Anurag Doshi Roll No – 1914021 EPGP-IIMB

Redefining Marketing: Getting Back to Core

 In this speech, he emphasizes that to remain relevant and vital, every great brand needs great amount of caring
and investment. In this chaotic world, company should communicate about its values while marketing its
product and not the technical specifications, as there is very small window for it to capture consumer’s mind.
 He elaborates with the example of Nike. Nike was able to build a great brand over the years without even
explaining about the features about the product or proving it better against competitors. Rather it associated
itself with great athletes by honouring them in advertisements.
 Jobs also acknowledges that Apple has spent huge amount in advertising over the years and they lost focus on
its core i.e. “Why apple exists? What do it stand for? He reinforced the core value of Apple- “We believe that
people with passion can change the world for the better”
 He conceptualized the campaign to get back to core of Apple under the tagline “Think Different” with the
help of agency he worked with few years back. This also highlights one aspect of Steve personality- leveraging
the experiences over the years. Campaign was focused on honouring people who have changed the world.
 The ad starts with the Einstein moving to Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi and other
personalities whom we recognize as rebels, weirdos, we have either glorified or vilified them. However, Apple
calls them “Genius” as we can’t ignore them as they have changed the world and moved it forward.
 And the campaign ends with beautiful quote- “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can
change the world, are the ones who do.”-Think Different! This ad is strong and motivating, as it draws viewer’s
attention from the first second and remains unique till now.
 The key to the success of Steve Jobs is a blend of value, technology and marketing strategies that have been
carefully designed. This approach was so successful that consumers started thinking about apple products as
they have never seen such products before. (Even though some of them were already there in market).

Chapter 29: Apple Stores: Genius Bars and Siena Sandstone

 In continuation with the quest to have end to end control over entire Product Value Chain, Jobs hated the idea
of someone else selling apple products in a big box retail store. He believed that uniqueness of apple product
would be lost along with customer experience if they are sold through such retail outlets.
 He was obsessed about the finding ways to communicate apple’s innovation to customers and took idea of
building Apple’s own store to the board of apple. Initially Board hated the idea as Gateway had failed miserably
by investing in stores.
 But Jobs persisted with the idea and got on board Ron Johnson who had a passion for design and boyish
enthusiasm of a natural born retailer. Its was astonishing to see that how Jobs always used to find ways to
leverage expertise of someone around him or someone with whom he worked in the past.
 Johnson argued with him that tech store in areas with lot of foot traffic won’t make sense because of infrequent
purchasing patterns. However, Steve believed in the apple products to such an extent that he assured Johnson
if they make store inviting enough, they will win over the customers.
 Jobs paid minute attention to the details he come across in routine life such as how Ralph Lauren’s mansion
like store created physical expression of Ralph’s ideals. Even though apple didn’t have that many products to
put on the shelves in the store, he wanted to build it on the ethos of apple products- Playful, easy and creative.
He imagined the store as minimalist and airy with lot of space offered to consumers to try out its products.
 He started working on the prototype of the store in rented vacant warehouse in Cupertino along with Johnson.
Jobs was demanding and described by many as often difficult to work with. He paid attention to smallest
changes from week to week.
 When design of the store was almost finalized, Johnson highlighted issue with organizing the store around
apple’s product and explained to Steve that it should be built around what people might want to do. After
initial reluctance, Steve accepted the changes saying that they will get only once chance to get it right. You
should not wait for something to fix later in time if you know that it’s not right.
 Steve used Siena Sand stone from Florence which were installed on the sidewalks instead of light wood
floors to provide more authentic look. After some initial resistance, He incorporated Johnson’s idea of having
Genius Bar in the store which will be staffed with Smartest Mac people to interact with customer.
 The store was opened at 5th avenue in Manhattan for 24/7 and to no surprise it attracted 50000 visitors a week
against 250 visitor’s a week of Gateway. Also, Store was earning highest gross revenue per square feet in
New York. Even though such stores in future accounted for only 15% of revenue, by creating buzz and brand
awareness they indirectly helped boost everything the company did.