I always feel bad for the majority of VARs when Apple holds one of its Worldwide Developer Conferences.
Maybe it’s because I’m relatively active on social media, but it feels like everyone is live-blogging, live-Tweeting and otherwise doing more to spread the word about Steve Job’s keynote and the company’s newest products than Apple’s PR department ever could. Apart from those channel partners who actually work with Apple, however, hearing about the iPhone 4G or its iPad tablet must be like having your nose pressed up against the glass window. Who wants to hear their reseller talking about the latest HP laptop when you’ve got the Mac faithful lording the cool factor of their hardware over the rest of us?
There are some ways creative VARs could try to harness the power of Apple’s hype to their own advantage, even if they’ve never sold so much as a PowerBook. Just as those of us in the media have to figure out a way to capitalize on events only indirectly related to our core audience, it’s all a matter of finding the right angle. Consider these approaches: Explore the alternatives: Just a week or two before Apple’s latest iPhone announcements, Acer launched a series of new smartphones based on Google’s Android platform. True, there’s no way the Liquid E Ferrari will match the tidal wave of interest that an iPhone generates, but that doesn’t mean some customers won’t be interested in hearing about options that are competitive from a design, feature and pricing standpoint. The Liquid E “Ferrari” device has a stylish red look and includes a 768 MHz Snapdragon processor, Wi-Fi, 5 MP camera and 256MB RAM. People are always saying that the iPhone isn’t much of a phone. Why not point customers towards something that is?
Look at the bigger picture: Most resellers may not be able to offer an iPhone, but they can offer something much more valuable to businesses: an enterprise strategy. Lots of IT managers are aware that staff will eventually buy these devices and want to enjoy connectivity to their office network, but that opens up all kinds of issues around usage policy and potential security vulnerabilities.
Why not develop some proof-of-concept blueprints that could be offered to customers that create a realistic mobility strategy that includes, rather than struggles with, iPhones or iPads?
Brand like an insider: There’s absolutely no point in pretending the Apple publicity juggernaut doesn’t exist. That’s why it’s better for resellers to focus all their marketing efforts, where appropriate, on riding the juggernaut’s coattails. Imagine these slogans in your advertising: “iPhone-proof your business.” “Your CEO wants the new iPhone – Now what?” “Apple ignores the business market. We don’t.”
Given how long Apple-related rumours circulate, it should be possible for smart VARs to be more proactive about these things, and create their own PR campaigns that could coincide with Jobs’ keynote speeches. Use social media to offer your own running commentary on those speeches – in particular the nuts-and-bolts business issues that the Apple CEO will likely leave out.
I see ISVs, authors, media companies and all kinds of other people cashing in on the Apple hype. It’s time the reseller community started doing the same thing.
