(still fromGartnerGroup report)The "1984" commercial is the best-known part of Apple'seffort to market the Macintosh. Directed by Ridley Scott (whosemoviesAlien andBlade Runner were alreadyscience-fiction classics), broadcast only once (except for oneearlier broadcast, and endless repeats), the commercial is stillinstantly recognizable. (Seeit on the Chiat/Day Web site.)
(still fromGartnerGroup report)
But the rest of the Macintosh marketing campaign, though lessclearly-remembered, may have been more influential over the longrun. The Macintosh introduction brought a new level of sophisticationto high-technology marketing. It introduced a set of practicesthat have been widely emulated in Silicon Valley, and advancedthe careers of several high-profile marketing experts. In somesmall measure, it even helped change the way people think aboutcomputers. Some of these techniques had been used in earlier productintroductions, but their combination, and the quality of theirexecution, put the Macintosh introduction in a class by itself.
The personal computer industry in the 1970s and early 1980scatered mainly to hobbyists and "early adopters" (peoplewho were willing to take on the challenge of learning about computersin order to realize major productivity gains at work); consumermarketing was virtually unheard-of. (Mainframe computers, of course,were never consumer products: they were sold to corporations,government and military agencies, and universities.) Productswere introduced with little fanfare, and marketing efforts weredirected almost exclusively at the trade press and industry insiders.
(advertisementfor mouse, c. 1980)
This in turn affected high-tech journalism. Covering the computerindustry,San Jose Mercury News reporterEvelynRichards remembered, "was just like covering any otherindustry-- steel, or automobiles. Actually, it wasn't even asprominent as automobiles." New product announcements, shecontinued,"were very techie: they focused on bits and bytes and theoperating system, and how many megabits of memory a machine had.Their press releases were pretty unreadable.... It was just industryinsiders; it wasn't really consumer-focused."
Apple itself had enjoyed great success marketing the AppleII to computer enthusiasts, and enjoyed a reputation as one ofthe more approachable computers for non-technical users; but itwas clear that its future growth required reaching out to largermarkets. The hiring of Pepsi CEO John Sculley had been one morein that direction. New versions of the Apple II (the Apple IIe,and Apple IIc) aimed at more general markets gave the companyexperience in conducting broader advertising campaigns. But theApple II was a well-established platform; marketing an entirelynew technology would require more intensive efforts.
All the marketing-related primary documents are listed on aseparate page. A good place to startis with a short extract from Regis McKenna's classic bookRelationship Marketing,which describing the Macintosh introduction. It provides an excellentoverview of Apple's position going into 1984, and the key messagesthe Macintosh team sought to communicate. (A distillation of McKenna'sstrategic marketing principles, and the tactics his group developedto get them into public circulation, isalsoavailable.) Another inside views of the Macintosh launch isavailable in theInterviewwith Andy Cunningham, the McKenna consultant who worked onthe Macintosh.
Apple, like many companies, devoted considerable effort tomaintaining its corporate image. One tactic involved presentingwriters with material on the company, like Jean Richardson andRene White's 1980 "AppleComputer" corporate backgrounder. Another involved regulatingpress access to Apple employees, and vice versa: Barbara Krause'sInquiries from the Presssummarizes company policy.
Lou Weiss'Focus Groupson Macintosh Experience, based on a video presentation ofthe results of focus group research, gives a sense of the strengthsand weaknesses Apple marketing felt it had to deal with in therollout.
For the truly serious, theMacintoshProduct Introduction Plan (7 October 1983) offers a comprehensiveoverview of the strategic marketing effort, with a focus on theinitial rollout.
(Steve Jobs)
How well were the Macintosh's key marketing messages pickedup by the press? The Gartner Group's "Evolutionof a Computer" series featured in-depth stories on Applecomputer, the computer's creators, the Macintosh factory, themarketing program, the educational market, and the overseas market.The major marketing themes Regis McKenna and Apple outlined echothroughout the series.
(Applepublicity photo)
One notable element of the campaign were the public accoladesgiven to members of the design team. With very few exceptions,hardware designers, software engineers, and others receive littlepublic attention in marketing campaigns; IBM's elaborate 1983rollout of the IBM PCjr included no special material on the computer'sdevelopers. In contrast, Macintosh engineers were almost treatedlike rock stars-- featured in aRolling Stone article,photographed by a team that had worked with Fleetwood Mac. ChrisEspinosa has donated copies of these pictures, whileAndyCunningham describes what turning software developers intocorporate representatives was like.
What did the journalists who covered the Macintosh introductionthink of all this effort? TheInterviewwith Evelyn Richards offers the perspective of a veteran technologyjournalist on the regime of sneak previews and multiple exclusives.