(Scene from Macintosh commercial)This feature (the fourth in the "Evolution of a Computer" series) describes the Macintosh advertising campaign.
Voice from Apple commercial, with music: Introducing Macintosh...
(Scene from Macintosh commercial)
Voice-over: There's no doubt about it: the way in which a new product is intorduced to the public can influence its success. It needs exposure; it needs a good image; it needs a target audience. And that took the Macintosh marketing team two years to research, and lots of studies to determine who Macintosh would be best for.
(Marketing VP Mike Murray)
Mike Murray: They're the people we sometimes call "knowledge workers." They're professionals, they're managers, they're people who work with information and ideas.
(Knowledge worker)
Voice-over: The marketing team estimates there to be 25 million "knowledge workers," only 5% of whom use computers now. With an untapped market of 95%, the strategy is clear.
Apple representative: What we have to convince them is that Macintosh can make a dramatic improvement in their life, and show them how Macintosh can improve their life at the desk; then, convince them that Macintosh is machine that they ought to buy.
(Shooting a Macintosh
commercial)
Voice-over: There are many ways to approach that; one is through TV advertising. Here at this Los Angeles film studio, the final stages of production on a series of Macintosh commercials are being completed. But getting to this point was no easy job: it took a talented group of people months to come up with a detailed strategy.
(Film director)
Film director: What we felt our responsibility was in television was show them the different facets of the computer to the extent that they could get excited enough to want to go touch it. Because we couldn't explain it with words and pictures in 30 seconds.
(Storyboards for commercial)
Voice-over: But those 30 seconds took hundreds of hours. Ideas were drawn on storyboards, and once the final ones were decided on, filming began. That was a long, arduous process. Here, just the placing of the model's hands with the mouse-- the pointing device-- took hours. In all, filming the commercials required a month of 16-hour days to finally pull it together.
Mike Murray: This ends up being by far the most expensive advertising campaign that Apple has ever embarked on. But we feel it's critically important, because we have to go out loud and clear and say something really big has happened.
(Press coverage)
Voice-over: But the advertising campaign involved more than just television commercials. There were ads in the print media; press coverage; previews in a variety of magazines; and informational pamphlets were printed for the dealers. What this added up to was a total commitment from Apple, and a realization of two years of dedicated work from its marketing team.
Apple representative: There's a lot more to having a successul product than just the product itself. And I think that the combination of an incredible product, and a good marketing effort, will really enable us to sell in the millions.