Martin Banks, Personal Computer World 02/89 - checked

February 1989

I don't care who you are, or indeed who I am; we are all beset by image. We may like to think that this is an affliction only of 'the others', everyone else except us, but unfortunately it is not the case.

Image is not just something which affects individual people, though we all have our problems in the area. It also affects companies and, indeed whole industries. Everyone can spot an undertaker, for example, especially when they are working. It is more difficult to spot diners, of course, for the male version of the breed tends to dress the same as the waiters who serve them. But bank managers always where somber suits, don't they? so they're easy to spot, even when they're on holiday.

Image has also had its place in the mainstream computer industry, of course. IBM staff, especially those that have to meet anyone from the outside world, have traditionally worn a white shirt and a dark (preferably blue or grey) suit. One large management services company certainly used to have the reputation of taking its ideas on image to puritanical lengths, so that no staff could, for example, have any form of facial hair or they lost their job.

When the personal computer came along, the image changed, though 'image' it certainly remained. Suddenly, one had to be desperately laid-back to be in the PC business. It became very important, even in darkest Oswestry, to have the image of someone who had just came back from the beach, man, where.... you know... you had been.... you know.... thinking, man.

Not surprisingly, Apple was the company that best personified this image, with Jobs and Wozniak creating the genre almost single-handed. This is ironic, in a way, for it is now Apple which is in the forefront of a sea-change in the image of the PC business, and itself in particular. I have not been alone in admitting a certain sadness at the passing of the 'fun' image of the PC business - while accepting that it has over the years become a much more serious business altogether - but there is a definite change in attitude that has recently come about. The PC business is now IMPORTANT.

And if you don't believe me, look at the evidence the industry presents about itself. It has a higher opinion of its place in the world than anyone else. And the results of this change can be seen not only in the industry, but in some of its products and their impact on the world. It is in danger of making 'image' products that do little more than enhance the image of the already image conscious. A bit like designer underwear, really.

Take, for example, the recent spate of TV adverts by Apple. Very significant boardroom type persons sit round a table while 'the boss' demands some form of publishing miracle to be produced in the next thirty five seconds. Oh gosh, the Apple-freak is the only one who can produce the goods. In other adverts, one important-style executive person is being stunned by the quality of the report that another executive-style person is posing with. The first is stunned by the fact that the second produces this sort of pretty-looking thing all the time.

Not once however, does anyone talk about more than production speed and presentation. The contents of all this artistic endeavour is probably a heap of dodo's droppings, but so long as it looks pretty, so says the advert's implications, you'll get a job on the board and the company Ferrari.

The same effect can be increasingly seen in company videos. Every damned one is packed full of the most dull and boring rubbish you could ever want to observe. All the most tedious facts about a company and its products are intoned by someone with one of those soporific voices guaranteed to send anyone still conscious into a catatonic state.

Self-importance is usually on display by the bucket-load, and anything that smacks even remotely of humour or, dare one say it, humanity, is ruthlessly slapped down and consigned to the cutting room floor. Pompous company individuals talk pompously to the people who, if the market researchers have done their job properly, obviously need to be talked at in that manner.

This is hardly surprising, of course, for the majority of both the talkers and listeners are men, and men just love to either patronise or be patronised. In that way, they can define their place in a hierarchy, a necessity for them which is aided and advanced by the excessive use of image.

Now we are starting to see the ultimate version of this self-importance amongst members of the PC business. If you ever have the chance to attend the launch of a new product by a PC manufacturer go along, but not to see the gizmo (it's bound to be just another box with a bit more memory, a bit more disk, a slightly more whizzo processor and a teensy bit more fanciful colour display). Instead, look at the company executives.

There you will see the latest shift in the PC image business - the marketing manager as PERFORMER.

Yes, you will stunned by this star turn, lines learned to perfection, slide show precisely timed, demonstrations (usually) working as planned. And the clothes....well, they are always stylish, a la mode, and direct from the smoothers.

And the product? oh yes, the product. Well, its still just another box of bits, much like all the others, so its the marketing manager's dance routine which now marks it out as 'better', or 'different'.

This poses an interesting thought. Noel Coward once wrote a song called something like 'Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage, Mrs Worthington'. He is still right.

Now, Mrs Worthington, you should send her to the PC industry. She'd get more acting experience, and I'm told the work is more regular.

Rumour has it that RADA is starting an acting course for marketing managers very soon, the market is ready for it.

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