Apple in the post-Steve Jobs era: More users but fewer fans

Emotional communication between brands and fans requires reasonable channels. Therefore, in order to fully release fans' emotions and facilitate fans to participate more emotionally in the brand experience, it is essential to customize a reasonable and specific image for fans and brands. This image, whether visually or subconsciously, can at least represent the product or brand and become an intermediate bridge for communication with fans.

Since brand strategy is not static and will change with the changes in the market environment, it is best to leave some blank space in the image setting to leave room for the brand to adjust in order to match the business changes of the company.

Match a communication intermediate image for brands and fans

In this case, the object of fans' worship is no longer the specific product or brand itself, but the personality image that communicates with fans on behalf of the brand and product. For example, fans can imagine the image as a friend, lover or elder brother, so that fans' emotions can be more involved in brand building, thus deeply binding fans and brands.

In fact, Apple had such an image at a certain stage, that is, "Apple = Steve Jobs". When Apple fans buy products, they often subconsciously regard the products as the incarnation of Steve Jobs, so they buy the complex rather than just the product. This is also the reflection of the Steve Jobs worship psychology in consumer behavior.

However, Apple does not seem to be interested in strengthening the image association between Jobs and the brand, nor does it intend to elevate Jobs to the image of Apple.

Especially with the passing of Jobs, this de-Jobsification has become more and more obvious, and the original vague "Apple = Jobs" formation has basically disappeared. So I prefer to regard it as a marketing and management mistake of Apple, and a huge waste of the wealth left by Jobs.

In 2013, Cook regarded social marketing as shit, which reflected that Apple's insight into the marketing and business environment was not so sharp. Although building its own advertising team can be regarded as an improvement, this attempt has not achieved any results worth showing off.

I was once excited about Apple building its own advertising team. After all, the current 4A services are no longer able to meet the needs of top brands in the new media environment due to outdated knowledge structures and concepts. Therefore, it is worth looking forward to whether Apple will build a marketing communication system and new business operations that conform to cutting-edge trends.

But disappointingly (although many people turn a blind eye to this or take it for granted), what Apple's advertising team does is not much different from that of ordinary advertising companies. In particular, when content has gradually become the best carrier of brand image, Apple has done almost nothing in media content construction and story creation, while Lego, a toy industry in decline, has a bright idea for the content of its big movies.

It is indeed ironic that the most cutting-edge brand management concepts emerge from declining traditional industries, while the most advanced technology companies are doing nothing.

Therefore, although Apple is still the leader in this field, it lacks story support, and the basis of Apple fans' worship is disappearing. For many Apple fans today, buying an Apple product may be simply because "it is the best mobile phone or computer currently available", rather than because of the fan complex generated by worship psychology.

This is undoubtedly a kind of regression. The spiritual elements that were accumulated with great difficulty in the product side during the Jobs era have basically shown signs of decline during the Cook era. Therefore, the biggest difference between Apple's Jobs era and the Cook era is that the proportion of Apple fans among users is declining significantly.

In the post-Jobs era, although Apple did not lose users (it even saw growth), users' emotional involvement in Apple was significantly weakened, which is probably the starting point for Apple's future decline.

Brand image needs to be supported by rich story content

Of course, every brand will use celebrity endorsements to strengthen its brand image. This cannot be said to be a wrong approach. This strategy is too utilitarian in the current environment. It just uses fans’ admiration for celebrities to make it easier for the brand to realize its value. The brand’s image itself has not been substantially improved.

Celebrity stories cannot become the background content of brand image, and the stories and emotional exchanges consumed by fans are still centered on celebrities. This kind of consumption is essentially unrelated to the brand.

Let’s take Apple as an example. Jobs’ legendary experience is actually the best source of Apple worship. The process of fans consuming Jobs’ legendary experience and stories is actually the process of subconsciously sublimating Apple products into Jobs’ image. This rich and three-dimensional personality image can sustenance more emotions of fans.

But, unfortunately, Apple does not seem to pay attention to this aspect of business.

Of course, it seems a bit harsh to ask this of Apple. After all, almost all brands on the market currently lack unique, distinctive, and praiseworthy background stories to support the personification and concretization of their brand image.

Therefore, although companies claim that they are building their own brand image, it is just a simple mask. It is too rigid because there is no background content or story to support it. It is better to say that it is a corporate symbol than a brand image. This approach is certainly not conducive to arousing emotional resonance among fans.

Therefore, if a brand wants to establish a rich and three-dimensional image, it needs to create a story for the brand image just like creating a character in a film or TV drama, and through a successful communication effect, form a flesh-and-blood character effect for the brand.

If Fan Bingbing lacked the support of film and television works and off-site entertainment activities, would she still have so many fans? Even if she could become popular with her pretty face, it would be fast food consumption and she would soon be replaced by newcomers. There are many beauties who become popular, but how many of them can settle down and become evergreens?

People admire Fan Bingbing by consuming the film and television works and entertainment activities in which Fan Bingbing participates to satisfy certain psychological needs, such as a pre-experience of their future significant other, or the expectation of a future family.

Therefore, the solid foundation of the "fan economy" is that fans consume not only products, but also the process of consuming the stories behind the brand image. By identifying with the stories and experiences behind the image, they identify with the brand image, and by identifying with the brand image, they build a bridge of emotional communication with the brand.

Based on such fan work, in the face of the current complex business environment, brands can also break through the market barriers of cross-border and cross-industry operations as much as possible.

Therefore, for brands, the creation of the "fan economy" is actually transforming the company's marketing, advertising, public relations and other external publicity departments into a departmental role and departmental relationship similar to "content creation-centered", elevating the brand through successful character creation and relying on excellent story creation to achieve wider dissemination, thereby establishing better brand recognition and loyalty.

Conclusion

However, the fan economy still has a threshold. User recognition of the product is still the foundation of the "fan economy". In today's free and socialized commercial market, product experience is often an important basis for purchasing decisions, and poor reputation cannot maintain the vitality of a personality image.

At the same time, the brand image design is not arbitrary, and often forms the personality characteristics of the image by sublimating the outstanding characteristics of the product. Therefore, there is a complementary relationship between the brand and the image.

For example, with the maturity of virtual and artificial intelligence technologies, Apple can completely create an Apple virtual image A for itself, and customize stories and creations around this image A based on Apple's own temperament, and disseminate it like a star in a film or TV series, so as to establish a unique and full image. This method may be able to fundamentally change the current outdated routine of brand image communication.

It is worth mentioning why first-tier stars often choose scripts and roles when they appear in works. This is because stars hope that the roles they create in the play match their own public image, so as to continuously strengthen and prolong their influence among the public and their own acting career. This logic can also be used as a reference for brands in fan economy operations.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.