The Brand Champion

As marketers, we work really hard to establish a consistent and ownable brand identity in the marketplace. Admirable brands try to do this. Great brands succeed in doing this.

But the very best brands take it one step further - they define their competitors as well.

That is the magic of the current Apple (Get a Mac) campaign.

Most people praise the campaign for its clear and concise delivery of Mac's points of differentiation. But the real beauty of it is that while doing that, it is defining Microsoft and PC's as stuffy, and user-unfriendly. (no offense to John Hogdman)

You know the exercise we all go through where we define who our brand would be if it was a person? Well Apple shows us exactly who they are and exactly who Microsoft is. There is nothing left to the imagination!

And because the PC industry is so diverse, and Microsoft is so busy trying to brand its products, this is the most consistent "definition" we have of them. (And it isn't pretty!)

Kudos to TBWA and the folks at Apple for a job well done.

P.S. Not to turn this into an Apple fan page (I actually use a PC anyway) - but did you notice that Apple has done all this without even mentioning Microsoft by name?