Introducing the most powerful iMac ever

I never thought that after almost a year of not writing that a story about apple would get me back on my blog, but I’ll take any opportunity to write again.   Today, Tuesday July 27, 2010, I received this email (attached image capture) from Apple about their latest iMac computer.  What captured my attention was the subject heading “Introducing the most powerful iMac ever”.  I think by now everyone knows that Apple’s business model is to always release a computer that is faster than the previous generation – hence the notion that the latest version will be the “most powerful iMac ever” is a given and a moot point.  Then I reminded myself that Apple is very precise and calculating. Every word in an ad copy is there for a reason. Every word on Steve Job’s PowerPoint presentation is there for a reason.  These words are powerful and  incite in customers the intended feeling that they must buy this amazing product even though the words in the subject lines are utterly absurd when held against the backdrop of reality.   Why did this newsletter from Apple incite such passion in me today? I think it was a combination of this newsletter and another newsletter from a internet marketing coach  named Mark Joyner at www.simpleology.com who’s been sending emails after emails wanting people to buy his marketing program and today he was giving away couple of chapters to a book called  “Mind Control Marketing”.    As a marketing professional myself, I had to think about whether I wanted to read a book with that title.  Do I want to learn “tricks” to get people to buy stuff?  In an age where the preferred method of learning about products is through word of mouth and one’s “social network”, I’ve got to believe that we are entering an age where we don’t need mind control tricks anymore.   I’m now taking a pause to reflect on what is “ethical” marketing? Language that clearly assumes gullibility or even worse, ignorance in the part of the people interested in a product clearly is not language fitting of an advancing civilization.

If you’re wondering what may have been a cleaner subject heading…well here’s one: “Introducing the new & faster iMac.” This new subject line doesn’t make the notion of Apple releasing a more powerful iMac a new phenomena in a computer launch- every computer from Apple since the release of Apple II in 1977 has been “more powerful” than their previous generations.. Just wait another year or two and Apple’s newsletter headline will once again be “Introducing the most powerful iMac ever”.  I’m a believer that words are powerful and that the words we use when we speak to our children, partners, friends, family members and to the public in general – i.e. our fellow human beings -  should carry the highest of intentions.  I can’t say that I follow this rule all the time, but I’m often reminded when I don’t – so Apple marketers, what do you think?