Mini Case Steve Jobs Ipology There are two questions in the bottom of the page. The answers should be five sentences minimum. Mini-Case Steve Jobs’ ipology
Mini Case Steve Jobs Ipology There are two questions in the bottom of the page. The answers should be five sentences minimum. Mini-Case Steve Jobs’ ipology
PR Ethics
Leave it to Apple Founder and CEO Steve Jobs to introduce
an entirely new public relations innovation, the iPology, that
turns customer complaints into free publicity (Figure 3-6).
That’s what the technology icon did in the fall of 2007,
when he reduced the price of the company’s hot-selling
iPhone by $200. Problem was that the Apple eight-gigabyte
phone was only introduced two months before. So the Apple
loyalists who snapped up the new phone at inception were
plenty steamed at the price cut. They screamed bloody mur-
der that Apple had snookered them–the most devoted of the
company’s fan base-to buy the new product first, giving
Apple enough time to lower the price for follow-on customers.
The Apple early purchasers had a point. And Apple had a
huge public relations problem. But it was only a momentary one.
It took the Apple CEO just one day before realizing the error
of his ways. In a letter to all those who had purchased the phone
at the earlier price, Jobs apologized but noted, “There is always
someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date
and misses the new price or the new operating system or the
new whatever. This is life in the technology lane.”
Nonetheless, Jobs said the company would give all early
purchasers $100 to spend on another Apple product.
Media reaction to the Jobs’ “iPology” was immediate and
pervasive. The Apple story dominated the Net, newspapers,
and broadcast media. Rather than being criticized for better-
dealing early Apple enthusiasts, Jobs and Apple were hailed
for quickly acknowledging their mistake and communicating
an admirable solution for customers.
Its public image once again intact, Apple resumed record-
breaking sales of the iPhone, and its stock resumed its
upward course.
Questions
1. How would you assess, in public relations terms, Apple’s FIGURE 3-6 “iPologize.” When Apple CEO Steve Jobs
original decision to lower the price of the IPhone?
introduced the blockbuster iPhone in the fall of 2007, he had
2. What do you think of Apple’s “solution to its IPhone prob- little idea he’d be communicating an “iPology” a couple of
lem, and how do you assess Steve Jobs’ communication months later. (Photo: Newscom)
about it?
*For further information, see Rex Crum, “Apples’ Jobs Apologizes over iPhone Cut,” MarketWatch (September 6, 2007); “Apple Introduces the
iPology.” Market Watch (September 7, 2007); and David Lazarus, “Apple Flexes its Buzz Power,” Los Angeles Times (September 7, 2007).
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