I just wanted to take a quick look at how the different companies portray themselves to the consumers in order to persuade those users to buy their smartphones. As I was researching this article, I discovered that Apple sales rely heavily on fanboys for its sales…fanboy defined in the Urban Dictionary as:
Apple Fanboy
- A person who believes in almost anything that apple says and gives into it’s marketing strategy.
- A prime target for apple marketers to impose their superfluously costing products to.
- A person who honestly believes that Windows XP or Vista is Archaic, Inferior, Does Not Work, or just plain ripped off ideas from the Mac OS.
- One who waits in line for days in some instances, for Apple keynote speeches. 5. One who believes adding an “i” prefix to anything is automatically superior to anything that does not have an “i” in front of it.
Most apple fanboys will possess three or more of the following:
- iPod
- iPhone
- Macbook
- iMac
- Mac Pro
- 3 or more Apple Connector Cables
- A membership at Macheist.com
No company has a loyal fan base like Apple and this is substantiated in a recent survey where 78-percent of current iOS users will choose another iPhone – their customers are almost “cult-like” the way they will buy anything as long as it is an Apple product. This is what all companies strive for from their own customers; after all, it keeps them coming back. Don’t get me wrong, Apple spends money on advertising, to the tune of US$333 million in 2012, but for the past couple of years those ads are, what I like to call, “feel good.” They are of little substance when it comes to an actual product, but simply coddle their users, or fanboys, into feeling good about themselves for using Apple products.
Below is an example of an Apple ad that ends with “Designed by Apple in California,” but fails to mention that their iPhones are manufactured in a Foxconn “sweat shop” in China. If you are an Apple fanboy, then I guess the ads will make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but if you dislike Apple, the ads will, at the very least, make you mute or change the channel on TV.
Let us look at Apple’s largest competitor, Samsung. Samsung users, for the most part, love their phones and sales of the Galaxy S3, S4, and Note 2 seem to substantiate that, but they do not have that same loyalty that Apple users enjoy. That same survey shows that Android users are 67-percent likely to buy Android again, less than the 78-percent loyalty that Apple enjoys.
Samsung uses “The Next Big Thing” as its advertising hook, and it has hooked us to the sum of US$401 million! Whether you like Samsung or not, most would agree their “make fun of Apple” ads are funny and entertaining. Watch the one below to see how they mock the Apple fanboys:
The number three smartphone seller is Nokia and they definitely do not have large fan club, or a large advertising budget, spending only US$13 million. For their money, they produced a very funny commercial, mocking both the iPhone and Samsung in the same ad…kind of like “killing two birds with one stone.” The ad is done very well, but you only get the full effect when they air the entire 60-second ad, unfortunately, they air the 30-second version most often and it just is not as effective. Enjoy the 60-second ad now!
I want to throw BlackBerry into this article because there was a time when they had some very loyal fanboys themselves. Before Samsung and Android OS came along, there were many BlackBerry and Apple “words of war” in the forums, where “lurkers” would go to each other’s forums and stir up trouble and bad mouthing each other. As it became clear that BlackBerry was falling behind in hardware and innovations, many loyal users jumped to Apple and Android devices, but there is still a core of die-hard BlackBerry fans. Their ads do not attack any manufacturer; they simply try to show you what the capabilities are of their new BlackBerry phones with BB10. Watch for yourself:
Apple has both the fanboys and advertising dollars to keep Apple’s products in demand. Samsung and the others must use advertising to attract new buyers…or, here is a thought, stop buying a certain manufacturers’ products just because you blindly follow them, or because the advertising is so clever…buy the device that offers you the dependability, value, the style, or features you want. Make every manufacturer earn your business by forcing them to produce high quality products at an affordable price.
Let us know in the comments if you are an Apple, Android, Nokia, or BlackBerry lover and what you next phone purchase will be – will you stick with your current brand or switch.