00:00:00
what you own and how you spend your
00:00:04
money is one of the most powerful social
00:00:05
tools that we have invented in our
00:00:08
modern consumer Society people will make
00:00:10
fun of a Ford owner in the comments of a
00:00:13
video and then identify themselves as a
00:00:15
Dodge guy in their Instagram bio but one
00:00:17
of these strongest and most prolific
00:00:20
brand loyal groups in the world are
00:00:23
Apple users and as an Apple user it's
00:00:25
kind of
00:00:28
dumb the huge thank you to ground news
00:00:34
for sponsoring today's video how's my
00:00:37
hair look yeah looks
00:00:37
good at the time of the releasing of
00:00:42
this video the latest iPhone is probably
00:00:44
about to be announced it's going to be
00:00:47
better and greater than any iPhone
00:00:50
before it it's going to sell millions
00:00:51
it's going to be very very popular it's
00:00:53
going to be great it's going to be a
00:00:55
great phone except it's probably not
00:00:57
going to be that great every year when
00:00:59
the newest iPhone is released there is a
00:01:01
predictable w of hype big announcements
00:01:03
and features that get covered across the
00:01:06
Internet it's a phone but it's so much
00:01:09
more it is a camera then quickly after
00:01:11
that the opinions and outrage over how
00:01:13
little has changed how this is just a
00:01:15
facelift from the year before and how
00:01:18
stupid people are for being Apple users
00:01:20
but those are just opinions and let's
00:01:22
not forget that we're talking about the
00:01:25
single most valuable company in the
00:01:28
world and most importantly they retain
00:01:30
more repeat customers than than pretty
00:01:32
well any other brand in any industry
00:01:35
brand loyalty for this company is pretty
00:01:37
well unmatched and it tells us a lot
00:01:40
about why brand loyalty works and how it
00:01:42
kind of doesn't make any sense if you
00:01:44
really start looking into it now first
00:01:46
off I think we need to establish that
00:01:48
there are really two different kinds of
00:01:50
brand loyalty and that there is a
00:01:52
spectrum in between them on one end of
00:01:54
the spectrum we have what I'm going to
00:01:56
call emotional brand loyalty it's
00:01:58
connected to our childhood or our family
00:02:00
or a positive memory a feeling that we
00:02:03
get when we have that thing this is like
00:02:05
you drinking Bud Light because your old
00:02:07
man used to drink it then on the other
00:02:09
side of the spectrum is the Practical
00:02:11
brand loyalty which is supposed to be
00:02:15
more rational but isn't actually this is
00:02:17
you drive a Toyota Prius because your
00:02:19
whole family drives Toyotas and they've
00:02:22
been really reliable and you trust the
00:02:25
brand to make a product that is good the
00:02:27
Toyota reference there is actually mine
00:02:30
I drive a Toyota Prius because my my
00:02:32
parents and most of my entire family
00:02:36
have bought Toyotas so it feels like a
00:02:38
weird part of our family identity at
00:02:40
this point but at either end of this
00:02:42
spectrum there is a lot of mental
00:02:45
gymnastics going on to try and convince
00:02:48
ourselves of the choices that we make
00:02:50
along the way and Brands understand that
00:02:53
if they can get your loyalty they've
00:02:55
basically won the consumer Olympics
00:02:58
which brings us back to Apple Apple is a
00:03:02
3 trillion doll company worth more than
00:03:04
a lot of countries in large part because
00:03:07
they have learned to play the long game
00:03:09
this has a name in the economics world
00:03:11
called customer capitalism and it's
00:03:14
basically the radical idea that if you
00:03:16
keep your customers happy they will buy
00:03:19
more of your product which ends up
00:03:21
providing more value to shareholders in
00:03:23
the long run if you're thinking this
00:03:26
sounds kind of obvious yes it is but you
00:03:28
got to understand these are economists
00:03:30
we're talking about they actually had to
00:03:33
come up with a term and a theory for
00:03:35
just treating your customers properly
00:03:37
because it turns out existing loyal
00:03:40
customers buy 90% more stuff than new
00:03:41
ones well over half of a company's
00:03:44
Revenue typically comes from those
00:03:47
existing customers except in our case um
00:03:49
because we get more than half of our
00:03:50
