Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Apple
Apple as "the world's most feminine brand"?
But what the heck, snakes be damned, let's open it up. Brennan says that women drive the economy, by influencing 80% of all purchases, and 61% of all consumer electronics products. And she says Apple is doing great, because in a market that's "dude-driven" (her words, obviously), they've brought elegance and style to their products. She says that Apple products don't need manuals, and that Apple's face-to-face customer service is excellent.
Which we mostly agree with (while even Apple fans have their issues with customer service, they do a relatively good job). But "feminine"? Do guys not like elegance and style in their products? Do they enjoy reading manuals, or using electronics that aren't user friendly? Apple is successful for these reasons, sure, but we don't quite see how that makes them "feminine." Brennan concludes by suggesting that "Apple's success [shows] when you make women happy, you make everybody happy." But we're pretty sure that, in Apple's case, it's actually the other way around.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
cynyc said 12:11PM on 7-30-2009
You took the bait...
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tyler said 12:29AM on 7-31-2009
you are saying that women do not have the capacity for complicated electronics.
rwzehr said 12:25PM on 7-30-2009
"She says that Apple products don't need manuals..."
In spite of her belief, there is a whole industry of "The Missing Manual" and other books about Apple products, which are often the only available source of information on product features and how to access them.
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sockatume said 12:23PM on 7-30-2009
I'm not sure it's femininity so much as absolute gender neutrality. Apple's greatest design success has been in making their products attractive, but utterly neutral. It's not like the industrial design at Nokia*, say, where each phone is agressively geared to a particular model consumer. The iPhone's slick enough to appeal to gadget fans, but won't scare off technophobes with all kinds of pointless high-tech design kibble like superfluous grilles or metallised plastic.
*Nokia's been improving greatly of late, but there's still a very particular customer implied in the design of an N97 or an E52.
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Dave said 12:25PM on 7-30-2009
This just re-affirms that Apple is gay.
What a silly and stupid comment to make...
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Dave said 12:26PM on 7-30-2009
Stupid comment system removing my fake tags...
THE ABOVE IS A JOKE!!!
Raj said 1:15PM on 7-30-2009
Yous should use "/s" for your snark tags.
It's a well-accepted convention to avoid comment systems that throw away all tags (to avoid malicious/spam comments).
Scott said 12:32PM on 7-30-2009
I would have said Tampax is a more feminine brand than Apple.
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jphilo said 12:41PM on 7-30-2009
Apple's success can also be attributed to its subtle minority targeting. Sammy Davis Jr would have loved Apple products.
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misememoi said 12:44PM on 7-30-2009
Bridget Brennan is probably right. And Apple products are the better for it. Anyway, until about the third month of gestation aren't we all female? waiting to hear famous apple user Rush Limbaugh's comments. (I always though Rush did protest a bit too much...)
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julian said 12:54PM on 7-30-2009
thats lame. She is clearly contradicting herself.
If there is a real stereotype is guys not reading manuals
Guys also die hard for sexy electronics... just like sexy gals... or guys
girls are more prone to liking ... cute furry things... and sadly apple has not made anything furry yet.
dont girls care more about whats in the inside as opposed to the outside anyway? like the sweet but chubby guy? ...
while guys like... well lets not go there
clearly when this woman makes a gender argument she is jumping in the pond and doesn't know how to swim
...
Also she is a woman ... so clearly she wants to feel important and think that her decisions make a difference.
.. im not saying women dont have buying power but .. really?
i go with tampax being more feminine as well.
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Mk8ta said 12:53PM on 7-30-2009
You said Apple and snake with female all in the same breath? Which brings us to the garden of Eden. Guys just wanna see a gal pal pretending to be techno savvie. Let's face it, they look cool and APPLE knows it.
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Fact said 12:57PM on 7-30-2009
Surely the world's most feminine brand is Summer's Eve Douche.
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Coffee said 1:00PM on 7-30-2009
I can see where this response is coming from. Apple's simplicity allows it to reach out to a much larger market share that may not want to be particularly tech-savvy or focused.
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trayser said 4:00PM on 8-03-2009
I would put it differently : Apple is not a masculine brand, and by that I mean it is not a techy geeky brand.
By their definition, tech products would be techy. But apple does a good job at removing their 'techyness' for the technophobes.
About "women influencing consumer electronics purchases" : I think for the type of products apple sells (computers, smartphones, digital-media-players), the influence would typically be negative (discouraging-purchase) for other brands, where as for apple it would been neutral.
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Hal said 11:16AM on 7-31-2009
Is techy geeky really masculine?
ravi said 1:15PM on 7-30-2009
Methinks the lad doth protest too much. My masculinity ain't threatened! ;-) ;-)
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Polarbear said 1:09PM on 7-30-2009
yea Eve lady! apple Combutrs are Pretty and so are ladies. Are ladies so popular because they appeal to LAdies?! i LIKE ladies, but maybe jusbecause ladies Likeem.
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+. said 2:16PM on 7-30-2009
Bridget Brennan's entire column could be deleted & replaced with your comment, verbatim, Polarbear.
it would make just as much sense, & be wholly easier to swallow.
exnewt said 1:18PM on 7-30-2009
I welcome another terrorist attack with open arms so we do not have to endure slow news days like this...
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