Presentation looks at the Apple brand over the last 2 and a half decades. These are the early mock-ups of the slides that my colleague Neil Perryman used in my Web Studies module. He gave me permission to upload them here. You can contact Neil here:
neil.perryman@sunderland.ac.uk
2. Mac Users are also Mac Fans Operating System market share March 2011 [ source ]
3. iLoyalty Apple ’ s Faithful Appleholics Macheads Macaddicts Macolytes
4. “ Apple is a strange drug that you can’t get enough of. They shouldn’t call it Mac. They should call it Crack!” Barry Adamson, The Guardian Quoted in Kahney (2002) http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2002/12/56575
6. iSubculture Is it the branding? Is it the social relationships? Is it the the machine Itself? Common themes emerge: a sense of community; an “ alternative ” ; a nonconformist brand that stands for liberty and creativity…
7. “ If you see someone in an airport in London, or somewhere down in Peru or something, and you see an Apple tag on their bag, or an Apple T-shirt… you already have an instant friend. Most likely you share something very core to your being with this person, which is a life outlook, a special vision. ” Chris Spinosa, Apple Employee #8
8. Mac users are extremely cool. It ’ s a lifestyle thing. Mac users tend to be liberal, free-thinking, counterculture. They dress well, they look good, and have discerning taste. Mac users have a sense of humour. They also help each other. Leander Kahney The Cult of Mac (2004) p7
9. iCounterculture From Satori to Silicon Valley by Theodore Roszak (1999) http://library.stanford.edu/mac/primary/docs/satori/ Rosnak argues that 4 major movements germinated in the 1960s counterculture: Political Protest Drugs Music The Personal Computer…
10. Roszak (1999) The home computer terminal became the centerpiece of a sort of electronic populism. Computerized networks and bulletin boards would keep the tribes in touch, exchanging the vital data that the power elite was denying them. Clever hackers would penetrate the classified databanks that guarded corporate secrets and the mysteries of state. Who would have predicted it? By way of IBM's video terminals, AT&T's phone lines, Pentagon space shots, and Westinghouse communications satellites, a worldwide, underground community of computer-literate rebels would arise, armed with information and ready to overthrow the technocratic centers of authority.
11. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak circa 1975 Pirates of Silicon Valley clip [video]
12. “ There were people thinking that if they could master personal computing technology, they could fight back against the Machine. And so while there were lawyers who just wanted to use them to automate their offices, a lot of people in the users ’ groups were were really using personal computers as a tool against The Man. ” Chris Spinosa, Apple Employee #8
14. “ The IBM PC was created by people who drank alcohol. The Mac was created by people who smoked pot. ” Anonymous Apple employee quoted in Kahney (2004) p33
15. It is no coincidence that the first shots of the computer revolution were fired from the same Bay Area that brought us Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s. The very conception of the almost hallucinatory realm we call cyberspace required the imaginative capabilities of people who were familiar with navigating hallucinatory headspace… Douglas Rushkoff http://rushkoff.com/articles/articles-and-essays/they-call-me-cyberboy/
19. Jobs is worshipped like a rock star http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCZk1e9hf1s Treated kindly as a visionary by the media… … odd, considering Apple ’ s market share... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPrYgc1q7XY
20. Jobs as Christ-like: The “ call ” - Homebrew Club The “ disciple ” - Wozniak The “ trials ” - IBM & Microsoft The “ apotheosis ” - becoming a technology prophet The “ persecution ” - ousted from Apple, a decade in the wilderness The “ resurrection ” - the return to Apple The “ glory ” - the iMac, iPod, iPhone & iPad
21. “ Jobs is widely viewed as an asshole ” - Kahney (2004) p48 “ He is a bundle of paradoxes. A manipulative cult-of-personality leader, he also brings egalitarian principles to his workplace. He is, it seems, a revolutionary control freak ” - Scott Rosenburg (1999) How does Steve Jobs change a lightbulb? He holds up the bulb and lets the universe revolve around him… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjSbNqqhjbE
22. The Cult of Woz Not afraid to have fun: - Dancing with the Stars - Big Bang Theory The Master Hacker Interested in Electronics, not Empire Building Left industry to become volunteer teacher for over a decade
26. iMicroscoff ‘ Microsoft have no taste ’ To Mac users, Microsoft represents everything that Apple isn ’ t. Apple innovates; Microsoft copies. Apple puts out solid products; Microsoft puts out buggy ones. Apple represents creativity and individuality; Microsoft represents business and conformity. Apple is the scrappy underdog and Microsoft is the big, predatory monopoly. Kahney (2004) p.248 iTunes on Windows
27. iHate http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/6373 “ I hate everything Apple - starting with rock star wanna-be Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck and jeans on his big, lavish stage, telling the world every three weeks or so how Apple's newest overpriced gizmo will change the world. ” David Ramel, ComputerWorld, 2007 “ And I hate the products themselves. Overpriced, overhyped and underwhelming. Oh, I forgot, they have such "elegant" design. They just "feel right." All the stubble-cheeked, pony-tailed, black-clad hipsters in the design department get it, but us dweeby drones doing the real work are just out of touch. ”
28. iParody Spoof: Gaming [ video ] Spoof: Labour practices in China [ video ] Spoof: Switch campaign [ video ]
29. I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui. iBrooker Guardian Feb 2007
30. Cue 10 years of nasal bleating from Mac-likers who profess to like Macs not because they are fashionable, but because "they are just better". Mac owners often sneer that kind of defence back at you when you mock their silly, posturing contraptions, because in doing so, you have inadvertently put your finger on the dark fear haunting their feeble, quivering soul - that in some sense, they are a superficial semi-person assembled from packaging; an infinitely sad, second-rate replicant who doesn't really know what they are doing here, but feels vaguely significant and creative each time they gaze at their sleek designer machine. And the more deftly constructed and wittily argued their defence, the more terrified and wounded they secretly are. Guardian Feb 2007
31. Ultimately the campaign's biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow "define themselves" with the technology they choose. If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality. Guardian Feb 2007
32. Sep 2009 : Microsoft's grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse? “ I vaguely prefer the clumping, clueless, uncool, crappiness of Microsoft's bland Stepford gang to the creepy assurance of the average Mac evangelist. At least the grinning dildos in the Windows video are fictional, whereas eerie replicant Mac monks really are everywhere, standing over your shoulder in their charcoal pullovers, smirking with amusement at your hopelessly inferior OS, knowing they're better than you because they use Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard. ” “ Snow Leopard. SNOW LEOPARD . I don't care if you're right. I just want you to die. ”
33. Feb 2011 : I don't hate Macs, but they do give me a syncing feeling The lady doth protest too much. A few weeks later, I buckled and bought an iPhone. And you know what? It felt good. Within minutes of switching it on, sliding those dinky little icons around the screen, I was hooked. This was my gateway drug. Before long I was also toting an iPad. And after that, a Macbook. All the stuff people said about how Macs were just better, about them being a joy to use . . . it was true, all of it. They make you feel good, Apple products. The little touches: the rounded corners, the strokeable screens, the satisfying clunk as you fold the Macbook shut – it's serene. Untroubled. Like being on Valium.
