Apple former Ken Segall worries Tim Cook is getting ‘vanilla’ advice

Apple CEO Tim Cook.Getty

• Steve Jobs’ former ad man Ken Segall thinks Apple CEO Tim Cook is getting “vanilla” advice, and it means the company is not taking enough risks in its marketing.
• He said the tone of Apple’s advertising has changed significantly since Jobs died in 2011, and the firm is failing to create personalities around new iPhones.
• Apple is poised to unveil its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, during which we’ll hear more about how the iPhone X has been received by customers.

Ken Segall, an advertising veteran and one-time ally of Steve Jobs, is worried that Apple is losing some of its chutzpah under CEO Tim Cook.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the former creative director at ad agency Chiat/Day said Apple is not taking some of the marketing risks it did under Jobs and is failing to create personalities around new iPhones.

Segall worked on definitive campaigns such as “Think Different,” and created the name iMac, so he knows what branding worked for Apple after Jobs’ return in 1997.

“The passing of Steve Jobs created a completely different approach to marketing which we can see the results of,” Segall said. “As a marketer, I look at that and can see the difference between Steve being there — and not being there — very clearly.”

Segall said this could be because Cook is heeding advice to play it safe. “Tim Cook goes by recommendation of the people around him,” he said, adding that those people are “a little vanilla.” Segall continued: “In a big company environment people tend to get safer… In the old days, Apple used to do things that get a lot of attention.”

This isn’t the first time Segall has criticised a post-Jobs Apple. In 2016, Segall said Apple’s iPhone naming policy has “served to confuse customers” and make the job of marketing problematic.

He alluded to those concerns in conversation with The Telegraph, saying: “They should be building a personality for the phone, a thing that people might want to be part of because it rises above the features of the moment.” This will help Apple rise above the competition, Segall said, at a time when smartphone sales are slowing.

Business Insider has contacted Apple for comment.

Apple will post its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, during which we’ll hear more about how the iPhone X has been received by customers. There was some encouragement on Monday, when UBS noted that Apple is successfully persuading people to move up the iPhone price scale. This could bolster revenue and help it weather maturation in the smartphone market.