NEWS & UPDATES

February 27, 2008 In By Advent

Think Apple

What can fruit teach us about busi­ness? 

“Lieu­tenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit com­pany. So then I got a call from him, say­ing we don′t have to worry about money no more. And I said, that′s good! One less thing.” ~ For­rest Gump (in ref­er­ence to Apple Com­puter) 

Apple and busi­ness: these are two words you prob­a­bly asso­ciate with suc­cess, design, inno­va­tion, and high tech wiz­ardry that casts its spell over every ipod, iphone, imac, and ithing you can imag­ine.  Apple Com­puter has moved out of the world of brands.  It has moved into the realm of cul­tural icons.  Undoubt­edly, we can learn a lot about mar­ket­ing, brand, and image by study­ing Apple.  But per­haps we can learn just as much about mar­ket­ing strate­gies by study­ing the fruit.  Sounds pre­pos­ter­ous?  Maybe…   

Good mar­ket­ing engages poten­tial cus­tomers and lets them expe­ri­ence the authen­tic nature of a brand.  And a suc­cess­ful mar­ket­ing cam­paign is essen­tial to grow­ing any busi­ness.  Any­time you invest in a mar­ket­ing strat­egy, you would like to see a high return on invest­ment (ROI).  So what is it about the nature of an apple that can teach us so much about mar­ket­ing?  Please drum roll in your head.  Now read the fol­low­ing answer: “You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can’t count the apples in a seed.”    

The seeds in an apple are eas­ily quan­tifi­able.  That is very small pic­ture.  But in busi­ness we must strive to be more right-brained, BIG PICTURE thinkers.  Invest­ing money into a mar­ket­ing strat­egy is like plant­ing seeds.  When we invest, it is an eas­ily quan­tifi­able cost.  But here is the rev­e­la­tion: you can­not quan­tify the returns.  Good seeds bear good fruit.  What kind of seeds are you planting?

So, apple and busi­ness: I guess you could say they go together like… well, “peas and carrots.”

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