[timo_nyc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclone ya, creative has a much larger advertising budget than apple (they're have one around 300 mill) but i've yet to see a tv ad, bilboard, or poster. it really is weird, they might be holding off for all of the zen micro accessories to get out there or something else.

They plastered the NYC subway system around Christmastime last, apparently to little effect.

 

[Kreez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yyoo Got to wonder what you ARE paying for though,

Not really, I could list off the dozens of features my iRiver has that I wouldn't have on the stock iPod if I had bought it (and I was considering it).

 

[Cyclone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yyoo Maybe much of that $100 million ad budget is going into the personal pockets of their chairman, who is being "paid" to make hyperbolic, attention-grabbing statements to the press, such as saying the shuffle is a POS and that Creative was on track to sell 4-5 million MP3 players in the last quarter (they sold 2 million).

jesus....any more conspiracy theories? how bout iriver and iaudio are both sub-companies formed for by apple...ipod, iriver, iaudio.

 

[utdeep]

OK,
One thing no ones mentioned is that BOTH Creative and iRiver have terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible advertising campaigns.
Look at the iriver.com website. Bunch of people eating an apple and saying "sweeter one". Until someone mentioned it on a board I had no idea what that meant. And whoever had the idea of making a tilted flash website should be shot. Check the forums and you find nothing but complaints that iRiver never responds to. You and I know that they make great products, but the face they show to the world is not very good. If they could hire a decent marketing team and not appear like an FOB trying to be cool, then maybe they would see an increase in sales. (although I think their real problem is giving their players far too many features and charging a premium for them)
Creative isn't much better. They've put up bilboards all over Seattle, made comments about the iPod, produced lame commercials. They have great products, but they simply lack the style.
This game isn't about the sound quality and you're a fool if you believe that it is. It's about perception. Creative may have a huge marketing budget, but they don't have a good marketing team.
Want proof of this concept. Check out the superbowl commercial by Napster. Massive cost, and people feel worse about the product after it was aired.
Apple is the new Sony as the iPod is the new Walkman. Sony as a brand has always stood for quality in people's minds, although that's changing now. Now Apple has the same mystique.

 

[frankcent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by utdeep OK, One thing no ones mentioned is that BOTH Creative and iRiver have terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible advertising campaigns. Look at the iriver.com website. Bunch of people eating an apple and saying "sweeter one". Until someone mentioned it on a board I had no idea what that meant. And whoever had the idea of making a tilted flash website should be shot. Check the forums and you find nothing but complaints that iRiver never responds to. You and I know that they make great products, but the face they show to the world is not very good. If they could hire a decent marketing team and not appear like an FOB trying to be cool, then maybe they would see an increase in sales. (although I think their real problem is giving their players far too many features and charging a premium for them) Creative isn't much better. They've put up bilboards all over Seattle, made comments about the iPod, produced lame commercials. They have great products, but they simply lack the style. This game isn't about the sound quality and you're a fool if you believe that it is. It's about perception. Creative may have a huge marketing budget, but they don't have a good marketing team. Want proof of this concept. Check out the superbowl commercial by Napster. Massive cost, and people feel worse about the product after it was aired. Apple is the new Sony as the iPod is the new Walkman. Sony as a brand has always stood for quality in people's minds, although that's changing now. Now Apple has the same mystique.

well said. they have great products with good features but lacking of style.

 

[Cyclone]

ya i totally agree. i think the company that suffers from this syndrome the most is Rio. they make some of the best sounding players out there IMO (Karma, carbon, etc) with great features and EQ's but they are just soooo bland looking. and i have a hard time respecting any product that is over 100 dollars and is stuffed in blister packing....

 

[Frank M]

Samsung is having some campaigns for their MP3-players around here - in TV AFAIK (I dont watch much TV, especially not commercials, but I faintly recall seeing one of their ads) and rather on posters. There even are some in the tram stops at my University.

 

[ILikeMusic]

If you want more advertising be sure to remember who really pays for it. Why do you think an ipod costs $399 for only 20gb?

 

[Frank M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by utdeep OK, One thing no ones mentioned is that BOTH Creative and iRiver have terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible advertising campaigns. Look at the iriver.com website. Bunch of people eating an apple and saying "sweeter one". Until someone mentioned it on a board I had no idea what that meant. And whoever had the idea of making a tilted flash website should be shot. Check the forums and you find nothing but complaints that iRiver never responds to. You and I know that they make great products, but the face they show to the world is not very good. If they could hire a decent marketing team and not appear like an FOB trying to be cool, then maybe they would see an increase in sales. (although I think their real problem is giving their players far too many features and charging a premium for them) Creative isn't much better. They've put up bilboards all over Seattle, made comments about the iPod, produced lame commercials. They have great products, but they simply lack the style. This game isn't about the sound quality and you're a fool if you believe that it is. It's about perception. Creative may have a huge marketing budget, but they don't have a good marketing team. Want proof of this concept. Check out the superbowl commercial by Napster. Massive cost, and people feel worse about the product after it was aired. Apple is the new Sony as the iPod is the new Walkman. Sony as a brand has always stood for quality in people's minds, although that's changing now. Now Apple has the same mystique.

Quite true.
I hope Apple is only in the first stages of the Sony syndrome: they have the image and design, and came up with many of the innovations, but their product's quality is yet decent. After a few POS Sonys, I will never buy from them again.

 

[viator122]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILikeMusic If you want more advertising be sure to remember who really pays for it. Why do you think an ipod costs $399 for only 20gb?

The iPod is now $299 for 20gb. I believe that if your advertising is effective, you sell more players. If you sell more players, the R&D, manufacturing and distribution costs per player go down and company is able to pass the savings on to the customer (or not, of course). Remember the 20gb iPod used to be $399, now they did stop including the case, dock and remote, but I still think you get a better deal now. If done properly, advertising is an investment.

 

[DigDub]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yyoo Got to wonder what you ARE paying for though, as the iRivers are among the most expensive on the market, gigabyte for gigabyte. At least with the iPod the advertising dollars are very visible.

the radio, mic recording, optical in/out. i think they do cost money.

anyway, thats the first time i acutally see someone think that the ipod is 'not over-priced'.

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx You sure?

LOL, i really liked the Mega Ear one, that was hilarious!

 

[Hasselhoffia]

Have to disagree here, Creative have been seriously thumping the adverts here in London recently. The Metro newspaper, a daily freebie read by thousands of London commuters each day has had Micro ads in it on and off for ages. Was watching MTV (UK) the other night and one of the programs was sponsored by Creative Micro.

I can't recall the last time I saw an iPod advert to tell you the truth.

 

[davidd]

I have saw 5 ipod shuffle adverts today on tv, and I don't even watch tv that much/ havn't really seen a advert for the regualar ipods since the shuffle's came out though

 

[JuXXy]

Yeah, I agree.
But, Creative has been getting a lot of publicity and adverts lately and I think people are starting to finally hear about the alternatives to iPod.
In a year or two the situation could change.