The Exprience Economy with Apple




Apple are all about experiences. In particular they have retail stores that deliver an experience. The selling of Apple products is all about aspiration to premium quality devices. Like perfume or up market clothes the Apple brand is defined by how you feel about Apple.

The other side of this is free stuff. Yes, you can get free stuff from Apple. If you do have a retail store nearby you can sign up to an hour’s training with Apple staff. They do short events about music, using Apple products, photo editing, video editing and mixing music. Of course, it uses Apple products. Whether this be Mac, iPhone, iPad and the rest. However, there is no pressure to buy things. This is soft selling.

I signed up to improve my smartphone photography. I use an Android device but I do have an iPad at home. I booked online for one hour of street photography.

When I arrived at the store I was asked whether I had brought an iPhone with me. I hadn’t. So I was offered the choice of different loan devices. Another person had booked in but was a no show. I ended up having a solo session with an Apple Creative. He explained the groups can be up to 20 people. It was raining so I guess the other person was put off by the weather.

The session covered photographic composition, which could apply to any phone, and some specific iPhone features. I expected the latter because it was a very soft sales technique.
It is possible to try an iphone in the store but for a real world test, this is the way to do it. Spend a training session and borrow the device you are thinking of buying.

I don’t have money to buy an iphone today. Nevertheless I must confess that if you are selling a phone costing hundreds of pounds the experience shop seems a good tactic to bring out warm feelings about your brand.

Today at Apple

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