Live brand experience: Steve Jobs' legacy

Steve Jobs and Apple have always been irrevocably linked, but what now for the brand after the death of its visionary founder?

Apple is currently at the top of its game, but not many brands manage to stay there for long, as they need to change and adapt in order to be new and relevant.

Over the coming months and years we will witness the Apple brand and see whether its shiny, clean branding is intrinsic or something which only came from its late founder Jobs' influence.

The Apple brand is easily recognisable with its sleek monotone apple symbol and distinctive rounded edges, coupled with trendy television commercials.

Jobs said: "That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."

Back in the day the Apple brand was a multicoloured version of the current symbol, which now looks somewhat dated, but suited its earlier pre-millennium market.

He said: "For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

Brand loyalty such as that associated with Apple is rare, yet the queues to be seen at the release of new products or opening of a new store, along with the media hubbub which surrounds any Apple innovation is tantamount to its success.

It cannot be disputed that Jobs had a single-mindedness, dedication and drive which greatly benefitted Apple, but now the brand experience will have to shift with his passing.

He said: "We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not."

Consumers like to see the faces behind big brands in order to humanise a global corporation and bask in the reflected glory of what one man can achieve and in Jobs' case he achieved a lot.

In 2010 Apple surpassed Microsoft in terms of market capitalisation and became the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world.

At the time Jobs said: "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful … that's what matters to me."

Jobs has left a number of successors in his place, including Tim Cook as Apple chairman, but only time will tell whether they have the vision to continue the Apple brand in the manner Jobs would have done.