When people say Apple has built things people didn't know they need, it's not really true. Apple has built things that meet the needs people have always had. More than any other consumer company, Apple gets what people really, fundamentally need. That's why announcements like last week's Apple Watch tend to have the cultural impact they do.
When people talk about the Apple brand, they often say that it creates things that people don't know they need. Products, in fact, are not the case. Apple has long made products that people need every day. Even more than other product companies, Apple manufactures products based on people's fundamental needs. As the Apple Watch was flaunted when it was first launched not long ago, it is having a profound cultural impact.
When we think of needs and products we often go right to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the ubiquitous theory that human needs manifest in a specific sequence, from base survival to the pinnacle of self-actualization. Marketers have spent decades figuring out at what level of Maslow's hierarchy their customers are stuck, and then offering products and marketing for that need. Think of Campbell's "Mmm-mmm Good" campaign at one end and Lexus's "Relentless Pursuit of Perfection" at the other. If Maslow was right, brands needed to target a single need, satisfy it well, and be done.
When talking about people’s needs in life, we often think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, also It is the different needs of human beings at each stage, from the most basic survival needs at the bottom to the self-realization needs at the top. Marketers have been studying for years what level consumers' needs are and providing people with the necessities of life accordingly. Just think about how Campbell Can Company's marketing campaign with the slogan "Hmm... Not bad" and Lexus Motor Company's goal of "relentless pursuit of perfection" are constantly pursuing to meet consumer needs. If Maslow's theory is consistent with reality, then those famous brands need to reposition themselves and set their goals in terms of people's basic needs to achieve perfection.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, also known as the basic hierarchy of needs theory.
They are physiological needs, safety needs, emotional and belonging needs, esteem needs, self-actualization needs and self-transcendence needs.
ubiquitous, adj.: ubiquitous; omnipresent. This refers to the six hierarchy of needs theory proposed by Maslow, which are the universal needs of human beings.
pinnacle n.: peak, top, extreme.
Campbell: Campbell Can Company
Lexus: Lexus (Lingzhi Motors), a luxury car brand under Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation.
But it turns out that Maslow wasn't entirely right. My own research at Forrester Research has focused on synthesizing a much more complete and empirical description of people's fundamental needs based on research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience . When we talk about human needs, we use four categories:
However, research has found that Maslow's theory does not seem to be in line with today's social conditions. I conducted a study at Forrester Research that focused on building a more complete and convincing theoretical description of people's needs, drawing on knowledge from psychology, economics, and neuroscience.
When we talk about human needs, there are four aspects that need to be considered:
Connection
Relevance
Comfort
Comfort
Uniqueness
Personalization
Variety
Diversity
Crucially, we've learned that these needs are not hierarchical. Think of yourself: You don't wake up in the morning and only think about food, then worry about making money, then think about loftier pursuits. Neither your day nor your life unfolds like that. It's messier,?because of our adaptive and clever biology. Our hormones, our neurotransmitters, even our gut bacteria cause us to think about base needs like survival and loftier ones like personal fulfillment simultaneously. In fact, they compete with one another for our attention, and we prioritize and re-prioritize them on the fly, as context changes.
It is important to note that we have long understood that these requirements are not the most important. Please consider your own situation: when we get up in the morning, we don’t worry about not having food or making money to support our family, then we think about higher-level needs. Our daily lives don’t begin with such worries, they are more complex than that because of the adaptability and intelligence we are naturally endowed with as humans. Our hormones, neurotransmitters, and even gut bacteria cause us to think simultaneously about our basic needs, such as survival needs, and our higher-level needs to achieve our own satisfaction. In fact, they are using our attention to compete with each other, and we change their priority multiple times as the situation changes.
lofty adj.: lofty, high-level. Here, loftier pursuits, higher-level needs, refer to spiritual pursuits.
neurotransmitter ['n?rotr?nzm?t?], n.: neurotransmitter
Apple's understanding of this is what sets it apart when it comes to launching market-changing products, including the newly announced Apple Watch. Apple doesn't lock into one need on the hierarchy (soup that satisfies hunger, or perfect luxury car), but instead builds and markets products that connect on all four of the human needs that we 're grappling with constantly. Let's use the Apple Watch as an example:
Based on its understanding of human needs, Apple combines these two when promoting products, including Apple Watch, amid market changes. separate concepts. Apple is not limited to giving priority to satisfying a certain need (physical needs or mental needs). On the contrary, it manufactures and promotes new products that meet the four major needs that people are constantly struggling with. Let’s take Apple Watch as an example to analyze Apple. How dominating.
Connection
Relevance
Texts, finger-drawn emoticons, even the feature some consider hopelessly gimmicky, heartbeat sharing, are all central to the device keeping you connected.
Text messages, handwritten emoticons, or even any funny and cunning elements, emotional sharing, are the medium through which you connect with the outside world.
Comfort:
Comfort
Connections to loved ones is part of comfort, and so is the built-in health and fitness tracking, which makes the device something of a coach in your quest to improve yourself.
Connecting with the people you love can make you feel comfortable and comfortable, so the health tracking function of the machine can also meet this need. Xindi provides you with fitness reminders.
Uniqueness
Personalization
An easy box for Apple to check. Though many were surprised by the Apple Watch's conventional look (which pundits immediately declared savvy), Apple actually took the traditional winding crown of a watch and with it created a unique UI and UX, making it a tool for zooming in and out of maps or menus. The same is true in Apple's creation of an original touch interface which distinguishes between a tap and a press, giving the small screen twice as much utility as it would otherwise have.
