
Ask YC: Which company's marketing do you admire - shabda
Apple, for their slickness, and the cult they can cultivate.<p>Let us talk about marketing/branding angle only, and not the product.
======
bkbleikamp
Are we talking about marketing or advertising? There is a big difference.

If we're talking about advertising then I think Apple will always be up near
the top of the list - especially on sites like Hacker News.

I think 37signals does a great job of marketing their products, but they spend
very little (any?) on advertising. Their well designed products and self
promotion lead to a pretty large group of 37signals evangelists, so they don't
NEED to spend money on advertising.

I think the best self promoter out there right now is Barack Obama - the
system his campaign has setup to get donations, get the word out about
"attacks," etc. is unmatched. I think we can learn a lot by dissecting how his
campaign went from the underdog to the frontrunner.

------
johnm
At the risk of my HN karma... Microsoft.

Think about it... For decades they have been able to create and leverage their
monopolistic position in such a way as to get people to continue paying large
margins for almost uniformly mediocre offerings.

ObAntiMS: I think history is validating my contention at the time that the
Windows 95 era was the peak of MS's power. Alas, like any dinosaur, they take
a long time to die.

~~~
halo
I've modded you down simply because I honestly don't think Windows is as
mediocre as it's made out to be, and this is coming from a current Linux user,
and I can't help but feel that Visual Studio or .NET is far from mediocre no
matter which way you look at it, and I even think Office is a market leader
largely on merit.

I also don't think the cost of Windows represents a "large margin" - paying
the cost of 2 new videogames for an extremely complex piece of software that
is supported for 7+ years seems pretty good value from where I'm coming from,
even if the alternatives are better value.

I honestly think it's a shame that they've felt the need to flex their
monopolistic muscle unnecessarily and have given themselves such a bad
reputation when they could have had just as much success in a more positive
way.

~~~
johnm
Gee, thanks. :-)

Have you thought about their responsibility for the tremendous amount of time
and energy that people _lose_ because they've had to use MS software? For
example, how many billions of dollars of time are lost/wasted because MS puts
out such buggy software that's used by so many people but MS literally doesn't
care to actually fix anything unless it will help them make more sales?

------
staunch
Starbucks. Certainly one of the most amazing recent examples of pure marketing
genius. They've had a little backlash, but they've weathered it very well.

~~~
apgwoz
If by "marketing" you mean throwing a Starbucks at every possible location
possible than I'll agree, but I can't recall the last time I saw an
advertisement (billboard, TV, magazine)... Though, maybe that's the point.

~~~
run4yourlives
How about the fact that they sell coffee for $5?

Only marketing achieves that.

~~~
melvinram
I believe you've got that slightly wrong.

They sell coffee for $5. Marketing doesn't achieve that. Selling coffee for $5
is marketing.

------
andreyf
Wow, nobody has mentioned Apple? Maybe it's too obvious... dropping the price
of the iPhone and then "making up for it" with with $100 store credit just
blew my mind.

~~~
bkbleikamp
>>If we're talking about advertising then I think Apple will always be up near
the top of the list - especially on sites like Hacker News.

Apple was mentioned ;)

------
nostrademons
Coca-Cola. Who else would be able to make billions of dollars off an
indestructible franchise on _sugar water_? (Or, in Dasani's case, tap water.)

------
smhinsey
Discovery Channel is my current favorite. You could write a book on how right
their "The world is just awesome" campaign is. You can see it here:
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=e5Q0CLlFFm0>

------
antiform
Harvard University (and to a slightly lesser extent, other Ivy League
schools).

Their product is nothing if not world-class, and over the last century or so,
it has become nearly synonymous with success, privilege, and prestige.

It can be disputed whether or not there was a significant conscious effort to
manage its image through marketing or branding, but one cannot deny the effect
it has in many places of the world that you are associated with that
institution.

------
dangoldin
I kind of like the concept of having the product and the network do the
marketing. Craigslist did not spend any money marketing but yet they were able
to grow entirely based on their product/service. Any competitor could have
stepped in and actually had a marketing campaign to steal the show but nothing
happened. Similar to facebook I suppose.

------
aneesh
Chipotle. Their market cap has increased 3x in the past 2 years, and it's
largely through word of mouth.

But as an industry, the best marketing/branding job in history has got to be
the diamond industry. There was a time when diamonds had nothing to do with
marriage. They created a new market, consisting of almost every Western male.

------
johnm
For an example of an organization that fits both the "excellent, first-rate"
and "inspiring approval, reverence, or affection" definitions and has
integrity...

craigslist

They live their marketing. Ala what PG was talking about in his talk yesterday
w.r.t. Benevolence.

------
run4yourlives
37signals. Damn bastards have built a cult around doing everything their way
(i.e just like every other company).

They're consistently on message, are great at promoting themselves and
undersand exactly who their customers are. Brilliant.

------
melvinram
I am surprised that Google has not been mentioned.

Marketing is more than advertising. And Google has marketed itself brilliantly
since it's conception.

------
Monti
assuming you have a good product/service, a good logo and catchy easy to
remember name is the foundation of the free word of mouth advertising.

------
danielrhodes
Ikea. It's sometimes frustrating how effective it is.

------
izak30
Nationwide, esp downtown Columbus, OH.

------
nreece
Recently, App!e. Earlier, Micro$oft.

------
redorb
any company that is successful probably has decent marketing behind it

------
davidw
Would Apple be too easy?

------
epi0Bauqu
Geico

