Crossing over to the Dark Side

I once asked Siva if he used to be a Mac salesman. Apparently I'm not the only one who's asked him that. I'd describe his sales technique as the "making you interested by telling you the product might not be for you" style (if this is cryptic, forget it then -- insider's joke).

At the same post, he tells Kenneth and I to get a Mac (actually he wants us to look at Apple's ads, which is essentially the same thing). He needn't bother, at least for me.

I'd just placed an order for a MacBook Pro.

First time I heard the name, I thought it was a new burger gone wrong. Now it's sweet music to my ears. Never thought I'd be blogging about this. Heck, it's just a computer. Nothing to do with librarianship. Why announce to the world?

Or so I thought.

Look at the way Apple tries to convince us to get a Mac. After I wiped off my drool, it dawned on me that libraries could learn a thing or two from Apple.

To use a poorly conceived analogy, I posit that libraries tend to market themselves like Microsoft. We tell people what we can do, substantial people use us, and we enjoy institutional brand recognition or awareness.

Perhaps we should be like Apple, where we would be marketing the experience and appealing to customer emotions, where we'd be shameless about saying how we are uniquely different from the competitor and also touting the fact that we have seamless integration among the featured products.

I did say it's a poorly conceived analogy. I'm just trying to be snazzy like Apple in talking about marketing libraries. I ain't no Steve Jobs, that I'm sure.

I've never considered getting a Mac until recently. It was when I started exploring Digital Art. The PC worked fine and I was perfectly happy... until I met enthusiasts fanatics very passionate Mac users who, through conversations and correspondences, slowly but surely planted the thought about using a Mac. They told me if I'm into the right-brained stuff, then maybe I should think of a Mac. They didn't rave or rant. It was like a " by-the-way" thing which led me to find out more.

When the MacBook Pro came up, bloggers were posting stuff about it. Naturally I followed the posts and conversations in order to understand what the hype was about. Even went to an Applestore and discussed with the salesperson the merits of getting a Mac. He didn't even try to sell me one. He asked why I wanted one and how he felt about using them.

Someone then told me, "It's about the User Experience". Overall, a PC might be able to do the same things as a Mac but it's how the Mac enables the same things to be done together that makes the difference. That's when I really began to understand, even though I've not used a Mac up till that stage. That's when I'd started the journey over to the "Dark Side".

This hypothesis just came to mind: People don't buy a Mac just because they view Apple's ads. The process starts with existing users enjoying the Apple experience, which leads to pesistent Word of Mouth, which makes people like me being aware and keen to know more, leading me to ads that are snazzy and conversational, and finally a decision is made to own one.

Libraries can learn a thing or two from Apple. And it ain't just about marketing.

Tag: marketing the library