How the iPod moved from “exclusive” to “inclusive” - yet kept its ‘cool’ branding
Something which I realised the other day is that the iPod has achieved something very subtle, in marketing terms, and yet nobody has remarked on it (not that I’ve noticed). Until now.
Back in January 2004 the Guardian ran a story on the invasion of the iPoddies (which noted that it had been “the must-have Christmas present of 2003″). That was before the launch of the iPod mini; iPods then were still those big things, and very pricey, yet it was a sort of exclusive club. (The article’s well worth re-reading, actually. It’s an interesting piece of then-zeitgeist.)
At that time, seeing someone wear an iPod was still a slightly unusual thing. White earphones? iPod user! Ooh.
Whereas now you walk along the street and every few steps there’s another person wearing those white tendrils. In just 12 months - well, perhaps more, perhaps more like 18 months or two years - the iPod has gone from being something that only the cognoscenti knew about (though they lauded it to the skies), to something that even the postman has. (Yeah, spotted one today.)
Yet at the same time the iPod hasn’t lost its cool. You don’t look at the person walking along and think “they’ve got an iPod! Eugh!” in the way that, say, seeing a chav wearing a Burberry hat makes you pause before you pulled on your Burberry raincoat the next morning. If you’ve seen a chav with an iPod, did it make you want to give up your iPod? Bet it didn’t. (Chav readers can move along here..)
Partly that resistance to brand-debasement must be due to the brilliant silhouette adverts, which have a sort of aspirational quality - remember Phil Schiller’s comment at last year’s Apple Expo? - and partly too to the way that Apple has segmented (oops) the market, so that it now offers something iPoddy all the way up the price range; that’s driven the inclusivity thing, so that everyone can have one.
But why is it still cool? Why isn’t it debased? I think that the core - damn! - reason why the iPod has kept its image, even while everyone from George Bush upwards has one, is that it remains *your* iPod. It’s as cool as you are; it’s a sort of electronic pet that loves you, that says “what a fantastic choice of music!”, which rewards you by playing songs that you really like. They say - well, someone said, but who knows? - that “Every man is Napoleon to his dog”. Meaning that dogs look to you as the great conquering hero, even if you’re just some Pooter. Same for the iPod. Everyone’s iPod tells them they’re cool. Because we all know that our taste in music is the right one, don’t we?
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Act three in the iPod nano screen drama (28 September 2005; score: 47.18%)
- How Google News penalises exclusive journalism (27 July 2004; score: 45.13%)
- Michael Arrington and the broken embargoes: welcome to journalism, Mikey boy (19 December 2008; score: 41.25%)
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April 26th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
You have a Burberry raincoat? Eugh!
April 26th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
Actually, I don’t even own a raincoat. I was really just trying to give an example of a brand that’s been degraded by association.
April 26th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
This exact comment has been made in several places before, though I can’t give you references at the moment.
As to chavs and iPods, actually chavs are rather retro and like to use tape. However since portable cassette players (at a decent price) are almost impossible to come by now it will be interesting to see what they use in the future.
(I do have a Burberry raincoat - though only by accident : I was in a restaurant in Brussels and someone took the wrong coat off the rack and left his behind. It’s rather a good coat (especially for free) though I seldom wear it)
April 26th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
“I was really just trying to give an example of a brand that’s been degraded by association.”
And I was trying to reinforce your point! :)
April 26th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Personally, I think the iPod was a bit lucky with how popular it has gotten.
The very fact that 10 year old kids want an iPod says something about the iPod. I honestly don’t think its the simplicity of the device that makes teens rave about it - it’s because EVERYONE from their favorite artists (remember the craze it caused when it was in 50 Cent’s music video?) to the coolest kids have one.
The word of mouth about the iPod is the strongest marketing the iPod has.
Now, on the other scope, you have “us” - us being the Mac using bunch who understand the simplicity and features the iPod has. Being able to sync your iPod with iTunes is amazing. Those of us who use iPods know that its compatible with AAC, AAC Fairplay, AAC Loseless, AIFF, and, OH YEAH, MP3.
