Apple Computer: Death of A Billion-Dollar Brand?

CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY...

Sweeping statements can get people like me into trouble with readers who have long memories.

I remember when a certain marketing guru whom I admire made the sweeping statement that the skyrocketing price of Google's $85 a share IPO was a case of lemmings rushing to the cliffs to hurl themselves into the financial sea, how this would never last, how Google doesn't make anything of value, that it's a stock price built on air, yada yada yada.

7 years later, Google stock is still hovering beneath $600 a share, Google Android is the most widely used smartphone OS, Google Chrome is the second most popular web browser after Firefox, Gmail is considered the world's best free email service, GoogleDocs is a widely popular free productivity suite, Google search is #1 by a vast margin (more than 5 times ahead of its nearest competitor--which, inexplicably, is Bing), and the company generated a mere $10 billion revenue on advertising in Q3 2011.

So much for predictions.

And you'll understand why I am cautious when I ask...

IS THERE A "BOOK OF JOBS?"

One hopes so, that there's a well-written manifesto of how to run Apple Computer without him.

Because if there's not, my fear is that within a few short years, we will witness the end of Apple Computer as we know it.

I know I risk sounding like either an idolatrous fool or a mindless Mac devotee.

I am neither.

This screed is being flogged out of a blisteringly fast quad-core Precision workstation by Dell.

But once upon a time, I was a devoted Mac user. We'll call the Mac my gateway drug to computing. My first Mac experience in the mid-80s completely changed my mind about computing. My prior experience had consisted of sitting in front of an IBM Selectric terminal hooked up to a hulking, acoustically-coupled modem, probably 2-baud, interfacing with a room-sized mainframe 30 miles away, typing in arcane and awful commands that make DOS look like a romance language.

The Mac experience was different. Attractive. Fun. Sexy. Comprehensible.

Thank you, Steve Jobs, for greasing the skids into my total immersion computing lifestyle.

THE CHALLENGE HERE IS THAT STEVE IS GONE--AND STEVE WAS THE BRAND

Yes, there we go again, sounding like an idolatrous fool.

But if you read the Apple Computer timeline, the company's rise and fall and rise is parallel with Steve Jobs founding Apple, being "fired," and being hired back.

There's a general feeling that while Steve Jobs was gone, the machine was devolving into a glorified typewriter.

Jobs returned with Apple's acquisition of NeXT, the computing company Jobs founded after leaving Apple.

We'll forget about computing history here and get to the fun stuff.

When Steve Jobs was finally back in charge of Apple as interim CEO, one of the first things he did was call the legendary Lee Clow at Chiat/Day and essentially say, "I need an ad campaign, and I need it in one week."

The result was the oft derided "Think Different" campaign. Despite the grammatical blinders worn by so many vocally critical educators and the blasting it received by so many advertising pundits, "Think Different" helped Apple sell out its first batch of iMacs. And, to quote Wikipedia, it helped make Apple "the sidearm of choice for creative professionals."

STEVE JOBS--MARKETING REGRESSIVE?

Certainly, there's no arguing the man's influence on both operating systems and on computer design.

Nothing is ever quite as sexy as the next new Mac.

Even my 73-year old mother, whose 10-year old IBM ThinkPad is "all I need" in a computer, bought an iPad.

The way Steve Jobs changed how we interact with computing technology is inarguable.

What's also inarguable is that he was a marketing traditionalist.

Some time back, this pathetic weekly screed talked about how Apple's advertising budget was merely a third the size of Microsoft's, and how Apple gets so much more bang for its buck.

Last year, Apple's ad spending was estimated at 420 million dollars.

You want to know how much of that went to online marketing?

CONSIDERBALY LESS THAN 10%

On October 10, the AdAge cover story was about this very topic.

Considerably less than 10% of Apple's advertising budget goes to new media.

They have a very limited presence on Facebook. They only recently started a YouTube channel, and that's primarily a venue for its TV spots. The comments are turned off. There is no Mac Vs. PC mudslinging amongst the idiots who populate YouTube conversations.

Apple's budget goes primarily to those "dinosaur" traditional media: network TV, newspapers, magazines, circulars and billboards.

In fact, in 2011, Apple is the ninth largest spender on billboards in the US.

How is it that a company who paves the way for us to get online so easily eschews online advertising?

