#Auguste Perret #Le Havre #Architecture
I have to admit that I agree with the cacophony of criticism about Apple’s latest round of TV ads. In fact, I almost had an allergic reaction to them when I first saw them air during the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
They looked and felt like ads that my former employer, Microsoft, used to release in attempt to position themselves as being relevant.
So many issues abound:
- They don’t show the product. This is a product ad, not a brand ad or a perception ad. And Apple has always impressed me by the way that they have (almost) always made the product the star of their product ads. Consumers need to see what’s being advertised in order to understand the messaging in a tangible way.
- They don’t explain the product. Apple doesn’t always show the product in its ads. A great example of this is the Mac vs. PC campaign that ran through the first half of the 2000s. But that campaign still made the product the star by focusing on each ad on a discrete feature or set of related features, and explaining how they work. That’s something that this campaign utterly fails at doing. In the ad above, the Genius asks the shopper, “It came loaded with all the great apps like iMovie, iPhoto, Garageband… Not ringing a bell?” The consumer at whom this ad is targeted doesn’t know what these apps are. As a result, he doesn’t know why he should care that he doesn’t have them. And if the ad doesn’t tell him that, he’s just going to hear marketing noise and tune out.
- They make the target audience feel stupid. This is Apple’s first real effort going after a less tech-savvy group of computer buyers, and this ad makes it clear that they really don’t know how to talk to them at all. The people in this segment are not idiots, in fact, a lot of them are doctors, lawyers, teachers, and otherwise very smart people.They just don’t think about the latest technology all that much, and this ad basically calls them stupid for not buying a Mac. When consumers buy PCs, they are usually doing it after lots of research — after all, it’s a big purchase for most people — and this ad is essentially telling them they made the wrong decision despite all the thought they put into making what they thought was the right one.
- They make the Geniuses look like unsupportive know-it-alls. In a similar vein, the Apple Genius in this ad comes off as a true embodiment of the elitist stereotype many have attributed to Apple’s core customer. When Apple first introduced the Geniuses, they worked because they weren’t that stereotype. No one wants to buy a computer from a cocky teenager who thinks their questions are stupid and that they’re wasting his time.
- There’s no clear call to action. I’ve alluded to this a little already, but the most important thing missing from this ad is that there’s absolutely zero payoff. No moral. No happy ending. Nothing to tell the consumer what they should take away and do next. They don’t even explain that these “friendly” Geniuses can be found right by where you live at your local Apple Store. This is a product ad targeted at people who don’t know anything about the product, and Apple fails in the most fundamental way by not telling them anything about it or even where to buy it.
When I was with Microsoft, I saw vapid creative like this get created and published all the time. It wasn’t because people at Microsoft didn’t know what they were doing. There were and there continue to be a lot of extremely talented people at Microsoft.
Collateral like this happens when there is no creative vision coming down from senior leaders. When leaders delegate the vision downward, middle managers end up having to make the final call, but in almost all cases they don’t have the power to do so alone. So, they go about securing buy-off from multiple teams, and the result was leadership by committee. Not exactly the Apple way.
There’s been much said about whether Tim Cook can steer the great ship that is Apple into another decade of innovation. While he may still be getting his sea legs, this ad along with other marketing blunders over the past few months make it clear that this is no longer Steve Jobs’ Apple, for better or for worse.
#Sean Oliver #Steve Jobs #Apple
生活在資訊發達的年代，很幸福，每天都有看不完的設計，有時候都忘記吃飯睡覺了呢….
以前曾經夢想當ㄧ位產品設計師，很希望可以設計到汽車和椅子，昨天逛到誠品的北歐櫥窗讓我好生欣喜，從ㄧ個充滿智慧的水瓶到生活中你意想不到的抹布台，都給人會心一笑的驚喜。
今年剛好有Y-chair的粉紅色紀念款，才注意到原來這椅子品牌已經有百年歷史，就像他們非常經典的丹麥錶SKAGEN，從21年前這錶款就沒有換過，可堪稱是經典之作~特色充滿北歐風情的錶款，絕對適合喜歡設計的同好。
你說，光是ㄧ家北歐櫥窗就夠你逛了，是不是很幸福???
#北歐櫥窗 #設計年代 #產品設計 #y-chair #SKAGEN #瘋設計
故事是人類關係的貨幣。
亞里斯多德主張，要說服別人必須運用三種類型的論證：道德的吸引力、情感的吸引力、以及邏輯的吸引力。單單只有事實是不足以說服別人的！
想當年，我國小都拿說故事比賽冠軍
我們應該來舉辦個說故事比賽的~
冬天的星巴克，白開水馬克杯 都會讓我想起在舊金山的一切 Absolutely wonderful San Francisco
我也曾經在舊金山
看見美麗的風景
經驗美好的際遇
好酒好朋友
還有難以忘懷的人
今天發現一個跟我喜好相同的tum迷，希望以後可以當好朋友 :)
天氣微寒，飄雨。
總是會讓人常常想起過去，然後腦海裡就浮現這首歌…
一思案
柴犬を飼ったのは
生まれ変わりだと思い込みたい少女 の ごっこ遊び
エンジに日焼けた大きすぎるつっかけ と
母のかけ水に派手すぎるビキニいつから廻り階段に慣れて あの頃のまま かさばり雲むっつ
白地図を埋めたかったのに
言問橋で初恋を落としてしまった 娘
大人顔で振り向いて
ごらん
実を結ばないことだらけの汗 がやっと やっとで沈丁花となって咲いた
うまれてよかった
ゆれて束の間 青いだけ
流れゆくのは 誰だっけ
うれしさみしさ は あわせ成れ と
…
