STEVE JOBS: MARKETING APPLE

Morning!

I’m often shocked by the interesting people who end up reading these breakdowns. But this week I was a little more shocked than usual…

Turns out Steven Bartlett reads them and apparently quite likes them.

Pretty cool!

But this meant that I wanted to take it up a notch for this week’s breakdown.

I didn’t want to just give you some cool marketing tips, I wanted to give you insights from one of the greatest marketers of all time…

A true marketing great.

And that’s exactly what you’re getting.

• He’s known as one of the greatest storytellers of all-time

• Amassed a net worth of over $10 billion during his life

• And single-handedly revolutionised Apple

His name is Steve Jobs and here is how he grew viral…

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Breaking Down The Strategy

In 1985, Steve Jobs got into a rowdy discussion during a meeting with Apple CEO - John Scully.

No one is quite sure what went on in the meeting, all we know is that shortly after Jobs left Apple and sold $21.43 million worth of Apple stock on his way out of the door.

What happened next?

Steve created a new company called NeXT.

And Apple, well they…

• Had their worst financial quarter ever

• Took some HUGE losses

• And were tipped to go under

Not quite the reaction they were looking for. So, in 1997, just over a decade after his departure, Apple decided to buy Jobs’ new company NeXT for $427 million.

Then shortly after made Jobs the new interim CEO.

From that day onwards Apple has pretty much been a rocket ship to the top.

Steve came back to the company and revolutionised their marketing, altered their values and injected his genius into their product development.

Over the next 10 years Jobs & Apple released:

• The iPod

• The iPhone

• And the iPad

It’s pretty safe to say that he is someone that completely changed the game when it comes to modern-day technology.

But people forgot that he’s also revolutionised modern-day marketing.

I spent 5+ hours this weekend watching every single Apple product launch speech since 1997, as well as analysing all of their marketing during the “Steve Jobs Era”.

Here are 6 key lessons on product marketing from the legend that is Steve Jobs:

1) Fuel Curiosity, Fuel Hype

Every time Jobs was releasing a big product with Apple he would host a release event with thousands in attendance.

Prior to the event, Apple would keep their new products under lock and key.

And boy did it they get people talking.

All everyone knew was that something big was coming, but what it was, well, you’d have to wait for Jobs’ release speech.

Yes, there were rumours and leaks, but they just added to the mystery.

Jobs’ loved getting the rumour mill turning because all it did was get more people talking about Apple.

The more curious they got, the more hype there was.

The next minute there was thousands of people tuning in to watch Jobs on stage very much excited for him to finally release this new product.

2) Up The Stakes

Steve Jobs’ product release speeches have now become infamous and are copied by many modern-day CEOs.

But at the time he was like the Tom Brady of product launches (yes I used an American football reference - sue me).

One of the many genius aspects of his product launch speeches was the way he was able to up the stakes.

He did this almost instantly in his 2007 iPhone release speech.

He started the speech like this:

(I skipped a little out there to make it briefer so watch the full video here)

The whole first 3 minutes of his speech he is just trying to increase the significance of the product he is about to release.

It’s not just “I’ve been looking forward to this day”, it’s “for 2 and a half years” – showcasing just how big of a moment it is for him.

It’s not “Great products really help consumers”, it’s “Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything” – it’s like he’s about to tell us they’re putting a man on the moon.

It’s not “We’re releasing an awesome new device”. it’s “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”

You get the point.

Every sentence adds more significance to this launch, it ups the stakes and gets everyone even more excited for the product reveal.

The crowd no longer thinks Apple is releasing a new product, they think they’re about to change the world.

3) Use Humour

One of the things Jobs is most well known for is injecting humour into his product launch speeches.

In nearly every single one there are moments where the whole crowd is cackling.

One of my favourite examples of this is when he acts like he is about to show the iPhone then flicks to this slide…

Where he shows an iPod with the old phone dial that you had to spin.

The whole crowd erupts in laughter.

He was funny, who cares?

You, you should.

Because when you make people laugh, they start liking you, and making people “Like” you is key to influencing people.

These humour pauses are nothing else but building rapport with the audience.

And they are a big reason so many people loved him.

4) Create A Villain

Rather than comparing his new products to competitors on the market, Jobs makes out like they are villains making consumers’ lives worse.

In his 2007 iPhone release speech, Jobs pulls up photos of 4 of the top smartphones on the market and says “Here are the usual suspects” – implying they are bad guys of some sort.

He then gets super specific on the key reasons these “Suspects” cause problems for their users.

It’s almost like he’s degrading the competitor’s devices.

In fact, that’s exactly what he’s doing.

In 20-30 seconds Jobs has you no longer looking at the 4 smartphones as innovative devices, but instead seeing the huge faults in them.

Your perception completely shifts.

Jobs no longer seems like a guy releasing a product, instead, he seems like a saviour who is giving you a solution that will revolutionise your life.

5) Sell Outcomes, Not Features

Arguably the most infamous ad copy ever written was a line that came straight from Steve Jobs’s mouth.

“1000 songs in your pocket.”

It may seem like just a one-off cool ad, but it embodies everything Jobs was about when it came to marketing.

In one of his talks after coming back to Apple he says:

Sell outcomes, not features.

That’s exactly what he’s saying here.

No one cares how fast the iPod processor is, they care about the outcome the iPod provides.

6) Talk To 5-Year-Olds

A viral Jobs moment that I still see pop up on my feed today, is when Jobs prank-called Starbucks mid-way through one of his release speeches.

The moment itself was quite funny.

But the important part of it was that Steve was able to showcase to the world just how innovative the new iPhone was.

He’s playing his music, then makes the prank call, and then is instantly back playing his music.

Today, that’s nothing, but at the time it was a real breakthrough.

And by Steve showcasing it live he’s taking a complex innovation and making it easy for everyone to understand.

It’s safe to say that Jobs was a genius.

But I think more people need to start admiring Jobs as a marketer.

Yes, he changed Apple’s whole trajectory and yes a lot of that was down to the products he created.

But it was also down to the way he marketed, the way he positioned them, and the way he released them.

Easily one of the greatest marketers of all time.

Right, that’s all for today.

Until next Sunday.

— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of Steve Jobs’ marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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