SPORT BUSINESS OBSERVATORY -
Holder of a Master's degree from the Sorbonne, specializing in issues relating to Latin America,
Mathieu Sauvajot
first wrote articles dealing with the geopolitics and economy of this continent, before turn to the field of sport.
He is now an editor with the Observatoire du Sport Business.
To discover
DOSSIER - The Sport Business Observatory
There are companies that never seem to know the crisis.
In the space of a year, Apple has seen its value increase by 17%, enough to further establish its status as the most bankable brand in the world according to Forbes, and it is not ready to stop there. .
From now on, the apple brand is trying to establish itself in the sports sector.
Engage yourself…
If Apple has managed to become the economic leader of GAFAM, it is above all thanks to a well-rehearsed strategy, based both on the regular renewal of its product range as well as on a system of subscriptions as diverse as they are flourishing.
Each year, new versions of its flagship products are released, offering improved performance as well as new features, in order to convince the most loyal customers to renew their devices, and new ones to take the plunge.
But the non-negligible cost of these products and their relatively long lifespan (allow about five to seven years for an iPhone) combined with the decreasing marginal utility of innovations is such that sales tend to stagnate.
As much to say that
Apple's revenue in 2012. Statista.
In its latest report, Apple counts a total of 860 million paid subscriptions taken out for its various platforms, and it must be admitted that there is something for everyone.
From the most generalist such as Apple TV+ (streaming) or Apple Music, to the most specific such as Fitness+ and AppleCare, the Tech giant offers at least one service capable of convincing any user.
Admittedly, the income generated by these services is much lower than that linked to sales, count only about ten euros for most subscriptions, while conversely, you will have to pay more than a thousand euros in order to acquire the latest phone, but the interests are many.
The income is regular, it is easier to estimate its quarterly or even annual turnover, but above all, there is a real opportunity to retain an ever larger and more varied clientele, if ever in the long term this one considers no longer be able to do without the services offered, and to achieve this, Apple is now betting on the sports sector.
Expanding your clientele is sport
In order to accelerate its growth, betting on sports offers is now part of one of the strategies adopted by the Apple brand, which in itself is not surprising, both the alliance between GAFAM and this sector seems obvious.
After all, Amazon had made a remarkable entry in May 2021 by broadcasting part of the Roland-Garros matches, or more recently, by acquiring the rights to broadcast the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" on Prime.
Of course, Apple could not be left behind and the response was quick.
At the beginning of 2022, the Tech giant signed an agreement with Major League Baseball to broadcast "Friday Night Baseball", and a few months later, it obtained the broadcasting rights for Major League Soccer (football championship in the United States). United) to stream select games on Apple TV+ for ten years.
Heavy investments intended to be profitable through new subscribers, but also sales resulting from product placements made during advertisements.
Apple's weight in the music industry also plays a significant role in its conquest of the sports market.
In 2014, Apple completed the acquisition of Beats by Dr. Dre against the sum of 3 billion dollars, a company producing headphones, headphones and high-end speakers, then leader of the American market at the time.
The story could have ended there, but it turns out that the brand has convinced many big names in sports across the Atlantic such as LeBron James (NBA), Serena Williams, Simone Biles (Gymnastics) or Odell Beckham Jr (NFL) to name a few, thus making it possible to rush into a second market, in complete discretion.
51% of Super Bowl viewers fully watch the halftime show.
Sports Front Office
Even more recently, in August 2022, Apple signed a five-year, $50 million deal with the NFL to partner with the famed Super Bowl Halftime Show.
For the record, it is estimated that more than half of the 120 million viewers attending the final watch the show in its entirety.
A colossal audience and a presence at events guaranteed to go down in history.
These services that look like you
The greatest difficulty in successfully establishing a presence in this sector is probably its plurality.
While not all viewers watch the same programs, not all Apple customers engage in the same activities or are necessarily willing to subscribe to a service that does so.
To do this, some Apple products look like Trojan horses.
Take for example the very recent Apple Watch Ultra, this connected watch designed for practitioners of extreme sports, and incidentally to compete with Garmin, one of the leaders in the sector, has the same advantages and disadvantages as other branded products, economically speaking.
A high selling price, but a particularly limited need for renewal.
So, once again,
Apple has made sure to offer a suitable subscription that most users of the product will not be able to resist.
This is also where another great strength of the brand lies, its ability to offer its customers the service that suits it.
If we take for example
the very specific Fitness+, we notice that Apple manages to target precise groups of users that we could qualify as niches, thanks to the multitude of features offered and this is precisely what makes it possible to attract and keep always more customers insofar as the product offered corresponds perfectly to them.
The American bank JP Morgan also estimates that the Fitness+ service should exceed 3.6 billion dollars in revenue by 2025, twelve times more than in 2021, hardly surprising, when we know that Apple represented 30.1% of global smart watch sales last year.
However, this sudden interest in the world of sport goes far beyond financial considerations, or even an opportunity for the Apple brand to expand its range of subscriptions.
It is a true extension of its universe that has begun, making it possible to associate not only with a sector, but with an image and compatible values, a sign that this commitment should be part of the long term.