views from people who aren't subscribed
00:03:52
to our channel so I'll just take a
00:03:58
minute here while you do that please so
00:04:00
why aren't all companies doing this like
00:04:02
why isn't this just standard practice
00:04:04
because the sad truth is that the bar is
00:04:07
on the godamn floor see most modern
00:04:09
businesses today that you would probably
00:04:11
recognize the name of are publicly
00:04:12
traded companies meaning that they have
00:04:15
shareholders like you and me but
00:04:16
probably more so rich people who have
00:04:19
purchased shares with the expectations
00:04:22
of those values in those companies going
00:04:24
up this is basically just the stock
00:04:26
market where your savings if you were
00:04:28
very lucky to have any are invested
00:04:30
every quarter these business businesses
00:04:32
report their numbers to investors and to
00:04:35
summarize a lot of Economics degrees in
00:04:39
four words up good down bad but the
00:04:41
problem with this is that it's naturally
00:04:43
shortsighted you have to prioritize the
00:04:46
profits of today and tomorrow so that
00:04:48
your quarterly earnings can keep going
00:04:51
up in most cases this usually means that
00:04:53
companies are forced to constantly
00:04:55
expand and push into new markets and
00:04:57
develop new technology and buy up their
00:05:00
competitors and just never stop until
00:05:03
they rule theing world I guess I don't
00:05:05
know what the end goal is here and the
00:05:06
truth is a lot of this growth and
00:05:08
expansion has very little to do with the
00:05:12
customer being happy and more so about
00:05:14
making as much money as possible and
00:05:18
apple is different kind of apple has
00:05:21
done a really great job of retaining
00:05:24
customers and if you are an apple person
00:05:27
you might already have some idea of why
00:05:29
that might be when doing the research
00:05:30
for this video we found a couple of
00:05:32
stories about how Apple has been
00:05:34
changing their business model to meet
00:05:37
consumer needs but the most impactful
00:05:39
was definitely this one all about how
00:05:41
apple is planning to integrate chat GPT
00:05:44
into Siri which I don't know if that's a
00:05:46
thing that consumers need but it is a
00:05:48
story that we wouldn't have come across
00:05:50
if it weren't for the sponsor of today's
00:05:52
video ground news ground news is an app
00:05:54
and a website dedicated to Gathering
00:05:56
thousands of news articles all in one
00:05:58
place to give you the full context we
00:06:00
keep working with them them because we
00:06:02
love the platform and we think that you
00:06:04
will too so feel free to check them out
00:06:07
at ground. news/ futureproof what's
00:06:09
great about ground news is that you can
00:06:12
take a look at all of the Articles from
00:06:14
a particular subject and you'll notice
00:06:16
that it tells you not only if they lean
00:06:19
left or right but who they're backed by
00:06:21
being able to take a look at articles
00:06:22
from all sides of the political
00:06:25
spectrums lets us know things like how
00:06:27
the right focuses pretty heavily on the
00:06:30
fact that Apple won't be paying AI for
00:06:32
this integration while the left opens a
00:06:34
broader conversation about what this
00:06:36
means for the company as a whole another
00:06:39
awesome feature is their blind spot feed
00:06:41
which shows you what the left and the
00:06:43
right are and are not focusing on here
00:06:45
you can get easy access to the other
00:06:47
side's news reality to see the full
00:06:49
picture of what's going on in the world
00:06:50
it also means that you won't miss
00:06:52
anything if you get most of your news
00:06:54
from social media we love ground news
00:06:56
because they encourage making informed
00:06:58
Decisions by sharpening your critical
00:06:59
thinking skills which is exactly what
00:07:01
this channel is all about so we
00:07:03
encourage you to Dive Right In by going
00:07:06
to ground. news/ futureproof or just
00:07:08
scan this QR code to get started you can
00:07:10
join for less than a dollar a month or
00:07:12
just use our Link in the description to
00:07:14
get 40% off their unlimited access
00:07:16
Vantage plan which is what we use here
00:07:18
on the channel huge thanks to ground
00:07:20
news for sponsoring today let's get back
00:07:22
into the video do you remember how
00:07:25
