The Evolution of Apple's Integrated Marketing Communication Campaigns

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Apple's integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies, examining various campaigns from the company's history. It begins by highlighting the early marketing efforts surrounding products like the Macintosh, emphasizing how Apple successfully conveyed the product's ease of use through advertisements. The report further explores the evolution of Apple's IMC, noting the impact of Steve Jobs and the continuity of the company's marketing approach under Tim Cook, particularly the annual iPhone launches. It discusses the integrated approach employed for the Apple Watch launch, showcasing how the company generated anticipation and excitement through pre-launch announcements, extensive advertising, and product demonstrations. The report also examines the marketing strategies used for the iPhone X, including the use of tech reviewer endorsements and emphasis on the product's entertainment features. Overall, the analysis reveals how Apple has consistently used integrated marketing to create a strong brand image and drive product sales.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Blog 1
Apple is one of the world’s largest companies that has been manufacturing gadgets. The
company started with its humble beginning when its two founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
founded the company in a garage in United States (Isaacson, 2012). Todays the company
produces and manufactures some of the most sought after products in the gadgets genre like the
Apple iPhone, Apple Mac, Apple TV which is recently launched and the latest craze the Apple
watch. The company has been doing its marketing totally right which has led to such immense
growth in such short time period. Of course there have been great contribution of the marketing
and innovative ideas of Steve Jobs who is respected as one of the most respected marketing
Gurus in modern times, however the company has a great team of marketing experts who has
continued the growth of the company and did not allow some of the controversies to reduce the
pace of the growth.
The company in the very beginning when it was producing the mother boards had
marketed its products very efficiently in whatever ways they could. The first major Apple
product which turned the fortunes of the company called the McIntosh which was the first
personal computer from the company, had been very successful because of the campaign that
surrounded the product. People were waiting for it to come out (Thomke & Feinberg, 2012).
It was the year 1984 that McIntosh was first released and the product was aimed at
reducing the complexity which was involved in operating a computer and it was successfully
conveyed in the advertisements that Apple published in various mediums. One of the
advertisement displayed a mouse with three buttons and people were excited to see this new
product being launched.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
References:
Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard business review, 90(4),
92-102.
Thomke, S. H., & Feinberg, B. (2012). Design thinking and innovation at Apple. Harvard
Business School Publishing.
Blog 2
“Apple, like many companies, devoted considerable effort to maintaining its corporate
image. One tactic involved presenting writers with material on the company, like Jean
Richardson and Rene White's 1980 "Apple Computer" corporate backgrounder. Another
involved regulating press access to Apple employees, and vice versa: Barbara Krause's Inquiries
from the Press summarizes company policy.”
Apple was successful in introducing one of the first integrated marketing campaigns in
the history by publishing in the newspapers, giving television advertisements and Steve Jobs
personally appearing for interviews and talking about the new products. The Apple McIntosh
computers aimed at bringing computers for normal people so that everyone could use it. The
Graphic User Interface worked well in this regards.
In the coming years it became a craze of the Apple fans to wait for Steve Jobs to appear
before the crowd and introduce a new product. This trend is now continued by the present Apple
CEO Tim Cook has continued the trend of appearing before the audience once a year and
introduce the new Apple products especially the new IPhone that is launched every year (Hunter
et al., 2012). The marketing strategy of Apple has been to involve people in a way that they feel
to be a part of the new products launches and that they wait for new products to be launched and

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Tim Cook has continued it (Richtel & Chen, 2014). Every year Apple Inc. launches its new
version of iPhone, this can be hardly matched by any other company, to launch a single series of
product every year with new features and expecting people to buy it. Integrated marketing
communication has worked wonder for Apple in this regards and the loyal Apple iPhone
customers do not hesitate to buy new phones paying a hefty price, this is because the aura Apple
has created around its products through its marketing campaigns.
References:
Hunter, S. T., Cushenbery, L., Fairchild, J., & Boatman, J. (2012). Partnerships in leading for
innovation: A dyadic model of collective leadership. Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, 5(4), 424-428.
Richtel, M., & Chen, B. X. (2014). Tim Cook-Making Apple His Own. New York Times,
Technology, 15.
Blog 3
Death of Steve Jobs due to prolonged illness had a big impact on Apple, as Steve Jobs
himself was a factor who could draw half of the crowd without any marketing, such was his
personal charisma. He has been viewed as one of the most prominent innovators and leaders both
in the field of marketing and in the field of technological innovations. He introduced the system
of launching new products and marketing them in a integrated manner.
The integrated marketing communication around Apple watch was one of the most
prominent and innovative integrated marketing communication campaign that has been ever

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
taken up by any technological company. The launch of Apple watch was announced from
months before and people were waiting for the product to be launched and then on the launch
date there big advertisements in the newspapers, the internet was full of Apple watch
advertisements, all the blogs that dealt with tech news has one single point agenda to talk about,
the Apple watch. In the big malls and departmental stores the Apple watch was there for people
to try and experience firsthand (Rawassizadeh Price & Petre, 2015). The existing iPhone users
were all updated and notified again and again to buy the latest Apple watch.
“Apple introduced the world to several category-defining products, the Mac, iPod, iPhone
and iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “And once again Apple is poised to captivate the world
with a revolutionary product that can enrich people’s lives. It’s the most personal product we’ve
ever made.” (Apple.com, 2016)
“With Apple Watch, we’ve developed multiple technologies and an entirely new user interface
specifically for a device that’s designed to be worn. It blurs the boundary between physical
object and user interface,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of Design. “We’ve
created an entire range of products that enable unparalleled personalization.” (Apple.com, 2016)
It is evident that how the people directly responsible for the products and who came from
the topmost rung of the company were personally engaged in marketing the products.
References:
Apple.com. (2016). Apple Unveils Apple Watch—Apple’s Most Personal Device Ever. Apple
Newsroom. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from
https://www.apple.com/in/newsroom/2014/09/09Apple-Unveils-Apple-Watch-Apples-
Most-Personal-Device-Ever/

