‘Teen marketing: Why Apple’s the master’

Apple was famous among the Gen-X as it dominated the educational market in 1980s but it still needed
to make a significant effect on the teenager’s lives outside the classroom as they only viewed Apple’s
creations as educational instruments as yet.

The impact was made on Gen-Y with the debut of the iPod in 2001. The teenagers fell in love with Apple
and research shows how they started ranking the iPhone higher than a car on a list of what they wanted
most.

This teen affection started blossoming beginning with the ‘cool hunters’ who can also be called the
‘innovators’; trying new ideas at a risk. And also the ‘early adopters’; who are guided by respect and are
opinion leaders in their communities. The word of mouth of such consumers made Apple the next big
thing and made it a cultural phenomenon. Apple had a unique approach in creating a passion for the
company among the people as usually people don’t tend to worship businesses or business leaders. It
made the iPod a ‘necessity’ from just another ‘luxury’ good. Research shows how it became one of those
products teenagers most talk about, thus showing their obsession about iPod spreading to iPhone. Gen-
Y has made Apple a brand which makes you look cool as opposed to Gen-X who made it mere
educational instruments used in schools and classrooms. There are four distinguishing features which
helped Apple gaining this milestone:

1. Meet a real need: Music has always been a top need of most teenagers since ages. iPod created
the digital equivalent of mix tapes used earlier. In effect of creating a portable playlist, Apple
also provided a way for teenagers to get access to downloadable songs legally at the iTunes
online music store, thus maintaining ethical social standards. Apple positioned itself as a
company empowering the teens to become the content creators, which is so valued by Gen-Y.
2. Design matters: to attract teen loyalty, every product should have a good design in it’s basic
form. This design sensibility should be further integrated with physical stores too as teens love
brands which extend the aesthetic in their advertisement to physical stores too.
3. Let fans and the media do your marketing: Apple has always kept it’s marketing very simple. It
has never gained on excessive media attention nor has it ever bombarded it’s advertisements
with information. They have more focused on creating a good image which would help through
‘word of mouth marketing’ which is the best form of marketing, as teens value opinions above
any traditional advertisements.
4. You don’t have to be for teens to reach teens: Apple’s ads are never age-specific. They show all
kinds of people listening to all genres of music thus valuing creativity, diversity and individuality
combined with a line of well designed products.