BECAUSE STEVE JOBS WAS (A) NOT AN IDIOT AND (B) UNDERSTANDS BRANDING

Like so many successful companies, both enormous and tiny, he is the engine behind the brand.

It doesn't matter whether we're talking Dave Thomas of Wendy's or Richard Branson of Virgin of George Zimmer of Men's Wearhouse or the woman who runs the place where my wife and I get our hair cut.

These people are the engines behind their brands. They each infuse their respective brands with their personae. They love their companies and share that love. They also understand the single most important person in their brand is (say it with me!) their customer.

In the case of Steve Jobs, he knew who his customer is, and equally important, WHERE his customer is.

He knew how to reach his customer and what to say.

He knew that the social media marketing philosophy of letting the "customer determine the brand" was not for Apple Computer.

He knew how easy it is to ignore or even hate online advertising.

He knew ho hard it is to ignore that enormous billboard at that major intersection.

He knew the true power of traditional media and how to use it.

STEVE JOBS WAS EVIL

There are people who want you to believe it.

There are plenty of screeds against Apple and what its problems are today.

There are plenty accounts of Steve Jobs' tyranny in the workplace, some of them now surfacing again in the wake of his passing.

Every iconic figure is going to have his or her detractors. And who knows where the truth lies?

What I do know is Steve Jobs is the man behind one of the most iconic brands ever created.

In a world where contemporary marketing pundits scoff at the notion of brand loyalty, saying it no longer exists, that we now live in a world of exclusively transactional consumerism, I say, Really?

Then explain Apple Computer, dude.

The product costs considerably more, millions of people happily pay for it, and will never leave.

There may be no more brand loyalty in any other market than in this one. Apple users are committed.

Steve Jobs is the reason why.

I ABANDONED THE MAC--BUT I'VE NEVER LOST MY LOVE OF THE BRAND

My reasons for leaving Mac behind were practical.

But I've continued to admire the brand, even through its clunky phases.

And, as I've said, I fear we're nearing the end.

There will be a gradual denouement.

And eventually, the brand will fizzle.

Steve Jobs was the engine, and I doubt he can be replicated.

I hope I'm wrong.

Apple computer is dead. Long live the Apple.

More Lightning In A Bottle For Fun & Profit

I AM NOT A SINGLE GUY--SO WHY DO I LOVE THESE COMMERCIALS?

I'll tell ya why: 'cuz, if you haven't figured it out after all these years, I am an ad geek.

Watching and talking about advertising is sport.

Some guys like to armchair quarterback last night's football game. I like to armchair quarterback the commercials that ran during the game.

And right now, some of my new favorite commercials are coming from one of my longtime favorite advertisers: eHarmony.

Yes, I am happily married.

And my wife reads this pathetic weekly screed.

She will understand--not only because it is some really good new advertising, but because she's worked with the guys who create this advertising and likes them a lot.

SO, THE EHARMONY MODEL IS OLD, WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT THE NEW SPOTS?

eHarmony is now doing something that answers a nagging question about their category.

If you've ever been involved in advertising any kind of a dating site or service, you know that there's one perennial challenge: not enough guys use the service.

Women are typically more willing and ready to join a dating service.

Men, not so much.

So, a plethora of women sit there, twiddling their thumbs in front of their computers, waiting for new guys to show up.

For years, as eHarmony has been running their happy loving couples testimonials, I'd been wondering how this problem affected them.

My guess is this: no differently than for any other dating site.

Because recently, they've begun running new messages that suggest as much.

HEY, SINGLE GUYS: MEET A TYPICAL EHARMONY SINGLE GUY

It was really just a little bit shocking earlier this month when, for the first time, one of these new spots came across my TV screen.

We're so used to the real, unvarnished, un-Hollywood couples of eHarmony land.

It was a total surprise to see that single guy, in jeans and a T-shirt and a beard, talking to the camera:

JON: What am I hoping for? Cool, great girl to get along with. Lets me be me. I enjoy her being her. It's close.

OFF CAMERA: So you really want a relationship?

JON: Yes. I mean, I didn't sign up to eHarmony for dates.

ANNCR: Review all your matches for free. At eHarmony.com

Every eHarmony commercial up to that point had been one thing: a success story.

But here, we don't yet have a success story.

We have a guy looking for a girl.

