How Well Do You REALLY Know Your Customers?

One of the key ingredients in a successful partnership or collaboration is that it adds value to your customer base – to be fair I think it’s something that’s key in all business activity. But in order to do that you need to understand what your customers want, and I mean really want. Not just what you think/hope they want in order to fit in with your next marketing campaign or product launch.

To highlight this, I want to talk about an entertainment collaboration, which on the face of it should have been a perfect match, but really wasn’t.

U2, one of the biggest bands on the planet. Apple, one of the biggest telecommunication brands in the world known for being on the cutting edge. Both brands have a dedicated audience that buys into them.

The two famous names had partnered before in 2004 when the band helped the iPod to gain a lot of fame with their hit song Vertigo. Back in the Noughties, the commercial was iconic and remarkably successful. 

However, the tech and the audiences changed quickly in ten years, and the next publicity campaign in 2014, was not a success – it was an absolute disaster. 

Apple was introducing its latest iPhone model and Apple Watch. At that time, they considered it a great idea to announce their renewed partnership with the rock band U2 and give away free music. But this turned out to be one of Apple’s greatest fiascos.

I find it hard to believe how this marketing idea ever made it out of the board room. But it did. U2 performed at the end of the announcement of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch in 2014 to reveal their latest record, Songs of Innocence, which automatically loaded onto the music libraries of hundreds of Apple customers at no charge. The music suddenly appeared on 500 million iTunes accounts. The stunt allegedly cost Apple $100m in royalties and a significant marketing campaign for the band.

However, it was an expensive blunder.

Apple’s core audience likes to think of themselves as independent and trendsetters, ahead of the curve. Not people who take kindly to having musical tastes forced upon them.

What compounds this is that U2, whilst still one of the biggest draws on the planet, are not seen as cutting edge. Certainly not amongst the crowd Apple were most looking to influence.

These users felt like their intimate space was intruded by this campaign. One’s music collection is a very personal choice, and the two brands were naive to think that users will respond well to this “offer”.

Apple very quickly released a unique one-click tool to allow users to delete it immediately, but it was a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

I do believe the principle was great, but it should have been done in an exciting way (pick your album from this top 10 with a mix of genres and new and older bands) but Apple was lazy in its thinking what their customers like. They had stopped really innovating, something that they have continued to be accused of over recent years.

In this instance both brands are huge enough to have taken both the PR hit and the cost implications, but other organisations might not be so lucky.

So before you go all in on your next big partnership, don’t get lazy, do your customer research to ensure you don’t end up with a ‘bad apple’ that ruins your bunch.