Mystery Marketing from Apple

It's almost time for the start of the busiest shopping season of the year. I've been seeing lots of ads on TV as well as catalogues appearing in my mailbox.

Today I noticed a slightly different approach from electronics maker, Apple. The company sent me an email that told me that this Friday it's having a special one day shopping event. This for both the online and the physical stores. There is no mention of any specific sales prices or hot merchandise like computers or iPods. It's as if the company is saying, "We've got good stuff that you'll like. Come shop with us and the prices will be good."

This is in contrast to the heavily promoted loss leaders you see with many stores. I'm not sure if this is because Apple customers know what they want before they shop or if the company doesn't want people coming with the idea of buying one heavily promoted sale item.

At a time when some fear electronic sales may be sluggish due to the economy, this may be a strategy worth watching.