34. iBrand "People talk about technology, but Apple was a marketing company. It was the marketing company of the decade. ” Former CEO John Scully, 1997 http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/12/56677 "Without the brand, Apple would be dead. Absolutely. Completely. The brand is all they've got. The power of their branding is all that keeps them alive. It's got nothing to do with products. ” Mark Gobe (2002) http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/12/56677
35. iBrand The company projects a humanistic corporate culture and a strong corporate ethic, characterized by volunteerism, support of good causes or involvement in the community. Nike blundered here. Apple, on the other hand, comes across as profoundly humanist. Its founding ethos was power to the people through technology, and it remains committed to computers in education. The company has a unique visual and verbal vocabulary, expressed in product design and advertising: it ’ s products and advertising are clearly recognizable. Apple: It ’ s All About the Brand, Kahney (2002) Wired Magazine http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/12/56677
36. iBrand Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions. The Apple brand personality is about lifestyle; imagination; liberty regained; innovation; passion; hopes, dreams and aspirations; and power-to-the-people through technology. The Apple brand personality is also about simplicity and the removal of complexity from people's lives; people-driven product design; and about being a really humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with its customers. Marketingminds.com http://www.marketingminds.com.au/branding/apple_branding_strategy.html
40. iBrand "It's like having a good friend. That ’ s what's interesting about this brand. Somewhere they have created this really humanistic, beyond-business relationship with users and created a cult-like relationship with their brand. It's a big tribe, everyone is one of them. You're part of the brand." Mark Gobe in Apple: It ’ s All About the Brand (2002) Wired Magazine http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/12/56677
41. iVillage http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2002/12/56678 Muniz Albert M. Jr. and Thomas C. O ’ Guinn (2001), Brand Community, Journal of Consumer Research , 27 (March), 412-32. Shared Consciousness - “ common values ” Rituals and Traditions - history, logos, blogs Moral Responsibility - help solve problems, share info
42. iMasochists The “ punisher-me-harder ” brigade (Kahney, 2004) “ It ’ s a cult. It ’ s what kept the damn thing afloat through some of the most incredibly bad decisions I ’ ve ever seen anywhere. ” Gil Amelio, Apple CEO 1994-1997
44. iPod The iPod is a genuine cultural phenomenon. (It is) fast becoming the signature music technology of its era, like the jukebox in the 50s and the Walkman in the 80s. The word “ iPod ” is already a brand eponym - like Kleenex or Xerox, it has come to signify all MP3 players. Kahney (2004), p240 220 million sold worldwide -Sep 2009
50. In Sept 2010 Apple became the second biggest company in the world by market value... 2010: Sold 14.8 million iPads March 2011 : Sold 100 million iPhones “ Forget Google – it's Apple that is turning into the evil empire ” You can't install anything on it that hasn't had the prior approval of Mr Jobs and his subordinates. Naughton, 2011
51. iFuture The Mac is 25 years old… "If you look backward in this business, you will be crushed. You have to look forward. ” - Steve Jobs, January 2009 Jobs on a “ leave of absence ” due to ill health, perhaps never to return to full responsibilities... Apple no longer contributes to Macworld Expo… What can they build next?
53. iRead Kahney, Leander (2004) The Cult of Mac . No Starch Press Frieberger, Paul and Swaine, Michael (1999) Fire in the Valley: the Making of the Personal Computer . McGraw Hill Linzmeyer, Owen (2004) Apple Confidential 2.0 . No Starch Press Hertzfeld, Andy (2004) Revolution in the Valley: the Insanely Great Story of How the Mac was Made . O ’ Reilly Media. Malone, Michael (2000) Infinite Loop: How the World ’ s Most Insanely Great Computer Company Went Insane . Aurum Press. Campbell, Heidi & Antonio C. La Pastina (2010) ‘ How the iPhone became divine: new media, religion and the intertextual circulation of meaning ’ , New Media & Society , Vol 12, No 7