Sex Appeal To Make Apple World's First Trillion-Dollar Company

Scott Galloway via Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune:

1. Luxury brands give you self-expressive benefit: “They signal something about you. This is not a timepiece [holding up his watch]. I have not wound it in five years. It’s my vain attempt to express Italian masculinity and signal that if you mate with me I’m more likely to take care of your offspring than someone wearing a Swatch watch.” …
3. The core axiom of evolution: “Is men paying $150,000 for cars that can go 160 mph in domains where you can only go 55. It makes no sense. Women will continue to pay $600 for ergonomically impossible shoes to try and solicit inbound offers from those same men.”
4. Apple is the only tech company in history: “That has successfully migrated down that torso. It used to be the best computer. Then it sang to your heart with songs. Now it’s the ultimate self-expressive brand.”

I almost typed out an uncouth joke about logical conclusions just now, but I trust you to get the gist.

In all seriousness, I tend to agree with Galloway’s presentation. (Even though only the last five minutes focus on Apple Watch, the entire 16-minute speech is worth watching.) Apple, claims Galloway, is already the “largest luxury brand” — with the most profitable retail store presence — in the entire world. Apple Watch, as a fashion-first (but only on the surface) item, is disrupting the techno-centric world Apple’s embraced until now, and everyone in the industry is generally confused by this perceived change of course. Of course, Apple isn’t loosing its grip on tech at all.

To go along with Galloway’s metaphors, Apple is merely making its state-of-the-art a little more intimate.