How do you explain to investors that a tumultuous decline in your stock price added up to a $55 Billion loss in value?
Well, when your market value still is well into the hundreds of billions, you might say it’s all relative.
However, the recent precipitous losses suffered by Apple investors, due to a disappointing company projection for the first quarter, helped lead an overall steep decline in the Dow Jones and other averages.
This news, of course, received a tsunami of media attention, and demanded a response from this massive tech company with so much impact on the US investment market.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had to approach that challenge with a definite plan.
In a series of three vignettes, we detail and evaluate his performance.
We identify the three primary steps The Media Trainers® counsels clients to take, and Cook appears to have taken preparing for an extended CNBC interview: first, identify target audiences; next craft clear, honest and positive messages for each audience; and, third, have an end game, or predetermine the result he needed this interview to have on Apple’s business. We call this his ROI or Return on the Interview.
Vignette #2: Message to Investors
In our first vignette, analysts were Tim Cook’s primary audience target. In this second of a three-part series of vignettes, he talks directly to investors.
Immediate reassurance for investors: he has the administration’s ear, and he’s confident about the future of trade between the US and China.
Plus, there’s good news on the services side of business; a significant increase in the 4th quarter of 2018.
But what about Apple’s future? How does Cook plan to put this downturn in everyone’s rear-view mirror? Remember, this is a cash-rich company, so he has plans investors and analysts should appreciate.
That should help increase value. But what about growth through acquisition, something both analysts and investors have a keen interest in knowing?
Any publicly-traded company knows predicting or announcing future acquisitions is a very slippery slope, which Cook avoids by keeping the door open without committing to anything specific.
Meanwhile, tech-savvy customers always are looking to the future, too. What is Cook’s message for them?
More on that in Vignette #3—Reassuring Apple’s Customers .
Always keep in mind that in today’s world of instant global communication,
“Anyone who talks about you…or your business…is media!”
The Media Trainers®, LLC
770-971-6619
eseidel@TheMediaTrainers.com