Why Apple’s New Product Is Not A Product.

Is Apple about to pull off a masterstroke by selling even more iPhones without having to launch a new model? No need to gather around your screens to watch Tim Cook unveil the latest Apple event, as the company’s next move isn’t so much about products, rather principles. 

Let’s backtrack for a second. It’s an undeniable fact that consumer concern over privacy online is growing. Back in 2017, The Economist published a story titled, ‘The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data’. You can’t argue with that headline, given $227^ billion a year is generated by businesses trading your personal information. 

Yet our responses to these alarming narratives don’t seem to compute with our online habits. A recent report from McKinsey found that only 14% of respondents used anonymous browsing, and only 25% posted comments online that concealed their identity. Could it be that oversharing our data is unavoidable or is there a solution? 

Would You Pay With Your First-Born?

It’s clear there is a discord between people and privacy in the digital age. To get a better idea of how far consumers could be conned into going, Jonathan Obar at York University in Toronto and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch at the University of Connecticut conducted a theoretical study.  

They created a fake social networking site called ‘Name Drop’ and wrote up a terms and services agreement for users to agree to before signing up. In the agreement, they included the disclosure that users give up their first-born child as payment, and that anything users shared would be passed along to the NSA. A whopping 98% of participants agreed.

This is an extreme example that existed only in the realms of an academic experiment. The real agreements are usually only there to protect the company from legal trouble. Nevertheless, the experiment highlighted how blatantly consumers waived their rights, and even those of their children, with frightful ease. 

How Many of Us Read The T&Cs? 

A 2017 Deloitte survey of 2,000 consumers in the U.S found that 91% of people consent to legal terms and services conditions without reading them. For younger people aged between 18-34, the rate is even higher with 97% agreeing to the conditions before reading.

We shouldn’t be surprised, though should we? We’ve all done it. Consumers don't have much of a choice. If they don't agree, they don't get access to the wireless network, new app or whatever it is they want to use — and there's nothing they can about it. Or so they think. 

An Apple A Day...Keeps the Privacy Concerns Away?

Apple makes the case that there’s only a certain amount of data that’s required to make its business work, and it’s out to prove it. As part of International Data Privacy Day, Apple published a beautifully articulated article called ‘A Day in the Life of Your Data’. 

In a nutshell, Apple has pledged to be more transparent with its data use, allowing users to take back control of the information they share. The move is a polar opposite compared to what we’ve seen elsewhere from others of the big four (Amazon, Facebook and Google). This difference in strategy isn’t accidental, either. 

The Power of Positioning.

Apple has turned the challenges of data privacy into a great exercise of positioning. Its classic positioning using the ‘For’ and ‘Vs’ method. 

What Apple stands for as a brand is very clear. In the video below, Prof. Mark Ritson takes us through their brand positioning, which is grounded in three core tenets.

1. Simplicity.
2. Creativity.
3. Humanity.

It’s what makes Apple different and is so beautifully demonstrated in its 1997 ad campaign ‘Think Different’. As the years tick by, Apple’s position has not changed, but its relentless execution of it is a lesson to all marketers.

“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world…are the ones that do.” Apple.

By standing for privacy and positioning their signature product the iPhone to it, Apple has further differentiated themselves across devices and services. In the current data hoarding climate, it’s hard to compete against. 

But it goes further than that. Apple has picked an enemy in the shape of relentless data collection and taken a stand against it. In doing so, they are differentiating themselves against the status quo, namely the other three out of the big four tech companies.

Apple’s new position around the iPhone differentiates them further but crucially keeps the existing brand position in place.

We must always remember that positioning is the intention. It’s what I want you to think about when you think about me. In this regard, when you think about privacy, Apple wants you to think about them.

Conclusion.

Apple’s so-called ‘war on privacy’ is not just great positioning for the consumer landscape (let’s not be so naive), it’s also brilliant corporate insurance policy, as well as a differentiator too.  

When sitting next to the other big tech gorillas in congressional hearings and potential federal antitrust indictments, Apple can claim that they are not the same and will have tangible evidence across all their devices and services to prove just that. 

But, while the initiative to take back control of our information and gain better transparency is being led by Apple...who is ultimately responsible?

You are. When you agree to the T&C’s and Privacy Statements in a millisecond without thinking about what you are agreeing to. 

Stay Safe. Look after one another.

Harvey.

https://www.harvey-lee.co.uk

Sources:

^ Gr?ne, Florian, Pierre Péladeau, et al., “Tomorrow’s data heroes,” Strategy+Business, February 19, 2020.