Andrew Li's Blog

I recently came across a blog post by Beverly Cheung, Apple’s “Us Vs. Them” Approach.  The post describes Apple’s marketing tactics that they’ve used since the inception of the Macintosh computer in 1984. The tactic described is something called an “Us vs them” approach, where Apple markets its product as something that is hip, cool, and original.

A mac commercial made in the 1980s depicts a young attractive woman up against hundreds of brainwashed drones which parodies George Orwell’s 1984.  The ad clearly implies that the young, freedom loving woman is a mac user and is trying to stop the brainwash of everyone else. Fast forward 20 years later and Apple still uses the same marketing tactic.  As many of us are aware, most of Apple’s commercials depicts a chubby, nerdy looking guy as a PC and a younger, more hip looking guy as a Mac. This type of advertising conveys a message to consumers saying “you are either cool like us, or you are a loser like the rest of them.”

Although Beverly’s opinion is that these type of marketing approaches give Apple an image of a bully and aren’t winning over many customers, I respectfully disagree. I believe these types of ads are appropriate for a company like Apple because they sell luxury high-end products in their industry. The competitive advantage that they offer is the superior quality they bring, and therefore must sell that to the consumers in the best possible way.