UPDATE: Here are the deets on the iPology $100 rebate.
Okay, it's been a pretty good week for the marketing folks to point out what good marketing can do for you (if you are in marketing you know how hard it is to convince some execs how much good marketing can do for you when paired with good design).
A few weeks ago Apple generates tons of free publicity just by announcing a special event (no news, but get ready for some news) then most of the news of the revamped iPods leak out (including photos and names, rare for Apple) and then they drop the price of the most heavily hyped product in our lifetime, the iPhone. But all that gets dwarfed by Steve's apology for cutting the price and undercutting his early adopters - so much so that MarketWatch's Tom Bemis invents a term for it, sure to be taught in business schools everywhere - the iPology. And all this does is ensure that Apple doesn't have to spend a dime on its traditional marketing when the popular press does it all for them, at much greater reach and value. In fact, by my calculation the value of the free advertising Apple received (this blog included) is greater the cost of the $100 rebate times all the iPhone sold to date. Folks, you are living through what has to be the Golden Age of marketing and Steve Jobs is its king. Enjoy the ride.
