The Brandcast

In 1996 I worked for a major media company that had a mixed environment of Windows based PCs and Macs that the staff used. Executives and administrative people all used PCs and news editors and designers all used Macs. Back then the Mac was a little under the weather and wasn’t doing so hot. There in lies the wonderful dynamic of how the world can change.

I remember a conversation with an old crusty IT guy that was very anti-Mac. Everything he said was that they were going to go out of business, so there is no way that the company would ever invest in anything other than PC servers and the Macs would be slowly phased out. I wish I still had his number and I also wish I would have invested a few thousand dollars in Apple when the stock at that time was around $6.00 a share.

Fast-forward 10 years and my, my, my how things have changed. Every account person I work with hopes and dreams to have a MacBook Pro on their desk. Even the president is starting to see the appeal. Think about this from a branding standpoint. They have single handedly turned around any perception of the phrase “Macs are for designers.” They have made it a household name.

Then… came the announcement of the iPhone. I know, I know, how much more can be written? So I will leave it at this. I have never seen the amount of interest in any product put out by an electronics company in all my life. 140,000 people were at the Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas) when the announcement was made at Macworld (San Francisco) and the whole show came to a screeching halt. All eyes were on Apple. Not Apple Computer, But Apple, Inc.

Why? Because it is probably the most well planned, marketed, and run business in electronics today. I think I might have to make a phone call to that old IT pal of mine to see how his Anti-Virus and Spam software is working on his 1996 network. By the way, I heard from a friend of mine that the media company I used to work for still has Macs and they are investing in more each time they purchase.