The iPhone 4 fiasco caused jitters at Apple and a privacy row embroiled Google. How do superbrands soothe loyal supporters after blundering? It's about emotional attachment

When it was discovered last summer that Apple's new smartphone, the iPhone 4, had antenna and reception problems, US investment bank Piper Jaffray conducted a survey about the potential impact on the handset's sales figures. The research showed that nearly 70 per cent of respondents were aware of complaints and a fifth of those people were so concerned they did not buy the product. Piper Jaffray warned of 880,000 lost sales.

But figures revealed that Apple sold 14.1 million units of the iPhone 4 between July and September, showing little damage from the debacle. Chief executive Steve Jobs said the company had sold as many iPhones as it could produce. Even if the antenna problem had deterred some customers, there were more who wanted the device enough for the glitch not to matter. So what makes us keep buying brands that have let us down or whose products or services we know to be less than perfect?
It's all about lovemarks, says Simon Middleton, founder of consultancy Brand Strategy Guru. "Kevin Roberts of [advertising agency] Saatchi came up with the notion of lovemarks and Apple fits into that category," says Middleton. "It's beyond a brand, it's a thing that people actually get emotionally committed to—and in the case of Apple I'm one of those people," he admits.

Middleton, who has an iPhone 3 concedes that the handset can be annoying but he's staying loyal. "Great brands [such as Apple] give you something that is beautiful to look at. They give you a sense that you are at the cutting edge, which is a nice feeling. And they deliver far more often than they don't deliver. So it's an emotional thing that when they cock it up—which Apple did with the iPhone 4—we forgive them."

Likewise, when Middleton was let down by First Direct six months ago he says he didn't change banks. "Most of the time I love First Direct," he says. "They do something that is exceptional and when they screwed up I was really cross but I've forgiven them. Apple gets the same forgiveness. But you need a lot of love in the bank and not many brands have that."

Paul Hitchens, creative director of brand consultancy Verve, agrees. "Apple makes such a strong connection with customers that you value them as a best friend and, like your best friend, you will forgive them a few transgressions," he says.

Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of The Centre for Brand Analysis, says that if a company has a well-regarded brand it almost gives a buffer for bad news. "People are willing to give brands that they have previously respected, or that society respects, the benefit of the doubt," he says.
The other reason is more emotive, Cheliotis argues: "We buy most brands for emotional, and not logical, reasons. We might justify buying a BMW because it goes from 0 to 60mph 0.2 seconds quicker than the other car but that's an excuse. The reason you buy the BMW is because you want the BMW."

Cheliotis says different emotions are at play. "A brand such as Apple might stimulate excitement and buzz and therefore despite knowing that their product may not be quite as functionally perfect as a rival, you might nevertheless be caught up by that excitement and buzz and want to buy into a little bit of that," he says.

But the biggest factor is contentment, which is a way of taking away our insecurities, says Cheliotis. It's about making a choice and knowing that your selection will perform. He explains: "British Airways is a classic example. It's gone from one crisis to another yet when I recently booked a flight to Nigeria I chose BA. It's the classic 'better the devil you know'—let's go with the one we think won't let us down, or if they have let us down three times already, surely they wouldn't let us down again, would they?"

Middleton says the reason he'll continue to buy Apple products is not because he's a Jobs acolyte but because he knows he'll enjoy the experience and it takes away the misery of choice. "Because of what Apple has achieved with me I don't have to go through the pain of trying out lots of different brands because I'm just not interested in them. I just have to choose which Apple product I want," he says. "It's a relationship of a very particular nature that only occurs in the world of brands."

Middleton says great brands—large or small—have four things in common. First, they are highly distinctive. He uses the example of airline Virgin Atlantic. "There are lots of classy airlines in the world but none have achieved the glamour that Virgin has. It's not just the level of service, it's a certain panache, an attitude that makes those brands stand out," he says.

But that doesn't mean everybody will love them either—and that's important, Middleton adds. "Great brands annoy a lot of people too, they are quite polarising. Lots of people hate Apple and that, for Apple lovers, makes them even better. If you try to please everyone you'll be bland and boring. You have to know who your enemy is and Apple's enemy is people who don't have the imagination to realise PCs are ugly and clunky, and that Apple is much better."

Second, top brands are authentic—they are true to themselves and don't tell lies. Third, they are emotionally compelling—they have to make your heart beat faster. And fourth, they have to be excellent.

"If they can get those four things right then they can move ahead of the pack," says Middleton. "Apple has done that. No other laptop or desktop computer looks or feels or gives you an experience like Apple. No other phone feels quite like an iPhone. No one else comes close to the iPad. They are always pushing the boundary," he says.

Hitchens says another key point is that Apple's Jobs is a strong brand champion. "When you've got a character like him he drives the brand. If you take Steve Jobs out of Apple, what would its future be? People talk about Apple fans as being cult members. There are few brands that will see people sleeping outside the door and queuing for hours on end to be the first adopters for new products," says Hitchens.

"People do raise the products they love to a high position in their lives. One of the world's most popular tattoos is the Harley-Davidson logo. Can you think of a brand that people love so much that they want to permanently ink it on their skin? At the end of the day it's an engineering company that provides transport."

But Hitchens believes brands such as Apple mustn't take this loyalty for granted. "They can only do it [make a mistake] a couple of times. They won't be able to keep getting away with it," he says. He reckons Jobs could have handled the iPhone 4 fiasco better. "Apple have become so big, an arrogance creeps in. They've become the establishment when before the whole psyche has been that they've been the cool kid. They have to be careful," he says.

Last year, The Centre for Brand Analysis warned that Apple and Google—which has also received negative publicity over privacy and data protection problems—might have reached their zenith as brands, says Cheliotis. "They are not diving off a cliff but they did slip in the latest rankings and they are in their worst position for the last four or five years," he says.

Cheliotis thinks small businesses that are closer to customers are well placed to create emotional engagement with them. "If you deliver the personal touch and a good product or service that exceeds expectations, then people will come back to you and tell their friends, too. It's about standing out—which, for a small business, is often about reflecting the personality of the business owner so that people want to engage with that personality," he says.

Hitchens agrees. "Many people believe a brand is just a logo. It's not. Your brand covers every touch point from the way you present yourself to the logo, and to the design of the product or service."

Middleton says most small businesses don't understand the power of branding because they worry about "functional" things such as marketing. But branding is different, he says. "If you run one of 10 cafés in a small town and you can be the one that 'gets' it you have a real advantage." And it's not about how much you spend. "Branding is about decisions you make every morning about how you're going to deal with customers or how you are going to make your shop look, how you will make people's hearts beat faster. It's completely within the power of small businesses," he says.

Love in the bank

Six ways to keep brand passion alive...

1. Get the basics right. It's about delivering good quality, being reliable, and consistency.

2. Understand your audience and be clear who your customer is.

3. Be true to yourself and don't pretend to be anything else.

4. Place marketing at the heart of the business, but that's more than a fluffy logo and a marketing campaign. It's about making sure staff understand what the brand is about and ensuring everyone uses the same message.

5. Have a long term-vision of where you want the company to go and share this with your staff. Recruit people who are going to be faithful to your idea—they are your strongest asset.

6. Be distinctive. Don't just be different, be really different. Don't call yourself by a name that's similar to someone else's and use an original logo.

Paul Hitchens and his wife Julia are the authors of Create the perfect brand, published by Hodder