A brand perception firm says Apple’s biggest fans are now older customers. Shifting demographics indicate that the company’s appeal to young and technology loving consumers may be slipping.
The finding from U.K.-based YouGov also puts into context recent television ads that were loudly panned, with some critics calling them “rotten” and “gagging.”
The ads showed an Apple “Genius” helping customers through high-pressure situations. The spots for the Mac appeared during the first days of the 2012 Olympics television broadcasts. They were discontinued, as planned Apple claims, within several days.
The reaction to the ads from the Apple faithful was less than favorable.
Ken Segall, a former creative director for ad firm Chiat/Day, who says he worked on that firm’s 1997-2002 “Think Different” campaign for Apple, said, “I honestly can’t remember a single Apple campaign that’s been received so poorly. These ads are causing a widespread gagging response, and deservedly so. This thing is so upsetting, it has me talking to myself.”
YouGov, however says that the ads may not have been the failure Segall and others say they are.
The company’s “BrandIndex” shows that since mid-July 2011, Apple’s biggest supporters are consumers over 35 years of age. At the same time, the demographic usually most enthralled with Apple, the 18 to 34 year old age group, has trended downwards.
YouGov proposes that since adults 35+ have a higher perception of Apple, that it makes sense that the “Genius” ads were ran during the Olympics, where the prime time audience is over 35 years old. The 35+ demo may sometime need more handholding with technology, so that’s why the Genius ads were directed at them.
YouGov’s BrandIndex measures consumer perception of a brand by asking U.S. adults whether they’ve heard anything about the brand, and if they have, whether it was positive or negative.
Scores can range from 100 to -100, and are the result of subtracting negative feedback from positive, meaning that a score of zero is equal parts positive and negative.
As of today, the 35+ group’s score was 31, or 15% higher then the 18-to-34 age group’s score of 27.
“Apple’s scores are still very positive,” said Ted Marzilli, the global managing director for BrandIndex, in an interview. “It’s not passe among younger consumers, but scores for that age group have been declining.”
The rising scores among older consumers point to Apple’s acceptance as a mainstream brand. Marzill says there’s nothing wrong with that, but the key is to be mainstream, and yet still be perceived as cool and innovative.
