Saying Goodbye to Steve Jobs

October 9, 2011 By Simren Deogun Leave a Comment

Steve Jobs - 1955-2011

It’s a little strange: feeling so close to someone you’ve never met. I’ve read countless tweets, posts and articles all expressing much of the same sentiments — that Steve was a genius, a leader, an innovator, a risk-taker, an admirable human being that throngs of people felt intrinsically connected to.

I’ve had the misfortune (or fortune depending on how you like to see the glass) of experiencing a lot of loss and heartache. That’s part of my personal story. But your perspective becomes markedly different when a community of strangers suffers a loss together.

In Canada, Jack Layton was taken from us in August — by Cancer. Steve Jobs suffered the same, horrifying fate. To be stripped of your life by something so cruel and unforgiving is equally as unbearable to experience as it is to watch, I think.

I recall the announcement of Steve’s resignation — walking into work the next day, I was inundated with everyone’s thoughts, both business and personal. I’m your quintessential Machead and have never hid it. Steve said that if he felt he could no longer perform at his standard as the head of Apple he would step down, and when he did we could all almost hear the ominous clock counting down.

It hasn’t sunk in for me yet. Reading through everyone else’s personal stories about how Steve inspired them, about how Steve was the only reason they were who they were today, about how Steve had irrevocably changed the world showed me how deeply rooted he was in people’s lives. He wasn’t just a businessman or a technologist.

Steve is no doubt a legend. And I believe he’s one of those indescribable people we will hold in high reverence always.

As my jaw dropped when I read that first tweet from Forbes on Wednesday, October 5 announcing his death, I could only think how sad it is to lose. But I remind myself always how much sadder it would be to never have had at all.

Goodbye Steve. And to those of you staring hardship and loss in its dark, bottomless eyes, remember him, because he took his “3 months to live” sentence and transformed it into 7 glorious years of incomparable global impact.

Filed Under: Business, Digital, News, Technology Tagged With: ,

Why RIM’s ‘PlayBook’ Should’ve Been Called ‘BlackBook’

October 3, 2010 By Simren Deogun 2 Comments

Seven days now since the announcement of RIM’s work-in-progress tablet computer, BlackBerry PlayBook. The specs, impressive. The design, in line with RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones. The name, clearly a joke.

But it isn’t. Unless, RIM is planning a whole charade of odd branding and marketing decisions surrounding this iPad-killer hopeful. Will Balsillie emerge from the caverns of Waterloo laughing uncontrollably in a public statement announcing that ‘the PlayBook was only a hoax, imagine us calling our cutting-edge tablet the PlayBook…’? And the conspiracy theorists are already chirping.

But I have to say that the likelihood of Jim making any such pronouncement is simply my fiction getting the better of my fact.

And affixing “BlackBerry” to the front of the name does not improve the situation. Is that supposed to make it more viable, more defined, more “enterprise”? And aren’t the two identities clashing already — Business versus Pleasure — BlackBerry versus PlayBook is more like it.

So let’s strip away the “BlackBerry” for a moment and look at the device in its most naked form. Why ‘PlayBook’, when RIM clearly positioned the device as an “enterprise ready professional tablet” in its fancy introductory video. Is RIM telling us that Suits just aren’t playing enough or that RIM itself is perhaps losing at the Apple-predominant playing field of rocking consumer devices (pun intended).

It really is simply RIM, you should’ve chose BlackBook (not Blackberry PlayBook):

  • First off, ‘BlackPad’, as many tech and blog sites were contending as a frontrunner for the name of the new RIM tablet, is simply not doable, at least RIM wasn’t so nearsighted to actually share names with an Apple product … iPad anyone?

  • Second, ‘BlackBook’ is cool. Quite simple actually, just watch The Social Network movie to understand where I’m coming from. B2B or B2C, cool does matter. The name itself denotes status and marketability.

  • Third, ‘BlackBook’ is not only sleek and enterprise-minded but also fashionable and commercial. It appeals to the sensibilities of both the enterprise and consumer sectors with little effort.

