Apple yesterday released a new video advertisement via its YouTube channel. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the first ad that promotes Apple’s handset trade-in program.
Check it out right below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2S9i_Hn2k
The voiceover is depressing, it sets the wrong tone.
Other than that, it’s a great little ad that hits all the right notes. In the video description, Apple has smartly framed iPhone trade-ins as an “easy way to do your part for the planet”. That’s true, but it’s also true that you can get far better trade-in deals elsewhere.
To me, the real news here is the fact that Apple has bothered putting out an ad to promote the trade-in program in the first place. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman touched on trade-ins in yesterday’s write-up about Apple Stores losing their shine, writing that executives on Apple’s April 30 earnings call acknowledged they had to resort to “long-shunned retail tactics, such as discounts, cheap financing and generous trade-ins” in order to boost iPhone demand.
“That’s not a viable long-term strategy,” Gurman wrote, and I agree with his take. Apple is a premium aspirational brand, not a cheap brand, and the worst thing a premium brand could do is resort to cheap marketing tactics like BoGo promotions because that devalues the brand whilst making it very hard to charge premium prices in the future.
Thoughts?