A short Fox Business interview (4/24/2015) with branding expert Matt Britton discussing the Apple Watch’s prospects. Britton predicts the Watch will become a must-have by the holidays due to visible wearability and easy use cases (e.g., Apple Pay, Shazam), while noting challenges including battery life, charger logistics, price, and limited initial supply. The segment closes with a mention of Britton’s book, 'Youth Nation', framing millennials as cultural drivers.
More I want to bring in my founder and CEO Matt Brin. Matt is a branding expert. He has very high hopes for the Apple Watch come the holidays. Good to see you.
I do you think this is going.
To be the product to have?
I do, I do. I think unlike a phone that's buried in people's pockets, the watch is going to be on everybody's wrists. The first time that you see somebody call an Uber car by tapping on the wrist or pay for a Starbucks coffee by showing their wrist, I think it's going to be irresistible to the American public and I think it's going to catch on like wildfire come the holiday season.
Well, I mean look, let's remember what happened with Google Glass. We were all up in arms and we thought this is so great. Google Glass that sort of fell flat.
I think the form factor of glasses for people who don't normally need to wear glasses and actually the user experience of the Google Glass was not intuitive to the consumer at all. The first time I tried it on and I'm pretty tech savvy, I couldn't figure it out. So a lot of people are making that comparison but I don't think it's going to be relevant here.
But you can figure out the Apple Watch.
I mean I've played with it and it's pretty easy, is pretty intuitive. I think so many people have the iPhone and the user experience is sort of analogous to the iPhone on the watch that to most people who've grown up using the iPhone on the iPad, it's pretty easy to use.
O okay, so the price point is good in terms of, you know, having this, this is the must have, must need.
Right. So I think the two issues that Apple's going to deal with is first of all battery life because people are not used to charging their watches and it's just another thing to charge in a nightstand.
Right. And is it a different charger than everything else? Because that's another issue giving us different charges, new charger.
So I think that's going to be one of the issues. I think the other issue is going to be are people going to forget the charger. Right now they're saying it's an 18 hour battery life but is that enough for a watch when you're not used to charging? And the second is going to be the price point. I mean that's another device that you have to pay for another $350 on top of a tablet, on top of a phone. That's going to be problematic for some Consumers as well, perhaps they're going to bring that down like they did with the iPhone.
What about the issue of limited supply? You know, if you didn't order it, preorder it, you're probably not going to get it anytime soon.
I have to say I was surprised that they don't have it available in store. It's the first time I can remember that.
Yeah.
Why would that product that they, that they didn't have available in store? I don't think it's going to have long term consequences to the success of the product. But that was a little bit surprising to me for sure.
Yeah. I mean, that obviously has to cut sales and expectations for sales.
It does. But I think you look, this is their first edition of the watch, so I think for them to throttle out the sales, for them to actually continue to release new versions of the software going up to the big holiday sales season, I think that's the plan here, is that they're going to release it and throttle the release up until the holiday season and I think be a massive.
All right, so this is going to be the product this holiday.
That's my prediction.
Yeah. That's funny. Okay, so are we going to see sort of copycats behind it? More wearables like this?
You know, there's been a lot of wearables that have actually failed or have not had commercial success in the marketplace already. Pebble was one that was a, was a product that raised nearly $10 million or over $10 million on Kickstarter, which was funded by the crowd. Samsung came out with a wearables device. But I think this is going to be the one that really defines what wearables means to the consumer.
Your thoughts on the advertising campaign?
That it's beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. I mean, it's all about use cases. It's for the consumer. They're saying, oh, the Apple Watch is cool. It's an Apple product. I'll put it on my wrist. But how can I use it? And there's some incredible use cases. Shazam, for instance, is a popular app on the iPhone where you can, if you hear a song, you want to know what the song is, you actually have to pull your phone, hit a button and see. Well, now you can just push your watch and do it. So that's incredible. I think Apple Pay is going to really take off with the phone because consumers are just going to be tapping their watches to buy things, you know, versus having to dig into their pocket.
It's interesting that you say that because the Apple Pay I mean, I could see how easy it is on the watch, but, I mean, I have the iPhone 6 and, you know, a 6 plus, I mean, and I just got a cue the other day walking me through how to do Apple Pay. So more BlackBerry for you now.
Wow, It's a big moment.
Exactly. So why wouldn't people just use their phone? I mean, why do I need the watch?
I mean, it's. That's just saying why wouldn't they use cash instead of using the phone? I mean, it's that much easier. People are moving so quickly that the millennial generation moves at light speed. Anything that can knock a few seconds out of their ability to communicate or transact, they're going to use. And it has a kind of a James Bond effect to just do this and pay. So I think it's really going to, it's going to be interesting. It's going to be a status symbol moving forward.
And we, we continue to hear. That's the buzz to Joe down that you wrote Youth Nation.
Yeah.
Building Remarkable Brands in a Youth Driven Culture.
Yes.
The book is by Wiley and it is out now.
It is out now, yes.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Is there, is there a certain culture or sort of desire on the part of young, you know, like millennials? This is what you're talking about in terms of the strength of the Apple Watch.
It is, I mean, I think what Youth nations about is how in the 60s and 70s, culture used to be counterculture. Young people had to fight to have their voices heard against big government and big business. And fast forward to today. Young people aren't really on the fringe anymore. They're the driving force behind the American business landscape. They're the people that are making the trends and decisions that are disrupting institutions and massive businesses. So.
All right, we will leave it there. And the book is Youth Nation. Matt Brin, congratulations. We'll see you soon. Thanks very much for stopping by.