  • Fourth, instead of marrying BlackBerry and PlayBook in some type of incestuous RIM relationship why not create some brotherly — or sisterly — love by mirroring the incredibly strong brand identity of the BlackBerry with a new product entitled ‘BlackBook’. The smartphone and tablet will be undeniably related with ‘device-pairing’ as a key selling point. Apple chose the “i”, so is it really foolish to think that RIM could not do the same by finding some type of niche for identification that its target can recognize and relate to.

  • Most importantly, RIM is trying too hard with the ‘PlayBook’. A device whose main focus is in fact not play but business, so the video says. There must be a balance between functionality and branding. There must be unity across all lines. Simply put, there must be ‘BlackBook’.

I can’t say I yet understand RIM’s decision to opt for PlayBook. Who knows what other names floated around during that brainstorming session, but it seems RIM has their strategy and target market confused.

Filed Under: Business, News, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

iPhone 4 Sparks Line Up Frenzy in Canada (And Invalidates Antennagate)

August 2, 2010 By Simren Deogun Leave a Comment

Line-up at Mississauga's Square One for Apple's iPhone 4 (Day of Launch)

I dropped by Mississauga’s well-known Square One Shopping Mall early on July 30th, the Canadian launch of Apple’s iPhone 4, and was surprisingly greeted by a lengthy line up of eager-eyed and probably sleep-deprived prospective purchasers.

For those of you who know the location, the line extended from the store itself (pictured above) down a hallway, round the escalators trickling off at the end of CitySide (pictured below).

End of Line-up at Mississauga's Square One for Apple's iPhone 4 (Day of Launch)

I have to admit I didn’t expect to see as many people as I had since the line up for iPad at the same location was perhaps an eighth of what I saw on Friday!

With mounds of controversy surrounding purported antenna issues on Apple’s new device, now dubbed ‘Antennagate’, I wondered if fear would consume the buying public. I’m so glad to say that they were far from afraid, in fact, news reports quoted many patrons as citing the antenna issue as blown out of proportion.

Important to consider in this Apple scenario is what is motivating the buyer to pursue the purchase despite the bombardment of negative media? Simply put, a well-designed, well-executed product from a historically trustworthy source.

What the line ups and the frenzy and the sales success prove is that today’s buying public are much smarter than perhaps we give them credit for. Willing to do the research, parse through media bias and stand for hours upon hours. Apple has done the utterly commendable in creating a loyal customer base that continues to develop and break conventional psychographic and demographic descriptors. The average purchaser of an Apple product can no longer be boxed into the ‘young, tech-savvy, Apple-aware’ group, as the above pictures clearly show.

Apple is spreading its wings, breaking boundaries and doing so with a strong, consistent strategy that has slowly but amazingly penetrated the market.

And in case you’re wondering if I’ve made the purchase plunge, I’ve decided to hold out a while longer to see if the white version ever comes to fruition, at which point, I hope someone at Apple might find it in their heart to personally send me one!

Filed Under: Events, News Tagged With: , , , ,

When Did Green Become More Than Just A Colour?

June 20, 2010 By Simren Deogun 2 Comments

Type “green” into Google, and you’ll get a firm understanding of how deeply rooted the new “green” has become.

Google Search - Green

Not just a colour. But a politics. A party. A movement for the environmental world.

And to the right appear sponsored ads to protect the environment and safeguard your home. Green is no longer a hard-to-reach and even harder-to-understand abstract concept. It’s in your living room, heating your house, lighting up your chandelier, and fuelling your car.

Also, Green is not just for the 21st century hippie, but for the well-rounded, health-minded, socially-conscious every-person. And industry leaders (alongside marketing mavens) are making it easier to fall into the latter category by making green ubiquitous.

Procter & Gamble’s Future Friendly. Apple’s “A Green Apple“. UPS’ right turns over left turns save fuel. And a host of dreamt-up green labels and “certifications”. These are just a few examples of some of the big steps being taken by profit-driven conglomerates to spearhead greenism.

It’s no surprise that there is a whole other side to this movement that centers on my world, the marketing world. Taking steps to be green as a company as well as offering green products and services is a strong, smart differentiating marketing strategy. As consumers become more knowledgeable about environmental threats and how being “green” can make a positive impact, their inherent inclination is to opt for goods and services which match that ideology.

