Only a marketing genius could take an also-ran technology company selling little-known products to few customers and turn it into the coolest underdog with a cultish following spending billions of dollars on products they did just had to have in order to exist. In short, that was Steve Jobs, the “greatest marketer of the ages,” according to AdWeek.
In a lengthy report on what made Apple great, the publication points to Jobs’ early conviction that “he needed advertising to create an aura around [the products].” This belief in building his i-gadgets into more than a music player, a computer or phone transferred into business, where we often here talk of the “halo effect” which spurs consumers to enter a store looking for a MacBook, but end up walking out with an iPod or an iPad, also.
Shorting after teaming up with the Los Angeles ad firm Chait/Day, Apple debuted the Macintosh with the memorable “1984” Super Bowl half-time spot. From there, Apple nourished the us-against-them motif of future advertising with “Think Different”, “Switchers” and “Get a Mac.” The ads “would become the envy of the industry,” AdWeek writes.
Despite until recently not breaking 10 percent of the U.S. PC market, Apple’s image was continually marketed by Jobs as fighting the good fight. PC companies were always seen as bad or simply stupid. Consumers, well, they only saw self-reflected positives: they are an elite bunch, they are part of the in-crowd, always getting one over on those slow-thinking PC fans. Consumers loved the image and those good feelings continued when they bought traditionally boring devices.
Little wonder Jobs was one of the few CEOs who’s passing the public noted with flowers and cards.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
19 responses to “Jobs: The ‘Greatest Marketer of the Ages’ [Report]”
Your argument fell apart when you used “who’s” instead of “whose” in the last line!
of course the author did not notice (on purpose?) one huge thing: he was not selling boring devices. he PRODUCED and sold stunningly beautiful devices with new and unexpected and incredibly useful and ADDICTIVE functionalities.
Wrong! It fell apart for me at “Shorting after teaming up with the Los Angeles ad firm Chait/Day” Shorting? What is it a Hedge Fund?
Saying thanks will not just be enough, for the extraordinary lucidity in your writing. I will immediately grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates
flower delivery same day
oral hcg
And even the name of the ad company is wrong. It is Chiat/Day, not Chait/Day. Wow, this is a bad case of confusion, or is it just stupidity?
Link to the report? Also, your own link for “create an aura” is broken:
http://www.cultofmac.com/12327… removing the period doesn’t help, what gives?
Wait, hold on a second Ed!! In the first line of your article you say “an also-ran technology company selling little-known products to few customers” — what a bunch of spin. Apple has never been an also-ran company, even during their leanest years under their least inspired leaders (Sculley, Spindler, Amelio). I’ve been a Mac user since 1989 and have owned many of the Mac models than went through the pipeline, and they have consistently been solidly-built products that were in every way superior to any other OS or PC hardware manufacturer extant. Macs have consistently sold millions of units every year, and I’m sorry, that doesn’t make them an “also-ran” company.
The best thing Gil Amelio did was buy NExT and bring Steve Jobs back. But please don’t insult readers by giving us this “little-known products” crap. Millions of artists, designers, musicians and other creatives around the world will take violent exception to that statement.
Apple would be TOAST if it only sold the sizzle that Steve cooked up!!! There had to have been the STEAK of the product line he created with his team. Consumers are not lemmings running off a cliff because of Steve’s marketerring
Make amazingly great products and the marketing will take care of itself.
Is that so hard to link to the article you refer to?
http://www.adweek.com/news/adv…