The Emotional Contract

Hard To Repair

Like many people, I've been struck by the controversy involving Apple and the FBI, and increasingly skeptical about how an incredibly common product could resist all of the world's criminals and cyber-security hackers. Also, how a company could not just be willing to take privacy to the point of providing aid and comfort to the individual over their government, even if that individual was a terrorist, criminal or murderer. I'm not sure how that jibes with supporting your local police or military, but that line just doesn't translate to the FBI. Anyway.

But no matter where you are on this issue, one aspect is absolutely clear. That's how Apple's brand has, to this point, taken no damage at all, really. To its users, the company has stood tall against public and law enforcement pressures to protect their individual interests and privacy. The emotional contract between the users and the brand remains perfect. Even with some prominent public figures calling for a boycott of the company.

And that, now that I've thought longer (and different?), is the best reason why Apple is going to fight this to, well, legality and beyond. The security issue is something that will eventually go away, because no platform ever stays completely secure, especially with this much scrutiny. But Apple's brand will endure, even if a side hack happens. So long as the company stays on message of their users coming first, and isn't revealed to capitulate in an underhanded manner, they'll suffer no real damage from this.

Now, let's consider Volkswagen. (Interestingly, not Audi or Porsche, who are part of the same corporate family, but haven't been painted with the same brush.) That company pitched itself as eco-conscious without a subsequent lapse of performance, through the use of diesel technology that passed all emissions standards. Until it was revealed that this was all a lie, thanks to the use of fraudulent software that only kicked in during testing. The cover up was elaborate, the benefit obvious, and the hubris involved in believing that the misdeed would never be found out was, frankly, well, stunning.

Overnight, VW owners lost value in their investments, because their cars were no longer attractive to, well, the kind of drivers that bought VW in the first place. Since the disclosure, VW has apologized, changed a great deal of personnel, swapped out marketing messages, and worked to fix the emissions issues before class-action and government watchdogs forced their hand. But whether or not this ever fixes the damage to the emotional contract, and helps the brand get back to their prior valuation, is a whole other matter entirely.

Thinking back on my own career and clients, I've had any number of wins and losses, with strong educational moments along the way in both directions... but I've never gotten a client back once an emotional contract had been broken.

No matter who broke it, really.

So it's not a phone, or even a great number of phones, or an operating system that Apple's trying to protect.

Rather, it's their idea of why their brand is valued the way that it is.

And how that's probably only got one direction to go.

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