Stay True to Your Brand
By Katie Earley, Copywriter
Randall Stross reported in the NYT last week that Apple is filing a patent request for a new advertising technology, what it calls an “enforcement routine”, that can place an ad on anything with a screen and force the consumer (essentially) to watch it. An example of this force might be an ad that will stop your device from working until you click or enter a response to demonstrate your awareness of the ad.
Stross feels that this is a very un-Apple move. It sounds like something that Microsoft would do, and is similar to things they have tried in the past. While filing a patent does not guarantee that this is a technology that Apple will use, they are throwing a lot of money into research for this so I’d expect that they would use it somehow.
In personal life and in business, no one likes a sell-out. Particularly when you think of Apple’s biggest fans, they are anti-sell-outs, anti-Microsoft, anti-business-as-usual. This is a move that could alienate their loyal customers and they are a brand that relies heavily on customer loyalty.
I do think that this “enforcement routine” could have some positive effects for Apple and not go against their laid-back brand image. One possibility is that they could offer their wares at large discounts with built-in advertising. You would pay more for the ad-free version, and if the ad version got to be too annoying, you could pay to have the ads removed (a possibility Stross mentioned).
Solely based on personal comparison shopping, Apple’s not cheap. There are several less expensive MP3 players, laptops and phones out there. I don’t want to get into whether Apple is better or not, but there have been several occasions where I’ve bought a non-Apple product because at the end of the day I’d rather have the extra money and a product that still gets the job done. I doubt I’m alone. This could be a great way to expand their customer-base, as long as they don’t alienate the loyal followers who have gotten them where they are.
