Steve Jobs was the co-founder of Apple. It is an American technology company. It is best known for making some of the world’s best consumer devices. These devices include the iPhone, iPad, iMac, and Apple Watch.
He was an American inventor, designer, and entrepreneur who had a gift for developing modern technology.
Jobs have changed how we use technology, making it a more significant part of our lives, work, and play.
He was also a master marketer and an excellent communicator.
3 things you can learn from Steve Jobs and how he shaped marketing at Apple
There are three things you can learn from how Steve Jobs shaped marketing at Apple. Let’s dive into them.
1. How your target audience perceives you
Think differently. Whether you are promoting your company, products, services, content, or personal brand, you need to pay attention to how your target audience views you in the marketplace.
“Our customers want to know who Apple is. What is it that we stand for? Where do we fit in this world?”
Steve Jobs
In a seven-minute video from 1997, Steve Jobs explains his approach to marketing. He also discusses the thinking that led to creating the now-iconic “Think Different” campaign.
2. The 30% rule
This rule is where Apple focuses on its most exceptional products, services, and marketing approaches.
This avoids having too many “cooks in the kitchen” with your marketing. It’s essential to define and refine your core target audience.
The 30% rule was established by Steve Jobs in 1997 when he returned to Apple. This rule helped Apple refocus its efforts on simplicity and quality.
Apple started extending itself too far while Steve Jobs was out. They entered industries and niches they didn’t need to be in. He examined the product road map and discovered that only 30% of the planned products were exceptional.
“We examined the future product roadmap … and what we found was that 30% of them were incredibly good. And about 70% of them were either pretty good or things that we didn’t really need to be doing. Businesses we didn’t really need to be in. And so, we’ve pared a lot of that back, so we could focus the same amount of original resource even more on what was remaining — and add a few new things in.”
Steve Jobs
After this analysis, he stopped production on 70% of the products. He then focused on the 30% of products that had the most promise.
This helped Apple realize they couldn’t be everything to everyone. Apple stretched itself too thin, and its product quality was suffering.
Marketers should embrace this concept because they can become overly focused on maximizing their audience and exposure. They jump on every new social media platform. They also follow every new trend to reach the broadest audience they can.
The problem is that it stretches marketing’s already-thin time and resources.
As a result, the marketing strategy suffers.
To implement this rule at your company, consider dividing the marketing team into subgroups. Each subgroup should focus on campaigns. These campaigns are to have the most significant impact. Don’t include everyone in your next marketing campaign.
Additionally, look at your ideal target audience. Learn more about them and see what content they are consuming.
Are the marketing channels you are investing in reaching your target audience?
Don’t be afraid to scale back. Refocus your limited resources on the areas of your marketing that make the most impact on your company’s growth.
3. One Profit and Loss (P&L) center
Is your entire company rowing the boat the same way? According to current Apple CEO Tim Cook, he testified during Epic’s lawsuit against Apple. He said that Apple can’t track the App Store’s profitability. This is because Steve Jobs didn’t want divisions arguing over costs.
Back in the day, Apple was losing one billion dollars a year. Each business had its own profit and loss (P&L) statement. Divisions would fight over where to assign costs.
Every manager wanted their P&L to be the best. They pursued this goal regardless of whether the profit and loss (P&L) statement for the entire company was healthy. It didn’t matter if the company was profitable.
So, Steve Jobs eliminated every business unit’s P&L and put everyone on a single P&L.
This helped insulate specific business units from financial pressures. It allowed them to think about what products and services are best for the customer.
Here’s how Harvard Business Review described the situation at Apple.
The bonuses of senior R&D executives are based on companywide performance numbers rather than the costs of or revenue from particular products. Thus, product decisions are somewhat insulated from short-term financial pressures. The finance team is not involved in the product road map meetings of engineering teams, and engineering teams are not involved in pricing decisions.
This move by Jobs helped Apple become the company it is today.
With less internal fighting over expenses, Apple had a single focus on serving the customer. This enabled Apple to produce iconic products, like the iPhone.
There’s great power when everyone at the company is working together.
Marketing has become essential to a company’s success. It is now tasked with bringing the company together, just as Steve Jobs did.
Bringing it all together
There are three things you can learn from how Steve Jobs shaped marketing at Apple.
- How does your target audience perceive you?
- Are you focusing on the 30%?
- Do you have everybody rowing together in the same direction?
Steve Jobs, who passed away, remains an excellent source of motivation. He can help you think differently about how you approach your marketing efforts.
Occasionally, it’s good to take a step back. Reexamine your efforts to see if you are making the most significant impact with your marketing.
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