A regular guy who looks like he might be the guy next door.

A regular guy who might just be the kind of guy I might be, and who wants the same kinds of things in a girl I want, i.e. not some girl who thinks, "Well, I can change him."

IT'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF ASPIRATIONAL ADVERTISING

All of eHarmony's messages have been stories that other people could aspire to living out for themselves.

Now, it's a suddenly message for a guy who might be reluctant to try a dating site.

And eHarmony likes Jon so much, they've done not one but two commercials with him:

JON: With some of those other sites, it's more of a kind of a numbers game. You get a million people on there, and you meet some girl, and you know she's gettin' a hundred emails the same day you email her, and you have to rifle through thousands and thousands of profiles, and it's a totally different experience here when you use eHarmony 'cause they kinda do most of the work for you. I've had one date so far. I'm going on my second date tomorrow night, actually, so maybe by the time this commercial is on, I won't be single any more.

ANNCR: Review all your matches for free at eHarmony.com

There's enough left-brain information there to appeal to the left-brain nature of so many guys, and enough right-brain WOW to be disarming to the same left-brain guy who keeps rationalizing his way out of using eHarmony.

And just as a sidebar for all those hardcore direct response types in the audience: without using a single canned DR copywriting tactic, this is still DR, with a an offer, a call to action, and the word "Free" attached.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Jon is not the only regular guy parading around in eHarmony land unattached.

There's also Craig, a big, strong, Teddy bear of a guy in a soccer jersey:

CRAIG: I could go onto a site and say, "I like to play soccer." And maybe I'll get 5,000 women who like to play soccer. Fantastic. But if that's all we've got in common, it better be the World Cup all year round or we're gonna be in trouble. There's no...click. There's no, um, there's nothing deeper than that. With eHarmony, everything's so to the core, I think you stand a much better chance of meeting someone you really connect with. And that's more important to me than anything, ya know.

ANNCR: Review all your matches for free at eHarmony.com

Wow. Craig. You're a regular guy with a good head on your shoulders. You're nobody's doofus.

And like Jon, and like every other person eHarmony has trotted out before their cameras, he is easygoing, natural, and UNSCRIPTED!

YES, UNSCRIPTED!

I say this in ALL CAPS and with an exclamation point (!) because I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people try to do "testimonial" commercials where they've WRITTEN COPY FOR THE TESTIMONIAL SUBJECT!

Seriously: I know people who've written scripts based on a customer's experience and expected the customer to record it as if it were their own words.

It doesn't work that way. You need to capture lightning in the bottle of advertising--and it DOESN'T happen by hammering all the spontaneity out of the process.

It happens by knowing how to talk to a subject, how to make them comfortable, how to get them to share, how to be appropriately emotional, and THEN--taking the time required to sift through the raw material to find the gems.

"But that's so much work!"

Uh-hunh.

It's even more work to go and find another client when the one whose canned testimonial didn't work cancels his advertising.

But I digress.

IS THIS THE GIRL YOU'RE LOOKING FOR?

As far as I can tell, eHarmony has also trotted out their first single white female.

And she's not your typical SWF. She's just a little different. At least, that's what I'm thinking when I see a blond with long hair and bangs, a gray linen outfit and black nail polish, who's named Maddisen.

If I were a single guy, I don't think I'd be saying, "Whoa, baby! Maddisen's the girl for me!" But there IS something attractive about her. And part of it is her candor:

MADDISEN: I like the whole process that eHarmony uses. It was really a nice exercise for me to get clear about what I wanted, or what I was seeking in...in a man.

ANNCR: Review all your matches for free at eHarmony.com

This is a message for singles everywhere, men and women: instead of endless swing-and-a-miss dating, you're about to get your head straight about what you're looking for.

Everyone knows eHarmony is skilled at hooking people up for real and for good. We've seen the evidence.

Now, they're talking to you, unattached single, about what it is you don't yet know and probably want.

And if you're creating advertising for anything that can be marketed using real people talking about it, eHarmony once again offers a fine model to go by.

Just don't be afraid to do the work required to get there. At the end of the day, it feels much better than pounding out 165 scripted words about a business that's there "for all your FILL IN THE BLANK needs."

Super Bowl Propaganda

WHO WON THE SUPER BOWL?

Not the beer advertisers, that's for sure.

