Is Apple a cult?

Link: Wired News: Apple Hones 'One More Thing' Hype.

Apple Hones 'One More Thing' Hype

By Pete Mortensen

02:00 AM Oct. 12, 2005 PT

It's the moment every Apple Computer nut lives for. CEO Steve Jobs is working through a presentation filled with recaps, market-share updates and some minor product announcements -- and then he makes everyone hold their breath.

"One more thing," Jobs says, and a new object of technological lust ascends into the pantheon.

And as we fall into the Turtlenecked One's pregnant pause here... all I can say is "Hey, I'm down with that. Steve Jobs on stage playing Apple theater works just fine for me."

Ah, but I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. I'm indoctrinated. I can't even see how I've been sinisterly drawn into this cult of Apple, right?

BS. Steve on stage actually has APPEAL. How do you explain the starry-eyed drooling and repeat-after-me behaviors of Windoze users, who keep buying a ridiculously inferior product year after year because some border collie herds them and they go where they're told?!

But let's get back to the video iPod unveiling, shall we? It's a hell of a thing when you are accused of being in a cult because you like innovation, quality, not to mention stuff that actually WORKS and looks cool too.

Apple would not comment on its marketing strategy, but the role of secrecy and speculation in building excitement for the company's launches is undeniable.

Douglas Atkin, a partner of the advertising agency Merkley + Partners and author of The Culting of Brands, said Apple's secrecy about unannounced products is characteristic of cults, both brand and otherwise.

"Maybe the reason Apple is so secretive and arguably paranoid about that is that they are not the market leaders (in computers)," he said. "Many cults start developing paranoia because they fear they may be crushed by the overwhelming force of a monopoly."

That's a stretch, said Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple marketing evangelist and founder of Garage Technology Ventures. Apple's interest in secrecy is simply about perfectly timed upgrades.

Uh, yeah. Guy Kawasaki, who goes around evangelizing about the power of evangelical marketing and how to get people to drink the Kool-Aid says "That's a stretch." OK, that's wryly ironic and perhaps silly. That's like your brother denying he's ripped the heads off your Barbie dolls while wearing a necklace strung of the very same heads, the rotten cannibal. If you want to debunk the cult claim, don't quote the guy who is doing his level best to turn Apple INTO a cult.

I personally don't think Guy Kawasaki succeeded, but his denial is a bit disengenuous.

[...]

But flashy introductions alone don't keep a brand relevant, Godin said. Apple's marketing success is driven by "the products and the anticipation of those products; the way it makes you feel to know that some sort of Christmas is happening next week."

What remains to be seen is whether this "one more thing" will be the next big thing. And that's what keeps even the most experienced theorists paying attention.

"I wonder what it is," mused Atkin, "a G5 laptop?"

[...]

Nope. It's a Video iPod! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Watch the shiny black swinging iPod Nano... you're getting verrrry verrry sleeeeply...

Link: Wired News: Apple Gives Video the IPod Touch.