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<title>Jan Kelley Marketing Blog - Amanda White</title>
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<description><![CDATA[Jan Kelley Marketing Blog - Description]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 2012 18:05:06 -0400</pubDate>
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<title>Good Branding or Innate Human Tendencies</title>
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<pubDate>Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:35:25 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Apple and the Apple logo are within the world&rsquo;s top 10 most recognizable trademarks/ brands. To have such recognition Apple has gained the support of a loyal fan following, I would go as far to call them fanatics. However, we need to ask ourselves the question: Is this because of Steve Jobs (and our love of black turtlenecks) or is another factor at play here? &nbsp;
For those of you who chose the charismatic black turtle neck, sorry try again next time! Although having a great visionary leader is advantageous for any business, it is not a necessity in garnering a&nbsp;fanatic&nbsp;base. Surprisingly enough, human nature is what gives Apple the upper hand.
40 years ago, psychologist Henri Tajfel wondered why normal people could commit genocide. He developed an experiment that meant separating the participants into groups after performing arbitrary tasks.&nbsp;These people quickly developed loyalty to their group with very little reason to. Those involved in the experiment became emotionally invested into these newly formed groups and began to ridicule those in the other group. These findings meant with the most trivial distinctions, loyalties could be created within groups of people. Tajfel&rsquo;s experiment led to the theory of social identity which states people have&nbsp;an inherent tendency to categorize themselves into groups.
( http://www.age-of-the sage.org/psychology/social/intergroup_discrimination_tajfel.html)
Now that we&rsquo;ve got the sociology lesson out of the way we can go back to marketing!
So what does all this mean? Does Apple have this fanatical following because they have positioned their ads to trigger this innate sense of loyalty, the need to become part of this elite group? The Apple ads you see mention little product information and focus on the differentiation in the characters. This suggests, the dislike of all PC products by Apple users is an inherent tendency when the sociological theory is applied. It really makes you wonder if we all knew this information earlier, how loyal would our consumer be to our brand? And if every marketer had this knowledge tucked away in their brain somewhere, would the advertising age we live in now still remain the same? Would every person choose the group with which they relate most or least? Would brand loyalty even exist anymore?
Others have tried and others have failed because they aim to compare brands (eg. Friends don&rsquo;t let friends buy Chevy, Pepsi Generation), not people. Mac continues to see success because they pit &ldquo;nerds&rdquo; against &ldquo;cool people&rdquo;. Society has seen these groups again and again throughout our socialization and a clear distinction has been made. This approach by Apple was first noted in 1984 and has remained the same to do this day. Thus creation of the fanatical base we see today for all Apple products. Can you think of any other brand that has done this kind of comparison and seen success?
Now, Apple is an innovative company but this sort of branding seems to leave the competitors weeping in their wake.&nbsp; They are consistently ahead of the pack when it comes to new product launches and they seem to stump RIM when it comes time to upgrade the iPhone. Does any of this come into play when one is choosing which brand to become loyal to? Sociologists might disagree with me but I believe it does, even though it may be the &ldquo;arbitrary task&rdquo; people are sent out to do, it has to count for something. Apple solidifies its position in the market by launching new and innovative products and services before anyone else does; iPad, iPhone, iTouch, iAd and the list goes on. Although sociological theory is made to guide research, I don&rsquo;t believe that the social identity theory is the only factor at play here. All in all, Apple pits these groups against one another, and has the products to back up the success they have been seeing. &nbsp;
The thought I&rsquo;m left pondering: Is Apple&rsquo;s person comparison coincidence or was this sociological info something they knew all along? Also, I think I want a MacBook&hellip;
http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/us-vs-them.htm?utm_source=feedblitz&amp;utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&amp;utm_campaign=neuromarketing]]></description>
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<author>awhite@jankelley.com (AmandaWhite)</author>
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