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Everyone wants the Apple site
| 12.27.2005
As many of you know, I work for an Internet strategy firm. We mostly develop online solutions for our clients. Sometimes we engage through the brand and identity door (developing and enhancing their brand first), other times we engage more broadly with a strategy roadmap and yet other times, we may just be on the hook for a great site. In any case, regardless of the engagement, one of our main executables is always a web site.
Regardless of the initiative, we always do a fair amount of discovery upfront in trying to get all the "inputs" we need to move forward with a project. Whenever I ask for examples of sites that resonate with the client and/or ones they feel especially aspirational about, the Apple site almost always comes up. The fact that this happens quite often is a true testament to the branding, marketing and sense of culture that Apple has created and fostered throughout the years. However, I think what the client almost always forgets is that Apple's site is "beautiful" because of the beautiful products they make. They are, after all, a product company. I don't think anyone has ever gotten as emotional about the Maytag site. After all, they're a product company just like apple and probably have a healthy dose of brand loyalty to boot. Heck, their laundry and kitchen products aren't bad looking either.
So why do we have such high regard for Apple's site over almost every other site? I believe it's 50% gorgeous product envy and 50% hip brand connection. It boils down to nice products that everyone (almost) wants to be identified with. This creates brand resonance and brand resonance is what makes brand loyal zombies out of us all. It's not wonder that everyone on the earth wants to have the Apple site as their own. Short of a similar product company/client, they're going to be shit out of luck. Most clients have a huge mission statement, a bunch of news items and a list of clients. I also think the fact that the site is so minimal, is a huge factor for many of the clients I come across. Once again, most clients have too much ($*& to put on their site. You just can't plug and play. Clients want the same brand and minimal feel as Apple. Getting either of those takes years and loads of money. So imagine if we stripped away the beautiful Apple products and left the holes for a client to plug in their information....I bet their envy would be quickly deflated.
posted at 9:10 PM
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4 Comments:
Your blog is kind of going for that Applish feel, n'est-ce pas? Center aligned, big image at the top, grey text on white, small colored headlines. Do you want to be Apple? Maybe you can call it HoverPomme instead ;-)
I really never thought of my site as looking like Apple...I think every site out there has a big picture on top and the grey text on white if my own special creation...no one else has that...
This is so on that it's scary.....Apple is Apple is Apple...end of story!
The whole brand discussion and how that relates to a Web site and its associated customer experience is your studio's bread and butter. The site should behave in a way consistent with the brand expectation. For example, Burton Snowboards can get away with non-conventional navigation because it's a "renegade" company, whereas Fidelity Investments has to go by the book. Apple has a very fine-tuned MarComm and Web team that thinks a lot about the site, and it shows in the way you describe. Your clients would do themselves a favor if they paid as much attention to simple copy points and their product or service design as Apple, and worried less about the next iPod or how their site could be "cool", especially if their brand adjectives shouldn't be within a five-mile radius of "cool".
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