Branding Steve Jobs — in a doll

So the latest craze to hit the streets related to the Apple brand and Steven Jobs is a 14-inch tall Steve Jobs doll, which looks amazingly like Steven Jobs. However, the Chinese company that decided to manufacture this doll does not own the rights to the Steve Jobs image, and both Apple and the Jobs estate warned this company that they would be sued if they didn’t remove the doll from the market.

It is the epitome of brand recognition and loyalty when you can take icons of a business or product category and make them into a doll.

What more could the most passionately loyalist Applephiles crave more than their own personal Steve Jobs sitting next to them as they ponder the use of their new iPad or Macbook Air, looking over to see Steve watching with approval; what could be better?

Jobs symbolizes so much for people who use Apple products. He clearly represents a departure from the “corporate” mindset of technology, which is driven by the IBM’s, the HP’s, and Microsoft’s who are focused on selling faster, better chips and software designed by engineers who think like, well, engineers. Steve Jobs served as our personal advocate for the technology that worked for us; that supported what we as consumers loved. This sense of advocacy is what drove loyalty to Apple and made it the company that it is today.

Unfortunately the “powers that be” representing Apple and Steven Jobs don’t share the same evangelical view of allowing a “brand” like Mr. Jobs hitting the shelves by the thousands to coach us on to new glory with our iPads and iMacs. So the manufacturing company has promised to withdraw the product from the market. However, look for him on eBay while you can.