How Does Apple Marketing Its New iPhone 6s? Shimeng Tong

Apple is one of the most famous technology companies in this world. Its minimalist style,

premium positioning, and advanced user experience attracted a lot of customers; even built up an

enormous fan base. Basically, Apple is more like a culture than a brand nowadays. Why do

people crazy for this brand? Why does each of Apple’s new products gather the whole world’s

attention? In this paper, I’m going to use two communication theories to analyze this “Apple

Phenomenon”. Rhetoric Theory will be used to explain how did the presentation during the

iPhone 6s release press conference persuaded potential customers to make purchasing decisions.

Then I will apply another theory, Diffusion of Innovations, to a series of themed iPhone 6s TV

commercials, and discuss how did they marketing the new iPhone even broader.

Background Story:

On the Sep 9th, 2015, Apple held a press conference to release its iPhone 6s. The new iPhone

contains more advanced equipment and functions, including faster processors, better camera, 3D

touch, live photo, and so on. iPhone 6s started to sell on Sep 25th, then just in three days, 13

million new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were sold (apple.com, 2015). Afterwards, Apple released a

series of iPhone 6s TV commercials though medias and Internet on Oct 15th, Oct 25th, and Dec

1st to reach broader markets and to increase sales. According to Counterpoint’s report, Apple is

doing well during its fourth quarter.

Based on the average sales within smartphone industry, how did iPhone 6s, as a high-end

smartphone, managed to achieve its fascinating sales numbers. Let’s start from the press

conference back to Sep 9th.

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Press Conference Presentation and Rhetoric Theory:

Rhetoric Theory is the art of discourse, which Aristotle brought up about 2000 years ago, and

focusing on the use of rhetoric. This theory mentions two assumptions: Effective public speakers

need to put the audience in first place, understand their background and needs. They also need to

use three persuasive proofs in their presentation, which are ethos, logos, and pathos. Aristotle

divided a persuasive speech into five canons of rhetoric, including invention, arrangement, style,

memory, and delivery. Besides, this theory contains three genres: forensic, epideictic, and

deliberative; which can be applied in time logic orders of past, present, and future.

As rhetoric theory talks about effective public speakers, let’s move back to the presentation

on Sep 9th. When turns to Apple’s presentation, people will all comes up with the same

impression: Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook (ex-CEO and present CEO of Apple) like to overuse

the “adjective”. Such as: amazing, truly meaningful, awesome… In this year’s presentation,

Cook used “The most advanced iPhone ever” to

describe iPhone 6s. I don’t see this as bragging.

This is actually what Apple pays the most attention

to, also one of the five rhetorical canons, Style.

Using language differently made Apple’s presentation stand out from its competitors, and

became more memorable. This style built up a special image among medias and customers,

which contributed to its unique company culture as well. Abstract presentation could be

beneficial in some ways. On one hand, it gets rid off the useless information within the speech.

On the other hand, it makes the content of the speech adaptable to a wider range of presentation

environment (Rutledge & Bailey, 2000). In this case, the overused adjectives are like metaphors

Figure1

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to audience, mysterious and engaging. Apple’s philosophy is to make technology accessible to

all the users, so use “amazing” to replace a scientific definition is exactly what Apple intends to

do. Because when you use an iPhone, all the complicated programs and codes were transformed

into a simple click or gesture. In this way, rhetoric theory improves the efficiency of

communication between speaker and audience.

The charm of Apple’s presentation not only comes from its unique style, but also because

Apple applies all three rhetorical proofs throughout its presentation. Start with first proof, Ethos.

Apple used many demos during the presentation, and all of them were within a specific scenario.

For example, when Craig Federighi demonstrated the 3D touch function, his was using 3D touch

to preview photos and calendars in the email from his colleague. Demos under familiar scenarios

made audience feel connected, and this shared feeling made them trust the characters of this

speaker even more.

Logos are the logical evidences a speaker employs to make his/her words more convincing to

the audience. Now it’s time to mention the very first iPhone 6s TV commercial, which was

played during this presentation. It’s a 60 seconds video, showed us how does iPhone 6s’ new

function make people’s life convenient and different in daily occasions. Then ended with a

slogan “The only thing changed is everything”. It’s inspiring and cheering, also delivered the

message directly and clearly. This ad is powerful, because visual rhetoric is a form of

communication that uses images for creating meaning or constructing an argument which is

designed for moving specific audiences (Bulmer & Buchanan, 2006). And within this video,

Apple also implied a syllogism: iPhone 6s is cool, and cool stuff makes you popular. So iPhone

6s will make you popular. I think no one will be skeptical about the new iPhone after watching

this commercial.

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Live photo is one of the most fascinating new functions on

iPhone 6s, it captures 2 seconds before and after you press the

camera shutter, so photos will become alive with 3D touch gesture.

