How To Get Your Own Fanboys
The last post sparked a wave of insults in my direction. The ratio of comments to readers was ridiculously high. I stumbled across a fanboy hive apparently, and like a bear digging for honey I got swarmed. Thankfully I have thick fur.
It makes me wonder though, what is it Apple does to cultivate that kneejerk response? Some people would argue that they make consistently great products. I personally would say they make consistently good products, and very few great products, and are great at marketing. They belong in the pantheon with Budweiser in that regard. But even if you call their products great, that doesn’t explain it. There are other brands that do this, but almost none achieve fanboyism to any real extent.
Toyota is a good example. Their cars are the best (by every objective measure and most subjective ones) in just about every class they’re in. And their luxury brand, Lexus, makes works of art on wheels. Go read a Lexus forum or just talk to random owners (which is a less self-selecting group) and you’ll see what I mean. They all love their cars. They all will go right back to the dealership when it’s time for the next one.
But even there, you won’t find the almost slavish devotion you do with Apple fanboys. If you make fun of an ES350 on an auto blog, they’ll shrug it off and smile, thinking to themselves “remember that while your Bimmer is in the shop, because it’s going to be there a lot.” They won’t hunt you down on your website and accuse you of wanting to dislike a Lexus before you even bought one. The number 1 item in every “top 10 ways to get your article on the front page of Digg” blog post isn’t “praise Lexus”.
So what does Apple do differently? Their products, to some significant percentage of their user base, aren’t just computers or phones, they’re a lifestyle. Insult the operating system and you insult the owner. The only other two examples I can think of this are sports and religion. That’s how big Apple has become in the minds of many of their users. Not all, and probably not even a majority, especially if you count people who only own an iPod. But enough that you can’t write a blog post that says anything negative about Apple without being accused of trolling. Surely nobody could prefer Windows to OSX and then write about it for any other reason than to gain comments and readership on a personal blog with no advertisements.
Apple has created a club, and the people in it genuinely look down on others for not being a member. Anyone who uses Windows, they believe, is just too dumb or tasteless to know what they’re missing. It couldn’t possibly be that different tools are better for different uses, and that Windows is actually just better for what most people want to do. It’s that they’re inferior, sheep blindly following the flock, and if they’re lucky maybe one day they’ll graduate into paying double for their computers.
I honestly don’t know how they’ve pulled it off. One friend said “design and an unwarranted sense of self importance.” That’s definitely got something to do with it. I think it also has something to do with the audience as well. I’m guessing they appeal to people who don’t generally care for either sports or religion, and maybe everyone just needs something. If you’re not too concerned about the whole Jesus thing, and you don’t really care about the Packers, then Apple’s got a Macbook Pro for you.
But most important, I think, is the club. You have to convince your users that they are superior to your competitors’ for no other reason than the fact that they use your product. The only company other than Apple that I know of that has a significant number of fanboys is Facebook, and they do this as well. Just as one commenter egotistically said that high school students will one day graduate from Myspace to Facebook, your company should position itself as the more mature, distinguished choice.
Facilitate a sense of community within the club too. Convince them that if they buy your Macbook, they’ll be in a small, select group of people for having done so, and that maybe when they walk into a Starbucks and use it to check their email they’ll sit right next to a good looking woman who is also in the club. It’s not as blatant as saying “drink Keystone and hot chicks will want to sleep with you”, but it’s the same principle, and it’s incredibly effective.
It’s worth exploring, because if you have a brand, that vein is clearly worth tapping into. I don’t think it’s anything they’ve accomplished intentionally and I don’t think it is possible to willfully replicate what Apple has done. As Greg McAdoo would say, great surfers don’t create waves, they just ride them. But Apple seems to have genuinely created one. (I guess in the surfer analogy, Apple would be the moon’s gravitational pull.) And you can’t do that purposefully, but it is probably possible to surf the wave. And maybe, if you play your cards right and get incredibly lucky, you’ll make your own.
