First, stop using the term "marketing" for "sales and advertisements". It is not.
Real Marketting is "the study of the markets", that is, what people need or wants. Apple in times of Steve Jobs was amazing in Real Marketing.
Apple created revolutionary new products like the mac, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad that sold (and curently sell) in the tens of millions each year. No other company has been able to do so at that scale.
Lots of people wrongly believe that people is brainwashed to buy what they don't want or need, because they don't understand.
They do not understand that it is the other way around. You design what is going to be sold like hotcakes. Because people want it or need it.
It is not even a secret: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE
By the way for a lot of years I wanted a laptop that was done in metal(instead of using plastic with flame retardants) and Apple was the only one doing it. With batteries that lasted lots of hours, lightweight, and silent.
Those were essential for me as a traveler. People that could not understand would believe(because they did not have my needs) I was stupid for buying something 3x more expensive than a 3kgs crappy plastic laptop.