Overall, it was a ho-hum parade of spots from beginning to end, with occasional small surprises throughout.

Single favorite joke? "Release the hounds" triggers the opening of a kennel of Afghans in Audi's prison of luxury.

Single most delightfully ridiculous? Best Buy's Ozzy Osbourne wondering, "What's a Bieber?"

Single most surprising? GoDaddy's Joan Rivers. (Not saying it was necessarily good. Just unexpected.)

But overall, it felt lackluster and apathy-inducing--with occasional astonishing wonderments like, Why on earth would Motorola want to invite comparisons to Apple's vaunted "1984" spot, and if so, were they aggressive and pointed enough?

(I'll probably be in a minority on this count, but that spot should have been more aggressive--especially since the Xoom is going to be considerably more expensive than an entry-level iPad.)

The single bright point for the group in our TV room Sunday?

Eminem.

NO, NOT HIS COMMERCIAL FOR BRISK

Which had some unique charm of its own.

Rather, we're talking about the two-minute pod-hogging spot from Chrysler.

This gritty homage to Detroit and Patriotism and Chrysler was a surprisingly deft and well-crafted bit of corporate propaganda from a company that's already had more second acts than any car maker probably deserves.

The detractors are legion, of course. They're complaining bitterly that a car maker still on the government dole should not be spending taxpayer dollars on a Super Bowl commercial.

It's easy to understand why they're upset.

The thing is, you can't stop advertising. And if you're going to advertise in a way that tells people you're back and ready to be reckoned with, there may be no better venue than the Super Bowl.

And a single, two-minute spot buy.

AN AMERICAN CAR MAKER OWNED BY AN ITALIAN COMPANY WITH A FRENCH MARKETING CHIEF?

It's almost hard to believe that an operation with this kind of cred was able to generate that commercial.

The spot is, after all, uniquely American.

It heralds the underdog Detroit, the gritty, down-on-its-luck city synonymous with Chrysler and American drive.

Not that any of us necessarily thought that on Saturday last.

But after the filmmaking finesse that dovetailed those ideas in ways that (a) nobody has ever quite considered and (b) surprised us, it's fair to say that in the legacy match up between Green Bay and Pittsburgh, the winner was Detroit's Chrysler.

PROPAGANDA, PURE & SIMPLE

Yes, indeedy.

The hardcore direct response marketers of our generation are all going to armchair quarterback the ads (they started doing it a week before the game, even), scoffing at how many millions the brand advertisers waste in their effort to amuse and entertain rather than sell.

I understand why they feel that way. I've often shared their antipathy for pointless "get your name out there" advertising that has neither head nor heart at its core.

But they underestimate the ability of a message like Chrysler's to bore into the American psyche.

No, you might not be able to measure instantaneous results in the form of phone calls or unique web visits.

But that, my friends, is bean-counter thinking.

When the game is being played on a field the size of the Atlantic Ocean, and you're trying to alter the course of a supertanker of a brand like Chrysler, turns don't happen on a dime.

WHAT CHRYSLER DID ON SUNDAY WAS TURN HEADS AND, IF ALL GOES WELL, WIN HEARTS AND MINDS

They convinced America to give Chrysler a second look.

It's the difference between effective direct response marketing, and effective brand building.

Both have their merits.

But brand building at this level does something a bit different than DR.

To borrow from the Wikipedia definition of propaganda, we're talking about "a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position."

And nobody stands around the water cooler and talks about the great direct response ad they saw on TV yesterday.

But they're talking about Chrysler, guaranteed.

Social Media, Dead Media, & Your Brand

TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING IS DEAD--WHO CARES ABOUT BRAND?

An excellent question. Excellent because it is (a) utterly untrue and (b) an homage to every idiot who tells you brand advertising doesn't sell.

Anyone who's been reading this pathetic weekly screed since its inception knows that we here at Slow Burn Marketing are staunch advocates for Brand.

Anyone who has a business MUST have a brand.

Anyone who doesn't know or understand what their brand is will find themselves losing ground to those competitors who do.

And traditional advertising, in which a solid brand can thrive, is far from dead. It's merely being overshadowed by the glamorous new media darlings.

"WHAT THE HELL IS BRAND?" REDUX

Just a quick refresher for those of you who've forgotten all you learned in Brandergarten.

