The reason for Apple's success
First of all, Apple's management has excellent foresight. For example, when personal computers were popularized at the end of last century, all the computers in the world were rectangular screens and gray shells, and the whole world seemed to be a strictly managed accounting firm. Apple's management found business opportunities and launched colorful iMac computers, which brought great impact to the computer industry and also reflected its innovative spirit of being the first in the world. Secondly, Apple's electronic products are good at grasping fashion and leading fashion. Apple's products all have gorgeous shapes without exception. In the case that the product performance is almost the same as that of competitors, Apple attracts consumers' attention with its distinctive fashion appearance and excellent workmanship, and wins the favor of the market. Apple Electronics has a good grasp of consumers' psychology of seeking differences and conformity.
Third, Apple is good at expanding new business. The popularity of iPod has promoted the popularity of mp3 players. Apple seized the business opportunity, bound the iPod and iTunes software, and set up an Apple Store to download music for free, which was a great success. Mac operating system is pre-installed on iMac computer, and successfully entered the operating system market through simple and beautiful interface and high execution efficiency, which changed people's concept of using computers and won people's love. In 2007, Apple entered the mobile phone market and launched the iPhone. Fashionable appearance, powerful functions and novel and concise operation have immediately had a huge impact on the mobile phone market and led the trend of smart phones. In 2008, Apple launched the netbook MacBook Air, which caused the netbook craze with its fashionable and thin design. In 2009, Apple made persistent efforts to launch the tablet computer iPad, which opened up a brand-new electronic product market.
Apple is very good at promoting its products in various ways. For example, when Apple released the netbook MacBook Air, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took it out of a file bag, which caused a sensation on the spot and successfully promoted the thin and fashionable features of MacBook Air. The fourth generation iPhone was released in a bar near Apple's office in San Jose on April 20 10. The engineer was a little drunk. Soon after logging on the website, he was inspected in detail by the most popular American (Gizmodo.com) high-tech institutions. Within minutes, the whole world knew everything about the iPhone4, and Apple had no advertising expenses. This tendency to sell, the desire to create, the curiosity to be with consumers, and the constant satisfaction of customers' needs finally make Apple products very popular. Apple has experience stores all over the world, allowing consumers to experience Apple's products for free, so that Apple's products can be recognized and promoted all over the world.
In addition, Apple Electronics attaches great importance to the cultivation of corporate culture and the improvement of user loyalty. Apple has an innovative idea that is almost paranoid. Apple has been trying to make every product perfect, full of human touch and humanization. Whenever an important product is about to be announced, Apple will return to its original thinking and ask for a new product. So that some people think that this is a manifestation of morbid quality and perfectionism control mania. Boston Consulting Services * * * surveyed 940 executives in various industries around the world, and 25% of them thought Apple was the most innovative company in the world.
Apple highly respects the culture of elite talents, and thinks that a small team composed of top talents can run a huge roulette, but it is enough to have fewer such top teams. To this end, Apple spent a lot of energy and time on the phone, looking for the best people he had ever heard of and the people he thought were the most suitable for Apple's various positions.
Apple CEO Steve? Steve Jobs said: "I believe that it is work that inspires people's abilities in the end. Sometimes I wish I could push them, but it's not the case, it's the work itself. My job is to make my work look as beautiful as possible and inspire people's greatest potential. " There are more than the above reasons for the success of Apple brand. Apple's success proves the significance of Apple's existence: Apple sells a belief, not a product.
Apple's success factors:
reuse
"Revolutionary" is one of Jobs' favorite words. He strongly praised every invention and creation of Apple as unique and creative.
Whether Apple's products are revolutionary or not depends on our definition of the word revolutionary. Apple is good at collecting and summarizing the latest ideas in the field of technology and transforming them into its own. Apple is good at discovering the problems and deficiencies of other similar products, and solving the above problems and deficiencies of its products, or improving and innovating other similar products on the shelves under Apple's model.
The iPad is a typical example. As early as 200 1, Bill? Gates introduced a product based on w indow s OS, which had almost the same function, but there were many problems to be solved in the development of interactive interface and application software at that time, so Microsoft didn't stick to it. Jobs found that none of the above problems were based on Apple's existing technology, so the iPad was born. In the first two months, 2 million iPad were sold.
Orderly
A few weeks after the launch of the iPad, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and other companies delayed the launch of similar products. They are trying to make products that are more complex and powerful than the iPad. Are they trying to create their own version? Fast horse? So they postponed the market and went back to the design room. At the same time, Apple's other competitors, such as Google and Intel, are also scrambling to deploy troops in this field.