Contrary to popular belief, the iPod does play DRM Free codec in AAC (based on standards) and mp3.
So, when you have 14 year olds saying “Get an iPod, cause it’s cool”, and 34 year olds saying “Get an iPod, cause it works with iTunes, plays mp3s and works with iTMS”, the word of mouth buzz is amazing…
I honestly can’t say I’ve met someone who said, “Get a Creative Zen…It plays Windows Media Files…”
OH, in other news, Amazon let’s the bag out early and releases the specs of the new PowerMacs. Details here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007OW502/ref%3Damb%5Fright-3%5F208631%5F4/104-4428808-0001546 More news to follow when Asian Reporter Trisha Takanawa is available…)
April 26th, 2005 at 6:26 pm
Very nice opinion piece Charles. You make a good point about the coolness factor. Though I do feel superior to all the johnny-come-latelys, I also am glad for what they are doing to the price of my Apple shares. Besides, my music is so much cooler than their pedestrian collections.
And I too have seen the postman, and a policeman even, with the white wires on their persons. The cop was standing around guarding the ferry terminal from evil-doers, so perhaps that is cause for concern. But I still had to smile at him.
The thing is, when you are listening to a great song on your iPod, you don’t care what other people think of you cuz you’re in your own little film with your own soundtrack. And when your little friend shuffles you up a sweet random playlist, it’s like the little computer friend is hardwired into your psyche. I know Schiller said that “random really means random”, but it’s still awesome.
Just yesterday “michel du blanc” played me “Sweat Loaf” by the butthole surfers followed immediately with some soothing Amadeus. I almost blew coffee out my nose.
Quick question, as I’m not English, I don’t know what a “chav” is, though I infer that it is derogatory.
April 26th, 2005 at 8:22 pm
Fellings of superiority to iPod-toting Johnny-come-latelies? Hmf. I had an iPod before you even knew what one was.
Very nice piece. The part about your own music being on there sort of brought to mind John Gruber’s article on the art of the parlay: Microsoft did well in the 80s because they were building on the base of their operating system being installed on the most popular computers; Apple did well with the iPod because they’re building on the base of everyone having lots of CDs and MP3s. Hence the continuing lack of video iPods: no-one’s got large, legal collections of video lying around that they want to watch on-the-go.
April 26th, 2005 at 8:23 pm
Oh, I nearly forgot. I’VE JUST GOT A NEW POWERBOOK! WOO!
April 28th, 2005 at 12:28 pm
Actually — and I guess I’m the only one on the planet — I’ve never cared for the iPod, and I *do* think — oh, look, another tech conformist when I see one.
I wanted something that would record, so I now have:
- an Archos Jukebox Multimedia (20Gb)
and
- an iRiver 790T (1Gb).
Both devices record.
I use the iRiver most of the time now — it’s very light and about the size of a car cigarette lighter, and 1Gb is enough for a folder of music I want to learn plus an album or two I haven’t listened to yet. The other nice thing about the iRiver is that it has actual hardware buttons to push to make it do things — particularly useful for recording.
But someone really needs to come up with a not-too-expensive highly portable digital recorder that will take a decent external microphone and record in stereo to PCM and MP3 that has traditional hardware design with buttons and volume controls, etc. A good digital field recorder, in other words.
Of course, this may not be what most people want from iPods. :)
wg
September 13th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
Mates it’s already here.
Ipod + Linux = 92hkz recording device (mono only tho :()
The quality of cd is 44khz pro audio usually runs 48-92khz. 92khz uses vast amounts of disk space so is usually not used by anything but super high quality dvd peeps. most stereos can only play 44khz or less and have any audible difference, because most hifi even top end are crap at replicationg the sound (they high fi it instead) Ie. colour the sound.
It’s in development for nano and 4g ipods and is a one click to access afair.
What can i say i don’t like apple but the amount of people working on the work arounds mean it’s got to be the player of choice. no brainer really.