Contrary to what one majorly successful millionaire motivational guru likes to trot around, brand is definitely not you opening up Microsoft Paint and slapping together a series of shapes and letters to identify your business.

Brand is not a logo, a color, a font, an ad or a tagline.

Brand is everything, both tangible and philosophical, that defines your business. It's how you look, how you act, and how you treat customers.

To refer back to a recent example, the Southwest Airlines brand is (a) Herb Kelleher's maxim that "Southwest is the low-cost airline," combined with (b) the colors, the stripes, the pricing, the tagline, the attitude, the website--all of it.

"You are now free to move about the country" and everything that line means is a distillation of the brand into a single thought--but it merely represents the brand. It is not THE brand.

Bottom line: your brand is what people think of when they think of your business.

So there's your quick brand refresher. Now then...

IS TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING IS ALIVE AND WELL?

This is represented nowhere more vividly than in Slow Burn's eye doctor client in New Hampshire.

The reason I say this is because New Hampshire, the Live Free or Die state, is the most wired state in the nation.

There are more people on the internet per capita there than anywhere else in the US.

Yet, it is a commitment to radio--a "dead" traditional medium--that is making the good doctor a category dominant force there.

It is commitment to print--a "dead" traditional medium--that is supporting his radio presence in a big way.

Yes, he's online. He has a website. He has a YouTube channel. He has accounts on Twitter and Facebook.

But the advertising on traditional media are the reason he has grown into a celebrity virtually overnight.

AND BRAND--THAT OLD AND OH-SO-UNNECESSARY CHESTNUT--IS ALSO TO "BLAME"

His brand is rock solid. Everything about the good doctor's marketing looks and sounds like it grew from a single seed.

The attitude is always the same, the colors, the conceits, everything is a leaf from the same tree.

Including his social media (which, admittedly, is still in its infancy).

So many marketing gurus would have you believe not only that traditional advertising is dead, but brand is pointless--especially because of social media.

Uh-hunh. OK then. If that's so, why does every single bit of social media marketing from Old Spice's "I'm the Man your Man Could Smell Like" campaign look and sound like every part of the campaign found in traditional media?

Is that too big and expensive an example for you?

Fine.

Let's look at $h*! My Dad Says. This is about as low-budget an example as possible of stellar branding in social media.

IN CASE YOU'VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS...

$h*! My Dad Says is a TV sitcom starring William Shatner.

It was born of a Twitter account by the same name (except that the Anglo-Saxon expletive in the title is spelled out on Twitter).

Justin Halpern, who created that micro blog, endlessly tweeted inane things his dad said.

It was (and still is) hilarious. Example: "Nervous? In 5 billion years the sun will burn out and nothing you did will matter. Feel better?"

Or, "No. Humans will die out. We're weak. Dinosaurs survived on rotten flesh. You got diarrhea last week from a Wendy's."

Or, "Engagement rings are pointless. Indians gave cows...Oh sorry, congrats on proposing. We good now? Can I finish my indian story?"

(The funnier stuff is laden with expletives, and unsuitable for publication in a family newsletter.)

The micro blog eventually caught the attention of CBS--after it gained national attention on The Daily Show, got Halpern an agent, and a book deal with Harper Collins.

ONE GUY, NO MONEY, AND A WELL-BRANDED MICRO BLOG

His Twitter feed could have been @JustinHalpern, and he could have tweeted any 140 characters that made him happy at the time--including the occasional insane rantings of his father.

And he'd still be an unknown comedy writer living in his dad's basement.

The reason he's now on the road to being millionaire.

Brand--pure and simple.

Even if he didn't understand what he was doing as branding, Halpern completely understood what was necessary.

He committed to the brand, he never deviated from it--and oh, look, it's the traditional media that actually made him rich and famous.

Apparently, reports of the traditional media's death have been greatly exaggerated.

BRAND ALWAYS HAS AND ALWAYS WILL MATTER

Understand who you are and commit to it.

Distill the essence of your business down to a series of concise thoughts.

From those thoughts, derive your Reason For Being.

Then, let that Reason For Being inform everything that follows--the marketing, the advertising, the behavior of your employees, the look of the business, everything.

And once you've done that, you're on the road to better, more effective marketing--both online, and in that creaky old dinosaur of traditional media.