Apple is unlike any brand in our history and role model for how a brand should act. Their sales growth and profitability reflects how well the strategy can work. Everything Apple does is focused around the Big Idea that: “Apple makes technology so simple that everyone can be part of the future.” Here’s how that Big Idea plays out across all 5 of the consumer touch-points:
Apple’s supporting brand promise is to be on the side of consumers and make things so simple, so intuitive, to think like a consumer not an engineer, so that everyone can feel smarter and feel more engaged. The Apple organization culture is based on the value which Steve Jobs said many times: “You have to start with the consumer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around”. There is an urban legend story Jobs told of a boy in the Amazon Rain forest who could not read or write, but figured out how to use the iPad within a few minutes. As Apple is on the side of consumers, they believe that technology doesn’t have to be frustrating. If you have ever banged your fists on top of a computer or printer, then you are the ideal consumer for an Apple product.
In terms of telling the brand story, Apple takes on the consumers’ enemy of “frustration” directly, fuel for the fire of the famous “I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC” ads of 2005. To me, those ads capture the brand’s soul on film. Internally, those TV ads were a rallying cry for the Apple culture. But if you go back in time to 1977, we still see that simplicity and doing more throughout every campaign. The R&D team has kept finding new innovations around simplicity, whether through home/office computers, portables, mobile, entertainment or social platforms, they all line up under the Big Idea of simplicity. The beauty of using Apple is that everything works in a similar intuitive fashion, and there is an integration between them that makes it easier.