Steve Jobs - jobless “was a text message I received a few days ago. While it conveyed the message succinctly, even dramatically, it would have won no creative awards, in my book at least. Being a fervent admirer of one of the most legendary and yet controversial technology and business geniuses the world has seen, and being well aware that reams and reams have already been written about Jobs and his feats in making the Apple brand not only the most “different” brand the world has perhaps ever seen and now also the most valuable brand in the world, I still did not want to be left out of the writing frenzy. While there are several aspects to Jobs and his unorthodox yet highly effective style of management, I thought that as a student of branding, I would restrict myself to how inextricably interwoven the Apple brand is with the charisma of its iconic founder, throwing up questions about its continued success now that the founder has decided to step down from its helm. What can other potential personal brand aspirants learn from the Zen follower and his history? Is there more to personal branding than merely being the “man of the moment in media”?
Building a brand in a world obsessed with promotions
How often do we see the newspaper and comment on the number of brands on sale! I think some of our brand marketers did not start their school with kindergarten but started at a much higher grade straightaway. Why? The smallest number known to them seems to be 40 and discounts offered are never below this magical percentage and “buy one get one free'' seems to be the order of the day for those who wish to do even better! We also have the phenomenon of organised retail pushing more and more of the brands sold in these formats into higher and more ludicrous discounts, leading to an almost complete devaluation of the brand. And yet, amidst this mad frenzy to give the store away, the Apple brand has remained as steady as Rahul Dravid on this current ill-fated tour of England. The brand has always been and will probably continue to be a premium brand that has adhered to the raison d'être of branding.
Why, indeed, do companies brand their products and services? It is simply because manufacturers want a price premium for their products but sadly forget this important objective in the hurly burly of the market place and get into the discount war with their more-than-obliging competitors. Apple's products have always been priced significantly higher and many like the iPod and the iPad (more recently) have been significantly different from the others on offer and more often than not been early movers setting the tone for the market to follow, often reluctantly.
Lust-worthy design
While it is difficult to assign a single reason for the brand's success – analysts, however reluctant to agree with each other, still realise that the superior design of Apple's products has been key to success. It is interesting when we talk of design for we must also appreciate that the Jobs' view of design is very different from the world view of design. Design normally is a reference to the sleekness and the “touch and feel” of products. Often, in the Indian context at least, people can remember the singularly unappetising designs of the Premier Padmini and the Ambassador cars of that age and day. Nor must we forget the cumbersome boxes that most TV sets were! Contrast the Eighties with the sleek gloss and finish of today's four-wheeled beauties commanding far higher prices and the LED TVs that adorn the walls of affluent homes. But Jobs' view of design was significantly different from the view of conventionalists like you and me. His view of design was on how the product was constructed and how the consumer could use it, not merely on its looks, however breathtaking.
Ease of operation in an ergonomic design and sleek exterior was key to the brand's design success. And the reason was not difficult to see. In today's world where there is much talk of customer-centricity and empathy (that is far easier to talk about than to actually practice) Jobs was the ultimate champion of the customer's rights and privileges even if they were not articulated by the customer. It is now well established that the customer cannot really tell you what she requires, though if a savvy marketer gives it, she will lap it up.
His brief to the hassled and often harassed design engineer was that the iPod's music should come on in two touches of the index finger or that there should be a single control in the iPhone. Whilst these were designers' nightmares it really was a dream for technophobes such as me who were never intimidated by Apple products but sought them out and became great evangelists of the brand, price notwithstanding! Just go online to see the depth of emotion that Apple products evoke amongst myriad users across the world.
The term ‘buzz' had its greatest exponent in Apple and its products.
Brands are about success
It is often easy to confuse visibility with personal branding. In the corporate world at least, the truly successful leaders who have endured as personal brands are those who have a consistent track record of success. There have been quite a few twists in Jobs' success trail. I cannot think of too many CEOs who have been asked to leave by their own short-sighted board of directors or professional CEOs who trade blows and engage in turf wars with the owner who brought them in, in the first place! Jobs has been through just about anything and yet the vision, the obstinacy and the tenacity of purpose to make his brand the foremost and most valuable brand in the world is what inspired me, as it did countless others before me. People such as Ford and Jack Welch who are great examples of corporate personal brands have endured because their success has endured. Whether it is in cricket or corporate life it is longevity that is key to success. Is it surprising that the top three batsmen in the world are Tendulkar, Ponting and Dravid and none of them started yesterday? Breathing down their necks is Jacques Kallis who is no spring chicken himself.
Future earnings and learnings
So what should other companies and brands who want to build their personal brands do in the light of all this learning? Many CEOs want to build their personal brands and give the PR company the mandate to profile them in media.
While media attention per se is something worth seeking, it is worthwhile to consider who will get the media attention. I personally would prefer the owner to be in the news, and why do I say that? It is simply because professional CEOs often enough are building their bio-data for future employment while the owner is not really in the job market. He builds his brand usually because his fortune is linked to that of his brand. Of course, it is useful to remember that building a personal brand helps a corporation simply because people want to deal with companies with well-established leaders and employees wish to work for companies with visible leaders. It certainly helps if the company has management width. Infosys is perhaps a good example of a company with personal brands at the helm which still has excellent bench strength. This perhaps brings up the concern with Apple.
Jobs' shoes are size 13, figuratively speaking, and they should be as difficult to fill as Glenn McGrath's. I have nothing but the greatest sympathy for the new CEO who has by and large remained out of the limelight. Comparisons will be made, often odious, but I would view that more as a tribute to the recently retired CEO rather than as a comment on the incumbent.
Who knows what the future might hold for the company and its new CEO? It is easy to say, like any consultant, that only time will tell. The question is whether the same passion and fervour that characterised the founder will be found in its professional CEO. There is no doubt, however, that Apple will never have a personal brand like its founder working for it in the near future. Nor too, in my view will the corporate world unearth another personal brand of the magnitude of Jobs, in my lifetime, at least.
Bye, bye Steve. I shall miss you as most of your customers will.