Badges. That’s what it really boils down to. It’s true that some badges deserve their mark-up because the products they produce are just that much better, but for the most part you’re buying Brand X because of the badge. My favorite example of this is Apple. Yes, their products are well engineered. They are also pretty powerful, but are they worth the price mark-up? On that front, opinion is varied. Millions and millions of you think they are. I think they’re not. I think you’re buying the badge.
News in today shows the rabbit hole goes deeper. Of all places, Fox Sports reports that Apple are in talks to buy McLaren, the sports car manufacturer and sometime F1 participant. To be precise about it, they are in talks to buy McLaren Automotive, McLaren Applied Technologies and the F1 team.
This is an interesting development. Apple are long-rumored to have had designs in the automotive space. Frankly, I’m not at all sure what they plan to do there since BMW already owns iDrive but I guess they planned to cross that bridge when they came to it.
McLaren provide a ready-made answer. They already charge stupid money for a product you can get far cheaper from other sources, so they must already be ticking a lot of boxes for Apple, and – of course – it’s their badge power that allows them to get away with it. This marks a shift for Apple whose automotive ambitions (let’s just call it the iCar) have been on the rocks for some time. In fact, in July of this year they drafted in Bob Mansfield, a long-term employee, to head up the project.
Well, it looks like Bob’s big idea is to just buy in the expertise. Go into partnership with another premium brand and then – presumably – drive their solid gold iCars around a track of diamonds. Something like that anyway. According to a report in the Financial Times, Apple are interested in McLaren’s “technology, engineering prowess and patent portfolio”.
As yet, this is just interest and not an actual move. That said, any interest shown by Apple is enough to make people froth at the mouth and begin putting their organs up for auction to try to afford the upcoming Apple supercar. Doubtless that will not be the direction Apple wish to go in. For a giant tech company they are no doubt looking at electric and self-drive as their buzz words. However, they could cobble together an old box cart, stick an Apple badge on it right next to the McLaren badge and queues would form around the block to buy it.
I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed, however, that there is more to this announcement than that and will cling to the slim hope that this deal may lead to a great stride forward in the automotive world. Hey, it’s a theoretical possibility!
