Report: Apple's new ad campaign to focus on quality and reliability, not products

iPhone maker Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly planning a major new ad campaign that will focus on the quality and reliability of the company's products, as well as the company's user-friendly content ecosystem, rather than specific features and functions, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The goal, according to the report, is to both counter the rise of Samsung Electronics and to redirect Apple's marketing focus away from services that are also generally available on competing products.

According to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Apple and its longtime advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day will soon begin pushing a marketing campaign built around Apple's brand and ecosystem. The company showed off the first ad of the campaign during its developer's conference earlier this week.

Apple declined to comment, according to Bloomberg.

"We spend a lot of time on a few great things, until every idea we touch enhances each life it touches," Apple notes in the ad. "You may rarely look at it, but you'll always feel it."

The ad ends with the tagline: "This is our signature: 'Designed by Apple in California.' And it means everything."

Apple's new ad campaign is intended to counter both a lack of growth in its iPhone sales as well as stiff competition from Samsung, which has enjoyed significant success with its Galaxy line of Android phones. Indeed, Samsung recently began selling its new Galaxy S4 Android smartphone, and the company said it racked up more than 10 million S4 shipments in the device's first month of sales. Apple, for its part, has forecast a cooling in iPhone sales in the coming months and likely won't release a new iPhone model until the fall. Thus, the company's new campaign is intended to prop up iPhone and Apple hardware sales until the company begins releasing new products later this year.

But, as Bloomberg notes, Apple's advertising strategy faces obstacles. Apple spent $1 billion on ads last year while Samsung spent fully $4.32 billion. In the United States, Apple spent around $340 million on advertising in 2012 compared with Samsung's $400 million spend, according to a new report from Chetan Sharma of Chetan Sharma Consulting.

"It is clear Samsung got into high gear in 2012 and over took Apple by a significant margin," Sharma noted. "In fact, if we add the promotion dollars to the picture, Samsung outspent Apple 2x in 2012."

For more:
- see this Chetan Sharma report (PDF)
- see this Bloomberg article

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