know | Future

Back in the golden days when the desktop was everything and networks were just beginning to make it out into the real world, Guy Kawasaki, then a hot shot marketer, embodied the term technical evangelist in the guise of Macintosh evangelist. This distinction between marketer (cool/tired) and evangelist (hot/wired) has been one of the central organizing principles at Apple. Even though they are a technology/computer company they really behave as a consumer goods company on meth. Mac is one of the only brands in the world that has transcended to become a cult but there is no reason that other companies can’t apply some of the lessons learned from Apple to their own marketing endeavors. There are other brands that have achieved this status (Saturn for example, Mini lately just to use the automotive world) but I think that some of the lessons can be applied to many more brands. It is also so easy to do, make your customers feel special by giving them little things that set them apart from the rest of the pack, most of them direct marketed, promotional, event driven instead of general advertising.