I find the disassociation of corporations and people strange. Corporations are made up of people. Those people have a set of ideas that govern the direction the

I find the disassociation of corporations and people strange. Corporations are made up of people. Those people have a set of ideas that govern the direction they take their company. As corporations grow larger, they typically disassociate by nature. Megacorps like AT&T, Comcast, etc intentionally diassociate with their customers in order to reduce costs. The depersonalization of customer service is probably the best example. I think what drives consumers' connection to Apple is that they have intentionally avoided the customer disassociation model of business. Apple incorporates their customer idea in to their products and their advertising. Apple's products are opinionated. Think about that last statement for a moment. Opinion matters. Our opinions are a large part of our identity, and humans are inherently tribal. We associate with those who share our opinion. This is observable in everything from politics to commenting on HN. Writing that expresses strong opinion typically solicits the greatest number of comments. As a corollary, no one likes soft writing. We use terms like "wish washy" and "waffling". It is no coincidence that Apple's users are their greatest advocates. Apple has created a company and products that allows me to identify with them. I won't be shamed for doing so.