Where does Apple get its Marketing inspiration from
People stay loyal to brands they believe in, and they put their trust upon, brands with similar values as they believe. Apple is a brand with lots of true fans around the globe.
Fans who are ready to stay in lines for days, just to be the first owner of iPhones. Fans who are ready to use only Apple products for years, regardless of how good the other brand’s products are. This loyalty Apple is receiving — it’s not an accident. This was their goal. This was Steve Jobs’ vision. This is what he believed in.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he changed everything. Apple was at a loss after firing Steve Jobs. They realised their mistake and re-hired him as a CEO.
Jobs has this unique view on marketing. While everyone else was busy on talking “speed” and “mega-hertz”, Jobs gathered around his top employees and created a legendary marketing campaign. A marketing campaign for Mac, which didn’t even mention their MacBooks, but was a huge success. This was Jobs’ first marketing campaign, and it was different from all other campaigns.
Jobs revealed that this campaign was highly influenced by another brand, one of the largest brands on the planet at that time(it still is) — Nike.
Apple’s inspiration from Nike
Before launching his first marketing campaign, Steve Jobs gathered his top employees and gave a speech. Many believe this is one of the greatest speeches on marketing.
He started the talk by saying “To me, marketing is about values.”
Jobs understood that the market was different from when he started Apple, and Apple’s position in the market was different as well. He knew that there’s too much “noise” in this world, and he wouldn’t stand a chance in this competitive market just by talking about the features and specifications of his computers.
Jobs wanted to be known for something different than “selling computers.”
He drew inspiration from Nike. Nike is actually a shoe company, but if you hear the word “Nike,” you feel something much different than “just a shoe company.” They don’t talk about their product in their ads or how they’re better than the competition.
They talk about their values.
Nike’s advertisements have their core values in them -
“They honour great athletes and athletics.”
Nike has made this their identity, and this inspired Jobs to create the “Think Different” marketing campaign.
Jobs answered this crucial question “What do we stand for?”
He thought about this question deeply, “Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it that we stand for”
That’s when Jobs realised, Apple isn’t really about making Aluminium boxes for people to get their jobs done, (although they do that very well).
He wanted to make Apple something more.
He addressed his employees, “At our core value, We believe that people with passion can change the world for better.”
Apple’s marketing was never about products and features but about the values. About why they’re building such products — to empower passionate people.
At this very moment, he said something that’d go down as one of best quotes -
Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”
Apple nails that well, they focused on WHY from the beginning. They made their values clear and that was a prime reason why people are SO loyal to Apple today, even after more than 20 years from that campaign.
Apple focuses on values more than prices. All their ad campaigns show their values and the feelings users would get using iPhones and Macbooks rather than the specs.
Their iPod ad said “1000 songs in your pocket.” It didn’t say “iPod comes with 5Gb 1.8’ hard drive.”
They stay true to their words. What they claim can be experienced in Apple stores, while using iPhones and Macbooks, and everywhere around the ‘ecosystem’.
Apple is great at Marketing and that brings substantial revenue and growth to the company.
Their beliefs and values are deeply implanted in all of their products and campaigns. That’s why many people are loyal to Apple.
Things will change; technology will change and so will Apple’s stance in the market. As it has been changing continuously, but what has remained constant is their core beliefs. This will remain constant.
