Consumer Reports is a Pawn in Apple’s Sophisticated Playbook
Synopsis: Consumer Reports has no influence over Apple, no matter what the New York Times might think.
In yesterday’s NY Times, The Media Equation’s David Carr attributes Apple’s latest response to the media uproar over the iPhone 4 signal reception as an influence from Consumer Reports. Sure enough, during the special press conference held on July 16, 2010, the only media outlet referenced by Steve Jobs was Consumer Reports. Carr says the reason the Consumer Reports review gets the mention is because of what it isn’t: one of the many latest-story-of-the-day digital tech media outlets like TechCrunch and Gizmodo. No one would disagree with Carr that Consumer Reports is “a widely respected protocol of testing and old-world credibility,” but I would suggest that Consumer Reports has no hand in influencing Apple’s decisions or why it chose to mention Consumer Reports.
Apple has so much power and influence, that a single mention of any entity could carry tremendous credibility and weight. As a result, Steve Jobs is very careful not to name any techie blog in public conversations. Imagine the boost in reputation and value of a single blog if Steve Jobs dared to say, “[So-and-so] said…” Thus, no blog gets any mention at all, except for stodgy old Consumer Reports. So while Consumer Reports receives a boost in reputation thanks to the benevolent acknowledgement from Apple, in reality, the publication didn’t do anything except review a product. It just happened to have the qualities Apple’s PR machine needed.
To assess the situation further, Apple gets an additional benefit out of referring to Consumer Reports: a small, associated exchange with an older population. Let’s face it, the youth of the wired generation do not read Consumer Reports (if only because there are so many more interesting things to read first) and the majority are not interested in having FaceTime with Mom and Dad, let alone seriously consider the cost of owning an iPhone4. So who does want FaceTime? Based on Apple’s targeted commercials, some of these people are going to be grandparents that live in the boonies and anxious parents whose kids leave home for college. People who might be a little less confident around technology, more resistant to change and, erm, probably do read Consumer Reports. By giving Consumer Reports the nod, Apple earns just a few more stripes among this population.
Apple has built a following among designers, artists, college kids, young adults and teenagers (to name a few). The older, family-oriented generation is a whole new group of folks to whom the company wants to get better introduced. Thank you, Consumer Reports, for being you, at just the right place at just the right time.
References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/business/media/19carr.html?_r=2&ref=business
http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ads.html http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/100716iab73asc/event/index.html
possible new product and headlines targeted at this untapped of-a-certain-age demographic:
The Apple IPad GrannySmith edition
with a non-slip casing and slip-on magnifier, and power switch activated by clapping.
“Not your Granddaughter’s Apple”
“IPad: Dependable”
loaded with a recipe app, iPie
a bathroom finder app (from seinfield reunion on Curb), iToilet
and a gunshot sound app, iGun featuring sounds of famous weapons, for those cold dead fingers that just won’t let go.