… but he sure sells the sizzle! OK bad pun, but I am making a (I guess) serious point. I am referring to Apple’s glossy marketing and oh-so-cool design which is somewhat at odds with their longstanding hardware quality and performance issues … notably with overheating batteries. (You see … “sizzle” … “overheating batteries”? Oh whatever …)
I have never owned a Mac (I do own other Apple products, notably an iPod) and personally never saw the allure, outside certain outward design features. I have friends who work at agencies who have them, and I have always been mystified by their smug attitude to “PC people”, and dewy-eyed devotion to their “Mac”.
What is it about Apple that does this? I confess I have intermittently admired Apple marketing: I can still remember first seeing “1984” for example and some of their Think Different offerings were outstanding. (Not so the new iPhone ads!)
Three things really stand out for me: (1) That Steve Jobs recognized digital devices were about entertainment not technology (2) The way Apple Stores have been leveraged and (3) The Apple Community.
And it is point (3) which intersects with my own universe. Say what you like about quality, Apple were really pioneers in Social Media … and you have to give them their props for that (hey, I could almost forgive the terrible Mac v PC ads …)
Marketing Abstraction 