Consumer Behavior Assignments
cam15
ch09_case.htmlCASE
Chapter 9 Case
ITtsnao h1lf eta9 wsN9s3aeis,rw etAa,t ponap tnb l(eiaPn ciDcnklAtluir)gdo, hetdhtdu,e cah eNnadden wtdahw tseotr ynfiit ,lri unstsotg tp trhheeaercts o omwgnaanarsiltk udieostinge. id to input most commands. It also supported modems, ethernet and wireless network cards, and fl ash memory. However, due to Apple’s rush to beat competitors to the market, engineers did not have adequate time to test the Newton, and bugs were later found in its software. In addition, many consumers thought the Newton had too many features and was not user-friendly. This per ception, combined with the Newton’s size, which was larger than the PalmPilot and other PDAs introduced later, made it unpopular with most consumers. Sales of the Newton were sluggish so it was dropped from Apple’s product line in early 1998, shortly after Steve Jobs became CEO of Apple.
During its brief time with Apple, though, a brand community consisting of about 200,000 highly loyal Newton users coalesced. Many members of this community thought that the discontinuation of the Newton was directly due to Steve Jobs becoming Apple’s CEO, while others believed that the product had not been given a fair chance and was simply too far ahead of its time. Thus, in a surprising result, the Newton brand community did not disappear with the removal of the Newton from the market; rather, the community flourished. The members of the brand community became even more committed to the Newton and served as devout advocates of the Newton. Online community forums dedicated to the Newton were filled with accounts of Newton users convincing others of the product’s worth, stories about how Microsoft and its users were bullying the Newton, and rumors about the Newton being reintroduced. Almost mythical descriptions of the Newton’s performance, such as its compatibility with other products or recovery after seemingly “fatal” accidents, were also quite normal.
Mystical and spiritual themes were widespread among members’ comments about the Newton. Marketing researchers have even noted that many members of this brand community almost treated it as a religion. Many members of the community treated competing products like a false religion, comparing users of other PDAs and Microsoft products to cattle who were simply going with the flow and unaware of the real value of the Newton. When members of the community felt that the community was threatened, their resolve to stay with the community and be all the more dedicated to it was reinforced.61
Questions
- Why did a brand community develop around the Newton?
- Why did the Newton brand community thrive after Apple abandoned the Newton?
- Could the Newton brand community have existed without the Internet? Why or why not?
188 PART 3 : EXTERNAL INFLUENCERS
79749_09_c09_p168-189.indd 188