Apple is not bound by this competitive situation, and it strictly follows its own timetable. Apple's timetable is formulated in strict accordance with its own business strategy and long-term vision, which is slightly influenced by the market situation and competitors' situation, so that Apple can always take the initiative, launch some new products in time and seize market opportunities.
depart from tradition
When leading the Apple team to design1980s products, the question about "What should a notebook look like?" ? Jobs often personally instructs engineers. "Once, he saw an unusually beautiful kitchen utensil in a department store", Andy? Hertzfeld said, "Then he asked the designer to design the notebook as he saw it." "On another occasion, he asked the designer to design the product as a Porsche." Andy? Hertzfeld is one of the founding engineers of Apple. He is the author of Silicon Valley Revolution: The Great History of Apple's Growth.
Computers should look more like sports cars and kitchen utensils, while Apple's followers are only high-end people who have bought or will buy Porsche. Obviously, it is difficult to attract them just by following the market trend of Silicon Valley, through technical experts or other conventional designs. The magic of Apple lies in its own research, thus attracting target customers in an unconventional way.
Deviate from convention
Technical experts generally believe that open source code is the general trend and embodies the principle of * * * *. In this context, Apple is slightly closed.
But in Apple's philosophy, closure does not conflict with freedom. Jobs said to Ryan, "We try our best to make users experience the desired effect. ? Tate wrote in an email. Earlier, Ryan criticized Apple for banning the use of Flash technology on the iPhone and iPad in his blog. "You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure." Jobs wrote, "This technology was banned because the Apple Store provided too much freedom. You can buy programs that steal personal privacy, programs that destroy batteries, and pornographic movies. "
Despite this, programmers have always complained that the Apple Store is too closed, and they think that the Apple Store has always been dictatorial in designing applications. In other words, the problem is not that it is closed, but that it is arbitrary, hidden and frequently changeable in the formulation of rules. If Apple can relax transparency, it can avoid most of these disputes.
But fundamentally, Apple doesn't care about controversy. Despite the constant criticism, the Apple Store has achieved great success, and even its opponents have to admit that it is extremely convenient and interesting.
Reject complexity
"Rejection" may be the main role Jobs played at Apple. "He is a filter," said Hertzfeld, an Apple computer engineer. Every day, designers show Jobs ideas about new products and adding new functions to existing products. His answer is almost no, "I am as proud of the products we didn't make as I am of the products we made." Jobs said in an interview in 2004.
Jobs refused not only because of his constant aversion to complex design, but also because of cost considerations and expectation effects. For some complicated designs, we can't reduce the cost, and reducing the functions of some products can also create an expectation. "Deliberately ignoring a product feature that people want to have will stimulate people's desire for it." Reid, a former Apple engineer, said, "When you add this feature to the new version, users will be happier if they get what they want."
Apple has used this strategy again and again. The latest example is the iPhone O S4, which adds multi-tasking function. In fact, users of this function have been asking for it since 2007. Let's look at the iPad again. Are you sure you can't add cameras?
Service client
No matter how good your product is, there will always be problems. In recent years, in the field of notebooks and mobile phones, most of Apple's competitors have adopted the strategy of avoiding customers rather than serving them. They closed their customer service department and outsourced this business to a telephone service center composed of low-paid employees. They even ask customers to go online to find answers to common questions.
Twenty years ago, when Apple formulated its retail strategy, it made clear an overriding priority goal, that is, to create a retail store that can completely remind customers of the computer industry. They are committed to creating a friendly atmosphere similar to the lobby of Four Seasons Hotel in the store.
Genius is the representative. Genius Bar staff will diagnose every apple product for you, no matter where you bought it. Unless the warranty period expires, the company will not charge any fees for the above services. Why is Apple so generous? "Sometimes customers come in for help, but they will buy new products when they leave," said Del, who once worked in G enius Bar.
Ignore opinions
Jobs always quoted Henry frequently on various occasions. Ford famously said, "If I ask customers what they need, they always say yes? A faster horse! ? "
Jobs used this sentence to illustrate Apple's philosophy that people can't predict what they really need. Customers will tell you a lot of things they need, but when you do what they want, it's not what they want. It's not easy to imagine things that don't exist yet.
But Jobs didn't treat customer feedback as insignificant. He regards it as inspiration, not direction; This is the method, not the result. Therefore, Apple can always introduce new products that meet customer needs and exceed customers' imagination.
Marketing everywhere
Just as Genius Bar proved to be a genius idea, Apple's global slogan "Think different" also proved to be not empty talk, because Apple fans are really different. Fans are as loyal to Apple as they are to Jesus. Apple's brand is so powerful and attractive that for some people, Apple has become a belief.
Apple has cultivated fans' religious fanaticism about the Apple brand in a series of subtle ways. Including the mystery of rendering products. The most important way is to strengthen the symbolic meaning of Apple products, and the most effective marketing strategy is rooted in the products themselves. Apple has built a clear brand image through the combination of color, sound, shape and other elements. Through these strategies, Apple has made its brand image deeply rooted in people's hearts.
