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Anyone who knows me and my technological tastes well will tell you I'm big on Apple and their computers. And yes, I have to admit I've been drinking their Kool-Aid for a long time. But I do think I have a bit of objectivity that eludes real Mac fanatics who refuse to accept the possibility that Apple can make mistakes, or makes decisions contrary to their customer's best interests (fer instance, the iTunes Music Store and DRM and the refusal to allow the iPod to interact with any other commercial digital music distribution service). I'm well aware that Apple is a huge corporation who's primary purpose is to make money for its shareholders.
Okay, now that I've got that caveat out of the way, I want to rave about them a bit. I regularly read Macintouch, a long-time Apple/Mac news website that originated as a column in the publication MacWeek long before my first forays into computers in the mid-90's. Macintouch runs a news page focusing on Apple specifically, and the computer industry in general. In addition to their news coverage they cover new software releases, run reviews of reports on major Apple announcements and new hardware releases and run reader questions and comments on Macintosh-related issues and products. Of course, a lot of people only write in when they have problems, so many reader comments are skewed toward negative news and perceptions of the company. Lately I've read several "long-time Apple users" allege the company is getting worse about shipping shaky hardware and providing poor customer service. Never mind that Apple consistently ranks near the top in surveys about consumer-satisfaction with computer companies.
I bought an iPod last summer from Apple's online store in the refurbished section. You can get refurbished products there at good savings with the same one-year warranty as a brand new item. I've been really happy with the iPod and use it extensively.
After that good experience I bought a refurbished iBook for my wife this past November. The laptop was listed as having 256MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive. When I ordered the iBook, I ordered 512MB of RAM to add to it from Other World Computing since 256MB of RAM is pretty much a minimum to run OS X on. When the computer was delivered we found out it contained 512MB of RAM and a 60GB hard drive! A very nice and unexpected bonus. Unfortunately, the computer only has two RAM slots so I had to take out one 256MB module so I could install the 512MB module I'd purchased for it. Oh well... Now it has 768MB of RAM which is pretty good for what we use the machine for. We've been very happy with it to this point and I recommend checking out the refurbished products on Apple's site if you're interested in purchasing a Mac or an iPod.
The second part of my rave starts this past Monday. I plugged my iPod into my G3 to copy some files for a job I was working on for my friend Steve. The computer popped up a message that the "disk" I had inserted was unrecognizable. Not a good thing. I took it to work and first tried to reset it. When this did nothing I went ahead and tried to restore it which is the option of last resort, as this erases everything on the iPod. When restoring didn't work, I realized I probably had a dead iPod on my hands.
I bought it in June of last year, so I knew the 1-year warranty was still in effect. I figured I'd probably have to package it up and send it in to Apple to get it repaired, but decided to take it to the Apple Store at Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City first and see if they could do anything with it. I went there on my lunch hour Wednesday. They made me an appointment with the store's Apple "genius" and after a wait of about 30 minutes he called my name.
He asked me the problem then spent a few minutes checking out the iPod. After determining the iPod's hard drive was, indeed dead, he pulled a box out from behind the counter, opened it up and handed me a shiny new iPod (same 20GB 4th generation model as I had). He had me sign the paper work and informed me I could buy Apple-Care for it to cover it for two more years for $60 (which I'm seriously considering doing). I thanked him profusely and headed back for work as happy as could be.
Ben Mack tells businesses, they are doing branding whether they think they are or not. He emphasizes that every touch a consumer has with your company or its products is a part of that branding. A company's goal should be to create loyal consumers. Consumers who have an emotional relationship to your company. I don't think Ben has done any consulting for Apple, but Apple gets what Ben is talking about. They are very good at creating loyal customers. Apple's customers don't buy from Apple because of price or ubiquity (well, that's not so true of iPods these days), but because Apple "gets" branding. It's not a corporate logo. It's not advertising its products. It's not even the products themselves. It's a company's essence. Its relationship to consumers and, more importantly the consumer's perceived relationship to the company.