In Apple’s demo, the user sets her daughter’s live photo as

wallpaper. Whenever she presses the screen, the little girl smiles at

her. Isn’t this the best proof of Pathos? I believe Apple designed

this function for emotional purpose. Live photos of family, children, and pets will make users

feel connected and loved whenever and wherever they are.

Another new functional that was mentioned in the presentation is hands-free Siri. You can

talk to Siri whenever you like, it will talk back to you and solve your problems or orders.

Basically, Siri is an online database that could analyze your sentences then provides you

feedbacks immediately. This process is a rhetorical delivery of Internet-based communication,

which eliminates the barriers of interactions between users and their devices. Study shows that

digital information which is designed to engage users and motivate them to participate the

interaction actively seem to be more effective than those designs that position users as passive

consumers of information (Porter, 2009). This is also one of Apple’s winning points: Always put

user experience in first place.

The Rhetoric Theory has a lot of critiques, since it had been brought up for so long, and the

factors that influence communications are changing as well. Since rhetoric puts audience in an

important position, I found some critical concerns in this case. First of all, many people online

were making predictions about the new iPhone before the press conference even started. If the

predictions were correct, will audiences who heard them already changes their reactions towards

Apple’s presentation later? Like being disappointed. Secondly, many people were working

Figure2

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during Apple’s press conference, so they were using twitter (or other websites) to acquire live

updates in photos and words. But that will be considered as receiving secondary sources, due to

different websites’ editors have different point of view in translating the content. Will this affect

the communication effectiveness between Apple and its audiences as well?

TV Commercials and Diffusion of Innovations Theory:

Diffusion of Innovations Theory explains how new products or ideas become widely adopted

within the society after a period of time. The time an innovation takes to be adopted depends on

its characteristics, which are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and

observability. Besides the innovation itself, there are some personal influences as well. The

innovation-decision process is an important five-phased period where opinion leaders and

change agents are fairly important, whom could change adopters’ mind easily. Lastly, Everett

Rogers, who published this theory in 1962, divided adopters into five categories: Innovators,

Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards.

Figure3.DiffusionofInnovationsTimeline

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Sep 25th, the day iPhone 6s became available on market, is the best time for innovators to take

action. They are mostly risk takers or loyal Apple fans, normally with high social status, have

financial liquidity, and the messengers to flow new things into a group. I’m also one of these

people, since I have been using Apple’s products for 4 years, and was a satisfied customer. From

my prospective, the earlier I get iPhone 6s, the higher relative advantage it has. Since the whole

point of buying a new iPhone is to use it as soon as possible, and experience its benefits earlier

than everyone else.

Three weeks later, a 1-minute long ad introducing 3D touch on photos and camera was

released. According to DeMatos’ research, if peer influence affect sales directly, merchandisers

must place significant cares and efforts in targeting the right early adopters (DeMatos, Ferreira &

Krackhardt, 2012). Obviously, this video is targeting Millenniums and younger generations.

Because bright color and lively pace went through the whole ad, and almost all the people

appeared in that video were in their 20s. After all, taking photos of every moment of life and

share them with friends are priorities of Millenniums. Besides, the innovation of Live Photo has

an extremely high Compatibility within this generation, because this technology made photos

and selfies more interactive to use and share, and Live Photo could be the main media on social

networks soon. As early adopters, Millenniums are respected and recognized leaders of their peer

group, and are able to reduce uncertainty of innovations. Which made most of them are opinion

leaders, they play important roles in persuasion phase to help Early Majority to formulate

positive attitudes towards the innovation.

During the end of October, two 15-second mini ads of Jamie Foxx using hands-free Siri were

published. In both of the videos, Foxx were having basic daily conversations with Siri, like

“How do I look?” and “Flip a coin”. But due to his identity as a musician and an actor, these two

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ads became interesting and humorous. During

this time, Early Majority joined the decision

phase of the innovation-decision process. They

are “deliberate adopters” and “cost effective

persuadables”, but since their Early Adopter

friends already started using iPhone 6s, the Observability of this innovation is high enough. And

their purchasing decisions will create peer pressure to the rest of their group members who

haven’t adopted iPhone 6s yet. “According to the study results, distance centrality and rank-

nomination centrality are the best two methods with respect to the maximum cumulative number

of adopters. Whereas sociality centrality, which has the shortest peak time, is the most effective

method in terms of the speed of diffusion.” (Cho, Hwang & Lee, 2012). This explained why

Apple decided to publish these two ads with celebrity during this time. Just to motivate Early

Majority within their social circles, and to emphasize iPhone 6s’ low Complexity and high

Trialability one more time. Based on financial reports, Apple posted its strongest ever fourth

quarter for both revenue and sales for iPhone with shipments at 48 Million during the quarter, a

Y-O-Y increase of almost 22.4% and above the market growth (counterpointresearch.com,

2015).

After Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Apple released a full ad on the first day of December,

named “Ridiculously Powerful”. In this 1 minute long video, Apple showed audiences how

could iPhone 6s be applied to broader range of purposes with third-party apps and accessories.

