Black Friday

     We're all obviously aware of the Black Friday deals and how everyone scrambles to get the products they love for the best prices they'll see all year. But in checking up on Apple's deals, I was surprised to find out there were none. I hadn't looked into Apple during Black Friday before, but in doing a little research, I found out that they've never been big into Black Friday deals. They don't do much more than offer minuscule (in comparison to their prices) gift cards with purchases.
     I've really been wondering why this is, and my first thought wandered to the fact that they position themselves as a premium brand. Maybe having their products discounted to such a degree as those products around them would "de-value" them or something? I'm not entirely sure. Or maybe, it just makes more sense to give away software (these are app store/itunes cards), which is extremely cost effective to make and sell, as you only have to write the software once, and there are virtually no production costs beyond a programmer's salary unless you package dvds for installation.
     Apple has really done an excellent job position their products (especially their laptops) as premium devices. Their computers are often status symbols. Contrast this with Google, who makes their largest amount of money from delivering targeted advertising on behalf of businesses world wide, offers many of their products for a fraction of the price of their competitors. Take Google Fiber for example: it's high speed internet for a price that no one could even hope to match. I think that Google seeks bring in as many users to their products as possible so that they have a larger audience for their targeted ads.
     These two businesses have very difference business models, each a different approach to their products. This has really gotten me thinking about our product. I've given a ton of thought to how we offer value to promoters looking to book us for shows, but I haven't thought much about how we can do things differently to give our music a unique appeal to consumers in general. After all, the consumers of our music are who drive the demand for our concerts, hence the interest of promoters.