Hm. Alone v three r i c a half from harvard business online on this week's program we talk with joe pine who's the co author with jim gilmore of the new book authenticity what consumers really want. Hello i'm steve singer and i'm on the phone this morning with joe pine who's the co author of the upcoming book authenticity what consumers really want. And also the author of a recent harvard business online blonde post regarding apples recent decision to offer refunds to anyone who bought a nice on. You're welcome and thanks for taking the time to be with us. Thank you stated supporter. Joe you've written a lot about authenticity and you generally really like apples approach what went wrong here with this recent decision. Well apple really wasn't uh true self it what what we love uh about apples uh is it that it example flies. Well my co author jim go more and i call original authenticity were everything it does everything it design. Is is new world is is so original. From uh it's uh gorgeous computers to the wonderfully flea guy pod too it's amazing retail experiences it's all it's all original. But here they made an announcement that the tracks from that uh one you know the announcement itself uh it didn't come off as as as as anything original but also kicked off. All the people who sol the uniqueness of themselves in buying it you'll be one of the first to buy and i felt and here they're saying you know apple saying well forget about that you made a stupid mistake because you could have gotten it two eight dollars cheaper if you just wait a couple of months. But authenticity using just driven by uh pricing the decision is it. Oh no i mean everything a company does. Drives the perception of authenticity n. b. and and that's what's really key is is how ah your customers perceive what you are doing. And so uh every decision you make impair beliefs potentially impacts that that perception of authenticity from pricing too what you advertised to where you're you're offerings are sold and uh and so forth. So if you were consulting with apple on this decision what would you have done to help them uh maintain their authenticity. Well assuming that the decision to drop the price by a by two hundred dollars was the right long term decision to make for you know supply and demand reasons. Then what they should have done is is turned it into something that was a positive for everybody who bought my phone up to now. Uh for example you know once they started getting complaints uh jobs announced that they would give everybody a hundred dollar store credit. Well that should've been immediate and and the price difference was two hundred dollars not want to dollars. Make it that much in fact if they really wanted to be original because i don't know if anybody that's ever done it before they should have given more than two hundred dollars off and really congratulated. All of the the people who who bought the i phones to gradually them on the wonderful decision that they that. And to help make sense continue to feel special because everybody who has a nice on feels really special about it exactly but this this totally tracks so now they're wondering do i have high phone or do i have a nice phony. And so how should oh there cos go about maintaining d authenticity that they've developed over the years well it kicks really if you have develop a love awesome to see that apple has as well as many other ah i connick brands out there. Then what you've gotta do is understand d to keys standards of authenticity. And then number one is being true to south. Yeah it's it's a phrase it everybody recognizes when it comes off this you gotta be treated self treat itself is very internally focus it's a it's it's a. All the decisions that were making is what we're we're doing um doesn't match who were you really are as a as a company in this case. And then the second key standard is other focused it says it it's it's are you what you say you are. So where the first one is about your true self the second one is about your representation oh that's self to others. Does what you say about yourself particularly in your advertising uh but also in any public statements that you making any in any does designs that you do it everywhere you represent yourself in your packaging and so forth. Does that matched who you really are because the easiest way to be perceived as phony is to advertise things that you were not. So there's been a lot of criticism about apples decision to go with eighteen t as a partner for the i phone does how would that play into apples perception of authenticity. Well it's it's it's very interesting i mean the the seems like a true self decision. Uh yeah then that uh apples likes to be in control and apple likes to call the shots and this web here's to be a company or what with which they could do that you know i mean i'm sure they talk to every other company out there. Uh and eighteen t clearly does not have the best network like uh rising does. And therefore they didn't go with with somebody that's where it was it was a co equal in terms of being able to bring the best. Together uh but it is one where apple could control things like they do with i two it's like they do with our own operating system so in that sense it's it's true self but uh you have to wonder about whether they're they're bringing the best quality network to their their clients. Well and also the from what i understand from what i've read that the retail experiences are completely different between the eighteen t brand any any apple brand. Oh absolutely. I mean i mean apple has one of the best retail experiences in the world. The the apple stores are amazing i or one person describe it like you know particular the the fifth avenue store in new york which is which is the most amazing with this class queue yeah uh on the surface then you enter the sub training and uh. Experience uh the the the first describe it as like walking inside of in that computer. And it is just amazing experience which results in one unbelievable four thousand dollars per square foot over over a hundred fifty stores and that's that's just a phenomenal. But at
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