Apple kicks ass. The company, that is, not the fruit.
Don’t own a Mac? You are on the Jersey side. But wait, you may own an iPhone. Bit more ubiquitous. I just bought one, finally.
Oohh, shiny.
Is there an app for awesome?
Back when I was innocent and thought all computers crashed from time to time, I resisted Macintosh because I “didn’t know it”. That is, until an IT colleague at a marketing firm I used to work at convinced me to buy one for my next computer upgrade.
It was 2005 then. I walked into an Apple store and fell in love with what was the iMac G5 the second I gazed onto the immaculate white curves framing the sleek monitor. I carried it home and wasn’t heard from for the next eight hours. Mac and I and countless glasses of Pinot Noir spent a lot of quality time together since then. The relationship strengthened. The only problem was that it was stationary. I couldn’t take it with me. It was a teenage romance.
Upgrading last year to a MacBook Pro notebook was like falling in love with a grown-up version of the same guy. It’s beautiful; it’s light; it’s virus-free; it works seamlessly with my iPod and…it just works. It traveled with me all over New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, providing much-needed wi-fi connection when available.
What I love even more than owning Apple’s products and evangelizing the company’s brand (which is, I know, precisely what they want me to do), is their seamless and genius marketing. I’d love to see it in action behind the scenes at one of their offices.
This morning, two days after I bought the iPhone, Apple sent me a welcome email with a short, simple sentence that impressed me.
We have so much to talk about.
Now I’m drinking the right Kool-Aid. The rest of the email contained various links on how to get get the most out of the iPhone. But that sentence made it sound like the iPhone were a person, an old friend who had just sent me a drinks invitation. As if it already knows me, and just wants to be useful.
Warm fuzzy feelings for Apple all-around.
I know marketing, and I know how strongly they feed this loyalty. I know that satisfied customers are the best brand ambassadors there are. But I love the subtle, yet powerful ways in which they do it.
In short, they do it by feeding the relationship with a constant wow.
They do it with compelling, innovative products that speak for themselves, that are like nothing else on the market. We feel they have something superior to other brands, and act that way, and convince others they can solve their life needs by purchasing an i…[insert Apple product here]. We make others visibly jealous for Apple gear. It’s the image–cool, creative, fun–that strikes such a deep cord with people.
Whether or not the iPhone is the best in the market ceases to matter. That’s the incredible brand loyalty the company cultivates. It’s fascinating to watch from a marketing perspective. So compelling.
He who said genius lies in simplicity would have loved to have to have owned Apple. Their ethos embodies it.
