Apple: a true brand-led business

The new CMO of sponsorship agency IMG, Robert Birge, perfectly summed up Apple's success  in a recent interview with Craig Montgommery', that I discovered thanks to the Brand Builder Blog:

"Apple’s vision can be seen in everything they do. While many companies view “brand” as the domain of marketing, Apple understands that business strategy and the brand are indistinguishable. 

If you don’t believe you have a differentiated and relevant business strategy, it’s going to be challenging for anyone to craft a compelling brand story. If a CEO wants a brand as powerful as Apple, they should take on the role of brand manager."

As Birge says, Apple use their brand idea to drive everything they do: the stores, partnerships with brand like Nike, product design, the OS user interface. Its what I called in The brandgym  a true "brand-led business". In contrast, many other companies still think branding means creating an "image wrapper" of communication and visual identity to cover up a mediocre product (see below). This flawed logic is what leads to the nightmare of "re-branding", a fancy name for a new logo (more on this in a future blog).

5 minute workout: is your brand idea driving your whole business, to create a "branded business strategy"? Or are you falling into the trap of only creating an image wrapper, leaving the product and service un-touched?

Comments

[Chi]

Be1rbara Peixoto / Resultado brilhante, Equipe Te1til! Assisti a rerogtapem no RJ/TV de 03/jan/2010 e considerei um presente de aniverse1rio antecipado(04/jan) para mim, por ser mais um incentivo a todos os designers, ao deixarem claro, mediante o excelente resultado, a importe2ncia da nossa atuae7e3o e o valor que podemos agregar a um produto, projeto e/ou evento!!! Sobre a linda e significativa marca, posso dizer: seduz o olhar, remetendo ao orge2nico, e0 cooperae7e3o, unie3o, ainda apresentando movimento, fluidez, fazendo uso dos degradeas das 3 cores(sol,vegetae7e3o/terra, mar/ce9u)de forma agrade1vel ao olhar e possibilitando a sua adoe7e3o de forma tridimensional e bela!!! Pude alcane7ar uma semif3tica: da palavra RIO, das formas do Pc3O DE Ac7daCAR, de um CORAc7c3O, do sedmbolo do INFINITO, ale9m da CIRANDA DE PESSOAS, POVOS, ATLETAS Enfim, SHOW DE SIMBOLISMOS E ALCANCE DE SINTETIZAc7c3O E LIMPEZA GRc1FICA!!! SUPER PARABc9NS E FICO TORCENDO PELOS LINDOS FRUTOS QUE VIRc3O!!! Abrae7os,Be1rbara Santa Cruz V. PeixotoDesigner formada pela PUC/RJ

[Anett]

Rebecca,Interesting perspective. Never would've gueessd that some in the feminist perspective would've had trouble with the Old Spice Man. I'm in your boat. I understand their argument Old Spice Man does somewhat reinforce traditional gender hegemony roles. But I loved the ads and I think their perspective might be diving a little bit too deeply into the matter. But I can intellectually understand where they are coming from.And being that I'm in the process of finishing my Masters in Communication right now, that meme could only have been written by a feminist scholar.

[Lina]

I will be traveling to Paradisus Punta Cana in January with an infnat who will be 13 months at the time of travel. I am wondering if there is a market or store where I could purchase diapers and what brands the store carries? I just was not sure if I should pack diapers for the entire length of time we will be at the resort because that will take up a lot of room in our luggage. Thank you for your help.

[Gustavo]

As we have seen, Google Flight search is blnlaigzy fast but is it accurate? The first few weeks so far have shown the results to be incomplete. As of yet we are still seeing a similar metaphor to existing search sites – it adds a few bells and whistles but it’s not really doing anything fundamentally different, new or better.

[Hydroponic Gardening]

I see the blog and it is a nice deatils given here . I a, really longing for this types of the things for a long time .

[generic propecia]

In the USA, the figures run closer to 75 - 80% female instigated
divorce, and this has been true since early 80's at least. In the
overwhelming majority, the other man is on hand before the divorce is
filed, though it is definitely non-PC to say so. I saw my own sister
pull this stunt twice; once with a 42 year old man when she was 21,
and once with a 21 year old man when she was 42.

[David Taylor (brandgym)]

Peter, Thanks for popping in. Don't know the bloke myself, but I thought his comment was pretty damn good, even if it wasn't nothing totally new.

[Peter Harris]

Birge is really saying nothing new. But then he never does...

[olivier blanchard]

That last part of your post is genius.