This TV commercial brought in some new motivations to Late Majority and Laggards, that with

everything you already know about iPhone 6s, there are unlimited possibilities you can do with it

by using other programs and add-ons. I think it’s a smart move to save this detailed TV

Figure4

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commercial to the last, because it provides another point of view to see this smartphone, and it’s

persuasive enough to build new understandings upon the already existed recognitions to potential

customers and everyone else. As Fador said in her research paper: Without an appropriate

introduction strategy, customers could perceive innovations as uncertainties and risks rather than

superior benefits. This negative perception of innovations may lead to adoption resistance. That’s

why communications with customers to manage their understanding of product innovations is

very important, especially when launching a highly innovative product that customers may reject

due to preference of traditions (Fador, 2010). As the result, under remaining peer pressures and

new motivations, Late Majority and Laggards may adopt the new iPhone.

A drawback I found out when applying Diffusion of Innovations to iPhone 6s is: As yearly

automatic iPhone upgrade plan (like renting iPhones, and be able to use the newest iPhone every

year) becomes more common, will this theory work for adopters anymore? Since there’s a

possibility that people who purchase iPhone will see it as a necessity, and choose the yearly

upgrade plan. Then adopters’ Diffusion of Innovations timeline will become passive. Because it

will be based on the time wireless companies are available for upgrades, instead of customers’

own willingness in purchasing new iPhones.

Connection of Two Theories:

Aristotle believes audiences are the most important roles in Rhetoric Theory, and Diffusion of

Innovation Theory is mainly study the timing potential customers adopt a new product. Since the

audiences of Apple’s presentation are possibly Apple’s potential customers as well, they are the

connections between these two theories.

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It’s interesting to analyze a case from both message senders’ and receivers’ point of view. I

acquired more details and information I used to ignore when tried to see the same problem from

two opposite perspectives, and these details helped me to identify the critiques of each theory

that may hard to find when applying it alone. For example, I didn’t even realize there’s any

drawbacks on Rhetoric Theory until I finished writing Diffusion of Innovations’ part, since the

latter theory was mainly focused on how audiences react to the information they received in a

specific phase. Rhetoric also helped me to understand when convey an Innovation, the way we

present it will affect adopters attitude dramatically when using different rhetorical approaches.

So using two different theories to see one problem actually made my analysis more thoughtful

and unbiased. I think this is a great experience, which will help me with my interdisciplinary

study in the future.

REFERENCES

• Rutledge, L., Bailey, B., Ossenbruggen, J., Hardman, L., & Geurts, J. (2000). Generating Presentation Constraints From Rhetorical Structure. Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM on Hypertext and Hypermedia, 19-28. doi:10.1145/336296.336308

• Bulmer, S., & Buchanan-Oliver, M. (2006). Visual Rhetoric And Global Advertising

Imagery. Journal of Marketing Communications, 12(1), 49-61. doi:10.1080/13527260500289142

• Porter, J. E. (2009). Recovering Delivery For Digital Rhetoric. Computers and

Composition, 26(4), 207-224. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2009.09.004

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• DeMatos, M., Ferreira, P., & Krackhardt, D. (2012). Peer Influence In The Diffusion of

iPhone 3G Over A Large Social Network. Mis Quarterly, 38(4), 1103-1134.

• Cho, Y., Hwang, J., & Lee, D. (2012). Identification Of Effective Opinion Leaders In The Diffusion Of Technological Innovation: A Social Network Approach. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79(1), 97-106. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2011.06.003

• Fador, G. (2010). Innovation Diffusion And Adoption Of New Products. Proceedings of

the International Conference "Marketing - from Information to Decision", 134-143.

• Apple Inc. (2015, Sep 28). Press Release. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/09/28Apple-Announces-Record-iPhone-6s-iPhone-6s-Plus-Sales.html

• Pathak, T. (2015, Oct 29). Q3 2015: Global Handset Shipments Reaching Almost Half a

Billion Units. Retrieved from http://www.counterpointresearch.com/globalhandsetmarketq32015

Appendix 1. Figure Links

Figure 1 http://www.johnashcroft.co.uk/2012/10/key

words-from-the-apple-keynote-october-words-that-sell/

Figure 2

http://www.cultofmac.com/388458/are-apples-live-photos-a-gimmick-or-a-game-

changer/

Figure 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_i

nnovations

Figure 4 http://or-politics.com/science/apple-posts-new-iphone-6s-ads-featuring-jamie-foxx-

steph-curry/133656/

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Appendix 2. Video Links

Presentation on Press Conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qwALOOvUik

AD - The only thing that’s changes is everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBYWGjIzvyw

AD - Camera & 3D Touch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_r349riLEE

AD - Hands-free Siri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLcz6IfecaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAK-X4qt7_E

AD – Ridiculously Powerful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct6xfkKJWOQ