In the '80s and even early '90s, Apple [APPL] infiltrated the PR industry, allowing small firms to invest only thousands of dollars on Macintosh computers to capitalize on what this so-called PC counterculture promised: good graphic capabilities and ease of use.
But today Apple [APPL], a $10 billion company trying to regain its footing by releasing a new operating system in mid-1998 and realigning itself for corporate America, will find that among the growing trade of communicators guiding investor, community and employee relations are longtime Apple users who are watching this computer giant closely. And, like those in the corporate world, PR practitioners may soon fall under the spell of Microsoft's [MSFT] Windows '95.
"This is a critical time for Apple - a time during which it will have to execute flawlessly," said William P. Fasig, a newcomer to Burson-Marsteller, Washington, D.C., who jut left behind nine years at Apple to manage Burson's government affairs and business development division. "Apple has gone from the days when it was riding on top of the world to the bloodbath in the PC industry, which has become a commodity market."
For those who have turned a skeptic's eye on Apple - witnessing the company lose $700 million in one quarter last year as well as its less-than-fluid corporate restructuring when Gil Amelio took over for former CEO Michael Spindler - it's the Cupertino, Calif., company's customer allegiance that will ultimately come into question. Although PR execs told PR NEWS that it's too early for them to turn their backs on Apple and turn to Microsoft, they admitted they'll be watching closely during the next few years.
"Some folks in other organizations are already turning to the PC, but we're going to wait at least six months or a year to see what Apple does - to see what the next round is," said Sharon VanSickle, a principal at Karakas, Vansickle, Ouellette Advertising & PR, Portland, Ore. "This will be a challenging time that determines whether businesses will stay with Apple."
But VanSickle, who said her business has about 75 Macs and about 40 PCs in which it has invested $2 million in, is one of those who - for now - still has a strong loyalty to Apple. She added that KVO began buying Macs about 14 years ago because they were an easy platform to learn and less costly to maintain (KVO spends about $200,000 in yearly maintenance).
But then along came Windows, which began rivaling what Macs offered and even making creating spreadsheets and crunching numbers easier, Van Sickle noted.
And it's precisely that - the increasing reliance on IBM and IBM clones such as Gateway 2000 and Dell computers and their enhanced data processing applications - that is key to why many larger PR operations are turning to PCs.
Take for instance Northern Telecom, which employs 63,000 people and is headquartered in Ontario. One of Macintosh's largest customers, the company recently began a three-year conversion process from Macs to what Northern Telecom Director of PR Brian Murphy calls "Wintel." The term is used to describe the symbiotic relationship between Microsoft's Windows technology and Intel's Pentium chip.
"Developers out there (in the marketplace) know where to put their time and they're putting it into Wintel because of its large customer base," Murphy mused.
Northern Telecom isn't the only large corporation that's relying on PCs. Chrysler, which is based in Highland Park, Mich., has a company-wide standard for PCs. And General Electric's PR division, which is headquartered in Fairfield, Conn., switched in 1996 from Macs to PCs.
And the list goes on: Sony-Columbia's Music Entertainment division in New York uses PCs and has for years. The External Relations department of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, uses Windows '95, and Symantec, a software company with an office in Cupertino where Apple is headquartered, has as many PCs as it does Macs.
Symantec's Director of PR Michael Sweeney said that even though Macs are used for projects that are more graphically oriented, the company also has to have PCs since they are ubiquitous in the corporate setting.
And it's a future that Apple executives admit they'll have to fight to be a part of. Russell Brady, platform and technology PR director for Apple, said the company did have somewhat of a separatist attitude early on. He said, however, it is increasing its business alliances and branching into new areas to compete in corporate America and the age of the Internet.
Among those efforts - which Brady called "reinvigorating" Apple as an international player - are QuickTime, a set of integration technologies which allow for multimedia content to be repurosed for the Internet and CD-ROMs; its business alliances with IBM, Netscape, Mountainview, Calif., and Sun Microsystems, also in Mountain View; its adoption of cross-platform technologies; and its 20 some research-and-development projects to integrate Java technology into its applications.
Macs on the PR Scene
Even though PR agency executive Barbara Wellnitz has used Macs since her business began almost four years ago, she says if more of her clients begin using software that's not compatible with Macintosh, she'll likely have to follow suit and move to the PC platform.
"I still have an allegiance to Macs but I will be watching what happens with Apple and whether its system remains proprietary," added Wellnitz, who is president of a virtual PR agency, the Wellnitz Group, based in Foxboro, Mass.
Martha Parker, president of Fitzgerald Communications, Cranston, R.I., agreed with Wellnitz. "It's my gut feeling that a lot of people in the PR industry have Macs because that's what they started out with, but it's likely that more and more will be going with IBMs or a another PC-based system," Parker said.
For now, Parker said her 51-year-old advertising/PR agency, with a staff of about 20, is Mac-driven because there is an abundance of production and design work done in-house. It's also because she invested about $25,000 in computer start-up costs and another $25,000 to upgrade Fitzgerald's Macs last year.
"We're all waiting to see to what degree Apple infiltrates more of the enterprise business world," said Apple analyst Jimmy Johnson, an associate with A.G. Edwards and Sons, St. Louis. "It's going to be rough because Apple did themselves in with its laissez-faire attitude... And the irony is that Windows '95 was built on Macintosh technology and Macintosh let Windows catch up."
"It will be difficult now to crack the impression I have that Apple may not be in business very much longer,said Kevin Donnellon, president of Donnellon PR Ltd., Chicago.
(William Fasig, 202/530-4618; Sharon VanSickle, 503/221-1551; Brian Murphy, 214/684-5859; Michael Sweeney, 408/253-9600; Russell Brady, 408/974-6877; Barbara Wellnitz, 508/543-3810; Martha Parker, 401/275-5700; Jimmy Johnson, 314/955-3000; Kevin Donnellon, 312/553-1240)