What or who is Daisy
On March 21, 2016, Apple presented Liam, a robot that helped to recycle iPhones. In April 2018 they substitute it for a similar robot called Daisy. It disassembles the pieces of returned and damaged iPhones. Apple designed a machine to dismantle other Apple machines.
Liam and Daisy are an impressive technology. It is also a significant step to helping the environment by recycling phones. But, more important than that, it is an example of well-planned marketing.
Recycling and the environment
Daisy is part of a global recycling program. Apple encourages customers to send their old iPhones back. They will take care of recycling them in a respectful way for the environment.
Daisy is capable of taking apart nine different versions of the iPhone, and it can disassemble up to 200 iPhones an hour. It will work with a small portion of all the iPhones in the world. What is relevant is that the company is thinking about the product from beginning to end. They work to make progress recycling their devices.
Tech, Green, Marketing
I admire Apple marketing. Their technological advances are remarkable, but they are even better at marketing them. There are three steps in this process:
- First of all, they hear the consumer. There is an increasing interest in the environment. Apple users are more sensitive to that subject than the average people.
The company has a leading position in the market. That makes them a role model for people interested in that field.
- They make plans to organize the firm to meet the needs. That is the second step of any marketing plan. They have programs to recycle and to have a more renewable energy. They have precise goals with numbers and dates.
- The third step is to communicate about what they’re doing. Apple is good at explaining complex technical achievements in a simple way. They use a lot of tools. I will highlight the website, the keynotes, and the creation of sub-brands.
The Apple website
The Apple website is a hub. They explain the goals, what they do to meet them and even encourage people to take action and be part of the process.
They have a place to talk about what they do to help the environment (section environment on the web)
In another section, they give information about recycling. Apple explains how the consumers can take action: (section recycling on the web)
They have clear goals and keep track of their progress year to year.
They even have created a logo for recycling. I talk more about that in another post.
The keynote
Apple has two or three events every year. It is a moment to take contact with customers, press, and bloggers. They dedicate the first minutes to explain the results. In a second part, they show new products.
On March 21, 2016, they opened the keynote with the environment. Here we first learned about Liam. Lisa P. Jackson, Vice President, Environmental Initiatives lead that section. She explained what they have done, and where they are going in the environmental field. That gave the necessary context to let us understand the importance of Liam. Open a keynote and have a Vice President of the company on stage gave a lot of notoriety on the subject.
On April 2018 they announced Daisy, the successor or Liam. In this case was an update on the website.
The creation of sub-brands
In fact, Liam and Daisy are not robots; it is a factory. It is not a machine but a group of machines and processes. They treat it as a single machine and give it a name. They transform a complicated, technical and dull concept into an object with personality. It captures our attention and makes us dream.
The name Liam stands for Liberate Iphone Auto-dissasembly Machine. That appeared in an Apple video months later they presented the machine. I do not know where the name Daisy comes from.
The fact is that giving it a name helps to simplify and communicate with the general public. It gives it a personality and helps us to remember all the concepts.
Leo Laporte, said: "Do you think that this is why they call it Liam? Because it has a very particular set of skills? ". Podcast Mac Break Weekly, number 499, minute 28:27.
Leo was associating the robot Liam with Liam Neeson. The actor, in his famous film Taken, says: "What I do have is a very particular set of skills, skills that I've acquired over a very long career."
I think Leo Laporte made a smart association. Liam, in fact, is an iPhone killer, it breaks apart phones. It has a very particular set of skills, like Liam Neeson.
Ok, it was just a joke, and perhaps I am over analyzing it. But this kind of comment had been possible because of Apple marketing. The made the complicated process of recycling more approachable to us. They simplified it into a single machine and gave it a name. Now we, the consumers, gave it a personality and all that makes it easy to remember.
After those comments the association is easy. When someone talks about recycling, Liam, the iPhone killer, is the first thing that comes up to my mind.
Liam and Daisy work like a brand or a sub-brand under the Apple umbrella. It is a marketing technique used in other cases: for instance with Touch ID and 3D Touch.
Those brands summarize broad ideas, identify them and help us to recognize them later.
We can apply that
There are a lot of things that we can learn from Apple Marketing. We can use some of those techniques in a small firm, in a regular job or even a project.
Some technologies are difficult to explain. People outside your professional field of expertise do not understand what you do. Perhaps, not even your customer knows how you do what he has bought.
What I have talked about here can be a guide, and you can apply it to a lot of things. Perhaps you can read this post again and put yourself in the shoes of Apple. You can do a lot of the things it does, just on a different scale.
Have a section of the website to explain a process or technology that is critical to your business. Make a video simplifying the main parts, give a name or personalize that and create a brand from it. Have a day in a year to explain to your customers what you have done and what you want to do in the future. These are some things that anyone can do.
New technologies make it possible for anyone to create a website or record a video at a low cost. You can even make a keynote presentation only online and spend a lot less than you would in real life.
Conclusion
The environment and recycling are a growing interest of the general public. People are more worried about what happens with their devices after death. The tech enthusiast and the upper segment are the most sensitive to that.
Apple Marketing hears all that. Environment and Recycling are increasing in importance inside the company. They have definite plans to answer what their consumers are asking. Finally, they communicate their efforts.
Liam and Daisy are news brands in Apple that represent the recycling of phones. Liam and Daisy are robots, but they are also marketing and communications tool.
