Invite colleagues
Last week, the Mac maker began selling the iPhone to Chinese nationals through a non-exclusive deal with China Unicom. But with only a reported 5,000 Apple phones having been sold since the Oct. 30 launch I am guessing there is lot of marketers running around discussing Plan B's and Plan C's.
The lack of sales is not a result of the Chinese consumer not wanting to own an iPhone- there are already an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million gray-market iPhones in use in China. It appears to be down to two key areas; high prices (the grey-market iPhones are 20% cheaper) and a lack of Wi-Fi capability (because Unicom does not want to cut into their carrier revenues).
Where does that leave the Apple marker's? Although Apple and their related 4A agency partners have consistently had some great campaigns I am not sure they can distract from consumers away from these two issues. So apart from addressing the pricing policy or trying to release a newer phone model with at least similar features as the international models, I would suggest the iPhone (the legitimate ones) are likely to be soft sellers.
So iPhone marketers in China, would love to hear your plan B and plan C... but my money is on discounting or a grand promotion being run in the near future..
Monday 9 November, 2009