earlier we showed you how economists
00:07:28
defined customer capitalism right like
00:07:30
how to treat customers properly as a
00:07:33
theory by the economists I want you to
00:07:34
apply that same kind of thinking that
00:07:37
invented that term to imagine how these
00:07:39
companies might try and keep you
00:07:41
interested in their product because
00:07:45
customer retention is not the same as
00:07:48
customer satisfaction listen these
00:07:50
companies are not on some sort of vision
00:07:52
quest to try and find out what truly
00:07:54
makes their customer based ticks and to
00:07:57
create something that is fundamentally
00:07:59
great and improves their lives and the
00:08:01
world around them it is about making
00:08:04
money while looking like you're doing
00:08:06
those things today it is not just
00:08:08
outliers like apple that are supposedly
00:08:11
putting the customer first in 2019
00:08:13
nearly 200 execs from major companies
00:08:16
including Amazon Pepsi Walmart and of
00:08:18
course Apple issued a statement that
00:08:20
business is no longer just about profit
00:08:23
for shareholders rather it is about
00:08:25
providing genuine value to customers
00:08:28
communities and employees alike such as
00:08:30
paying reasonable wages and supporting
00:08:33
environmental and social causes I have
00:08:36
to say if I believed anything that any
00:08:38
of these people ever said this would be
00:08:40
an absolutely Earth shattering shift for
00:08:42
the better but when you look at how
00:08:45
their actions play out it tells a very
00:08:49
different story see a lot of their value
00:08:51
that they're providing when it comes to
00:08:52
you know the communities and the
00:08:54
reasonable wages and the environmental
00:08:57
causes or whatever it's usually being
00:09:00
handled by some sort of PR marketing
00:09:02
with a corporate social responsibility
00:09:05
report these are well-designed pamphlets
00:09:06
created by companies to show the
00:09:08
impressive work that they have done to
00:09:10
make the world a better place but mostly
00:09:12
to make people feel like they're not
00:09:14
just exploiting everyone around them in
00:09:15
the effort to make as much money as
00:09:18
possible you can find these reports for
00:09:21
basically any majorly publicly traded
00:09:22
company just by Googling their name and
00:09:25
then putting CSR afterwards and these
00:09:28
documents look really impressive they're
00:09:30
really long and incredibly detailed and
00:09:32
outline how the company is progressing
00:09:34
towards these big important social
00:09:36
justice goals but they're not verified
00:09:39
by a third party and often are built and
00:09:41
rolled out in such a way that makes them
00:09:43
look really good but still allows the
00:09:46
business to basically operate as usual
00:09:48
we talked about this in Greater detail
00:09:50
in our Starbucks episode they have these
00:09:52
sort of showy environmental
00:09:54
announcements that are released
00:09:56
strategically just to appease their fans
00:09:58
enough to make them feel like they can
00:10:01
still keep going to Starbucks even
00:10:03
though they have done insert terrible
00:10:06
blank thing here and listen Apple
00:10:08
probably has one of the most impressive
00:10:11
documents for this and I don't want to
00:10:13
say that they don't care or that these
00:10:15
things aren't real in these documents
00:10:18
they 100% are their headquarters are
00:10:20
100% powered by renewable energy But
00:10:23
ultimately this is just a part of their
00:10:26
broader marketing plan to tell you the
00:10:28
story of who they want you to think
00:10:31
apple as a company company is these sort
00:10:34
of ESG reports have become basically
00:10:36
standard practice for any big business
00:10:38
today but where Apple really stands out
00:10:41
with customer retention is with their
00:10:42
products Apple has done a really good
00:10:45
job of Designing physical Hardware that
00:10:47
gives the customer the desired
00:10:49
experience that they look for with a
00:10:51
high quality product all the while still
00:10:52
withholding and manipulating their
00:10:55
releases to maximize profits a great
00:10:57
recent example of this was the USB
00:11:00
type-c charge port on the iPhone 15
00:11:02
Apple held out on their old lightning
00:11:04
connector as long as they possibly could
00:11:07
