The Cult Of Apple And The Church Of Cook

How does Apple foster such a deep passion within its supporters? Why are Apple Stores bucking major retail trends and breaking sales records? How can it command queues around the block on every single launch day of a product? Erica Robles-Anderson, a New York University professor, puts forward one simple answer.

Apple is a cult, and the Apple Store is its disciple's church.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MARCH 9: Apple CEO Tim Cook exits the stage (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

Speaking to Atlas Obscura, she highlighted one area where Apple can create common rituals with its customers to emphasis an individual's place in a larger group. That area is the Apple Store, and many of the architectural elements echo that of religious spaces.

There are the oversized and heavy doors as you enter the Apple Store, "to give purpose and portent" to the store. The steps leading up to the door will be designed to be an uncomfortable size, forcing a slower pace out of you and giving you more time to experience the doors before you slowly discover the inside of the Apple Store.

On entering you find yourself in a space that emphasises scale, in turn minimising your size in the store, evoking a sense of a sacred space that you are privileged to enter. You can see everyone gathered around tables, sharing their experience of the new products. There's no quiet space you can be yourself, you are always subject to the pressures of conforming to a group.

Take the stairs up to the Genius bar. They are very likely spiral, and made of glass. Robles-Anderson draws comparisons to lifting you up to the heavens, up towards knowledge, up towards enlightenment and a personal one-to-one with someone who is closer to God (sorry, closer to Tim Cook) than you are.

The Apple Store, Zorlu Center, Istanbul (image:

Of course every retail store should be designed to maximise its return, but the key to understanding the Apple Store is to not necessarily focus on its ability to shift a sale every time someone walks in the door. The Stores are good at that, but this is a secondary benefit to the design. The Apple Store takes a personal experience with technology and forces it to be shared with others in public. It helps create habits and rituals to the Apple experience.

That takes the Apple Store beyond simple marketing to a point where it actively works to encourage Apple fans to be better Apple fans. That creates a stronger emotional bond between the consumer and the company, and that in turn helps explain the increased sales of Apple products both in store and online.

Apple's marketing is not just about letting the world know about its latest product, it is about building up 'Brand Apple' for those who are looking in and wondering if its time to make the jump, it is about reinforcing 'Brand Apple' with those who have recently arrived, and it is about creating positive loops with the faithful to have them evangelise Apple to the world.

That's not something that rival smartphone manufacturers can easily replicate with a three-month campaign through an external agency during the launch of a new flagship device. Without the long-term commitment that Apple has invested in creating its own tribe of committed users, the marketing and retail power of Apple cannot be matched.

(Now read my review of the iPhone 6S).

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