Macworld

News that Steve Jobs is reportedly not attending MacWorld this week, has raised some concern among investors about Apple’s reliance on one individual to sustain its operating performance and company vision. Breaking Views demonstrated how valuable one person can be:

They estimated the worth of each of the core businesses that comprise Apple’s $80 billion in market value:

• Macintosh - $19 billion
• iPhone - $17 billion
• iPod - $14 billion
• Hardware/Software - $11 billion
• iTunes - $1 billion

That leaves almost $20 billion dollars unaccounted for, which Jeff Segal argues could be rationalized as ‘The Jobs Premium‘:

Apple is worth more than its parts because it has successfully harnessed the convergence of computers, cell phones and entertainment.

Consumers want brands that are more than a sum of their parts. In The Brand Bubble we detail energized differentiation, the consumer perception of motion and direction.  Brands that have it generate greater loyalty, pricing power and financial return.

There are three dimensions in this new metric:  Vision is thought leadership, corporate culture and values. Invention is tangible product and service experiences. And Dynamism is marketplace conversations and the ability to build and sustain brand communities.

When a brand masters the alignment of its energy, it becomes irresistible to consumers. The logic is that consumers, in acting like investors interrogate a brand from all vantage points for evidence of innovation and whether it is ‘truly aligned’. Irresistible brands outperform the S&P 500 by almost 30% in our modeled fund study.

In the Steve Jobs premium, we see the marketplace reward for unity. Apple has achieved dramatic growth and transformation by organizing its company around its brand. Regardless of function, everyone must think like a marketer, and act in the best interests of the brand.

And it could be said that integrated marketing, when done flawlessly at the enterprise level –  is worth around, say $20 billion dollars. That’s something for every CEO to  mull over.

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