Why Doomsday Cults Prefer Apple

A Chicago housewife, Marion Keech, had mysteriously been given messages in her house in the form of “automatic writing” from alien beings on the planet Clarion, who revealed that the world would end in a great flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. The group of believers, headed by Keech, had taken strong behavioral steps to indicate their degree of commitment to the belief. They had left jobs, college, and spouses, and had given away money and possessions to prepare for their departure on the flying saucer, which was to rescue the group of true believers.

—When Prophecy Fails Wikipedia entry [emphasis added]

The doomsday cult’s reaction when the world didn’t end is fascinating:

In a reversal of its previous distaste for publicity, the group began an urgent campaign to spread its message to as broad an audience as possible.

Instead of renouncing their faith the believers doubled down and started evangelizing.

People will go to great lengths to justify (and stay consistent with) costly decisions.

Here are some conclusions I draw from that:

• People who switch from Windows to Mac will not switch back. Switching to Mac is a costly, conscious, and visible commitment, while using Windows is often a non-decision: “we use PCs at work” or “PCs are cheaper”.
• Twitter is harder to join but more sticky than social networks like MySpace and Facebook because Twitter is public. With Twitter you publicly claim your identity, ideas, and relationships. Facebook is more resilient than MySpace because Facebook is your “real” identity and not a persona.
• Teenagers will always be promiscuous when it comes to social networks. For teenagers, being consistent with their peer group is more important (i.e. less costly) than being internally consistent. The “cool kids” have more influence over teenagers, novelty for its own sake is a virtue, and when mom shows up on Facebook the party is over. Twitter skews older because it’s about being a public, opinionated individual, not about being a teenager trying to fit in.
• Always get paid up front. When your client has already made a costly commitment to you, they magically like your work better.
• Your product either has to create its own new market or fit the world view of an existing market. Remember though, a market isn’t truly mature until customers have committed to a story about that market. That’s why the iPhone was able to turn the “mature” cell phone market on its head in one product cycle. Before the iPhone customers told themselves: “I hate my phone. I bet Apple would make a great phone.” Blackberry users can resist the iPhone because they already believe this story: “Blackberry was the first to give me the superpower of mobile email. I type faster on Blackberry’s physical keyboard.”