Since its inception in 1976, Apple has quickly separated itself as one of the industry leaders by continuing to push the needle forward in all aspects from innovation to marketing. From the iPhone to the iPad, Apple has a long resume of successful products raising the question, “How does Apple continue to successfully shift culture and facilitate technology acceptance?” This chapter uncovers the psychological strategies used by Apple to market its products through various media including commercials and brand image. By focusing on AirPods as a case study for Apple's marketing strategies, the chapter dives deeper into the psychological strategies used by Apple to change public perception and the technology industry as a whole. Moreover, the chapter analyzes the strategies used to make technology accepted among all demographics. Last, this chapter synthesizes the information to conclude whether the success of Apple's company marketing, brand, and image is attributed to genius or plain luck.
TopIntroduction
Corporate branding, and its subsidiary functions of advertising, marketing, and public relations, play a hugely significant role in human purchasing decisions. Even when accounting for cost disparities between competing products and services, brand image and brand loyalty remain some of the strongest purchase drivers across all industries. Essentially, from the food we eat, to the clothes we wear, to the shows we watch, branding influences our financial choices in virtually all aspects of contemporary life.
This chapter attempts to examine the psychological and rhetorical strategies implemented by the largest companies in the world. In doing so, six interdisciplinary theories will be employed as analytical lenses: (1) elaboration likelihood, (2) uses and gratifications, (3) cognitive dissonance, (4) parasocial interaction, (5) technology acceptance, and (6) diffusion of innovation.
This will synthesize these various psychological strategies in a case study of how these strategies have been successfully utilized to revitalize a seemingly unsuccessful product. This case study will take a deep dive into how Apple utilized Airpods, a seemingly useless piece of overpriced plastic, to make up over 12 billion dollars in revenue as of 2021 (Ferjan, 2023). This product was chosen as a case study due to the seemingly endless backlash during the rollout of the product. A poll run by 9to5mac called “Why aren't you buying AirPods?” around the initial launch of the product can be seen in Table 1 (Potuk, 2016).
Table 1. Poll: “Why aren't you buying AirPods?”
| Too expensive | 36% (6,946 votes) |
| Shipping times are too long | 17% (3,376 votes) |
| Don’t fit my ears | 9% (1,771 votes) |
| Don’t like design | 8% (1,491 votes) |
| Lacks controls | 7% (1,418 votes) |
| Sound quality | 7% (1,397 votes) |
| I already have headphones | 5% (927 votes) |
| Just another thing to change | 5% (890 votes) |
| Other | 6% (1,217 votes) |
Source: Potuk (2016)