Emotional Intelligence of a Prodigy
“Most people never ask.”
In 2007, Steve was introducing the iPhone.
Who wants a stylus (The pen that comes with some of the devices at the time)?
You have to get ’em, put ’em away, you lose ’em. Yuck!
Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus.
He continued as the crowd was in awe.
We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world.
We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with — born with ten of them.
We’re going to use our fingers.
When thinking about simplicity and technology, world’s largest technology company by revenue, might be the first thing in your mind.
As in 2021, Apple Apple now has an active installed base of 1.65 billion devices used.
I guess they are doing something right.
But how did Apple develop it’s brand value, from its founder perspective?
What was the secret recipe of Apple?
Well, turns out, it is not a secret actually.
It’s all available to everyone.
- Apple was founded in 1976.
- Steve Jobs was dismissed (??) from Apple in 1985.
- He founded an another technology company, NeXT.
- In 1996, the Apple company bought NeXT for 429 million dollars to bring Jobs to the company.
- CEO of the time for Apple, Gil Amelio, was fired and after a long time Steve Jobs came to power as the CEO of the company he founded.
- Under Jobs, Apple increased sales tremendously with the introduction of the iMac.
Maybe we can call this, “The Steve Effect”.
For Jobs, “The Steve Effect” we defined, was a combination of the trio.
Steve was giving the example for the best marketing strategy he has seen so far, in a talk, at 1997.
With this explanation, you really can see his thought process behind marketing.
The best example of all, and one of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike.
Remember, Nike sells a commodity.
They sell shoes.
And yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company.
In their ads, they don’t ever talk about their products.
What does Nike do?
They honor great athletes and they honor great athletics.
That’s who they are, that’s what they are about.
Okay wait a second.
This is actually legitimate.
Apple as a brand has a meaning. They have a clear definition of who they are.
Apple makes “advanced technology products that are marketed superbly, with a simple user interface”.
We don’t even need to know the details of their latest product.
Because we know it’s from Apple.
Enlightened? So am I.
In order for a company to sell something with their logo on it, it has to be valuable for someone, no questions there.
But how do companies innovate & iterate their services and products, while making sure they have a share in the market ?
Here is Steve’s take on it.
You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology.
You can’t start with the technology then try to figure out where to sell it.
So it is safe to say that, Apple does not fall in to the trap of vicious innovation cycle, that leads to forgetting the customers need in the first place.
As cheesy as it is, “Customer is King”.
Marketing Department in Apple, seem to be following the footsteps of Jobs.
They are perfecting the art they are making.
Jobs really did started the empire of Apple and grew it to an incredible scale. With his approach. With his mindset.
So what do we do Steve?
Is there anything you can share with us that is applicable to our life, right now?
Here is the answer from 1994:
You gotta act. You gotta be willing to fail. You gotta be willing to crash and burn.
With people on the phone or starting a company, if you’re afraid you’ll fail, you won’t get very far.
He mastered the art of product that means value. And shared it all with the world.
Success was just a natural result of it.
Rest in piece.