This is particularly evident when Apple releases new products. Through a series of unified and coordinated steps, Apple has aroused the public's appetite and attracted more attention. When the public's attention is highly concentrated, Apple will announce the prepared information or new products. It's all about marketing.
weed through the old to bring forth the new
Don't be surprised if one day Apple introduces a computer without a desktop.
Just a fantasy? Absolutely not, these will be written into Apple's patent application documents. Although we haven't seen these products yet, we should not doubt Apple's innovative ability at all. In fact, no company reflects and reconstructs the basic links in its field as frequently as Apple. In the past few years alone, Apple has made great innovations in the production technology of its notebook computers, which is also the fastest and largest innovation in the field of notebook production and design. No other company has done this except Apple.
Apple completely ignores the concept of compatibility emphasized in the IT field, which is both a blessing and a curse for competitors such as Microsoft. In Apple's history, it adopted a new operating system and a new chip structure several times, and these decisions always made its original production and assembly base obsolete immediately. Apple always denies the irrationality and deficiency in the past design, and constantly brings forth the new, so that its products can always stand proudly at the forefront of the times with a unique style.
Appropriate "dictatorship"
In 2000, as the operation manager of Apple's Astarte American division, Mike? Liszt and Ivanger are responsible for the research and development of D V D recording technology, that is, installing this D V D on a high-end computer and transforming it into ID DVD in the future. The project interface provides various window and menu options, as well as a large section of function description text.
"Then Jobs came in," Ivanger Liszt recalled. "He didn't read our work carefully, but drew a box on the whiteboard." "This is a new design." Jobs said, "just a window, push the audio-visual materials into the window, and then click a button called play." This is what we want. "
"Everyone froze," said Ivanger Liszt, in a very different style from his previous company. The technical field pursues inclusive and thorough innovation and gathers the wisdom of the public. Apple engineers spend 100% of their time designing products planned by a few senior executives or Jobs alone. So few people have the right to decide that Apple can only launch one or two innovative products a year.
Enlightenment of Apple's Success
(Apple's successful summary.
Apple's success is not accidental, and its R&D, production and marketing strategies are not independent and irrelevant. Apple's R&D strategy makes its products gain high value, which determines that the competitive advantage of products lies not in advanced hardware, but in excellent and smooth operating system and excellent user experience, which is a process of product differentiation. Furthermore, in the next production strategy choice, does Apple have the ability to adopt a complete outsourcing strategy? Apple does not need to keep the self-made activities of core hardware. The product has no core components and does not rely on the investment of specialized assets. Complete outsourcing helps Apple avoid the inefficiency and high cost caused by self-control, which in turn increases profits. With high value and low cost, Apple's products have the basic success factors.
With excellent products as the foundation, Apple has the freedom of bolder marketing strategies than other electronic companies? Hunger marketing and high pricing. Hunger marketing has improved the status of Apple brand in consumers' minds and made consumption much easier. High pricing not only increases Apple's operating income and profits, but also provides a basis for the research and development of the next generation of products, thus sending a signal to consumers? Only a high price can match Apple's products. These two marketing strategies are separated from the successful implementation of previous R&D and production strategies. Without an excellent user experience, the product will not attract enough consumers, Apple will implement hunger marketing, and consumers will not be persuaded to pay high prices for the product.
(B) Enlightenment of Apple's success
What enlightenment can Apple's success bring to local mobile phone manufacturers in China? The answer is innovation. Looking back on Apple's road to success, the word innovation is reflected. In the R&D strategy, Apple always pays attention to the user experience, not the blind hardware upgrade. The marketing strategy did not adopt a conservative approach, but boldly created a mysterious atmosphere before the product was released, controlled the supply quantity after the release, and adopted high pricing, which successfully enhanced the brand image, and the company's operating income and profits also rose sharply. Apple's success can't be copied, because Apple is taking the road of innovation, and innovation can't be imitated.
Ideas are the most important. Apple's philosophy is customer first. In the process of designing products, the user's feelings and details are always considered to ensure that the products can be used most comfortably and happily by customers. China mobile phone manufacturers should learn to apply this concept, instead of blindly pursuing fashionable appearance and low price, ignoring users' feelings in the process of using products. The rapid growth of enterprises depends on consumers. Whether an enterprise can win the support of consumers depends on whether its products can create tangible value for consumers. China mobile phone manufacturers should also accept and digest this concept and design and develop products from the perspective of consumers.
I've seen Why Apple Succeeded, and so have I:
1. Apple's success analysis
2. The secret of Apple's success
3. Apple's success
4. Cheats about Apple's success
5. The secret of Apple's success
6. Jobs' success
7. The woman behind Jobs' success
8. Apple's success
9. Seven Reasons for Bill Gates' Success
10. Reasons for the success of WeChat