On the other hand, there is the fact that both companies that do this are in second place. Facebook is catching up (globally at least, not in the market that matters) but Apple is not, and it is perhaps telling that Apple has a much larger number of fanboys. Perhaps the entire strategy falls apart when you are the leader, and Facebook will rely less and less on it as they approach that position. Perhaps Apple will as well if they ever pull it off. It makes sense really. How can you argue that you are above the hoi polloi when you are the common man’s product of choice?
I wonder if Microsoft missed a golden opportunity to turn the tables on them with the Zune. In the mp3 player market, Apple is the 800 lb gorilla. Microsoft dove into the market with the same “products for the masses” attitude that they dive into everything else with. Maybe they could have, instead, positioned themselves as the distinguished product.
It might not have been that hard. The Zune has Wi-Fi and at the time, the iPod didn’t. They could have made it able to receive internet radio stations. They could have tried to integrate Sirius or XM that way too, I think both broadcast through the net, or maybe set up deals with other great content providers like CNN or NPR or The New York Times.
And most importantly they could have attacked the iPod at its weakest point: DRM. The iPod is a fantastic device as long as the following two things are not true:
1. Your media collection is not larger than the iPod’s storage, at which point choosing which songs to put on the device is a nightmare. That one’s not a problem for many people, so there’s not a ton of room to attack it there.
2. You start running into DRM headaches when buying new iPods or computers, or reinstalling OSes. Or you want to do anything with your music other than put it on an iPod or listen to it in iTunes. This is inevitable.
Microsoft should have made their Zune store entirely DRM free. In fact, they should do this now, while it’s still a selling point, and not allow any form of DRM on their devices. This is the one gripe that you find most frequently if you search for “iPod sucks”. Microsoft could have said something to the effect of “You’re not a kid. You don’t need anyone telling you what to do with your music.”
Microsoft is so used to being the “common man” company, the Miller Genuine Draft, and being assaulted by the Apples of the world that they just assume that role even when they have a chance to be Sam Adams. They do the same thing with the Xbox 360, touting how much cheaper it is than the PS3. One of their higher ups even said you could buy a Wii and an Xbox for less than a Playstation. Why not, instead, tell people that the Xbox is actually the better product?
So I think how to generate that fanboy reflex is worth thinking about, especially when you’re not the market leader. It’s something that I haven’t given enough thought to lately, and probably should.
April 30, 2008 at 8:17 pm
“If you’re not too concerned about the whole Jesus thing, and you don’t really care about the Packers, then Apple’s got a Macbook Pro for you.”
Use your quote in the voice over, throw in a hipster chica daydreaming while using her Macbook, have Iglu & Hartly's music for the soundtrack, and you have Apple's next ad.
Apple marketing is so predictable.
April 30, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I don't frequent car forums, but I happened to be on one the other day (following links related to the release of the Lexus F-series); and everyone on it was down on Lexus. The terms “appliance” and “rolling couch” were used several times.
I used to have a Lexus, though, and I loved it until it started needing expensive repairs around 90K miles. Now I'm a Honda fanboy.
April 30, 2008 at 9:26 pm
That was interesting. I don't think it's particularly relevant that Apple is in second place in computers, because they're still (at this point) a ridiculously profitable company. I mean, that's like saying “boy does it suck to be Pepsi!”
I do get a little annoyed though that liking Apple seems to make me a fanboy if I voice that opinion. I don't think anything they make is perfect, but I prefer it to the alternatives and I can name a number of reasons for that. Maybe some of them are subjective; I'm aware of that.
And anti-Apple folks are just as condescending about Apple fans as Apple fanboys can be about everyone else. I guess your own shit just never stinks, eh?
April 30, 2008 at 10:00 pm
It's certainly relevant to their marketing. You can't market yourself as the distinguished choice if you own 80% of the market.
