Comments on: Sentimental Consumerism, the Apple Way

By: Be Young, Be Cool, Be Happy… As an Apple Consumer | 21 CENTURY NOMAD

Be Young, Be Cool, Be Happy… As an Apple Consumer | 21 CENTURY NOMAD — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 18:08:12 +0000

[…] posts, I’ve focused on two important elements of Apple’s brand promise: whimsicality and sentimentality. In this post I spotlight another key finding from our research: the association of Apple products […]

By: Apple’s Seductive Brand Promise: Cultural Capital & Social Mobility | 21 CENTURY NOMAD

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:51:12 +0000

[…] that the company accomplishes this with commercials that associate its products with playfulness, sentimentality, and cool youthfulness. The most prominent theme, however, and I suspect the most powerful […]

By: Kali

Kali — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 21:46:00 +0000

We need a system for rating businesses on various ethical criteria. Labor practices, environmental responsibility, equal opportunity, etc.

By: cynic72

cynic72 — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 22:36:00 +0000

This is a study in the obvious. Advertising has always played on peoples’ emotions and it always has. It’s up to consumers to be smart enough to know better than to buy into the spiel. As for helping us ignore our guilt about how their products are produced, show me an alternate product–one that’s produced in an ethically and enviornomentally sound manner–and I’ll buy it.

By: pduggie

pduggie — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 15:41:00 +0000

“and in doing so, convinces us to turn a blind eye ”

I’m not convinced.

By: andrewmiller

andrewmiller — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 02:21:00 +0000

If only there were examples of companies with inferior branding and similar supply chains we could use for comparison. Like maybe HP, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, HTC… But that kind of nuanced context would ruin the thesis that Apple gets special treatment from consumers because of its branding. A thesis I suspect drove the research in the first place. Couldn’t it just be that we don’t want to think about how the products are made, irrespective of the manufacturer? And that in fact, Apple’s strong brand makes it a particularly attractive target? The New York Times won Pulitzers writing about this stuff.

Also, is it novel or surprising that Apple uses emotion to connect customers with the product? All the best brands do this. I’m just not clear on what the point of this series is supposed to be.