Macintosh Performa - Marketing Failure

Marketing Failure

The Performa marketing strategy failed for a number of reasons. Some blamed the failure on consumer confusion; the large number of models was intended to accommodate retailers, who could advertise that they could beat their competitors' price on equivalent models, while at the same time making sure that they didn't carry the same models as their competitors. To help, Apple created "The Martinettis Bring Home a Computer", a 30-minute infomercial about a fictional family that purchases a Performa computer.

Others claimed that people working at the stores lacked the proper training. The Performa display models were poorly taken care of; often, the computers crashed, the self-running demos were not running or the computers were not even powered on. Apple tried to address the training issue by hiring their own sales people, most of them from Macintosh user groups, to aid the store sales staff. In spite of this, however, many returned Performa computers could not be serviced properly because the stores were not authorized Apple service centers.

However, most experts attributed the failure to retailers favoring the Microsoft Windows line, especially after the introduction of Windows 95, which was generally cheaper, and encouraged by manufacturer spiffs, advertising co-ops, and other promotion programs.

The significant number models across its multiple hardware lines caused Apple to re-think its marketing strategy. The company shrank it considerably, eliminating the entire Performa line in the late 1990s, along with many of the professional models in favor of a "four box" strategy comprising a professional desktop (Blue and White G3), professional laptop (Powerbook), consumer desktop (iMac) and consumer laptop (iBook).