Brand Study: Apple Computer Claims its Defined Space

Janelle feels strongly about her computer brand, Macintosh. To be more accurate, she should say her Apples, for she has several. Are Macintosh products of a higher quality than PCs? Janelle does not really know, even though Apple's core message is "insanely great computers." Certainly if all one does is look at market share, the Macintosh brand isn't doing very well. Yet Apple was just named as the world's second most impactful brand in a survey by Interbrand, after first place Google, the wildly popular Internet search engine. ^[48]

There seems to be little question that if Apple were not so strongly branded, it would not exist. The PC market would have eaten it for lunch, but Apple maintains itself. Many of Apple's early competitors, such as Osborn, Kaypro, Commodore, and Atari, no longer exist.

Here's how columnist Mark Morford raved about the latest Apple products:

Apple actually cares about (design). Which is odd. Which is rare. Which is why they deserve gushing adulation now and then. They actually put the time and energy and labor into creating a gorgeous package most people will toss anyway, and why they include a first-time welcome experience, with subtle music, with flowing lush clean graphics, one that will never be repeated, just because.

This is the point. Detail and nuance and texture and a sense of how users actually feel, what makes them smile, what makes the experience worthy and positive and sensual instead of necessary and drab and evil. ^[49]

When the first Macintosh was introduced, the brand was defined as "computers for the rest of us." People said that when you took a Mac home with you, it wasn't a one-night stand. It was a love affair. As Jonathan Ive, designer of the latest line of Macs, says, "People smile when they see an IMAC." Apple went down in branding history with its 1984 Super Bowl commercial showing a woman athlete freeing the IBM-shackled drones by hurling a sledgehammer through Big Blue's video image. Apple paid to show that lengthy commercial only once, yet it continues to get air play even today. It set a tone about the company that has endured. ^[50]

Most lovers of the Macintosh brand display a special feeling and passion that PC users simply do not have. Their reaction is explained by Professor Gerald Zaltman at Harvard Business School: "Consumer preferences and motivation are far less influenced by the functional attributes of products and services than the subconscious sensory and emotional elements derived by the total experience." ^[51] And Apple has been providing strong experiences for decades.

People who are loyal to the Macintosh brand notice and appreciate that other Apple users feel the same way. They are an informal club that you never have to join to be a member. ^[52] Members of this club love it when they are in an audience and the presenter asks who is a Mac user. Apple users practically leap out of their chairs in an effort to raise their hands. They are normally thrilled when someone notices the distinctive partially eaten apple that adorns the front of their laptops. And Apple aficionados were all very happy when the Apple corporation began to pull itself out of its slump. For a period of time, many committed Apple users, while they rather relish their minority status, were secretly worried that their beloved Apples were no longer going to be available.

CEO Steve Jobs has managed to convey a strong sense of rebellion around the Apple brand. He even rode back in his blue jeans and black turtleneck sweater to rescue the company. In many ways, Jobs is the Apple brand. Certainly he personifies it, which helps to reinforce its edgy image. This positioning seems to be strategic as Apple extends the brand with iPods and other products.

The Challenge of Channel Marketing

Like Harley-Davidson, the Apple company enjoys the luxury of having users who engage in on-brand behavior with each other. Most users discuss their Apples only in the most glowing terms. However, when customers get involved with representatives (salespeople or service providers) of such strong product brands, matters can become so much more complicated.

Some of Apple's channel distributors do not have adequate product knowledge to sell the Mac. For example, Fry's Electronics, the gigantic American high-tech retailer, carries a full range of Apple products. Its salespeople, however, do not express the same enthusiastic attitude about the equipment that you experience when you shop at an Apple store. Janelle was recently referred to Fry's resident "Apple guru." This guru's qualification was that he once owned an old model Mac.

It is a lot to ask of service representatives, but if the Apple corporation were to take full advantage of its brand proposition ("insanely great computers"), every person who spoke for Apple would display the same consistent degree of style, excitement, and user-friendliness. After all, if customers feel this way about their Macs, why shouldn't the people who sell and service them feel the same way?

We talked with the marketing director of a large high-tech company that sells a high percentage of its products through marketing channels. When we asked about how the company manages the brand through its distributors, he responded rather flippantly, "We don't consider their customers our customers." We think this is a big mistake, a huge wasted brand opportunity.

Professor Zaltman cautions against such an approach as he considers the power of accumulated social memory and customer interactions regardless of how the customer experiences the product or service:

People who manage customer relationships must grasp how consumers store, retrieve, and reconstruct memories of every interaction with a firm. These interactions may be direct, as when customers deal with a global account manager. They may also be indirect, as through word-of-mouth. And every new encounter alters a customer's recall of a prior encounter—often in trivial ways, but sometimes in significant ways. Thus every customer interaction can make—or break—a brand. ^[53]

Most people who buy Morton Salt will never meet a representative of the Morton company. And they do not spend a lot of time discussing salt with their neighbors. Avid fans of Diet Coke will probably never get any closer to the Coca-Cola Company than to visit the Coke Museum or to read a book or magazine article about the corporation. This is not the case with most high-tech products. People discuss their computers and software, and toll-free (or charged) support lines represent the high-tech brands as much as styling and functionality elements.

Since the introduction of Apple's new OSX operating system, our personal experience with Apple's direct telephone support is that it is largely on-brand. Apple technicians talk about the new products with great love, "Ooh, you have the newest G4. I'd give anything to have one of those." One technician raved about the beautiful interiors of the new G5. Janelle spoke to a technical representative after she bought the new seventeen-inch Apple Powerbook and the technician began to sing "Happy Days Are Here Again"—awesome, on-brand reinforcement! In a PC-dominated world, Apple's survival alone is miraculous and speaks to the power of carefully crafted branding.

^[48]See http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?id=195.

^[49]Mark Morford, "Lick Me, I'm a Macintosh: What the Hell Is Wrong with Apple That They Still Give a Damn about Design and Packaging and 'Feel'?" SF Gate, October 1, 2003. Original article found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2003/10/01/notes100103.DTL.

^[50]The original Apple ad can be viewed at http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/.

^[51]Gerald Zaltman, "Lighting Up the Shadows" (presentation, Procter & Gamble's Future Forces Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 1997).

^[52]For a complete discussion of brand communities, see Albert M. Muniz Jr. and Thomas C. O. Guinn, "Brand Community," Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. 27 (March 2001): 412-432.

^[53]Zaltman, "Lighting Up the Shadows," 197.