Why Apple’s Steve Jobs is a World-Class Marketing Genius
Like many consumers I have long been enamored with the product designs, enhanced functionalities and overall quality of the Apple products brought to us by Steve Jobs.
As a marketing professional, though, I have also been enthralled by the power, story lines and production values of the TV commercials produced by Apple under the eagle eye and branding brain of Jobs. And yet this is only part of the story behind the marketing genius of Jobs.
Apple is often seen as a company built through product design. But it is more, much more.
Led by the instinctive and intuitive insights of Jobs, Apple has had a foundational focus on the customer experience, long before “customer experience marketing” entered our industry jargon.
The customer experience was often the focus of Apple’s advertising campaigns. And it has certainly been the key element in how the Apple retail stores have been designed, from free availability of products test and trial to the clever concept of the Genius Bars. It is little wonder that Apple’s retail stores have a higher sales-per-square-foot level than any other retail chain in the USA, including high-end retailers like Tiffany’s, Gucci and Coach.
How was Apple able to produce a steady flow of brilliant advertising over the years? Two key factors:
a) Jobs was heavily involved in the creative process at all times
b) Jobs used only one agency (Chiat/Day, which eventually merged into TBWA)
Together they produced a litany of powerful, emotive, brand building advertising campaigns, including:
- 1984
- Mac vs. PC
- Meet iPad
- Silhouettes
- Think Different
- Meet Her
- Stacks
- Quotes
Which of these were your favorites? Any to add? I will be adding the ones I like best to my favorites at our Howard Marketing YouTube channel.
Designers call Steve Jobs an inspiration to their craft. Computer geeks claim Jobs as their own guru. And those of us in the marketing profession know that, above everything else, Jobs is a marketing genius.
We can only hope that Jobs will do for marketing in the Boardroom what he has done for marketing as CEO.