Apple and Emotional Branding

I feel as if there must be millions of posts written about Apple, but I want to get this one out of the way since its been with me for a while. I started taking a look at emotional branding last semester, and it seemed to me that Apple had done a pretty good job of using it with some of its older ipod commercials.

First, what is emotional branding? Well quite simply, it is appealing to the emotions and aspirations of individuals and connecting them with a brand. What it does not include is a discussion of what added value the product brings to the consumer. Now I'm sure that you all remember those ipod commercials: shadows dancing around brightly colored backgrounds, usually to a new song that was sure to become a hit as soon as the ad hit the airwaves.

What made the ad so effective (and ipod sales go through the roof?). It seems to me that the success of these ads lies in their simplicity. You hardly saw the ipod in the commercial, and you certainly didn't find out much about it. But the ads were incredibly cool, the songs were awesome and by the time the ad was over, the message was clear: ipods are cool. And who doesn't want to be cool?

This is not to say that emotional branding is the solution for every ad. Sometimes, you need to actually show the product or give some talking points. But for Apple and the ipod, emotional branding was a perfect fit, because Apple understood that it could get consumers to buy a $299 piece of electronics just be appealing to aspirations (and fairly deep pockets).