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Rawassizadeh, R., Price, B. A., & Petre, M. (2015). Wearables: Has the age of smartwatches
finally arrived?. Communications of the ACM, 58(1), 45-47.
Blog 4
The launch of the first iPhone has been characterized by great public attention and people
wanting to understand what it felt like using a mobile phone that was more innovative and user
friendly than any other device made till date. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs had again and again
confirmed that how much importance the company gave to the factor “simplicity”. According to
Jobs one of the main driving forces and characteristic features that has helped Apple to grow in
such a small time was its simplicity, both in terms of design and in terms of usage (Isaacson,
2012). The products were aimed to be very easy to use but give maximum optimization
capabilities. Now the problem was how this was to be conveyed to the potential customers all
over the world. Here comes into play the factor of marketing strategy. Steve Jobs himself steered
the initial marketing endeavors of Apple Inc. which became so successful that 74 days after its
introduction the company announced that it has sold the One millionth iPhone. This was almost
unimaginable in terms of volume.
Apple had applied several marketing communication strategies in order to gain such
success in terms of business and to increase the goodwill of the company (Boone & Kurtz,
2013). Advertising, events, and promotional offers were later introduced. Today Apple have tied
up with several telecom companies in order to increase its business, two of which are Airtel and
Vodafone. Apple has introduced promotional offers like easy EMI options and cashback offers.
The company has tied up with Airtel in several countries and thee\y are giving customers several
benefits like lower tariff rates and discounts in mobile bills.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
References:
Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2013). Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.
Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard business review, 90(4),
92-102.
Blog 5
The latest product of Apple is its iPhone X. “Our vision has always been to create an
iPhone that is entirely screen. One so immersive the device itself disappears into the experience.
And so intelligent it can respond to a tap, your voice and even a glance. With iPhone X, that
vision is now a reality. Say hello to the future.” This is the official statement of Apple in its
website about the iPhone X (Apple.com, 2018). The marketing strategy was to induce the urge in
the potential customers to make it impossible for them not to buy the product. The iPhone X is
branded as a product of the future. It has some of the features that is not found in other phones in
the planet. The marketing strategy that has been taken including the promotional videos of the
phone in YouTube and the experience that it gives it is termed as not just a phone but a
“phenomenon” in itself. It is an “experience”, that one must use to understand. Technological
experts have concluded that the product is more of a status symbol than a gadget that will assist
its users to ease their daily problems. Apple presented the product in a way that people who are
interested in technology and gadgets not only they will buy the products, but people who do not
understand technology well but are interested in high ends lifestyle products to match their status
symbol will also tend to buy it.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Apple took up a very different but innovative strategy during its launch, it allowed access
of the iPhone X to some popular tech gurus in YouTube. They reviewed the product in a very
short time that did not allow them to understand the flaws well, and as launch date was near the
product was already a hit and people waiting anxiously for it to launch.
References:
Apple.com. (2018). iPhone X. Apple.com. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from
https://www.apple.com/in/iphone-x/?&muid=528C4450-05E0-421C-A64E-
89560ABA0900&mtid=20925st142673&aosid=p238&cid=wwa-in-kwgo-iphone-slid-
&mnid=sIugfsdnO-dc_mtid_20925st142673_pcrid_230229655339_
Blog 6
Apple previously never used the reviews and comments of any other entity in its press
release. However, this time Apple had changed some aspects of its integrated marketing
communication strategy and included the reviews from popular tech reviewers, newspapers and
media giants in its press release. “The best iPhone yet”, “Like Magic”, “This feels like the
future” were some of the reviews from trusted sources which themselves had goodwill in the
market.
Apple also adopted a policy of slow roll out of products and encouraged waiting from the
part of the customers. The less time given to the reviewers had already made a situation where
much flaws could not be detected, and now slow launch of the product had helped in maintaining
the quality. When these strategies were already in place the company had continued to advertise
the product all over the place including the internet. All the social media platforms were filled
with advertisements and reviews about the iPhone X. The newspapers had large advertisements

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
and the hoardings in the big cities featured the product in gigantic sizes. Apple understood that
the people were already aware of the technological specifications of Apple, it was a waste to
again reemphasize on the fact that Apple X had highly advanced technological specifications.
Therefore, Apple this time highlighted the “entertainment” quotient of the product and the launch
videos and the various other advertisements talked about the screen of the phone, the sound, the
experience of the users in gaming, clicking photos or shooting videos (Forbes.com, 2018). Apple
encouraged short documentary film makers to use iPhone for their shooting. Therefore, the
product was more of a high end multimedia gadget rather than a tool to connect. The integrated
marketing communication strategy was very successful in this case and the product continues to
be sold in large numbers all around the world.
References:
Forbes.com (2018). Apple iPhone X: The Mid-Term Review. Ten Things To Love Or Hate.
(2017). Forbes.com. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/
davidphelan/2017/12/10/apple-iphone-x-the-mid-term-review-ten-things-to-love-or-
hate/&refURL=https://www.google.co.in/&referrer=https://www.google.co.in/