Myth Busted

“It’s all marketing”. That’s a common out for Apple haters, a quick way for them to sum up and then discount Apple’s success in the tech world. But like most points made by people who actually use the term fanbois, it’s not reality.

Check this out — Forbes did a little math and figured out tech companies advertising costs as a percentage of their sales. Let’s boil it down:

From 2009-2011, Microsoft spent 2.6% of sales revenue on advertising.
From 2009-2011, Dell spent 1.3% of sales revenue on advertising.
From 2009-2011, Apple spent less than 1% of sales revenue on advertising.

Results: MS’ revenue was steady, marketing went up, profits took a nosedive.
Results: Dell’s revenue was steady, marketing went up, profits are jumping all over.
Results: Apple’s revenue tripled, marketing was steady, profits quadrupled.

So from a marketing perspective, it looks like Apple’s advertising is far more effective, but it isn’t due to outspending the competition.

Any marketer will ask you (off the record) — is the product any good? Give me strengths and weaknesses and we will market it to the best of our abilities.

Perhaps Apple’s ad people aren’t magicians, perhaps they just have a better product to schlep?