Monday, June 25, 2007

Apple Thinks Differently

Overview
In 1997, Apple Computer launched a brilliant marketing campaign that captured the attention of consumers around the nation. Anchored by icons that deviated from convention, the campaign accelerated the company’s quest to differentiate itself in the marketplace. By featuring unmistakable figures such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, and Pablo Picasso, Apple was able to communicate a powerful message that captivated the imagination of consumers everywhere. With sounds of unconventionality and progressive thinking echoing throughout the marketplace, Apple was able to reposition itself as a leading organization that fostered innovation and creativity.

The Think Different strategy was significant because it became the catalyst for resurrecting a faltering brand. The campaign also proved successful for catapulting the Apple brand name back into the minds of the consumers and associating that brand with positive connotations. As a result, the subsequent sections in this article review the key characteristics of a powerful campaign that ultimately became the company’s pillars of success.

Emotion
The ability to evoke emotion among a target audience is a powerful tool for communicating effective messages that shape consumer perceptions. Apple was able to apply this concept to its marketing campaign by selecting a group of people that accurately embodied the Think Different message. The contributions to humanity by the persons highlighted in the campaign were so significant that Apple was able to evoke emotion from a large portion of its target audience. By including a variety of well-known figures along with the most famous scientist, inventor, artist, and civil rights leader of the twentieth-century, Apple was able to capitalize on deeply-rooted beliefs and values that existed among its core customer base. As a result, the overall message from Apple resonated deeper than rival communications because the campaign featured figures for whom consumers maintained a high degree of appreciation, respect, and admiration. In addition, the lesser known persons in the campaign were also important because these persons struck a strong chord with a niche audience in which smaller groups of people were emotionally attached. In short, this trigger of emotion along with a sense of appreciation for the people in the original commercial makes the strategy both powerful and effective.

Identity
The campaign established a solid identity for Apple that tied the company to innovation, creativity, and excellence. These were highly desirable characteristics for a high-tech company and provided a foundation for conveying messages that were both believable and defendable. The campaign was believable because the company continued to produce innovative products that were enhanced by sophisticated and stylistic designs. In addition to high quality products, the company continued to establish a corporate culture that was unique and in alignment with the Think Different campaign. By incorporating the critical characteristics of campaign into the company’s corporate culture, Apple was able to establish a strong identity that significantly enhanced its brand equity.

Differentiation
By developing an identity that was linked to innovation, creativity, and excellence, Apple was able to differentiate itself in the marketplace quite effectively. This differentiation was fueled by the use of figures that were remarkably different from their contemporaries. The creativity of Picasso, brilliance of Einstein, leadership of Gandhi, courage of King, and innovation of Edison were distinctive to such a degree that it allowed Apple to brand itself as a company that truly thought differently.

Imagery
It is often said that a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Apple’s campaign capitalized on this concept by using powerful imagery that evoked emotion, established identity, and ultimately provided differentiation. Images of figures such as Gandhi, King, and Einstein were effective because these persons were recognizable around the world and required no introduction or lengthy explanations to describe their relevance to the campaign. This important factor will also become critical in future marketing efforts because this concept allows Apple to place its logo and tagline on an image of anyone that embodies the attributes of the Think Different campaign without altering its overall strategy.

A key success factor is that all of the persons in the campaign have different degrees of appeal to certain groups and individuals. While each person is important, there is an image of one man that personifies the concept of Think Different more than any twentieth-century figure in the world - Albert Einstein. Apple used an image of Einstein for individual ads that displayed the Think Different tagline. The power behind this type of imagery triggered emotion and communicated the company’s identity while allowing it to differentiate itself in the marketplace.
This type of ad was so powerful because Albert Einstein was a symbol of brilliance and genius worldwide. The effectiveness of Einstein’s image with the Think Different tagline is uncovered when one examines the level of convention that Einstein challenged. Einstein’s theory of special relativity replaced the commonly accepted principles of Newtonian physics. According to Einstein, the world was no longer surrounded by a mechanical universe in which space and time were constants. In fact, space itself was actually warped and time was relative to the observer. This was a ground-breaking theory that shattered centuries of traditional thought and complicated matters by adding a fourth dimension to a seemingly three-dimensional world. This is significant because Einstein’s theory takes the concept of thinking differently to the highest possible level. While each of persons used in the original commercial conjures images of innovation and achievement, it was a successful challenge to scientific dogma that was more powerful than a deviation from the conventions of art, philosophy, and politics. This is particularly true for a scientist because the public typically views mathematics and physics as two of the only factual constants in a world of evolving ideas, beliefs, and values. As a scientist that introduced the radical idea of the space-time continuum, it is easy to see why Einstein’s image articulates the Think Different concept deeper than any other twentieth-century figure.

Adaptability
Selecting the right imagery with carefully targeted messages represented only part of the overall strategy of the Apple campaign. The beauty of the Apple strategy is that it provided a foundation for a diverse range of future marketing efforts in both domestic and international markets. This adaptability was illustrated by Apple’s dedication to Rosa Parks on its website in 2005.
The site commemorated her life with her photo and a superimposed Apple logo with the Think Different tagline to reminded consumers of Apple’s defining differentiator. By slapping a logo and tagline above the name Rosa Parks, Apple was able to reconfirm its position as an innovative organization that supports unconventional thinking – all at no variable cost.

This concept of adaptability is extendable in international markets because the Think Different campaign allows Apple to leverage the achievements of regional icons for which certain segments of the population maintain a strong appreciation and admiration. This means that Apple is able to leverage a successful campaign in both existing and new international markets by adhering to the principles of a strategy developed almost a decade ago.

The success of the Think Different campaign is a testament to the power of the creative mind and the skilled marketer. In essence, the campaign provided a foundation upon which the company can build a solid system for future initiatives in both domestic and international markets. By celebrating the human spirit by reaching deep inside psyche of the consumer, Apple was able to rebuild its brand and differentiate itself in the marketplace. By applying the intrinsic principles of the Think Different campaign in current and future marketing efforts, the company is likely to ride its surging wave of success for a long time - simply because Apple thought differently.