On September 30, 2013, Apple took over number one spot in the world’s 10 most valuable brands and this result was published on the Forbes website. Why is Apple doing so well in today’s extremely competitive market? One of Apple’s secrets to success is that the company is an expert at delivering customer value which includes customer excellence, locational excellence, product excellence, and operational excellence.

Apple has one of the best customer services. There are always 5 to 10 shop assistants working in each apple store every day, so you will for sure be helped at once. If you are not satisfied with Apple’s products, you could still return or exchange the products even after a few months. Whenever there are any problems with your product, they will always try to fix it for you at no cost, even though the product is not under guarantee. Hence, Apple delivers high customer excellence.

I’m a Samsung cell phone user. However, it is not easy to locate a Samsung store if I have any questions with my cell phone or if there are any problems with it. As for Apple, it is always easy to find an Apple store in all major shopping centers; you can simply visit the store when you are doing some shopping. This is Apple’s superior locational excellence.

Besides customer and locational excellence, Apple’s product has the best quality as well. I used to buy a new laptop every year because there would already be plenty of problems with the laptop after a year. Nevertheless, the laptop I am using now is MacBook Pro which I have already used for two years, and I will do not think I need to buy a new laptop in the near future。

Finally, Apple has a high standard of operational performance. Its product line is sufficient and it has one of the highest employee satisfactions.

Overall, Apple is very good at delivering high customer value. This is why Apple has become the world’s most valuable brand.

Nowadays, increasing numbers of companies look for celebrities to endorse their products at all costs. Of course, it is a way to reap huge rewards for a brand. At the same time, I started to think if today’s celebrity endorsement has gone too far.

Many celebrities may be overexposed as they endorse too many products. As a result, customers might question the credibility of these celebrities. Tiger Woods, for instance, has been called the world’s most marketable athlete. He endorsed more than 10 brands at once. In 2009, Forbes stated that Woods was the first athlete to earn over a billion dollars in his career (before taxes). Will the customers first consider the high popularity of Tiger Woods? Or they may first think about the creditability of Woods, and so, the credibility of the brand endorsed by him?

What’s more, celebrities can overshadow the products. Thus, customers tend to focus on the celebrities, not the products themselves. Skin Care industry, for example, is wise in overshadowing their products. The models or celebrities always spend hours and hours to apply nude makeup before shooting for the products. Hence, the makeup does seem heavy, and it even presents a perfect, gorgeous, and non-makeup skin. This misleads the customers to consider that the flawless skin is due to the product. However, customers never know if these celebrities actually use the products that they endorsed, even if they tell customers that they do use them. In addition to that, customers may also buy the product just due to the influence of the celebrity, and indeed, they ignored the actual effects of the product itself.