I don't think liking Apple makes you a fanboy. I know lots of people who own iPhones and Macbook Pros and hate fanboys. You can still be in my club.
I don't agree with you on the last part though. I don't think Windows users are generally condescending. Or Linux users for that matter, even though they might have more of a right to be.
April 30, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Ah, I believe I misinterpreted what you were saying. That's what I get for scanning.
My complaints weren't so much directed at you directly as to some of the responses to your last post. Many of those who disagreed with you were along the lines of Apple fanboy stuff, but not all of them. Still, the responses to ALL of them were along the lines of “you stupid Apple fanboys are stupid. Wow you're stupid. Stupid McStupidpants.”
Also, I said “anti-Apple” and not “Windows.” I didn't mean everybody who doesn't use Apple products, I just meant those who specifically are anti-Apple.
Anyway, I'm all about moderation when it comes to stuff like this. Apparently I expect too much from my internets.
At any rate, sure, I'll join your club.
April 30, 2008 at 11:05 pm
“1. Your media collection is not larger than the iPod’s storage, at which point choosing which songs to put on the device is a nightmare. That one’s not a problem for many people, so there’s not a ton of room to attack it there.
2. You start running into DRM headaches when buying new iPods or computers, or reinstalling OSes. Or you want to do anything with your music other than put it on an iPod or listen to it in iTunes. This is inevitable. “
1) How is this not a problem with any other MP3 player?
2) Also no different to DRM-infected WMA files. In fact, everyone who bought music from Microsoft's old music store is feeling the ultimate effects of this right now…
Neither of those points are remotely unique to Apple…
April 30, 2008 at 11:24 pm
As a Mac user (actually a switcher) an interpretation that makes sense is that Mac users feel they have made a commitment to respecting their own time and the value of their own potential. They see the same commitment in other Mac users, and see every day the productivity gains that they get from having a system that just works. We appreciate what the Mac gives us… really, it's hard to understand this unless you've every been really appreciative of a product… and they see in other users the same sense of appreciation, and they feel a shared sense of joy at having discovered a better way.
It doesn't mean Mac users are better. But they may be happier, and they may be thrilled about what they are getting from their choice. No need to rip on them for that. Fanboy? Sure, whatever you want to call me; fine. No, I wouldn't lap shit from Jobs palms, but I do like my Mac.
May 1, 2008 at 12:27 am
Awesome article.
One small thing I'd like to correct about the iPod. I have a huge collection and an iPod Nano. I don't care about the DRM because transfer of songs is always one-way from the collection onto the iPod. When I get bored of one particular “travel song”, I just delete it from the iPod and upload something new.
And I don't use iTunes either.
iTunes is no good at managing huge collections of songs, mix CDs, live sets, and other oddities.
Daniel
May 1, 2008 at 1:04 am
I think your assumption about distinguished choice and market share is flawed.
You can use other Apple products to prove the point: iPods have > 80% market share, yet they are marketed as the distinguished choice. (Not that music players are an especially distinguished product — but the iPod is certainly sold as the most refined, best designed choice, which is similar).
High profit margin + double digit growth = great postition. If your current marketing is keeping you there, why would you change it?
May 1, 2008 at 1:30 am
I agree with you on 2, that's why I am proposing that MS should ditch DRM entirely. They've made the same mistake as Apple in the past.
On 1 though, any non-ipod is much easier. You just drag folders to it like you would a hard drive. I had to Google how to take care of this in iTunes when I got a nano. It's quite brutal. Eventually I just imported my library into iTunes (the most bloated piece of crap ever written) and then had to make a playlist.
May 1, 2008 at 1:32 am
Lol. “It just works” is my favorite. That line is equivalent to the “social graph”.
I wish you could have been at Draftmix HQ this past winter. The one Windows notebook had no trouble, two of the the three Macbooks were an abortion. One spent months in the shop.
May 1, 2008 at 1:34 am
What do you use? iTunes is an abortion.
