APPLE : THE BRAND WITH CULTURAL ETHOS

 

 

 

 

 

APPLE :  THE BRAND WITH CULTURAL ETHOS

Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on emotions. The Apple brand personality is about lifestyle; imagination; liberty regained; innovation; passion; hopes, dreams, aspirations; and power to the people through technology.

 

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling US$365.8 billion in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company by market capitalization, the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales and second-largest mobile phone manufacturer. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.

 

Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NEXT. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

 

                                        

                                                 Steve Jobs on the stage

The company's growth from two guys to a billion-dollar corporation exemplifies the American Dream. Even as a large corporation, Apple plays David to IBM's Goliath, and thus has the sympathetic role in that myth. 

 

The brand apple symbolizes knowledge, as in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, or referenced the falling fruit that led Sir Isaac Newton to the concept of gravity.

 

Apple uses premium exclusivity when advertising new product releases. Its careful attention to product aesthetics has enabled the brand to be linked with luxury in the eyes of its customers. And that is exactly what many of its users are paying a premium for.

Apple's high-end products are AirTag · Apple TV HD · Apple TV 4K · Apple Watch · Apple Watch SE · HomePod mini · iMac · iPad · iPad Air · iPad mini · iPad Pro · iPhone

 

Apple has been placed at #1 in a newly-released list of 500 brands ranked by "value" in 2022.

 

 

The culture at Apple is Creativity and  Innovation.

 

Apple Inc. has an organizational culture for creative innovation. The company's cultural features focus on maintaining a high level of innovation that involves workers' creativity and a mindset that challenges conventions and standards, such as in the area of consumer electronics design.

 

Employees at Apple are encouraged to think outside the box and then disregard that box. They do not make products or set their goals based on what competing companies are doing. Instead, this pool of professionals is expected to develop the best possible ways, not the best practices.

They identified 4 types of culture – clan culture, adhocracy culture, market culture, and hierarchy culture.

 

Organizations need to be agile and able to adjust to the rapid and exceedingly high degrees of technological change in order to maintain their effectiveness. Organizational change may require cultural change. Therefore, recognition and understanding of the patterns of basic underlying assumptions that guide behaviour in an organization are essential.

 

Understanding and interpreting organizational culture is important, as it affects organizational development, productivity, and learning at all levels. The underlying cultural assumptions can both enable and constrain what an organization is able to do.

What are the Ethos ? 

The Ethos are  characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its attitudes and aspirations.

 

 

 

 

 

We can define Ethos, an ancient Greek word meaning “character,” as a rhetorical or written technique that appeals to an audience or reader's ethics. Authors achieve ethos in their writing by demonstrating that they are a trustworthy source of accurate information.  

 

Ethos uses an author or speaker’s credibility and authority as the basis for a written or rhetorical argument. It relies on the writer’s good character or reputation to build trust with the audience. 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of ethos is an ethical appeal to convince an audience of the speaker’s or author’s integrity and expertise.

You might unknowingly encounter ethos in written formats like a marketing advertisement, a political campaign speech, or a technical report for work. It can also be used by fiction writers to establish a narrator’s credibility.

 

 

 

 

The Ethos of Apple :

 

Tim Cook on Apple's core values

We believe that we're on the face of the Earth to make great products. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make. We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

 

This method of persuasion was first described in On Rhetoric by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. In his work, Aristotle discusses ethos, in addition to the other rhetorical appeals: logos, pathos—and the sometimes-forgotten kairos. Logos strives to appeal to the reader’s logic while pathos appeals to an audience’s emotions. Kairos uses situational context and timeliness as a rhetorical strategy. 

 

Although appealing to a reader’s ethos sets you up as an authoritative source of information, relying on it exclusively can make your message seem biased or dismissive. Strong persuasive writing balances all rhetorical appeals. 

 

For example, appealing to your audience’s pathos using purposeful diction and anecdotes helps them better relate to your words and ideas through shared experiences. Conversely, logos bolsters ethos by presenting claims and evidence clearly and rationally. 

 

Appealing to an audience’s Kairos means that in addition to a balance of all three modes mentioned above, you’re using current circumstances and timeliness—such as an event, trend, or political movement, to bolster your argument. 

 

The purpose of ethos is an ethical appeal to convince an audience of the speaker’s or author’s integrity and expertise.

 

I WISH ALL MY VIEWERS A SPECIAL MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

God  Bless  All  !!!