Apple Forgot: Cool Is Not a Commodity

Diva was not one of those sweaty people standing in long lines, waiting to buy an iPhone some time back [Diva wrote a blog about the iPhone earlier, when it first hit the market], and now she is doubly glad she wasn’t. The new version of the iPhone, introduced only a short time after the first one, is greatly improved and--way cheaper [by about $200].  So now Diva doesn’t have to join the ranks of all those previous buyers who are e-mailing Steve Jobs and ranting about their displeasure. R-I-P off: that’s what most early buyers think, and the $100 credit toward more Apple merchandise, now being offered as a peace offering to those who bought early, is unlikely to smooth all the ruffled feathers [but hey, it's a start].

Perhaps lagging iPhone purchases prompted the company to drastically lower the price, hoping to jump-start pre-season  holiday shopping. But what Apple forgot was that what they are really selling is a brand promise--to bestow ultimate technological one-ups-man-ship and a huge dose of personal cool--on those who buy its products. Apple’s customers are buying cool, and this cool communicates that they are hip and smart and technology aware. By its recent actions, Apple is sending the message that its customers are not cool; they are stupid [they were duped into paying way more than they had to, weren’t they? And being a test market for technology that obviously didn't yet have all the kinks worked out]. And if something is really cool and hip and desirable, there should be no need to mark it down [well maybe closer to Christmas, that would be nice]. If you have to do a markdown to get people to buy it, then the item wasn’t really cool to begin with. There are no halfway measures in regards to cool [it either is cool or it isn’t]. Cool is not a commodity.

In this case, Apple failed to deliver on its brand promise, and this was a big mistake--one that disappointed thousands of hard-core, dedicated fans. Maybe some Apple merchant decided that dropping the price was needed to create a sales boost before year-end to help the balance sheet [or maybe Apple just priced the item too high to begin with]. But now, all that brand loyalty has to be rebuilt--one customer at a time.

--Diva