Adieu, Steve Jobs
Adieu to a Genius: Steve Jobs 1955-2011
When Steve Jobs’ life ended in early October, 2011, the world lost not only an amazing visionary, but an international business icon and outstanding marketing genius. President Obama said of Jobs, he was “brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”. CEO of DreamWorks, Jeffrey Katzenberg, deemed Jobs “the Thomas Edison of our time.” Mr. Jobs was defined as “probably the greatest technical leader of our lifetime,” by Apple cofounder, Steve Wozniak.
This man of brilliance has truly affected the way each of us lives and conducts business. His outside-the-box innovations revolutionized and drove advancements in telecommunications (iPhone), computing (iMac, MacBook, iPad), entertainment (iTunes, iPod, Pixar), and retail industries (App Store). His impact on mobile technology alone is astonishing. The praises for his technical accomplishments are not to be diminished, yet, if not for his marketing prowess, Jobs’ innovations may not have reached the lofty status that they enjoy today.
Under the leadership of Jobs, Apple products became hip. By association, people who flaunt Apple products were, and are, perceived as cool. Steve Jobs was at the helm of Apple when the iconic “Macintosh 1984″ television advertisement aired and introduced the Apple Macintosh computer to the world. The spot was the center of boardroom and water -cooler conversations within advertising and media circles, as well as in the PC computing world. The advertisement’s message of freeing the masses from Big Brother was visually powerful, but it lacked impact on Apple’s market share. Very few businesses or individuals outside the advertising industry—in which advanced graphics capabilities software were the sole province of Macintosh software providers—considered Apple products either necessary or sexy.
In 1985, Jobs was axed by his own board of directors, and returned to the top position at the nearly bankrupt Apple in late 1996. Upon his return, he orchestrated a deal with Microsoft to enable the Mac OS to run Microsoft’s software. A year later the iMac was launched, and Apple began it’s meteoric rise. Perhaps the world wasn’t ready for “1984″ but it certainly was becoming so by 1998. iMac was the first Apple product in years to target the consumer market with any enthusiasm. The computer was designed with specificity to the education sector. Marketing is indeed everything. Until 1998, since Apple was not gaining traction in the consumer sector, they were giving away computers to educational institutions. So, by the time the iMac was launched, there emerged a whole generation of kids and young adults who never had to type “back slash, command, whatever” on their keyboards, or remember command codes of any type. This generation found the iMac sexy, and before too long Apple products became necessary to multiple generations. The iMac advertisements were clean, colorful, and hip, but the price tag of nearly (or often more than) double in comparison to other PCs met significant resistance.
Fast forward to October 23, 2001. Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod. It was an instant success. Prior to the market entry of this pocket-sized MP3 player—which could download an entire music CD in five to 10 seconds and store 1,000 songs—the only portable alternatives were CD players, Flash players, and MP3 CDs, with storage ranging from a mere 15 to 150 songs. Apple, once again, positioned and packaged their new product as hip, fun, and necessary. The iPod ads featured young, attractive individuals dancing down streets to upbeat music while experiencing fresh, exciting computer animations. This time, the price was attainable to a very large target audience, and the portable music player with its many color choices could not be kept on store shelves. Apple finally made it to the mainstream, and the rest, as it is said, is history. Since then the rest of the technology sector has been scrambling, like papparazzi after a rock star, to chase down Steve Jobs’ insanely great ideas.
By 2005, Apple sales reached nearly $14 billion. The following year, Apple launched the “Get a Mac” campaign, affectionately known as the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” campaign”. The advertising suite ran from 2006 to 2009 and fueled sales of all Mac products each and every month. In keeping with the initial marketing strategies for the first iMac, the spots were clean and sharp, this time injecting humor, as a dowdy, brown-suited, conservative PC (portrayed by the hilarious John Hodgeman) and a hipply-dressed, casual, attractive Mac (Justin Long) verbally square off on a minimalist, stark white background. Apple’s momentum became unstoppable. Everybody wanted, everybody needed, everything “i”. Objections to the higher priced iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air seemed to dissolve into thin air.
Steve Jobs’ vision was realized: He changed the world. Apple products are cool, and anyone that is cool owns at least a few Apple products. It is even challenging to watch a movie or television programme in which not a single character hops on a Mac to solve a mystery, do research, or catch a bad guy. Even most newscasters and talk show hosts seem to all have MacBooks on their desks. I often profess to my clients that you can create and own the most miraculous, desirable, needed product on the planet, but without thoughtful marketing, it will fail. Steve Jobs had the dream and the passion to revolutionize. He also had the insight to select marketing partners that could articulate his vision. Steve Jobs indeed changed the world.
To ask Soraya your marketing questions, please call her or send an e-mail via the “Talk to Us” link on this website, or Soraya@OctagonMarketingGroup.com
Soraya Ali-Hope is President of Octagon Marketing Group, LLC, a full service marketing, advertising, design, and public relations firm in Chandler, Arizona. She can be reached at 480-862-3986, toll free in USA and Canada, 877-772-2499 or Soraya@OctagonMarketingGroup.com.
