Samsung Electronics and Apple, and the treadmill and "User Experience"
Apple knows deeply that because its target is the individual user, brand image plays a critical role in purchase decisions. Jobs obsessed over brand more than anyone, and ran his marketing activities by making maximum use of brand power.
As Jobs himself said, "We have the best brand in the world," it is no exaggeration to say that Apple, along with Coca-Cola and Walt Disney Pictures, has reached the top-brand tier... Jobs gave this reason for his obsession with branding:
"People don't have enough time to decide every single thing in their life. That's why a brand is needed." (p. 198)
Brand is a decisive factor in marketing. And much of that brand is made in "User Experience."
Apple is a prime example of outstanding results in this "User Experience." Steve Jobs once said on the subject, "What we pursue is simply making products that will surprise the consumer." Apple's strategy is "ecosystem-centered." It connects hardware, software, services, and content to build its own ecosystem, and through that ecosystem it delivers a user experience that is uniquely Apple. That is precisely the Apple strategy that dealt a huge shock to the existing hardware makers, software developers, and content companies who had been immersed only in their own domains.
For consumers, once you are inside Apple's ecosystem, you become accustomed to the user experience, and it isn't easy to leave. It isn't easy to beat an integrated ecosystem of well-designed hardware, software, content, and services with a single piece of high-spec hardware. That is why rivals like Samsung Electronics are racing to build their own "ecosystems."
Related to this, I had an interesting experience the other day. The gym I go to replaced all of its equipment. On the LCD screens of the new treadmills and stationary bikes, I spotted iPhone and iPod logos. Looking closer, I found a connector for an iPhone. Ever since, I plug in my iPhone to watch saved videos and listen to music, and after my workout I save my record of the day to my iPhone and track it. Sadly, my Samsung Galaxy couldn't be used. The equipment maker was a European company called Technogym.
I overheard two young trainers at the gym talking: "Good thing I went with an iPhone," "I should have gotten an iPhone instead of a Galaxy..." It was the moment user experience translated into brand.
This is a slightly different dimension from the ecosystem of hardware, software, and content I mentioned earlier, but the sight of even exercise equipment like a treadmill being folded into "Apple's ecosystem"... Samsung Electronics is doing well in the smartphone market, but this is still an area where it falls short.
Whether Apple stepped in directly to bring the equipment maker in, or Technogym walked into the Apple ecosystem on its own, this is definitely an area Samsung Electronics must shore up if it is to get past Apple.
The winners of the future will be companies that provide an "experience" that makes consumers' lives and lifestyles richer and happier. That is why user experience and ecosystems matter.
