A for Apple

From a marketing perspective the strength and continued success of Apple is immensely reassuring.

Apple’s brand is getting stronger – according to the 2009 Best Global Brands list (from Interbrand) Apple has progressed from No. 24 to No. 20 in a year. Interbrand, in fact, describe Apple as “among the most iconic of relatively young brands in the world”  – true, I guess, but in the context of computing Apple is actually far from a young brand.

A more immediate demonstration of strength is the early sales performance of the Apple iPad. According to a press release by Apple, iPad has outperformed even their most up-beat estimates with sales of over 450,000 and it is already outperforming all other tablet rivals. Apple continues to live up to a demanding promise with innovative, well designed, accessible and technology-leading products.

That all said, my reassurance comes from the fact that Apple is clearly benefiting from a consistent and sustained investment in brand – reflected in considerable effort and attention to detail right across the marketing mix – over many, many years.

Building advocacy has always been at the heart of what they do and the prize has been a highly loyal customer base. Have a glance at the wikipedia definition of an Apple evangelist to see how core customer (and employee) advocacy is to the Apple culture/approach…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_evangelist.

Testimony to apple’s strength has been the creation of the “I’’m a PC” advertising campaign for Microsoft. The $300 million dollar campaign was designed to challenge Apple’s Get a Mac campaign by showing everyday (and not too dull) people to be PC users. It is a solid campaign that has been sustained by Microsoft – however, the campaign was met with some criticism due to the discovery that the advertisements were created in part by using Apple’s computers and operating system!

To build a picture of the sustained clarity and ambition exhibited by the Apple brand I have attached a link to a visual-packed, design focused ‘Slideware’ presentation from a  Korhan Buyukdemirci that is now about 5 years old – pre I-Phone. As you can see the products and approach have evolved significantly over time, but the commitment to inspiring advocacy is a constant… http://www.slideshare.net/korhan/apple-brand-experience-presentation

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