RAJNI AND APPLE

Couple of events that have triggered this article are – 1) Rajini receiving the “Entertainer of the Decade” award from NDTV and 2) The launch of iPad 2 in the US.

When Rajini received the “Entertainer of the Decade” award from NDTV, Ajay Devgn mentioned that Thalaivar was not only the biggest star in India but also the biggest star in the world. That got me thinking. I was wondering  if there was indeed a star as big as Rajini anywhere in the world whose movies are anticipated right from when they are announced and whose moves are closely followed by his millions of fans across the word (Though he is not on Twitter). I could not think of any star anywhere. I expanded my thoughts to other celebrities, products, brands and companies and the only brand where I could draw parallels to Rajini was Apple.

Apple recently announced the launch of iPad 2 which was available in stores on Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 5:00 PM in the US (Last weekend). Early reports indicated that there were long queues at Apple stores especially the one in New York city and most of the stores did not have any iPad 2’s remaining to sell on Saturday (The next day). Reports estimate that Apple must have sold around half a million iPad 2’s over the 1st weekend when it was launched. Does this sound like a familiar situation? Yes it’s very much like how Endhiran tickets were sold out on-line in the US a few minutes after on-line ticketing started. That was two weeks before the movie hit the theatres. People were willing to pre-book tickets even though they did not know the release date.

Similar to Rajini movies, fans of Apple products are very curious about the next product or version that Apple is cooking up. There was a huge anticipation on the launch of the iPhone and the iPad and their different versions. The iPad is being touted as one of the best consumer product launches in history in a segment that did not exist before. No one thought that they needed something between a smartphone and a laptop but Apple has shown us otherwise. They have really defined the tablet PC market that was non-existent before.

So what is the reason for the success of these two spectacular brands- Rajini and Apple? The answer is simple. They focus on what their customers truly want- Entertainment and user experience. They have connected with their audience/customers really well and know their pulse and are not afraid to re-invent themselves to lead the pack. That is why Rajini is the biggest star in the world and Apple is the biggest technology company in the world in terms of market capitalization.