Apple is a CULT???

 

What does Lisa, Newton, Ping, Pippin & Home pod have in common?

First, you may not know all of these products & second, if you don’t belong to the cult, you might not have known, if they ever existed.

Now let us evaluate what’s common between Wright brothers, Mahatma Gandhi & Apple? Apparently nothing. Right?

Let us raise the curtains, the 5 products we talked about in the beginning, they all belonged to a company that was started on Fool’s Day in 1976 by the name Apple. Seems unbelievable that a company that has produced more a dozen super flop products is one of the most admired organization of the world that commands unprecedented following or loyalty from both its customers & employees.

Why???

The key to this secret lies in the answer to the second question, what’s common between Wright brothers, Mahatma Gandhi & Apple?

They all could appeal to imagination of people & make them believe in what they stood for. As a result people followed them, so much so that they may become a cult in themselves. Sample this –

Samuel Pierpont Langley set out in early 1900 to be the first man to pilot an airplane. He had all the possible resources what could be thought off at the time, his own background & education in Science, Govt. funding of the project, a well-educated team, and support of highly placed influential people in Govt. & Society. They were darling of the press as well. With this level of resources & team, his success was guaranteed. On the other hand, Wilbur & Oliver Wright were working on their own flying machine. Their passion to fly was so intense that it inspired the enthusiasm & commitment of a dedicated group in their home town of Dayton, Ohio. They had no funding, no grants from Govt., no high level connection, not even the education that might be needed for such a project. But the team banded in humble Bicycle shop & made their vision real.

Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi was an ordinary barrister till he inspired a million of people with his passion & commitment and like Wright Brothers he too was driven by a great passion which was in larger interest of the people around him or those who were looking up to him. Non-Violence & Truth, the two virtues that he propounded, caught the imagination of large India masses.  And that created tremendous, almost cult like following for him as people identified with what he stood for.

 In the same breadth, Is Apple a Cult & if it is, Why So? Let’s Examine it.

A computer is a computer is a computer like a smart phone is a smart phone is a smart phone. Why anybody would camp outside store OVERNIGHT or wait for more than 12 -13 hrs. to get a new gadget launched by Apple, described by many as “way too expensive / highly overpriced”. There aren’t any financial or otherwise incentive for this behaviour. Also, in practical terms, there is nothing special about Apple. It is just a company like any other. There is no real difference between Apple & any of its competitors – Dell / HP / Toshiba / Samsung. They all have equal access to same talent, the same resources, the same consultants & the same media. They all have some good managers, some good designers & smart engineers. They all make some products, that work well & some that don’t… why then does Apple has such disproportionate level of Success?

Even if we believe, Apple offers great quality products but can that explain the frenzy when majority phone or Laptops are not sold by Apple. In all the product segments they operate, they are not at N0. 1 position by UNITS in any of those.

Well to understand this phenomenon, we will have to look at what Apple is perceived to be standing for & how has it attained & then constantly justified that position.

The PC computer revolution was beginning to brew in backdrop of public protest in America against Vietnam War. But computers were too complicated & out of price range of an average individual. But Wozniak was not the man motivated by money. He envisioned a nobler purpose for the technology. He saw the personal computer as a way for the little man to take on a corporation. In his view, the personal computer could level the playing field & change the way the world operated.

Apple maintained this philosophy of “Think Different” which inspired people as people seldom get motivated by what companies’ do, rather what stimulate them is to Why Company do what they do. Apple, unlike its competitors has defined itself by WHY it does things, not What it does. It is not a computer company, but a company that challenges the status quo & offers individuals simpler alternatives. Regardless of the product they make or the industries into which they migrate, their Why still remains a constant. And Apples’s intention to challenge accepted thinking has proved prophetic. As a computer company they redirected the course of the personal computing Industry. As a Consumer Electronic company, they have challenged the traditional dominance of companies like Sony & Phillips. As a purveyor of mobile phones, they pushed the old hands – Nokia, Motorola Samsung to reexamine their own business. Best case in point would be Apple’s entry in Music Industry. Apple didn’t invent the mp3, nor did they invent the technology that became the iPod, yet they are credited with transforming the music industry with it. The multigigabyte portable hard drive music player was actually invented by Creative Technology Ltd. & Apple didn’t introduce the iPod until twenty two months after Creative’s entry into the market.

In nut shell, people buy WHAT you do but they stand behind the morale, the WHY you do it. This is the reason Apple has earned a remarkable level of flexibility. People are obviously comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But people are also perfectly comfortable buying an mp3 player from them or a cell phone or a DVR. Consumers & Investors are completely at ease with Apple offering so many different products in so many different categories. Its not WHAT Apple does that distinguish them. It is WHY they do it. Their products give life to their cause.

Still, when we look around, we see business defining, redefining & defining time and again, what they do & make their best effort in communicating to the customers WHAT they do. That is why we see messages like, our quality is better, service is improved, and prices are lower … & thus commoditize their brand in quest to differentiate it. The solution, whereas, like Apple, lies in focusing on WHY are you doing what are you doing. Why did you start the business in the first place? What difference, you intended to create? And this could be a key to open the hearts of the customer whom we want to make loyal to our product / service.

 

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