Steve Jobs, The World’s Best Marketer?
Steve Jobs is widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful marketers. But this wasn’t always the case.
Back in the early days of Apple, Jobs and his biz partner Steve Wozniak made some terrible blunders, most notably when they launched the Apple Lisa by placing a nine-page technical ad in the New York Times.
The ad was so poorly misguided that the Apple Lisa was more or less a failure from the start. Jobs went on to become CEO of Pixar. Here, he clearly learnt a thing or two about the importance of clear messaging.
On his return to Apple in 1996 Jobs devised a new campaign based on two simple words, placing them on billboards across the world.
“Think Different.”
Despite not necessarily having the best products, Apple went on to become the most valuable company in the world surpassing Exxon Mobil, Ford and Boeing by up to ten times their value.
Not bad.
The takeaways?
- The best products don’t always win. The best communicators do.
- Say less and communicate clearly, otherwise customers will give up trying to organise and make sense of it all.