until the EU forced them to adopt a more
00:11:09
standardized technology and apple does
00:11:11
this all the time they basically
00:11:14
invented planned obsolescence they got
00:11:16
rid of the headphone jack just to upsell
00:11:18
everybody on their pods and instead of
00:11:20
keeping the design similar year-to-year
00:11:23
to save money each modeler is just
00:11:25
noticeably different to be recognized as
00:11:28
the latest model to command a higher
00:11:30
price tag with things like that you
00:11:32
would think that people would probably
00:11:35
leave but they don't and that's because
00:11:37
Apple does the products really really
00:11:39
well and they have a few tricky tricks
00:11:42
to make sure that you don't leave see
00:11:44
I'm I'm an apple person I I got my
00:11:46
MacBook here and I'm reading this
00:11:48
teleprompter off of my iPhone and I've
00:11:50
tried to go and use Android before and I
00:11:53
just ended up ultimately coming back
00:11:55
because Apple knows what they're doing
00:11:57
those yearly releases with the
00:12:00
underwhelming advancements to each model
00:12:02
year that's actually on purpose see
00:12:04
apple is always the last company to
00:12:06
adopt technology as it comes on to the
00:12:09
market they wait until a technology has
00:12:11
been proven for the most part or at
00:12:12
least been shown to have promise with
00:12:15
consumers and then they aim to improve
00:12:17
upon it and this is actually a pretty
00:12:18
great business model that I
00:12:21
fundamentally believe in Toyota does
00:12:23
this with their vehicles a lot too see I
00:12:25
have all Apple products because they
00:12:27
work the way that they're supposed to
00:12:29
they rarely have technical issues but as
00:12:31
many Apple users know this controlled
00:12:34
approach also keeps you trapped in their
00:12:36
ecosystem Apple products only really
00:12:38
play with other Apple products and once
00:12:40
you've used their products it's kind of
00:12:43
hard to go back it feels like a mild
00:12:46
hostage situation but it's not just the
00:12:48
technology that makes it hard to leave
00:12:50
Apple Apple has some of the best
00:12:52
branding out there I mean people know an
00:12:54
apple advertisement before they even see
00:12:57
the logo and with this Sleek modern
00:12:59
minimalist design they have created the
00:13:02
Apple person identity they want you to
00:13:04
feel like a sophisticated successful
00:13:07
well-connected individual when you hold
00:13:09
their product but one of the most
00:13:11
powerful and interesting qualities of an
00:13:14
apple person is that they are not an
00:13:16
Android person you probably remember
00:13:18
those famous early advertisements with
00:13:21
the PC and the Apple guy hello I'm a Mac
00:13:25
and I'm a PC but that ad is a metaphor
00:13:27
for a very real tactical branding
00:13:29
strategy that a lot of brands use
00:13:32
nowadays we see this really clearly with
00:13:34
the Pepsi Coke divide anyone who's
00:13:36
honest with themselves knows that there
00:13:38
is functionally no difference between
00:13:41
Coke and Pepsi blind taste tests have
00:13:43
actually shown that consumers prefer the
00:13:46
taste of Pepsi but Coke is still the
00:13:49
more successful brand and yet nine in 10
00:13:51
Pepsi and Coke drinkers remain loyal to
00:13:53
their chosen drink even people who
00:13:55
hardly consume soda at all have this
00:13:57
weirdly visceral reaction to even the
00:14:00
thought of consuming the other brand and
00:14:03
apple just leans into this 100% they've
00:14:05
gone as far as to make it harder for
00:14:08
iPhone users to communicate with Android
00:14:10
users this branding is so deep in the
00:14:13
Apple lore that now it's like a way to
00:14:15
tell people that they're broke like
00:14:17
you're so poor that you have the green
00:14:19
text bubbles when I'm chatting to you
00:14:22
you have an Android yes an Android never
00:14:25
mind I can't do this I'm so sorry
00:14:26
because I have an
00:14:29
Android wait what this actually makes me
00:14:32
feel kind of bad because I like to Raz
00:14:34
our project manager all the time because
00:14:38
she is like a staunchly py Android
00:14:40
person and you have problems with your
00:14:42
freakin Tech all the time and another
00:14:44
little Sidetrack here that I thought was
00:14:46
just incredible is that this apple main
00:14:49
character energy is so unshakable that
