#IXD304 – Apple’s Aspirational Storytelling – Article Review

An article that Kyle has recommended to us talks about Apple’s immersive process through years of dedication and uniqueness. This article will be extremely helpful for me as I plan to dissect the immersive storytelling on their website in the coming days.

With today’s digitally-driven society and a crowded marketplace that produces millions of content, businesses can no longer afford to be faceless entities. While having a high-quality product or service is essential, businesses must also connect and engage with their customers in order to survive and thrive. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through brand storytelling.

Brand storytelling is using a narrative to connect your brand with customers. This works best when businesses go beyond selling their products to instead deliver compelling storytelling that resonates with customers’ values. Apple, one of the leading branding companies in the world, is a great example of successful brand storytelling, with Matt Clement emphasising this powerful strategy in his article ‘How Apple’s Aspirational Storytelling created Decades of Growth’.

Clement highlights the significance of brand storytelling as it reinforces a brand’s value, leads to better engagement, and creates an emotional link between customers and the company, as evidenced by research that indicates that people thrive on storytelling. Despite this, just 10% of businesses actively use storytelling to engage their audience. Apple, on the other hand, has recognised the value of brand storytelling since its inception.

Apple’s ‘1984’ advertisement, their ‘Think Different’ campaign, and their more recent ‘Share Your Gifts’ holiday advertisement, have all demonstrated great brand storytelling that drives Apple’s engagement.

Apple’s ‘1984’ ad, created for the release of the new Mac computer, is a great example, as the advertisement told Apple’s story and built on the concept that Apple and its customers were rebels and free-thinkers. The ad focused almost entirely on the story, and never actually physically featured the Mac. As Clement highlights, this was hugely popular, creating excitement and conversation amongst people. Using this tactic, Apple created a bond between viewers and a computer company and was a great success for Apple in rivaling competitors, as they were able to brand themselves as something new and exciting to customers.

Additionally, Clement further highlights how Apple continues to build its brand through storytelling when they release a new product. For instance, the ‘Share Your Gifts’ ad, again, features very little of the product Apple wants to sell and instead tells a story about creativity and connecting with others – two ideas Apple have been wanting to reinforce into their brand image in recent years. This generated a great response from consumers, with Clement pointing out that the ad racked up 22 million views in only two months, demonstrating the power of brand storytelling.

Articles used:

How Apple’s Aspirational Storytelling Created Decades of Growth

 

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