Steve Jobs and pull marketing
Here’s another guest article by John Russell, a Cloud Consultant for divestIT, Director of CloudBaseMedia and author of Living with an Illness – 10 stages to dealing with your illness – an e-book that he’s made available for free.
Welcome John Russell.
The impact that Steve Jobs had on our world was incredible. With his famous reality distortion field he made the impossible, possible. He took an idea and turned it into a reality. Quite simply, Jobs took his ideas and turned them into consumer necessities. My question now to you is, What can we learn from Steve Jobs?
Personal discovery
For me, Steve Jobs was more than just the CEO of Apple & Pixar. He was a creative visionary and a marketing genius. People wonder why Apple advertisements are so simple: How a simple photo and logo can attract so much attention. I believe the secret to Jobs’ marketing was even simpler than his advertisements. Jobs understood what people really wanted, and gave them the perfect solution. To be clear, his marketing did not exist of just advertisements and press releases. For Jobs, marketing started at the product.
Nobody quite understood Steve Jobs and his incredible drive towards perfection in his early days at Apple. However, in his own words – “It is so much easier to connect the dots now looking back.” Jobs’ strive towards perfection was quite possibly the greatest pull marketing tactic seen in today’s modern world. The product was primary and everything else was secondary.
This brings me to what I learnt from Steve Jobs, quite literally from the grave. Go back to the basics, make sure what you are selling is perfect. If you get this recipe correct, money will follow. Note, money is secondary in marketing as it falls into the ‘everything else’ category. Today, boards and companies alike focus too much on sales techniques and marketing strategies while not paying enough attention to the bare basics of business, the product or service itself.
The second thing I learned from Jobs, was to be really satisfied with my life. I had to do great work and the only way to do great work was to love what I do. In his graduation commencement speech to Stanford students, Jobs said to the students – “Never settle! If you haven’t found what you love to do, keep looking”. This sounds like very simple advice, but how many of you can actually say that you haven’t settled? If we were all in the perfect jobs, the world would be a much better place.
Industry Discovery
While recently reading Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson, I quickly realised that industries still have a lot to learn from the late, great Apple genius.
Simplicity in marketing is not generally seen in today’s modern world. Webpages with content after more content about what a product or service does/is makes it almost impossible for a consumer to attach any emotion to the purchase. Jobs captivated his audience, he made them believers just as he was. Incredibly, Jobs made the consumer purchase the brand not the product.
A strong, recognisable brand in today’s world is more powerful than you could ever imagine. A brand that ignites emotion in its consumer, is a brand that will get the sale. The decision between two beer brands – Corona or Sol – is, for me, easy. Every time I stand outside the bottle shop refrigerator I see the branding and think to myself – ‘Do I want to the cheaper product? Or, do I want to be on a beach?‘ I always want to be on a beach. Hence, the emotional attachment to my love of the Corona brand.
Few brands have got this right, and fewer will get it right in the future. All I hope is that one day I have the chance to do what Steve Jobs has done. Take a product, and sell it purely on emotions with money entirely secondary… And in doing so, change the world.
In the end…
At the end of the day every human being on this earth is capable of so much. While they may not be able to develop the next iPod, the simple recognition that emotions ignite change and action is enough to do something remarkable in this world.
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish”
Connect
Should you wish to contact John please don’t hesitate to visit his website at www.cloudbasemedia.com.au, or follow him on Twitter @JohnRussellAus.