00:14:52
even in movies the bad guy never has an
00:14:54
iPhone Apple they let you use iPhones in
00:14:57
movies but and this is very pivotal if
00:14:59
you're ever watching a mystery movie
00:15:03
bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera
00:15:05
every single filmmaker who has a bad guy
00:15:06
in their movie It's supposed to be a
00:15:08
secret wants to murder me right now
00:15:09
entire videos have already been made on
00:15:11
the absolute Genius of Apple's branding
00:15:13
so we're not going to get too into the
00:15:15
weeds here but the bottom line is it
00:15:18
worked 92% of the people who have
00:15:21
iPhones right now intend to stay iPhone
00:15:24
users almost a third said it was because
00:15:25
they were too tied into Apple's
00:15:27
ecosystem or it was just too much of a
00:15:30
hassle to switch operating systems and
00:15:31
if you think that this kind of
00:15:34
irrational Fierce loyalty to Brands is
00:15:36
powerful now it's actually going to get
00:15:39
worse there is talk from Big names that
00:15:42
some point soonish it will just be the
00:15:45
norm even mandatory for companies to
00:15:47
report customer retention metrics
00:15:50
alongside the usual numbers and there
00:15:51
might be some good that comes out of
00:15:53
this change for sure but it's also going
00:15:55
to give Brands more power across the
00:15:58
board to create products and incentive
00:15:59
structures that keep keep you from
00:16:02
leaving on top of this we seem to be
00:16:04
more blindly brand loyal than ever
00:16:07
before with people feeling more isolated
00:16:09
and more stretched financially and with
00:16:11
so much chaos going on in the world
00:16:13
right now people are running to their
00:16:15
favorite brands for that fleeting
00:16:18
feeling of comfort we offer them the
00:16:20
fruits of our labor and in return we get
00:16:22
rituals that bind us together holy days
00:16:25
and the promise of Salvation we're told
00:16:26
that if we just give enough of our
00:16:29
dollars to the right God we can save
00:16:33
ourselves or our country or the planet
00:16:35
and this is why it hurts so bad when
00:16:38
we're betrayed we think of these Brands
00:16:40
as being on our side part of our tribe
00:16:43
Our Saviors our very identity and then
00:16:46
suddenly they go off script and it's
00:16:47
like we've been stabbed in the back and
00:16:50
our sense of self is sort of shattered
00:16:52
they partner with the wrong influencer
00:16:54
or they break off the partnership with
00:16:56
that said influencer or back the wrong
00:16:58
country or politician so we bring out
00:17:00
the pitchforks and take our businesses
00:17:03
to a different Mega corporation that
00:17:06
quietly hates us just as much as the
00:17:07
other one did they're just a little
00:17:09
better at hiding it because for all of
00:17:11
their talk of supporting values and
00:17:15
those big CSR documents it's not about
00:17:17
us or making the world a better place
00:17:18
it's all about making money just think
00:17:21
about how pretty much every big
00:17:24
International corporate chain flies the
00:17:26
rainbow flag in June except where that's
00:17:28
an unpopular opinion to have they don't
00:17:30
care about any of this stuff and it
00:17:32
shouldn't surprise us when they show us
00:17:35
their true colors or the lack thereof in
00:17:36
this case but we also have to ask
00:17:38
ourselves do we want these people to be
00:17:40
in charge of our social change because
00:17:42
that's where this is headed major
00:17:44
corporations are now openly talking
00:17:46
about how they have a responsibility to
00:17:48
change the world and I don't think that
00:17:50
that's what any of us actually want if
00:17:53
you want real change don't put your hope
00:17:55
into these Brands don't allow them to
00:17:57
form your identity and take the place of
00:17:59
a genuine human connection because
00:18:01
that's exactly what they're trying to do
00:18:03
the more fractured we are the less
00:18:05
connected we are to our neighborhoods
00:18:07
the more that we'll rely on these big
00:18:11
Brands to form our sense of self and we
00:18:13
really really can't afford that so
00:18:15
listen if you enjoyed this video and you
00:18:17
want to see more content from us and our
00:18:18
Channel make sure that you're subscribed
00:18:24
cuz we release a video every single week
00:18:25
[Music]
00:18:30
back