BRAND CULT

BRAND CULT

1. Apple Computer Corporation

   • less than 4% personal computer market
     • Loyal consumers
   • Steve Jobs
     • Possesses cult like behavior
       • High demanding managerial style
         • Charismatic
           • Charming vs Horrible
     • Mac = Religion
       • converting non-believers, salvation can be achieved by transcending corporate capitalism

2. Consumption communities

   • Sense of unity
   • Commonality

3. Subculture of consumption

   • Identifiable, hierarchical social structure
   • unique ethos
   • Unique jargon
   • Rituals
   • Models. of symbolic expression

4. Cult brands

   • Apple
   • Harley Davidson
     • Jimmy Buffett
   • Linux
     • Oprah Winfrey
       • Vans Shoes
   • Volkswagen Beetle
     • World Wrestling Entretaiment

5. Creation Myth

   • Dominate 15% of overall personal computer market
     • Viewed as rebels by other corporations
   • founded Apple Computer on April Fool’s Day 1976
   • Hero Myth
     • Job’s rise and fall within Apple Computer = classic example of the Heroic Adventure
       • Call to adventure
         • Helper
           • Wonderous Journey
             • Trials
               • More Helpers
                 • Apotheosis
                   • Flight
                     • Resurection
                       • Boon that restores the world
                         • Released the IMac, with revitalized the world of Apple, saved the corporations and the faith in cult of Macintosh
                       • After 11 long years, Job’s resurrected and CEO of Apple once again, following him and his devoted employee releasing…
                     • The height of success, only a year after Apple reported its first ever corporate loss, within 2 months Job’s was stripped from his position and took flight in his departure from Apple
                   • The rise of him becoming a sacred legend with the introduction of the Macintosh computer
               • battles with IBM and Microsoft, the flop of the Apple 3 and Lisa computer
             • Began the journey involving the rise of Apple Computer to become a multimillion dollar company
           • mets his helper Steve Wozniak
         • Job’s membership in the Homebrew Computer Club
   • Satanic Myth
     • Apple 2 major Satan’s
       • IBM
       • Microsoft (Bill Gates)
   • Other Cultic Themes
     • User friendly
       • Mac wins over Microsoft
     • Mac followers thinks the company isn't in pursuit to make move but to innovate
     • Ads often provide a counter-cultural image which members of the cult relish, the commercial being