Despite its squarish look that is pretty uncommon before Apple Watch itself made it popular, like it or not love it or hate it, recent news is saying that the squarish-shaped-watch – the Apple Watch – was sold, outnumbering the sales of all Swiss-made watches combined. Do google the news in case you never hear that: Apple Watch beats the entire Swiss Watch industry in sales.
Question is what was behind Apple Watch successful penetration and what can we copy for our business?
This is what I gathered and observed.
1. Brand & Culture.
Apple = cool. Apple = prestige. Apple = designer.
This is the most difficult one. Building a brand and culture. Since the birth, Apple has always strike to do differently. And until today, that brand sticks to most of us. Apple = think differently. What about your business, do you have such branding like Apple? What kind of brand are you trying to stick to people? What culture are you trying to introduce to people?
2. Coolness factor.
Apple Watch looks awesome and not cheaply made, even the lowest range. It’s not plasticky-made like few of its competitor. With the auto-turn-on-and-off on your wrist (thanks to its limited battery life), it’s kind of cool when people see the Watch face is full black and suddenly turned on when you raise your wrist to your face. Apple did introduce that feature on Apple Watch due to its limited battery life. In this case Apple managed to convert Apple Watch weakness point into something (looks) cool. What’s the coolness factor of your business or your product?
3. Killer features.
Heart rate monitor was Apple Watch #1 killer feature. Apple Watch #2 killer feature is the Apple Watch UI – the Hive-looking UI. Nobody did that before Apple. And the world wowed when Apple first time showed it on stage during one of the WWDC event. What’s your business or products killer features?
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4. Marketing.
While surely there’s always marketing gimmick on each advertisement, but so far Apple has never lie to its users. What you see is what you really get. Did you remember back then when Nokia introduced ads showing off its Nokia PureView phone camera which turned out taken from a DSLR camera and not from the real Nokia phone? Same thing also happen last time to HTC. They lied to users and users found out. Lesson learned here is that marketing gimmick is fine, but keep users trust, don’t lie. Have you done such similar thing – lying? Better to avoid that.
5. Exclusivity.
Being exclusive is a double edge sword, if you play it right, then you’ll win. Otherwise it’s going to be a disaster. Learn how Apple make it right. To reach today stage, Apple has long combined these factors: branding, coolness factor, killer features and marketing. Remember Apple II computer which was introduced and showed off as a computer with graphical UI and a computer that can speak out? Nobody did that before. Remember iPod which can stores million of songs and enable people to easily buy high quality music for cheap price? Nobody did that before. Remember Macbook Air that was so thin back then, people were using it to slice the cake? Well, you guess, nobody did that before. Overtime doing it over and over again, Apple has managed to build its user base comprises of millions of people that is loyal to the brand. So today Apple can easily build something exclusive within its ecosystem – like Apple Watch – and yet as you can see how Apple Watch performing in the market, despite its exclusivity – only able to be paired with iPhone – people are still buying it. Can your business do the same thing?
6. Consistency.
Being consistent is important and part of the branding as well. Look at its competitor (cough… Google with its Android wear and cough.. Samsung with its Gear series). Introducing something new to people is good, but make it way so different from the previous version, turns out are not favorable to users and most of the time lead to confusion which in the end users chose not to even bother to use it, buy it. Think long terms and think how in the future you want your product(s) to be. Be consistent. Make it consistent.
7. Keep it simple.
Though I have to admit myself, UI-wise, Apple Watch is not the simplest interface on a smart watch, but still the overall experience is simple. From the moment you take out the Apple Watch from its box and do the pairing process between the iPhone and Apple Watch, all you need to do is just point your camera to the Watch and Apple will do the rest pairing. Apple also acknowledged, different people has different taste, that’s why Apple made it so easy to change straps or bands on Apple Watch. Keep things as simple as possible, even the complicated things, make it simple for people to use. Have you done the same thing to your business? Easy access to your website or make your products easy to use?
Can you do the same thing on your business like what Apple did with Apple Watch?
Yes of course you all can. We all can. Apply those 7 factors above to your business like what Apple did, and you’ll reap the benefits later. Certain things do really take time and patience – such as building a brand, but it’s all worth it.
Like me, I built this jilaxzone.com with sharing useful life experiences in mind and how my shared experiences and articles can help other people and their lives to be better than before reading my blog, which I want people to acknowledge and stick to their head, those to be part of my brand, coolness factor and killer features. While today my blog hasn’t really taken off, but I hope someday it will, with more and more experiences, and great articles I will share in the coming future. Apple needs 20 years to be like what it is today, my blog has just started 2 years back, so I still got time to make this to take off. And so does your business.
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