Have you seen the new Apple TV ads? The ones where they tell you their products are “Designed by Apple in California?”
When I first saw them a few weeks ago, my scare-hairs went up.
Do you know when companies usually turn to touchy, feel-good ads? When they have become mature companies bankrupt of ideas and have nothing else to promote.
Herb Greenberg at CNBC wrote an interesting piece about whether Apple is the next Chrysler. When Chrysler was in market and financial trouble, they turned to their “Made in USA” ads delivered by their CEO, Lee Iacocca, as pitchman. It wasn’t too long after that Chrysler went bankrupt.
Now Apple is certainly not headed towards bankruptcy. That’s not why my scare hairs went up.
This is what scared me–they are showing signs of having nothing worth talking about in their bag of tricks, and this ad campaign confirms it to many.
I’m bringing up this big company on a Small Business blog because when we ask our clients who their role model company is, the most frequent answer is Apple.
Perhaps it’s time for a new role model.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon & Chris Williams
PS. Find role models among your peers as well as tips and tools for getting and keeping more customers by ‘liking’ the Small Business Thursdays movement here: