Sequencing Apple's DNA

13Emergence of a Brand

13.1. The chasm

Branding is a classic topic in marketing education. It stands for itself as a discipline and a brand appears to be anchored on three pillars [GIG 15]:

• – its vocation, which expresses its mission, representativeness and finality, i.e. what the brand lives for;
• – its authority, which signifies its status, dignity and character, i.e. what the brand radiates;
• – its creativity. Here lies its genius, the innovation it brings to the virtual space of words and symbols, i.e. what does the brand leave as an imprint.

However, when it comes to innovating, and re-innovating, the cross-pursuit game that makes competitor friction so complex is not as trivial as it may be in more stable markets. It confers branding the enhancing of its role: to be a proxy of the real thing.

Has branding become a synthetic art of doing business in a virtual space? This leads us to place branding as a last chapter drawing on previous ones. Let us take an example.

13.1.1. Business school

The leader is valued on share price. This metric is known to be volatile and subject to stock exchange dynamics, which may have little to do with actual company performance, as, by the way, any shareholder is aware of.

13.1.2. Apple

The leader is assessed on the impetus and value he manages to provide for the brand in the long-term. Of course, Steve Jobs had an eye on the AAPL stock market share price, and issued internal memos when symbolic values were reached, but nothing more.