AOB5: Evaluation

I was tasked with creating a marketing campaign for the new Apple product, the iPhone 6. To begin with, I analysed the marketing campaign for the previous iPhone model and researched official regulatory bodies which would be checking my campaign to make sure that it was suitable for release. I then went on to create adverts for the product as well as a marketing schedule to plan when certain parts of the campaign would be released. For example I planned for the TV adverts to begin airing on May 24th 2013. I also set up search engine optimisation which meant that when people searched using search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing our product would be one of the first suggestions that would appear.

Search Engine Optimisation

Another way in which I marketed the product was to design hoodies and t-shirts that Apple store staff would wear to promote the product. I also created emails that would be sent out to previous Apple customers to inform them that they could pre-order the iPhone 6. These were to be sent out on June 28th and pre-orders would be made available from July 5th.

In the adverts that I created, I did not try to alienate anyone from buying the product so I made the adverts fairly simple and any text used did not have much specialist lexis that people would not understand. I believed that they would stand out because they were different from previous Apple adverts due to some of them using much brighter colours. This should set them apart not just from other available smartphones but also other Apple products by showing people that they are very different from our previous products.

Much brighter colours than
previous Apple adverts

Some of the members of the focus group said that the promotional items were too simple. If I were to do them again, I would take this feedback into account. I would use more colour and use more complex designs. I would also try and create more interesting images to use on them. All that is on the t-shirts and jumpers at the moment is the Apple logo and "iPhone 6". Another piece of audience feedback that I received is that the magazine advert was a little unorganised. Some people thought that it looked a little mismatched and that the images in the corners looked out of place.

One thing that I was happy with was my marketing plans. I thought carefully about how I wanted to market the product and when certain pieces of promotion and advertising should be released. I scheduled for the iPhone 6 to be released on July 12th 2013 to coincide with the release of Microsoft's new smartphone being released. I also planned for the TV adverts to be broadcast from May 24th 2013. However I knew that people may get annoyed if they were on constantly seeing the adverts so I proposed that the adverts should slowly become less frequent after the product release and only be shown more frequently again if sales slow down. I felt that this was a good move for Apple and the product. When I presented the marketing plan to an audience, the only suggested improvement was not keeping the billboard/bus stop adverts up for as long after the product had been released.