Apple To The Rescue
Here's a recent status update from a friend of mine on Facebook:
"If I've said it once, I'll say it a kazillion times...Apple is the BEST company EVER! Yeah, they're more expensive, but at least in this case, you definitely get what you pay for-it's TOTALLY worth it! Hooray, hooray!!"
Apple fans rave about their products, and love telling their stories about great customer service. But is that really all there is to it? Is a great product enough to get people to say things like this about you on Facebook to their friends? I like Diet Coke because it's a tasty, great product, but don't Tweet about it. I like Starbucks coffee, but I'm not about to rave about it through social media.
What this kind of Apple fanaticism indicates to me is that Apple is doing more than just providing great products: they're relieving pain. In the race to commoditize PCs and make them cheaper, Microsoft and hardware manufacturers had to cut corners in areas like customer service, and they do deals with companies like Norton, so that you get a machine with a massive antivirus program installed and they tell you to keep it installed and running all the time or else a virus will eat your hard drive and, oh, yes, while we have you on the line, would you like to buy any other fancy Norton products?
It's a mess. PC and Windows has been in steady decline in people's minds for years. I've almost never heard an ordinary person (e.g. a "non-geek") say anything good about purchasing a computer from Dell.
Apple moved in. They can charge a premium because they're helping reduce the sting of buying and maintaining a new computer. And more people think they're worth it. Now the question remains: is it possible for a PC manufacturer selling home computers with pre-installed Windows on them create this kind of image in consumer's minds? With all of the negative street cred, how would they do it?
It's a tough question, and there's not an easy solution. That's the challenge of branding.
"If I've said it once, I'll say it a kazillion times...Apple is the BEST company EVER! Yeah, they're more expensive, but at least in this case, you definitely get what you pay for-it's TOTALLY worth it! Hooray, hooray!!"
Apple fans rave about their products, and love telling their stories about great customer service. But is that really all there is to it? Is a great product enough to get people to say things like this about you on Facebook to their friends? I like Diet Coke because it's a tasty, great product, but don't Tweet about it. I like Starbucks coffee, but I'm not about to rave about it through social media.
What this kind of Apple fanaticism indicates to me is that Apple is doing more than just providing great products: they're relieving pain. In the race to commoditize PCs and make them cheaper, Microsoft and hardware manufacturers had to cut corners in areas like customer service, and they do deals with companies like Norton, so that you get a machine with a massive antivirus program installed and they tell you to keep it installed and running all the time or else a virus will eat your hard drive and, oh, yes, while we have you on the line, would you like to buy any other fancy Norton products?
It's a mess. PC and Windows has been in steady decline in people's minds for years. I've almost never heard an ordinary person (e.g. a "non-geek") say anything good about purchasing a computer from Dell.
Apple moved in. They can charge a premium because they're helping reduce the sting of buying and maintaining a new computer. And more people think they're worth it. Now the question remains: is it possible for a PC manufacturer selling home computers with pre-installed Windows on them create this kind of image in consumer's minds? With all of the negative street cred, how would they do it?
It's a tough question, and there's not an easy solution. That's the challenge of branding.