Apple Computer has been running a transatlantic advertising campaign featuring two friends, Mac and PC. PC - he wears a tie - is nice enough but a little geeky and buttoned down. Doing what he has to, which is to be a computer, is a bit of a performance and ever-so-slightly perplexing. Mac - casual shirt - is relaxed, cool, takes everything in his stride. Not smug, simply the sort of guy you wouldn’t mind meeting in a bar. Who would you rather have a relationship with?
The campaign, which has played first around the world using well-known faces in the roles of Mac and PC, takes the next logical step in brand advertising. It does what other marketers have been urging, which is to ‘humanize’ the brand - except that Apple has done it literally. Brands have travelled a long way from the rear ends of Texas cattle. Like the original, marketing brands are supposed to burn an image of the product into your brain. Marketing types won’t all agree on a precise definition, but it has broadened from the original ‘name, mark or symbol’ to something like ‘the sum of all experiences and values association with particular product, service or company’. That’s not an exclusive list, since any entity that wants your money or attention nowadays is capable of building a brand, including people (Madonna, Martha Stewart), cities and countries. The top three country brands in 2006, according to the Anholt Nation Brand Index (yes, indeed) were the UK, Germany and Canada. The US came tenth.