But what’s the tradeoff? Often, it’s price. Green goods bear the heavier price burden over their value-marked but less green alternatives. So, green comes at a premium, no surprise. But in 2010, we are closing in on the precipice of the green movement, where green becomes mainstream and — ideally — drives down cost. Numerous reports and studies show that price is the biggest barrier to going green, so I ask, who is going to make a big splash and make green affordable?

And let’s not forget that Green is also money — not just to the consumer but to the CEOs and CMOs. Slowly, as the market moves towards saturation where close to 100% of viable companies exercise green adoption, the differentiating impact of being green will diminish. But the strength of choosing an all-natural, good-for-the-environment product over one that contains trace amounts of death and destruction is marketing heaven.

Green is the perfect murder. Easy to sell to the top, highly profitable, proactive, healthy, and brand-building. You really going to let price stand in the way?

Filed Under: Business, Thoughts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

So You Think You Know Everything About iPhone 4?

June 13, 2010 By Simren Deogun Leave a Comment

So you’ve perused the features, perhaps drooled a bit at the imagery and maybe hailed Jobs the all-time, hall-of-fame tech guru? But have you considered Apple’s business strategy? Or better yet, its marketing strategy?

Apple expertly understands the market, what they want, when to give it to them and, most importantly, when to hold back. Aptly put in this National Post article, Apple harvests targeted strategy, Apple is not the quintessential inventor but rather, as I like to put it, the re-innovator!

Let’s extrapolate now on the strategy of Mr. Jobs and his crew of Merry Geniuses:

Hardware Design
It’s different. And yes, Apple is all “think different”, all the time. But it’s not exactly an ogre to prince transformation here [side Shrek reference!]. Some may perceive this negatively, positing why Apple hasn’t pushed the design limits further like some of its competitors, Sony, namely.

Apple keeps it fresh, simple and innovative. The team balances clean design with full-featured ferocity. Plus, Apple only offers one mobile device — unlike ALL of its competitors, who release a multitude of options to the consuming public. By doing this, Apple focuses your attention, simplifying the purchase decision while simultaneously offering the benefit of continuous improvement for that single device, the iPhone.

iMovie
Strategy is easy here. You have to pay for it, a measly $4.99, I believe. It’s not much. But picture this, every consumer who makes the iPhone 4 purchase cannot possibly go without iMovie, it essentially renders the movie-editing prowess of the device useless. Thus, Apple instantaneously pulls in another $5 per iPhone sold, it may sound small but just multiply that 5 by millions and it’s nothing but profit heaven.

iBooks
Strategy here is also easy. This app comes with the phone. No need to pay — though you will pay for the books you want to read, but only once because of the ultimate syncing capabilities.

So, Apple gives you iBooks, but asks you kindly to purchase iMovie (an app that ships free with iLife on all Mac computers). I see this as an interesting and creative tradeoff. You give some and you take some. Kudos, Apple!

The Screen
Apple’s newly-dubbed “retina display” with more pixels than the human eye can detect is a huge leap, but the screen itself has actually stayed the same size. The focus, however, is not on size but on quality. And Apple has always relied heavily on emphasizing quality with a hard-to-beat no-fail attitude. Another trade-off? Perhaps.

There are a plethora of other features, enhancements and Apple idiosyncrasies I could pick apart, but what I want to stress is the strategic importance that backs each of these. Apple is the powerhouse when it comes to product announcements and releases, and it’s significant to understand the implications of their every move and the careful thought that is most certainly poured into every decision.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With: , , , ,

Google Is Number One in the PSFK Good Brands Report

April 25, 2010 By Simren Deogun Leave a Comment

PSFK has spoken, and what they have to say is mostly expected but not any less inspiring. Their annual Good Brands Report ranks Google as the number 1 reigning brand for a second year.

Apple takes the second spot with Nike at 7 and Twitter at 8, all presumably predictable outcomes given their perceived brand power. However, the list is not a Google / Apple promo session, it, in fact, throws in some welcome twists with Jamie Oliver (3), MIT (4), Ace Hotel (5), and Foursquare (9) gracing the list.

PSFK Good Brands Report 2010

What is the Good Brands Report?

