Timing Product Releases, Retail Strength Key to Growth
| by Joe Leo, Columnist |
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It's no secret that Apple Stores command more revenue per square foot in such a small space when compared to that of bigger electronics retail giants like Best Buy. The secret is how they manage to do it. Before Apple reinvented the phone, it reinvented retail, one of the secrets of its success.
In Fast Company's November issue, one of the cover stories is "The Genius of Apple Stores" and author Alex Frankel writes, "At Apple, nothing is left to chance," attributing the overall success of its stores to the employees who work them. "Apple Stores have mastered the modern art of empowering employees to be the customer's friends and turning that into sales."
And the employees are what determine if customers come in, stay, and buy the goods.
Take for example this particular night. People walk in and are treated like celebrities (we probably had something to do with it with our camera flash going off every few seconds) as Apple Store employees lined up at the entrance cheer them on and welcome them in. Others are standing by ready to answer any questions or help you complete your purchase(s).
The biggest factor in all of this? "What happens between now and Christmas is the most important time for a very large sector of our economy... whether such notable brands as Apple, Gap, Home Depot, Starbucks, and many others think 2007 was a good year or a bad one comes down to this fourth-quarter finish line," says Frankel.
Remember, he said Apple is a "notable brand." And all the brands listed have retail space.
So is it any wonder why Apple released new iMacs in August, new iPods in September, and delayed its new operating system's release until this month? It's all about timing, carefully planned to coincide with the shopping rush of the holiday season. When Microsoft released Vista back in January, it was done after the holiday season. (Oops).
Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote in his business column back in January, that when Vista was released, people who spent their money over the holidays on other things, didn't have money to buy a new PC to go with their Vista-- attributing that to the fact that Vista couldn't run the way it was intended to be unless you had the latest hardware.
Timing is key. Plus, Microsoft doesn't have the retail prowess that Apple has. (Direct competitor Dell is trying to copy that model by opening up retail stores of their own in order to sell their PC hardware). In addition, Apple sells not only software and computers, but?
Electronics, the "Inc." part of Apple Inc. No longer just computer hardware with software built-in, but electronics like, (as much as we hate to mention it, so we won't, but we'll say the idea behind it), that little device called the iPod which was Apple's Trojan Horse to making people... switch.
What about that switch? While standing in line for Leopard in front--well, off to the side and behind--of the Apple Store last Friday, one couldn't help but notice the number of people walking by, minding their own business and listening to their iPods, not even flinching an eye as they walked past the Apple logo and the huge line of people assembled there.
In a time-span of ten minutes, we counted 22 people passing by, sporting the signature white "standard issue" earbuds that come packaged with every iPod. Did these people even know that an Apple Store was nearby? Who knows. Non-Mac users of the iPod who know nothing of the culture of Mac save for that mp3 player in their pockets. Talk about "pod people"!
Apple's "wow" starts now and it shows no signs of stopping. Walk into any retail store this holiday shopping season and you'll see exactly what that means in terms of numbers. Numbers of shoppers in-store, computer hardware sold, electronic gadgets sold, and so on and so forth.
Last Friday's release of Mac OS X Leopard will only help boost the "wow" factor and Apple will find itself competing with a new contender in the ring come 2008. Trying to beat itself from 2007. (Macworld 2008 will prove to be quite interesting if Apple intends to impress anyone... no mere speed bumps, capacity upgrades, or price drops will do the trick this time around!).