December 1, 2008 by Jack Fox
Last Friday, depending on your point of view, Apple either performed a masterstroke of marketing or tricked a lot of loyal US customers with a “shopping event” that proved to be less than many had expected.
For weeks, in response to the widespread gloom surrounding the first Christmas of the recession, Apple had stoked expectations about a special black Friday event but given no further details. Customers naturally assumed they meant a price cut of some sort. They were right, apple did indeed cut their prices and many people bought their products as a result, everybody’s happy right?
Well, yes and no. The thing is that Apple’s much touted Black Friday price cut was actually very similar to the cut they offered last year and the year before that, so not a special, credit crunch beating offer at all.
Legally Apple have of course done nothing wrong, they didn’t advertise they were making drastic cuts, or in fact any cuts, though some view the exploitation of people’s concerns over the credit crunch as a little arrogant. Either way it’s another example of Apple judging the public mood perfectly. In recent times the company have relied on expert marketing and branding of their products, it would seem that these skills are all the more important in the current climate.
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I’m sorry the whole premise is wrong. Apple didn’t do anything except announce that there would be a sale on Black Friday, clueless tech writers desperate to have a scoop made up the idea that apple would have deeper sale prices that they usually do to get web site hits and if Apple did cut lower that usual they could say that they broke the scoop on it. Totally BS as usual from the technology writers, passed along from blog to site without any real source or information. Now you come along and add to the illusion that Apple was either being really smart or unethical and continue to desalinate totally made up stuff…..
Comment by Oz — December 1, 2008 @ 6:28 pm