Being a genuinely good brand in 2010 takes more than a widely used product and an ubiquitous global presence. Though there is no precise formula, what the ten good brands on our list have in common is a penchant for imagination, innovation, environmental responsibility and social consciousness. — Piers Fawkes, PSFK, Founder

Well, if that’s all it takes! Each brand is ranked out of 10 in the above four categories by a panel of industry experts. This isn’t just another list, if anything, it should grow to be a definitive source of insightful brand analysis for not only equity and awareness but also social and marketing impact.

Why Google?
Connectivity. Openness. Accessibility. Customization. And Free.

These five factors are what I extrapolated from the report as determinant of Google’s success not only as a brand but as a global enterprise with an incalculable amount of clout.

Google’s ability to remain true to its core product in search and yet simultaneously branch out into a mobile phone OS with Android, a Microsoft Office rival with Google Docs, along with Buzz, Wave, and a host of SEO apps has redefined the act of differentiation.

PSFK does a wonderful job at eloquently summarizing the highlights of what makes Google the number one pick. The report adopts a refreshing focus, instead of only dictating the facts of Google’s success, it also effectively relates how you and I can apply the same in our own business and marketing practices.

Why Not Apple?
Apple isn’t exactly a loser in this situation, only shy from the number one spot by 0.16 points, Apple is clearly catching up to Google in the brand category — and, in some areas, has already far surpassed it.

Apple outranked Google in the categories of innovation and imagination, and, well, if it hadn’t, I’d be rather alarmed. Outside of search and Google’s everything-sharing application in Wave, Google isn’t necessarily known for imagination, but more so slight reinvention.

Most of the score differences were admittedly slight, with Google really only stealing the thunder in the social responsibility category, which is somewhat expected given Apple’s tepid past with suppliers.

PSFK deems Apple a true game-changer, no arguments here, driven by its product design, endless innovation and futuristic thinking all centred on user experience. What Apple does best is reinvention — reinvention executed so well that it borders on real invention. From the CPU to the iMac. The mp3 to the iPod. The mobile phone to the iPhone. And now the tablet to the IPad. Apple’s game is founded upon taking what the market currently offers and making it so incredibly irresistible to a consumer that it can transform any desire into an absolute necessity.

Even without the number one spot, Apple is a dangerously powerful and still-growing brand.

What You Need to Learn from PSFK
Ultimately, success is derivative of many things, but we should all listen to what PSFK (and its industry experts) have to say. The report is not just a simple-minded overview of today’s brands but rather a teaching guide indicative of what marketing success means in 2010.

Out of PSFK’s 10 Key Learnings, what we all need to understand and practice is “re-imagining the world”. It’s a beautiful thing that can foster change, encourage passion, and spawn innovation. So, start asking yourself, how could you see or do things differently?

Read the full PSFK Good Brands Report 2010.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Windows 7′ vs. ‘Mac vs. PC’

November 1, 2009 By Simren Deogun Leave a Comment

One of the most widely entertaining marketing rivalries in years: which side are you on, Apple or Microsoft?

On October 22nd, everyone in the tech community was awaiting the official release of Microsoft’s eagerly (though atypically) anticipated new OS — Windows 7. Vista, Microsoft’s previous OS release, was a flop, so they needed to come back strong, arms flailing and voices loud to show Mac who’s boss.

But, wait a second, what did Mr. Jobs and his Apple dominion do on October 21st, well, they decided (perhaps a little strategically!) to release a new line of iMacs. Now with their updated OS, Snow Leopard, incredible wide screens boasting better-than-HD resolution and with plenty more GB and GHz to please the masses.

Less than a couple weeks later, the following two ads popped up on TV:


Message: Microsoft’s back, better than ever and this time they’ve listened to what their consumers want and have successfully delivered.


Message: Apple, instead, banks on Microsoft’s less-than-perfect track record of releasing one successful OS followed by one failed OS, as if on purpose …. ‘broken promises’.

It’s exciting to watch this battle unfold. Apple has always had the innovative, marketing edge from design to packaging to advertising to MacWorld and all the rest. Microsoft has had the market share with a big, bad wolf mentality.

But as Apple continues to grow and edges its way more and more into the enterprise space both it and Microsoft face considerable challenges. How does Apple sustain its high quality level of innovation? and How does Microsoft break a path of inconsistency and broken promises?

Filed Under: Business, Campaigns Tagged With: , , , , ,