Apple Brands Even on a Construction Sign
We all can agree Apple knows how to market products. We all marvel at its advertising for the iPad, iPhone and other innovative products. Yet it is Apple’s brand follow-through in all it does that is truly monumental. 
To me, Apple’s brand core word is “simple.” You see it in the design of its products and national advertising. But there is also a real human side to Apple’s advertising: From featuring actual iPhone customers’ photos on its billboards to its approach to everyday uses in its ads, Apple is firmly connected to people’s lives. This approach allows Apple to apply its brand so that the mundane becomes super well done.
You certainly see this connection to how people actually think and feel in Apple’s packaging. And this nod to humanity is also apparent on a temporary wall erected in Des Moines to hide the remodeling inside an Apple store. Even this detail is not too small for Apple to share a simple, yet sophisticated, humanized message. Even the black background is arresting and provides a high contrasting, easily-seen canvas in a mall full of colors and distractions.
Simple design, simple message, complex brand identity. As a marketer, Apple is worth watching on every level and every opportunity.
Thanks to our marketing marine picket, Monte Bowden for this photo and the insight to take it.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.