In my experience, Apple makes superior products. And, as related above, they make me feel like a valued customer. Microsoft may be a much larger company than Apple, and hold the vast majority of the market when it comes to computer operating systems, but if you want to emulate one of these two companies with your business, I'd suggest studying Apple's approach.
Okay, now that I've got that caveat out of the way, I want to rave about them a bit. I regularly read Macintouch, a long-time Apple/Mac news website that originated as a column in the publication MacWeek long before my first forays into computers in the mid-90's. Macintouch runs a news page focusing on Apple specifically, and the computer industry in general. In addition to their news coverage they cover new software releases, run reviews of reports on major Apple announcements and new hardware releases and run reader questions and comments on Macintosh-related issues and products. Of course, a lot of people only write in when they have problems, so many reader comments are skewed toward negative news and perceptions of the company. Lately I've read several "long-time Apple users" allege the company is getting worse about shipping shaky hardware and providing poor customer service. Never mind that Apple consistently ranks near the top in surveys about consumer-satisfaction with computer companies.
I bought an iPod last summer from Apple's online store in the refurbished section. You can get refurbished products there at good savings with the same one-year warranty as a brand new item. I've been really happy with the iPod and use it extensively.
After that good experience I bought a refurbished iBook for my wife this past November. The laptop was listed as having 256MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive. When I ordered the iBook, I ordered 512MB of RAM to add to it from Other World Computing since 256MB of RAM is pretty much a minimum to run OS X on. When the computer was delivered we found out it contained 512MB of RAM and a 60GB hard drive! A very nice and unexpected bonus. Unfortunately, the computer only has two RAM slots so I had to take out one 256MB module so I could install the 512MB module I'd purchased for it. Oh well... Now it has 768MB of RAM which is pretty good for what we use the machine for. We've been very happy with it to this point and I recommend checking out the refurbished products on Apple's site if you're interested in purchasing a Mac or an iPod.
The second part of my rave starts this past Monday. I plugged my iPod into my G3 to copy some files for a job I was working on for my friend Steve. The computer popped up a message that the "disk" I had inserted was unrecognizable. Not a good thing. I took it to work and first tried to reset it. When this did nothing I went ahead and tried to restore it which is the option of last resort, as this erases everything on the iPod. When restoring didn't work, I realized I probably had a dead iPod on my hands.
I bought it in June of last year, so I knew the 1-year warranty was still in effect. I figured I'd probably have to package it up and send it in to Apple to get it repaired, but decided to take it to the Apple Store at Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City first and see if they could do anything with it. I went there on my lunch hour Wednesday. They made me an appointment with the store's Apple "genius" and after a wait of about 30 minutes he called my name.
He asked me the problem then spent a few minutes checking out the iPod. After determining the iPod's hard drive was, indeed dead, he pulled a box out from behind the counter, opened it up and handed me a shiny new iPod (same 20GB 4th generation model as I had). He had me sign the paper work and informed me I could buy Apple-Care for it to cover it for two more years for $60 (which I'm seriously considering doing). I thanked him profusely and headed back for work as happy as could be.
Ben Mack tells businesses, they are doing branding whether they think they are or not. He emphasizes that every touch a consumer has with your company or its products is a part of that branding. A company's goal should be to create loyal consumers. Consumers who have an emotional relationship to your company. I don't think Ben has done any consulting for Apple, but Apple gets what Ben is talking about. They are very good at creating loyal customers. Apple's customers don't buy from Apple because of price or ubiquity (well, that's not so true of iPods these days), but because Apple "gets" branding. It's not a corporate logo. It's not advertising its products. It's not even the products themselves. It's a company's essence. Its relationship to consumers and, more importantly the consumer's perceived relationship to the company.
In my experience, Apple makes superior products. And, as related above, they make me feel like a valued customer. Microsoft may be a much larger company than Apple, and hold the vast majority of the market when it comes to computer operating systems, but if you want to emulate one of these two companies with your business, I'd suggest studying Apple's approach.
posted by RocketJam at 3:13 PM
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