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Customize It
Hardcover
256 pages
ISBN 9780071636087 Published Oct. 2009
McGraw-Hill
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Posted Aug. 26, 2011 3:31 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
I typed my first high school papers, my first non-hand-written stories, on an electric typewriter--a hand-me-down from a cousin--on the floor of my childhood bedroom. But when I got to college, there was a bank of Apple IIe computers in the dorm's lab and over the years I often spent all night in the company of those small white boxes, a happy computer face greeting me each time I came back from the cafeteria full and ready to settle back down to the grind of churning out the multitude of 10-20 page papers required for every class every term. Entering grad school, I bought a Macintosh Performa so that I could write my stories and more of those papers at my apartment while eating ramen noodles. Now I do my work at work on a shiny black MacBook Pro, and my work at home on a smaller MacBook White. I've got an iPod to take with me to the gym, though no iPhone. My 6-year-old has an iPad, an early convert to the cult of Apple, because the touch screen gets his little fingers computing. It's an obvious observation that some brands, in this case Apple, are woven into our lives, but it is an interesting exercise to look at just how integrated a brand is in how we live and do our work. Clearly in my case, Apple has been a sort of partner to me in all my academic (and entertainment) pursuits.
It's often hard to determine what Apple is more famous for: it's apple icon, or it's Apple icon, Steve Jobs. And that glowing apple on the open covers of the laptops that dot the tops of cafe tables at the neighborhood coffee shop certainly says something about the users and is a little beacon that connects Apple user to Apple user. That icon is Apple's aesthetic and there has certainly been a lot written about the how's and the why's of the design choices Apple makes. But you need only do a search for Steve Jobs in our book database to see an equally lengthy list of books by authors who try to capture on paper the essence of Steve Jobs and how that essence influenced Apple.
Perhaps your average Joe with the ubiquitous white earphones tucked into his ears doesn't so much care about who (with Steve Wozniak) created the company, left it, returned, then resurrected and redirected it, about who put the "i" in iPod, iTunes, iTouch, iPad. But in business or even cocktail conversation, Steve Jobs is the "it" guy. (All iT and IT puns intended.) At this point in his career, his strategy, his resurgence, his presentation style, his management style, everything about Steve Jobs is a curiosity, nothing less than a phenomenon. Sure, he has his detractors, but his admirers outweigh the naysayers handily. Particularly now. Because Wednesday Steve Jobs resigned from Apple.
Many of the write-ups about Jobs' resignation have a tinge of the obituary to them. Which of course is the case whenever a well-known leader steps down. But most often, there is the compulsory speculation about what that person will do next. Not so with Steve Jobs. His health is commonly believed to be the reason he is stepping down, and we all know that Steve Jobs' is facing an staunch opponent. He has been open about his cancer and subsequent treatment over the years. Yet there are plenty of articles and conversations wondering about whether Job's resignation also equals the eventual demise of Apple. Or at the very least, its decline. Jobs came back to Apple at a time when it was being pummeled in the marketplace and leaking money and he implemented a structure and a design aesthetic that changed all of technology and beyond. So without Jobs, will Apple falter again? Impossible to say, even for those pundits and prognosticators on CNBC and whatnot with their data-crunching. But Jobs' legacy and the state of his company are tightly intertwined and so the scrutiny is understandable, but maybe because Apple products are so integrated into our lives, we as consumers will keep the brand aloft.
As is evident in the collected quotes that the Wall Street Journal compiled, Jobs is a thoughtful, quotable man, who earlier was quite pugilistic in his speech and now is quite Zen-like in his philosophy. Perhaps people--reporters, bloggers, thinkers, innovators--simply are mourning the loss of that prominent voice that brought to the table or the podium a spark and often hit a nerve. That is what Seth Godin paid homage to so well yesterday in his post about Jobs. Economical and accurate as ever, Seth already feels the absence of Steve Jobs' voice in the business wilderness. There are and will be other insightful and engaging personalities to fascinate us, but Steve Jobs' resignation reminds us of how, as business thinkers, we get inspired by the inspired.
Thankfully there is a biography of Jobs by acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson still coming out in November. And if all this talk about Steve Jobs is making you wonder what he is about, then check out some of these books in the meantime.
