Is Your Service Mac or PC?

I am a PC man.

Sure, I cut my computing teeth on a Mac and have used Macs regularly at two different companies, but I always find myself coming back to the sterile predictability of a PC. Nevertheless, as a result of my experience with Apple products, I have, over time, gained a respect for their iconic offerings. I am a complete Blackberry-to-iPhone convert, and I can definitely foresee the purchase of a later iteration of the iPad in my future. This change of heart has surely come (for me and and millions of others) as a result of my appreciation for the many idiosyncratic features packed into every Apple product–features that that effectively separate Apple from the rest of the personal computing pack.

For me, one of the more appealing aspects of most Jobs products is the sheer style they invoke in performing executables; that is to say, the way in which they do the things they do is cool. Icons flying in and flying out, shadows, silhouettes, fades and fancy formatting–these all make the user experience pleasant, sometimes even entertaining, and they all subtly scream “Apple!”

Consider the otherwise mundane task of moving icons on an iPhone. Sure, Apple could have put in place a series of nice, neat steps to perform this task (Edit/Icons/Move icon), but in an effort to brand this service, they instead intentionally programmed “trembling icons” as the method of choice. It’s different, it’s kind of fun, and it’s uniquely Apple.

Switch gears now to services marketing, and consider the routine “executables” your firm invokes every day, every hour. Returned calls, emails, financial transactions, making appointments, reminding of appointments, keeping appointments, canceling appointments, and rescheduling appointments. We all know that the war is won (and business is done) through the proverbial small things–the style invoked in the routine.

How is your company branding the mundane? The repetitious? The inglorious? Are your seemingly incidental executables attesting to the insight and intuitiveness of your company as a whole? Is your unique brand being reinforced in every task? How so?