The iPod people have invaded Apple’s stores!

By Andy Serwer, Fortune, December 2004

Hardware companies can’t do retail? Says who? Not Apple. Not with the iPod sales spiraling almost out of control. There was a line of people waiting to pay $300 to $400 for an iPod. That says a lot about their product – or is it their marketing?

Apple has sold 6 million iPods to date, with 2 million being sold just in the last quarter. Within 14 days, Apple increased their projected sales by 30%, gauging it by early customer responses and sales. And Apple’s stock has more than doubled this year.

Next move? A mini-mini-iPod which only holds 60 songs but costs $150. It’s a generational thing in many ways. Older generations think of Apple as something weird – the younger generation thinks of Apple as hot, which could affect Mac purchases eventually.
BRAINSTORM:
Without going into detail about iPod manufacturing specifics, I am not alone when I say that iPods are more about branding than they are about technology. I mean, we have “podcasts” now. What does that tell you about branding? Just as “google” has entered the lexicon as a verb meaning “to search”, pod now translates into audio that is loaded or broadcast into iPods.

I mean, if we’re really, really honest about it, an mp3 player is an mp3 player, or even a storage device is not much different than another except for storage size. So what is everyone paying for? A name. Simply a name. It’s like buying Tommy Hilfiger clothes instead of Faded Glory. The clothes are no different; someone is just much, much better at branding and marketing and making people drool.

So the question is, what is it about iPod’s brand that makes it appear so “hip”? Is it the advertising? Is it the fact that it’s an Apple, and not a Microsoft/Dell/PC product? Is it because the people related to the technology have branched out and branded the dissemination of pod audio as podcasting, and therefore blazed a trail that others will have to follow?


What is the most popular brand in your area of expertise? What does it represent? Who is it attracting? Have they somehow changed their merchandise or service into an icon and a masthead? Have they created a “new word” to define who they are and what they do? You know you are really onto something when your name becomes a verb in the dictionary.


So what does your product or service do? Have you created a catchy name for it? Does it represent the service? I don’t believe that you can influence the market without a good name, unless you have tons of money for introducing your uniquely nondescriptive product name to the masses.


Does your name tell what you do, and can people remember it? Can you start marketing your product in “verb” form? Instead of “Did you google it?”, can someone say about your product, “Did you _______ it?” (stick your product name in that blank and try it out). You may think this is silly, but to become a household name, you have to have a functionality that works in your target market’s environment (be it the household, office, or school).