Apple's CRM journey from a California basement to world domination

Hello there,

We got a gold🥇🥇

The Olympics are underway & I am having so much fun watching all the games. But what's an event that big without some marketing success or failure stories? Haha.

The PV Sindhu & Moment Marketing story has been doing rounds of social media since last week. I am all for moment marketing but I get what's the fuss all about. There's a thin line that brands should take care of, nothing wrong with using the victory to congratulate the player & celebrate. However, when you associate the victory with your brand to drive commercial interest, it is when it becomes a problem. Those are just my 2 cents, would love to know your thoughts.

I read someone saying, imagine Christiano Ronaldo suing all the brands for replacing Coca Cola with their products in his video. That would be an interesting case to witness, isn't it? 😂

Now with thought, here's what we'll be talking about today:

• How Apple’s CRM strategy took it from a California basement to world domination
• Who is Bernard Arnault, the guy who passed Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person?
• Chumbak shares their story of building a partnership with Xeno

🤑How Apple’s CRM strategy took it from a California basement to world domination

“You’ve gotta start with the customer experience, and work backward to the technology.” Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder, and former CEO

You can boil Apple’s CRM strategy down to just two words: Apple ID.

When you take your first Apple product home, you’re asked to create an Apple ID – a unique profile that syncs across all Apple devices you own.

For Apple, it’s a self-renewing, seemingly limitless data set, allowing it to constantly tailor its services and re-engage customers with handpicked deals, discounts, and products. Not only is this targeted marketing done effectively, but it also engenders a sense of loyalty and familiarity with Apple’s brand and ethos.

Top 3 ways Apple uses CRM:

1. Knowing its customers: Apple’s consistently high NPS ratings indicate that it’s remarkably good at retaining its customers. Research recently reported that Apple’s operating system, iOS, had loyalty rates of around 89%.
2. Anticipating customer needs: Apple’s desire to innovate – to expand and evolve its offerings to meet not only its customers’ current requirements but those of their futures, too. iTunes was once the only legal online catalog of songs to feature music from all five major record labels.
3. Stores focussing on customer experience: Apple’s retail departments and staff are built with the individual in mind – to ensure its customers have an experience, rather than simply make a purchase.

Rejecting the ‘hard sell’ approach, Apple has kept the customer at the forefront for almost five years. To nobody’s surprise, Apple’s CRM strategy breaks the mold.

🧐Who is Bernard Arnault, the guy who passed Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person?

Few days back, Bernard Arnault passed Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person. Worth $193B, he has spent ~40 years building luxury giant LVMH. Today, the LVMH empire brings in $55B+ a year, employs 160k people, and houses 75+ brands. Here's how he reached this position:

After graduating he began work for his family engineering firm. In 1981, Arnault moved to NY w/ ambitions to grow the business beyond construction.

Arnault wanted an international empire and as fate would have it Dior was up for sale in 1984. The lux brand was part of an ailing conglomerate called Boussac. In a deal w/ the French government, Arnault put up $15m and agreed to keep jobs.

Arnault took control of the firm and broke his promise - shedding 9k employees and unloading nearly all the assets other than Christian Dior. During Arnault’s turnaround, legendary fashion house Louis Vuitton merged w/ spirits company Moet Hennessy to form LVMH.

For much of the LVMH merger, Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy leaders were at odds.

Arnault played them off of each other and was invited in as an investor with the Moet team. He floated 42% of Dior to the public to get $520m in cash and ended up buying ~20% of LVMH. At the time, LVMH was doing $2B in revenue and owned the world’s #1 champagne and #1 cognac. By 1989, Arnault put up another $1B+ to buy a controlling stake in LVMH.

He brought in many top brands and let them operate independently. Arnault's strategy for acquisitions is to look for "stars", of which he says you can "count on two hands" in the luxury business.

His shopping spree hit huge numbers in recent years the recent one being for $16B for jeweller Tiffany's (biggest deal ever) in 2020.  His main thought for each brand is "will this be desirable in 10yrs".

Today, LVMH is the biggest Lux house, with sales equal to its 3 biggest competitors combined: Estee Lauder, Richemont, Kering.

According to Arnault what makes LVMH brands work is that they are timeless and the utmost level of modernity"

🎧Chumbak shares their story of building a partnership with Xeno

Shazia Zafar, Head of Marketing Chumbak Design Pvt. Ltd. shares their story of building a partnership with Xeno.

She talked about Chumbak's vision, the role of CRM & loyalty in today's world & her experience of working with the Xeno.

The two things that differentiate Chumbak from other brands is their core design identity and the brand love that they receive, which makes it even more important for them to keep their customers engaged.

Being a new-age B2C retailer, it is critical for them to understand what their customers really want & deliver much more beyond that.

This is when Xeno comes into the picture, helping them reach out to the right people at the right place at right time.

Catch the full conversation here

🧐 What's cooking in the Marketing & Advertising World?

1. PV Sindhu may take brands to court, and it is not the badminton court

2. Why elite female athletes are turning away from major sponsors

3. Lifetime Domino’s Pizzas for Mirabai Chanu: Gimmick, Guerilla, or Gratitude

That's all that I had for today. Take care & stay safe :")

See you next time, Pranav