember it now. Its similar to niche marketing, but I don’t think that’s it.
In any case, what you do is cultivate customers who will be fiercely loyal to your brand, and only use your brand, and see themselves as superior for using your brand. That’s what’s behind the whole “Are you a Mac or a PC?” It goes beyond merely cultivating customer loyalty; its trying to make using your product almost part of the person’s identity. And if you’ve ever run across a devoted MAC user, you’ve seen this in action. Some of them are scary.
5 weekend horoscoop* goes biweekly! -- Snoop du Jour // Jun 5, 2009 at 3:49 pm
[...] also started a new column for Mark Blankenship’s awesome blog The Critical Condition today, The Price Point. This week I took on television advertising, in particular ads created for Apple products. Please [...]
6 Amanda // Jun 7, 2009 at 3:13 am
A doctor friend told me recently that the iPhone’s next incarnation is scheduled to be released in a version that includes a glucometer for diabetic iPhone users, complete with lancet. When they say there’s an app for that, apparently they’re not kidding around.
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