It’s simple, see the big from the small. Although many people are surprised by the traditional shape of the Apple Watch (the savvy advertised by wise men), the designers adopted the traditional ring-shaped crown shape during the design process and designed a unique user interface and user experience so that it can help The user zooms in and out to view the map and menu options. Similarly, Apple's unique traditional touch screen that recognizes clicks and long presses provides a zoom function that is twice the size of the screen.
UI: user interface user interface
UX: user experience user experience
Variety
Diversity
Design plays a big role here through interchangeable watch bands. We've seen recently examples even in Apple's own marketing of customers celebrating uniqueness even though the products are remarkably uniform. Think of the commercial that flashes through the lids of dozens of MacBooks, each been dressed up with its own clever stickers, literally wrapped around the company's brand mark. Variety can of course also come from the suite of apps available to put on your watch.
Design is what a watch brand can constantly change Ace. We can see from recent watch launches, including the launch of Apple Watch, which celebrates its personalization, that different brands of watches have their own unique design signatures. Think about how the business chains are connected. From the sliders of Macbooks, each product has its own unique smart sticker, which displays the company's trademark directly on the product.
Of course, a variety of mobile applications can also adapt to clients of different brands.
But couldn't other smart watch entrants do the same thing? Forrester survey data shows that interest in wearing a wrist-based computing or sensoring device had grown from an already-high 28 in 2013 to an impressive 42 in 2014, all before the Apple Watch was a thing. But ask an average person if they know about the Pebble, the Samsung Gear products, or the new Moto 360 and you'll get blank stares in return. They may know the Nike Fuel Band or Fit Bit.
So, can’t other emerging smartwatch manufacturers promote themselves in the same way? According to Forrester Research, interest in carrying a smartwatch rose from 28% in 2013 to 42% in 2014, all thanks to the advent of the Apple Watch. However, after interviewing passers-by and asking them if they knew a Samsung smart watch called Pebble, or the latest Motorola 360 watch, the responses were that they didn’t know. Maybe they only know about Nike sports wristbands or Fit Bit smart wristbands.
I'd argue that none of those devices delivers on our four needs as fully or as conveniently as Apple. For example, even though Pebble is aiming for all four needs, it has used less-convenient technology to deliver on those needs — admirable as the early entrant but insufficient at this stage in the market. Samsung, on the other hand, has created a device that promises to meet these four needs fully, but as a company it doesn't have the market power to draw other app makers into the environment as quickly as Apple can, giving Apple an app variety advantage from its first day on sale — as the mobile payment system announcement demonstrates. And in the mind of the potential buyer, Samsung and the others suffer vis-a-vis Apple?because none can offer the reassurance — itself a form of comfort — that the company behind it has delivered on this before.[/en
The author dares to assert that any similar electronic No product seller can meet the four major needs of consumers like Apple. For example, even though Pebble aims to meet the four major needs of people, the technology it uses is relatively complex - it can attract consumers when it is first released, but it cannot meet market demand for a long time. As for Samsung, it has created a device that it claims can meet the four major needs. However, Samsung cannot create its own brand-unique application market like Apple. This gives Apple enough space to sell its own application products. It operates a mobile payment system. At the same time, in the minds of potential consumers, Samsung and other brands will fail miserably if they go head-to-head with the Apple brand, because neither of them can guarantee the comfort of their products, a concept the company has previously promoted.
[en]That's another secret to Apple's dominance. Once it established itself as a company that could meet these needs, people tend to trust the brand more — maybe more than it deserves, but certainly more than other entrants — giving it an advantage that other brands need to fight just to get people to listen; that's why so many competing companies literally use Apple in their marketing, comparing their own products and features to the one's that seem to hog all the attention: Apple's. Apple seems to own the conversation. Other, highly-regarded smartwatches already exist, but now people are talking about Apple's proposed definition of a smartwatch.
Also, there is another reason why Apple can dominate. When a company establishes its own brand image, people will believe in the brand - maybe the brand effect is not that important in reality, but this is the advantage compared with other emerging peers. Brand advantage can make consumers willing to pay attention to its developments, which is why so many competing companies regard Apple as a market model and constantly compare and test whether their own company's products can attract "Apple fans". It seems Apple has its say in the meantime. On the other hand, smartwatches that have attracted much attention have already been released, but the only ones people are talking about now are Apple’s smartwatches.
This was precisely the strategy that Apple used to sell the iPad, showing dialogue-free commercials that merely depict the magical things the iPad could do for you. This made some people buy an iPad, and others know what they would want when they finally got a tablet from another manufacturer. Either way, Apple dominated by controlling the expectations the user had about what needs the iPad would fulfill.
This is exactly what Apple is using to sell the iPad Sales strategy, conversation-free business model, let iPad provide you with unexpected help. This makes a lot of people want to own an iPad, and others will want what they get from other manufacturers.
Regardless, Apple leads the way because it gives users what they want.
The watch experience will be harder to illustrate than the iPad's, to be sure, but I suspect Apple's not done creating this experience. The smartwatch is the spearhead to a broader wearable experience, populated with a phone, a watch, an earpiece, health monitors, and more things that, deep down, you know you need.
The sales history of the watch will be more difficult to summarize than the sales history of the iPad. To be honest, the author is very disappointed with Apple. There are questions about whether the company has completed this journey. Smartwatches are the standard for durability, functioning as phones, watches, headphones, health monitors, and more, whatever you need them to be.