Marketing Weblog: Price cuts and happy customers? The Apple iPhone case

How would you feel if you get an exclusive and highly priced gadget, accept to make an 18 month commitment with a Telecom company, and then face, two months after the gadget has been launched, that it has a price cut of 33%? What would you do? What would be your perception about the brand of the gadget?

Well, this is exactly how the US customers that got the Apple iPhone till one week ago felt when they knew that gadget had a 200 US$ price cut. They have actually made such a big noise, that the Company decided to compensate them with 100 US$ upon request.

I am pretty sure that Apple has good reasons for dropping the price by 33% (most likely sales far behind expectations and a huge overstock), but the point is that a great disappointment has been caused to the current iPhone customers and to the Apple brand.

Was Apple overoptimistic when launching the device? What could they have done different to avoid this situation? Is the 100 US$ pay back to the current customers reasonable and the best solution?

Launching a new product, specially if it is a new category for your company, is a great challenge full of uncertainty. However, situations like this have to be avoided by all means. They only lead to customer dissatisfaction and brand destruction.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has offered compensation to customers who have already bought an iPhone - after the firm cut $200 (£99) off the price.
The company slashed the cost of the eight-gigabyte version of the phone - only available in the US - to $399.
But this earned the wrath of some customers who have paid full price since its launch two months ago.
Mr Jobs said the price cut was the right move - but offered those who had already bought it a $100 voucher.
"We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologise for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations," Mr Jobs said.
For many the price cut slipped by unnoticed as the company unveiled a slew of new gadgets, including adding a touch-screen iPod to Apple's popular line of portable music players.
At the news conference, the firm also revealed that the four-gigabyte model of the iPhone was being dropped

Comments

I wish IE Communities, specially the marketing one, could have a separate session to PRICING. This is one of the P's we have to deal with and probably the most complex and polemic one, so we would be able to exchange our market knowledge in that subject.

Poner precio a estos dispositivos es muy complicado. Y si te equivocas....lo mejor es corregir. Probablemente hubiera hecho lo mismo.

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