May 1, 2008 at 1:36 am
I agree with you, but I think it's just spillover from the OS and the fact that nobody else has tried to market themselves as the distinguished choice in mp3 players. The second leader, SanDisk, competes solely on being cheaper. I think they're highly prone to someone using their own tactics against them.
I definitely wouldn't change their marketing. As I said, Apple is up there with Budweiser among the best marketing departments ever.
May 1, 2008 at 6:18 am
“that's why I am proposing that MS should ditch DRM entirely.”
And, to address point one, they should make media players with infinite capacity. And every Zune should produce free ice cream.
Everyone making a media player/online music store would like to do away with DRM. Everyone knows customers hate DRM. If Microsoft could have got the record companies to license non-DRM music, they would have. Instead, they had to give Universal a chunk of Zune profits just to get their songs.
May 1, 2008 at 8:22 am
Did you ever read about that guy who took a MacPro enclosure and retrofitted it to house a crappy pc?
He got the empty tower from a friend but made up a story that he gutted it and turned into a PC. He took pictures of the process and posted on one of those modder forums.
The response was hilarious. He was literally getting death threats, like he took a shit on the holy temple of Apple or something.
Also, do you read the “Stuff White People Like” blog? Entry #40 is all about Apple products. Pretty funny:
“Plain and simple, white people don’t just like Apple, they love and need Apple to operate.”
May 1, 2008 at 8:48 am
Sorry, the guy modded a Power Mac G5 tower, not a MacPro. It was in 2004, I thought it was more recent.
Google “Create a Hoax, Earn Damnation” to read a story about it on Wired. It's the first link.
May 1, 2008 at 10:03 am
The problem that cultlike entities — Hitler, Apple, the Democratic Party, Hannah Montana — face is that they have no goal except being in the club. So there's no motivation to make the product better, or to enforce other degrees of reality. The result is a slide into mediocrity.
Apple has been this bad since the mid-1980s at least, when they styled themselves as a femme Winston Smith crushing IBM's corporate dominance. Now they're fighting MS the same way and seem to be fooling some of the newbies.
May 1, 2008 at 10:27 am
They could have. Amazon did. The record companies are jumping at a chance to get anyone other than Apple in the game.
And they addressed the first problem by just letting you drag and drop as you would to a hard drive, rather than import library into bloated software, make playlist, sync playlist.
They gave record companies a chunk of profits to allow them to give people the tracks they bought on iTunes on the Zune's format.
May 1, 2008 at 10:27 am
Classic.
May 1, 2008 at 2:12 pm
So I read this post and then the comments on your previous one. I had to get two-thirds of the way down before I found something I would term fanboy-ish. Not even something requiring thick fur.
Calling your readers fanboys because they have different contexts or experiences risks losing them.
The title is an interesting question, but based on the comment thread that induced it, it seems the prerequisite is: get users. Once you have them they'll rationalize not switching.
May 1, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I didn't mean necessarily here. And the reason they're so far down is that comments are votable. And I deleted a couple as well.
May 2, 2008 at 4:07 am
After reading some of the current Ruby on Rails stuff going on with Twitter, I think you can now safely say that RoR has successfully legioned a group of massive fanboys.
May 2, 2008 at 9:44 am
RoR fanboys are almost entirely a subset of Apple fanboys.
May 9, 2008 at 9:36 am
“It just works” really ought to be “It just works or it doesn't.” My girlfriend had an iBook at home and a Dell something-or-other running XP for work. The iBook died suddenly and completely — annoying, but no fuss. She considered getting a Windows notebook to replace it, because it's cheaper, and “That's what everyone else uses, so it will be easier to collaborate.”
But her work computer has convinced her not to. It doesn't die, but it never works quite right. Currently she's fighting with glitchy network drivers on a daily basis. So she'll get another Mac.
(Then, there are those of us who found in OS X the perfect combination of UNIX and UI. It really is less of a fuss than my Linux box, and Gnome is fugly.)