Join the club, get an iPod
Alternately titled: The Apple at the End of the Stick.
When I was a kid, my very first job was working at a gas station, pumping gas (glamorous, I know). Twice a year we'd have a giveaway promotion, usually once in the summer and once in the winter. Footballs, cases of soda, that sort of thing. It's an age old gimmick that's still being used today. But today there's a difference, as more and more business are giving away the very same thing. They're giving away iPods. More after the jump.
This article (free registration required) in the New York Times by David Bernstein looks at the trend. He reports on a night club that is giving iPod shuffles away to "good customers," which are subsequently used as VIP passes (the shuffles bear a sticker of the club's logo). Flash your shuffle and stroll right in. "Not many clubs give out $100 items as V.I.P. tokens," said Ryan Golden, a marketing consultant for the club. "A lot of iPod wearers wear iPods as a cool badge. They like them to be seen with them. We wanted to translate that to V.I.P.'s at the nightclub."
The iPod-as-giveaway isn't limited to hip business like nightclubs, which typically target the technology-friendly youth culture. Real estate agencies, health clubs, banks and clothing retail chains (not to mention The Red Cross and United Airlines ) have all begun using the iPod to motivate potential customers. In fact, iPod Minis are currently the No. 1 "motivational" electronics product, according to the trade publication Incentive.
Exactly when did this happen, and for how long can Apple ride the wave? I guess I'm still stinging from the beige paperweights Apple produced in the early 90's, but it amazes me to think of Apple as the company that the nation's marketers and consumers see as hip, cool and trendsetting. I don't mean the admitted Apple addicts like myself. It's the fact that John Q. Public can be motivated to join a specific fitness club just because he'll receive a free Apple product at signup that is something I thought I'd never see. For almost as long as I can remember, Apple has seemed to have played the part (in much of the public's mind) as that "other" computer company that makes cute little computers for artists (who are kind of weird anyway). I believe that perception is finally changing. It's exciting.
Consider the two big trends of the past couple of years: legal music downloads and digital music players. Apple has been a pioneer in both areas. So what's next? I can't wait to see.
