Apple Brand Appeal

According to a report in Mercury News, Apple has one of the fastest growing brands in the world.  In today’s achey-breaky economy, having a robust and fast growing brand is a critical strategic competitive advantage. With the release of the most recent iPhone and the iPhone App Store, we have seen that consumers are willing to pay for the products they love and trust — even in the face of an economic slump…

We’ll even pay more than once, buying upgrades and accessories and related applications! According to the article, Apple’s brand value increased to $13.7 billion, thanks to the new iPods, iPhones, the MacBook Air, and Genius Bars.  Apple proves that brand loyalty can be a thing of beauty for any business…Some other “top” brand winners cited in the article were Google, Amazon and Nintendo.  On the other hand, companies with weak brands typically need to cut profit margins just to stay in business - and there’s always the risk that even that won’t be enough to stay afloat.  And the big brand losers?  Given the events of recent weeks, you won’t be surprised to learn that the losers include financial brands like Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, among others…

When it comes to brand appeal, we may have loved you once, but the big question consumers seem to want to know is “what have you done for me lately…“