7 Lessons From a Marketing Genius
Posted Nov. 9, 2009 9:55 a.m. by jon
In Blog - 800 CEO Read Blog
Below is a recent article from Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. His article details seven points about what makes Mr. Jobs such an incredible marketer; words we can certainly all learn from. Read the article, and then check out his book for even more insight.
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Steve Jobs: 7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius
By Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered one of the greatest marketers in corporate history. For more than three decades, he has delivered legendary keynote presentations, raised product launches to an art form and successfully communicated the benefits of Apple products to millions of customers. Whether you're in sales, marketing, advertising or public relations, Steve Jobs has something to teach you about telling your brand story.
Plan in analog. Steve Jobs may have made a name for himself in the digital world, but he prepares presentations in the old world of pen and paper. He brainstorms, sketches and draws on whiteboards. Before a new iPhone, iPod or MacBook is introduced, the Apple team decides on the exact messages (aka, benefits) to communicate. Those messages are consistent across all marketing platforms: presentations, Web sites, advertisements, press releases, and even the banners than are unfurled after Jobs' keynote.
Create Twitter-friendly headlines. Can you describe your product or service in 140 characters? Steve Jobs offers a headline, or description, for every product. Each headline can easily fit in a Twitter post. For example, when he introduced the MacBook Air in January, 2008, he said that it is simply, "The world's thinnest notebook." You could visit the Apple Web site for more information, but if that's all you knew, it would tell you a lot. If your product description cannot fit in a Twitter post, keep refining.
Introduce the antagonist. In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. The same holds true for a Steve Jobs presentation. In 1984, the villain was IBM, "Big Blue." Before he introduced the famous 1984 ad to a group of Apple salespeople, he created a dramatic story around it. "IBM wants it all," he said. Apple would be the only company to stand in its way. It was very dramatic and the crowd went nuts. Branding expert, Martin Lindstrom, has said that great brands and religions have something in common: the idea of vanquishing a shared enemy. Creating a villain allows the audience to rally around the hero -- you, your ideas and your product.
Stick to the rule of three. The human brain can only absorb three or four "chunks" of information at any one time. Neuroscientists are finding that if you give your listeners too many pieces of information to retain, they won't remember a thing. It's uncanny, but every Steve Jobs presentation is divided into three parts. On September 9, 2009, when Jobs returned to the world stage after a medical leave of absence, he told the audience that he had three things to discuss: iPhone, iTunes and iPods. Jobs even has fun with the rule of three. In January, 2007, he told the audience he had "three revolutionary" products to introduce -- an iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator. After repeating the list several times he said, "Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. They are one device and we are calling it iPhone!"
Strive for simplicity. Apple chief design architect, Jonathan Ive, said Apple's products are easy to use because of the elimination of clutter. The same philosophy applies to Apple's marketing and sales material. For example, there are forty words on the average PowerPoint slide. It's difficult to find ten words in one dozen Apple slides. Most of Steve Jobs' slides are visuals -- photographs or images. When are there words, they are astonishingly sparse. For example, in January, 2008, Jobs was delivering his Macworld keynote and began the presentation by thanking his customers for making 2007 a successful year for Apple. The slide behind Jobs simply read "Thank you." Steve Jobs tells the Apple story. The slides compliment the story.
Reveal a "Holy Smokes" moment. People will forget what you said, what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. There's always one moment in a Steve Jobs presentation that is the water cooler moment, the one part of the presentation that everyone will be talking about. These show stoppers are completely scripted ahead of time. For example, when Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air, what do people remember? They recall that he removed the computer from an inter-office envelope. It's the one moment from Macworld 2008 that everyone who watched it -- and those who read about -- seem to recall. The image of a computer sliding in an envelope was immediately unveiled in Apple ads and on the Apple website. The water cooler moment had run according to plan.
Sell dreams, not products. Great leaders cultivate a sense of mission among their employees and customers. Steve Jobs' mission is to change the world, to put a "dent in the universe." According to Jobs, "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to do great work is to love what you do." True evangelists are driven by a messianic zeal to create new experiences. When he launched the iPod in 2001, Jobs said, "In our own small way we're going to make the world a better place." Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs sees it as tool to enrich people's lives. It's important to have great products, of course, but passion, enthusiasm and emotion will set you apart.
