Apple still at core of emotional branding

By Liri Andersson

Why is it that there are some brands we love, respect, honour and forgive? There is clearly no short cut to becoming a brand phenomenon (or we would see more of them), so how does it happen? A truly successful brand has always been seen as the sum of its parts. What is changing today is the sheer number of the parts that makes up a brand. It’s not just about products but also about brand service, retail environments, web site and support networks; it’s about all these elements and many more. My interest lies in the whole notion of branding and brand experience, and particularly in any gaps to be found (or not) between the perception of a brand, and the real experience customer’s have when experiencing the brand.

Traditionally, corporate marketing teams have spent the majority of their branding budget on inspiration and awareness campaigns with little thought of how this is affected by the real experiences customers have when interacting with the brand. However we live in a world where people have so many interaction points with a company, it is close to impossible for any brand to get away with providing a poor experience at any level without it having a negative impact on the brand. This is becoming even more true in a cross-channel world which offers so much opportunity for customers to express opinions, share information and exchange peer reviews of these real life brand experiences (good or bad).

In the case of Apple, it has turned this reality into a competitive advantage. Over the past two years of otherwise blissful MacBook ownership, I’ve forgiven Apple for two corrupt drives and one unusable flickering screen. How come? Because every single interaction I’ve had with the brand, other than those physical faults, has been second to none. I adore the look and feel of the product, I revel in the luxurious retail experience of the Apple Store where the staff gives off the impression that they are working there for the sheer love of it all, fetching products off shelves for customers, taking time out to chat about colour matches, eschewing queues and receipts in favour of handheld terminals and email records. What makes Apple the brand it is today is its continuous innovation, improvements and its relentless pushing and probing at the corners of customer experience.

By doing this Apple has managed to weave a magic around its brand, making its customers feel that there’s far more to being a Mac person than using the product. As a MacBook and an iPod owner I feel part of the Mac family, it’s not a perfect family, but somehow I don’t mind. I may have had a bad experience with a hard drive (leading to the loss all my pictures and music), but the collective brand experience makes me want to continue to be an Apple customer. About that dodgy drive and screen, by the way. It’s undoubtedly just more of that brand magic, but I’m convinced I just have a Monday morning laptop, a laptop that was made with the effects of a good weekend fresh in the mind. Therein perhaps, lies the essence of that magic – because Apple does so much incredibly well in my eyes, I’m willing to believe my own problems were just one off glitches.

What lessons can other brands learn from Apple? Well, it’s vital to recognise that in a world with so much opportunity for complaint and comment, it’s more important than ever to work continuously on developing a bulletproof brand through pleasing customers at every offered touch point. Consumers who are fed innovative, powerful experiences will nurture a positive perception of products, service and people, and will forgive that brand quite a lot.

I started by saying that a brand was a sum of its parts, and I want to leave you with that thought. If one of those parts – retail experience, support, product and so on – does fall down, the strength of the rest of the customer experience can actually hold the whole up. Of course in my case I’d rather have had a rude salesperson than lose my data as a result of a corrupt drive, but I still forgave the brand thanks to its broader customer centric approach.

So the winners will therefore be the brands that work hard for our unquestioned loyalty. A loyalty which is earned through developing 360 degree products and services, these are the ones that never stop amazing its customers throughout every interaction point.