Jony Ive should be unveiling Apple products, not Tim Cook.
Medium · Marketing & Branding · 2014 · 845 words
Visa argues that Apple's brand magic comes from design craftsmanship, and suggests Jony Ive should unveil products instead of Tim Cook.
Jony Ive should be unveiling Apple products, not Tim Cook.
"When something exceeds your ability to understand how it works, it sort of becomes magical." — Jony Ive
At the heart of every powerhouse brand is an irrational, illogical belief. And at Apple, it is the belief that when we buy magical products, made by magical craftsmen through a magical process, the magic will rub off on us.
That's what we pay a premium for. That's what all the elaborate song-and-dance is for. We want a glimpse of magic.
Tim Cook is an 'Operations Whiz', not a Master Craftsman.
This is entirely confirmation bias on my part, but Tim and Steve never look as comfortable together in pictures as Steve and Jony. My layman's theory is that Steve respects Tim's abilities, but perhaps didn't celebrate them the way he celebrated Jony's design chops.
Tim Cook is a highly accomplished, highly successful businessman who has done more than most of us will ever do in our lives. But he's not a tastemaker like Jobs was.
Before becoming CEO, Tim Cook was a SVP of Apple's Worldwide Operations, and in an interview with CNN he described his role as akin to being in the dairy business.
"You kind of want to manage it like you're in the dairy business. If it gets past its freshness date, you have a problem."
Tim's genius was in reducing the company's inventory from months to days. He closed factories and warehouses and replaced them with contract manufacturers. He was credited with keeping costs under control, which helped generated huge profits.
But…
Apple customers don't want to hear from a man who kept costs under control. They want to hear from a Master Craftsman.
Tim might be a perfect CEO from a short-to-medium-term maximize-shareholder-value perspective. But Apple customers don't care about that. We want to touch magic.
Tim just doesn't channel the same obsessive attention to detail that Steve did. When Jobs says that something is the best X in the world, you believe him- because he seemed like the kind of guy who would actively look for every other X and tear it to pieces for its imperfections. [1]
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You can't ask for a better picture for transferring Magical Craftsman Aura.
Jony Ive seems to be the closest thing that Apple has to a Master Craftsman.
When building the Apple myth, it's somehow easier to imagine that Steve Jobs' magical qualities were transmuted to Jony Ive rather than to Tim Cook.
"He understands what we do at our core better than anyone. If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it's Jony." — Steve Jobs
Jony was the SVP of Industrial Design. Jony designed the iMac. Here's what he had to say in an interview with TIME in early 2014:
"We're surrounded by anonymous, poorly made objects. It's tempting to think it's because the people who use them don't care — just like the people who make them. But what we've shown is that people do care. It's not just about aesthetics. They care about things that are thoughtfully conceived and well made. We make and sell a very, very large number of (hopefully) beautiful, well-made things. our success is a victory for purity, integrity — for giving a damn."
That's a master craftsman for you.
Jony has even been knighted in the UK for "services to design and enterprise."
Ultimately, Apple is supposed to be a sexy company selling sexy products. Jony's sexy. Tim isn't.
Jony is sexy. He's smart. He's had a hand in designing pretty much everything that Apple sells. He should be the face of the brand.
"The more I learnt about this cheeky – almost rebellious – company, the more it appealed to me, as it unapologetically pointed to an alternative in a complacent and creatively bankrupt industry. Apple stood for something and had reason for being that wasn't just about making money." – Jony Ive
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If Bono and Dave Grohl think you're cool, you're pretty freaking cool.
I'm sure that Tim Cook's operations genius will continue to be critical to Apple's continued success. Running a 98,000 employee company must be a unique sort of hell that most of us will never understand. And I'm sure that many smart people at Apple have thought about all of this much harder than I have.
But all I'm saying is this: There's no way that Tim Cook could sell magic to consumers better than Jony Ive. People just aren't going to believe Tim when he says "This is the best X in the world." Because he's an Operations Whiz.
We crave Master Craftsmen. We crave magic.
Notes:
[1] When Wired interviewed Steve Jobs in the early 90's, he talked about how he spent 2 weeks harranguing his family about their design values when buying a washing machine. That's the guy people want to buy their iPhone from. The guy who means it when he says insanely great. Literally.
Originally published at https://medium.com/@visakanv/53e27ff7424f.