How Apple Sells Products. The Art of Black or White Marketing

Apple is pretty good at marketing, although the company doesn’t like that word in particular. What matters the most is the effectiveness Apple communicates its products and how the company tries to make life simpler. It turns out it’s all about choices, binary choices, black or white choices.

The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less

Take a look at the current iPad line. Apple sells iPad Air starting at $499, iPad with Retina Display (iPad 4) starting at $399, iPad mini with Retina Display (iPad mini 2) starting at $399 and iPad mini starting at $299.

When people visit an Apple Store and look at the iPad the available choices are always two: iPad or iPad mini, which essentially means big or small iPad? If the answer is iPad the next question to be answered is $499 or $399? The same goes for the iPad mini with Retina Display and iPad mini.

Apple Design Starts with Product, Ends to Consumer Choices

Apple understands The Paradox of Choice pretty well. “Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don’t seem to be benefiting from it psychologically”.

This black or white approach to marketing is deeply embedded into Apple. In his famous All Things Digital D8 conference, Steve Jobs said that people pay Apple to make decisions for them. If Apple succeeds, consumer will buy Apple products. If Apple fails, consumers won’t buy Apple products. It’s that simple.

Even though Steve Jobs was referring to technical decisions such as including Flash on iPad, his simplicity and clarity in product thinking was pretty obvious.

We all live busy lives. Apple products are designed to make life easier. Starting with product and manufacturing design all the way to that moment in future when someone will go and buy an iPad. That’s magical and insanely great.