WTF is Happening to Marketing with Apple

How often do you see a way of working, a piece of content, poor decisions within marketing and think WTF? I bet it happens a few times a day (if not hourly).  

Well, in the spirit of Larry David, Pio and Lee are going to call out the WTF’s they see on a monthly basis and share some thoughts about what those companies should be doing differently.

At minimum, hopefully they'll at least make you laugh and have you realize you’re not alone in thinking WTF. (On that note, if you have any topics in marketing and you say to yourself, WTF, let us know and we might just write about it.)

LEE:  Hey Pio so here we are at WTF—Episode 2. And they said we’d never make it this far!

PIO:  Yes, and this time it's about Apple and what the hell happened to that brand and its marketing.

LEE:  Well, of course you’d say that being such a big Samsung fan and user. But ever since I bought Apple stock in '98 when I was a wee little intern, and the brilliant “Think Different” campaign came out, I've been a huge fan. That said, despite being a business powerhouse and the #1 brand, the marketing for the last year or more has been dreadful. And that's before they crushed our favorite instruments.

PIO:  You mean the recent iPad commercial that they got such a lot of flak for?

LEE:  Yes, but unfortunately I think the problem is much bigger than that one-off ad.

I’ve always admired (almost fanatically) their brand building skills and how Steve Jobs rigorously built the brand on spectacular innovation, a great user experience and breakthrough marketing to make Apple into a globally coveted brand. But, along with true innovation their imperial phase of breakthrough marketing seems to have come to a screeching halt.

PIO:  I feel the decline has been for a much longer time. Personally I’d have to go back to the truly heartwarming Xmas ad from 2013 to remember anything good. The current work is slick and well produced–but when you look at stuff like the Dear Apple, Battery and Titanium ads–it's a big fall from the great heights that they used to be at. But as you said I’m biased so explain why you feel that way as a marketer.

LEE:  I just think they’ve lost their point of view, their voice and have become generic. It makes me sad. They're no longer adding to the brand bank, but instead borrowing on past successes and their ecosystem lock-in factor.

“Think Different” was inspirational and as you’ve mentioned before it wasn’t just about great emotional brand work but it was the guiding light for all of the product innovation to live up to.

It was a philosophy that bound every single launch into a bigger whole. Every product launch they did starting with Mac vs PC, then iPod, and iPhone deposited into that “Think Different” brand bank for a cumulatively bigger business, brand and cultural impact.

Now, they’ve lost their unifying philosophy and their endearing, laid back California charm. It’s just one independent product campaign after another without them all adding up to a bigger story. 

PIO:  Also, the marketing in the past did a great job of making you feel part of a special creative class. That was crucial. They stood for something and they made people feel they were part of a certain special club. Now everyone has it, including my mother!

Even their media approach was brilliant and behaved like a “Think Different” brand would. The iconic out-of-home for the iPod silhouette campaign that focused on the top creative cities like NYC, Austin, San Francisco and then within that at the creative hub of those cities like Soho/NY and SOMA/SF and then in media channels like the metro/tube that no tech competitor was using at the time. 

LEE:  They were at their best when they had an enemy (the traditional category thinking and product approach of IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Blackberry, etc). In defining their enemy, they defined who they were as an equal but opposite alternative.

They’re so big now they no longer have a foil. A potential strategy for them is to shift their foil from a who to a what. Apple could lean against bigger cultural issues as a foil like Nike did with Colin Kaepernick (police brutality), Serena Williams (equality for women in sports) and LeBron James (racial equality in sports) to make the brand relevant again.  

But for me an even bigger issue is they are now threatening to become the very thing they rebelled against in the 1984 commercial: Big Brother dictating the terms of membership in the club; keeping everyone in a closed garden. Consumers now choose them by default but not out of excitement. And monopoly legal issues against them are now mounting up around the globe.

For the first time, in a very long time, Apple is vulnerable. 

However, no competitor in recent times has built a strong enough reason to make a switch. And it's not that there aren't strong competitive products, but those brands haven't carved out a strong brand space to warrant the emotional switch. The opportunity is there for someone to grab it.

Here's the question Pio, who's going to throw the “hammer” against them?  

PIO:  Well, in my opinion, Samsung has the superior product and Samsung should. When they showed me their innovation plan and some of the product line years ago I was slack jawed with amazement.

But to challenge Apple it won’t be enough. They have to bring it all under one roof and:

1. Sell the ecosystem not the individual product. Benefits not features.
2. Have a philosophy that binds all of the products together.   
3. Carve out an equal but totally opposite alternative position that consumers want to be a part of.
4. Create a club that people want to join. 

• The whole Green vs Blue bubble text battle is reflective of that issue that Apple has used to their advantage in order to create its own class system of cool vs uncool here in the US. 
• But you could flip that and make Green Bubble/Android stand for the innovator, risk taker, outsider and reposition Blue as elitist, judgmental if not discriminatory. Jiu-jitsu them so to speak but they have to have a clear POV and user identity to be successful.

LEE:  Wait a minute, Pio Schunker thinks Samsung will be the one to step up and challenge Apple? I am shocked. Truly shocked. I guess this means we won't be getting a call from Apple.

PIO:  Yup, yup speed-dialing Samsung as we speak!