Tiny signs that marketing has completely changed.
When I first moved to LA from London, it was very small things that told me I was somewhere foreign (because big things like language were the same). Things like Randy’s Donuts qualifying as a “landmark” not Nelson’s Column. Or how people laughed and then said, “that’s funny” without a trace of irony, just in case you didn’t realise it was funny from their laughter.
The same thing is happening in marketing, because the language we use is the same, it is often very small things that tell us everything has changed.
Take for instance this story from Appleinsider, detailing rumours around the new Mac OS-based iPods. It discusses Apple up to its usual trick of rapidly obsoleting its own products. As a proud iPhone user, I read this a bit anxiously, knowing full well that, upon release, these new iPods will probably make me see my iPhone as a little less shiny, slightly less innovative…
For years this behaviour was thrown up by many people as a reason for NOT buying Apple products. Apple betrayed its user base time and time again. It punished you for buying its products by making them obsolete within 6 months.
However, I sense that something has changed.
- Rather than criticising Apple for this behaviour, I think we now applaud it because we recognise that innovation is a better strategy for keeping customers than enforced stagnation.
- Rather than seeing this move as the betrayal of the one homogeneous brand customer who we want to sell our entire line to, I think we now view this as a smart way for Apple to reach out to different audiences (in an increasingly fragmented society) and build diverse communities around its brand.
- Rather than condemning Apple for switching standards and jeopardizing compatibility, I think we rest easier in the knowledge that the value of the iPod is not in the hardware, it’s in the software and the content which is completely portable
- Rather than see this as a lack of focus which diverts Apple from its core business, we can now view this diversity of effort as a strategic plus and a big reason why the Apple brand is more interesting and attractive than its competitors.
For these reasons and more, I think we now view actions like this in an entirely different light. What hasn’t changed is that this still runs counter to classic marketing thinking.