“At first, it was funny to hear insurers, IT firms, and startups with no revenues compare themselves to Apple,” Steve Faktor writes for Forbes. “Since the iPod launched in 2001, I’ve seen hundreds of presentations… Drenching slides (or products) in an iconic brand’s juices won’t transmit innovation, like some benevolent plague. If that were possible, we’d never stop harvesting and packaging Brangelina extract. It’s time for an intervention. Here’s why brands must find their own voice (and scent)…and keep those synthetic Apple fumes from turning into laughing gas.”
“I know I’m not alone. We’ve all been to the same Apple-laden meetings… er, orchards. How did those comparisons work out? Did that company become the most valuable in the world? Did that product become iconic and emulated by every company in Korea? Or, did it live and die in its sad PowerPoint tomb,” Faktor writes. “Using Apple as a model is the business version of ordering jeans after seeing them on Kate Upton. They might not look the same on you. Like Kate, Apple is a unicorn. It defies so many conventions that deconstructing its lessons is silly… It’s not that your company can’t be Apple. It’s that your company absolutely, positively will never be Apple. I’m not discounting your skill or vision. I’m simply acknowledging that Apple’s success is a witch’s brew of leadership, timing, technology, and culture. All those variables can’t be replicated.”
Much more in the full article here.
Imagine That?
All the while, Amazone,…. Wall Street’s Darling, has a better business model than the tinker toy computer maker AAPL selling their Kindle hardware @ a loss. Gaagle & SamDung bribe and copy their way to profits. Corrupt as corrupt can be from the gulf stream waters… To the New York Islands this land ain’t the way it used to be.
That would almost be like copying an Arlo Guthrie song.
Oops, I meant Woody.
I wonder how much money Amazon has lost waisting valuable web space pushing their Kindle instead of doing what made them successful in the first place?
Am I supposed to know who Kate Upton is?
I didn’t either until I searched images for “Kate Upton in jeans”. Now I know, in spades.
Boom.
‘Or, did it live and die in its sad PowerPoint tomb.’
They should at least use Keynote.
Funny, I always compare myself to Kate Upton.
The single most important thing for a company to do is to make the very best product possible, and if they can do that, it would go a long ways toward making your company good.
and another thing is that too many times I see a company compare prices in order to find the cheapest widget, thinking that it will help their bottom line, all too often it only makes things more expensive in the long run because cheap widgit isnt as sturdy, or not as long lasting as one that cost a bit more. In the long run you get what you pay for, its that simple.
The article makes very powerful arguments and provides solid advice. While most of us here may likely consider the advice obvious, it is clear that to most of general audience out there it is not. I can personally attest to the truthfulness of the fact that so many small companies try using Apple references in their presentations in hope of squeezing some mojo out from that Apple.
The article presents clear arguments why that is idiotic and counter-productive. And it provides four exceptions in which you actually CAN use Apple references (if your product interacts with an Apple product, for example).
I wish more people read this article; it would make for fewer ridiculous over-the-top PowerPoint slideshows heavily loaded with Apple buzz-words and references.
“Faktor” is kind of a cool name.
Apple’s success is a witch’s brew of leadership, timing, technology, and culture.”
The fantastical Straw Man drinking his witch’s brew rode his unicorn off a cliff. Dude, you shut up!
Another Forbes bozo who began the week trying to define the formula for Apple’s success and come midnight Thursday, crossed the threshold into fantasy, trying to compare lemons to apples.
Apple’s success stems from its principles and not its strategies or some indescribable magical formula.
Steve Faktor is writing about business strategies to be Apple-like for an audience that has no principles, especially when it comes to their customers; the end-user.
You got that right. Apple success is best explained by ken segall in his book “insanely simple.” I suggest everybody check it out, it’s the best explanation I’ve seen.