Month: October 2013

Urban Outfitters (UO) has recently been through very rough times, loosing over $200 million in sales last year. As a true “wannabe” hipsters who loves to shop in UO, I must say that the new mobile marketing approach is simply genius. The Philadelphia-based apparel company, that hipsters hate, realized that with the upcoming holiday season they had to come up with an idea to win over their very young and digitally driven target segment. This segment, which makes up most of todays teenagers and young adults, is characterized by the smartphones industry which makes apps one of the best marketing strategies for any company, if used wisely of course.

As a result, UO launched a new app which provides customers with rewards in return for photos, and social media integration. Through this mobile challenges and rewards system, UO is putting its brand and products out there for everyone in their target segment. Moreover, UO has nearly 1 million followers in both Twitter and Instagram. Thus, through social media integration, most of them will most likely download the app and those who don’t will probably do so after they see their friends bragging about their new UO jacket which was 50% off. In today’s trendy world, this marketing strategy  can only do good as shown by the almost immediate increase in sales after the app was released.

I recently downloaded the app and immediately received an award. What came up to my mind right away was what other challenges I could unlock to gain more rewards. Thus, judging by UO’s marketing team on reading their customers’ trends and lifestyle, I believe it’s only a matter of time until UO is back on the game. If you still have doubts, download the app and enjoy shopping at discount price right away!

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Apple has truly revolutionized the technology industry for past decade or so and continues to do so. Leaded until relatively recently by Steve Jobs, the exceptional marketer who passed away in 2011, Apple was able to position themselves in the consumers’ minds as an industry innovator seeking to “transform the way we work, learn, create, and share” as cleverly stated by the new iPad air advertisment. A product that adds significant value to the customers, but at the same time, is simple to use. That’s exactly what Apple product’s are about, and this ad makes the perfect case for it by comparing the new iPad with a pencil, arguably the most used tool by humankind. Brand positioning excellence.
 

Although they are are clearly stretching the truth a little bit with such a blunt statement, from a marketing perspective it can be safely said that Apple does a remarkable job leveraging its comparative advantage through smart advertisements. It reminds customers that apple is present all around the world and used by all kinds of segments of the population: from artists to scientists, from students to important scholars. It is for everyone to use, useful for pretty much every task one can think of accomplishing, while remaining a tool that is as straight-forward to use as it gets nowadays.

Even though some might say that Apple’s groundbreaking innovations are gradually decreasing (particularly judging from the apparent lack of innovation in the iPhone), Apple’s brand definitely remains an example of simplicity excellence. Their marketing team knows this, so they are very likely to keep delivering products and respective ads depicting this key core value. Ken Segall’s book, on Apple’s obsession with simplicity, makes a great case explaining the significance of this value to the company.