Faisal on Steve Jobs

Days after Apple became the most valuable company in the world, Steve Jobs stepped down as chief executive of the company he helped launch 35 years ago. On an industry panel organised by Marketing Magazine, Fig consultant Faisal Siddiqui was asked how this news would effect the Apple business and brand.

"For loyal Apple users, the cult of Steve Jobs is intertwined with the success of the company and he is very much the brand. How Apple go about maintaining that myth will need to be addressed.

On the other hand there is a whole new generation of consumers buying Apple products, to which the product will be more important than Steve Jobs. Apple must now weigh the importance it gives to core customers and the newer people who are starting to engage with the brand.

Inside the company, it will be interesting to see to what extent Apple will find it necessary to codify the things Steve Jobs believed in.

If they do, their brand can act as a constitution for how the company will behave in the future.

More than anything else, Steve Job’s personality and eccentricity softened the edges of their corporation and the perception of how big it is.

He made people at Apple feel that because of him, they were not Microsoft. But with Steve Jobs gone and Apple getting bigger, it will be hard for it to maintain their challenger-brand status in the tech space."