In 1985, Steve Jobs the co-founder and visionary of Apple Computer was unceremoniously fired by Apple’s board.
Fast forward 11 years. Apple is in serious trouble.
The stock price was dropping daily. Bad decisions were being exposed. Something had to be done ASAP.
Apple’s board of directors fired the CEO and welcomed back the prodigal son, Steve Jobs.
After some time, Jobs calls a meeting for all the top managers. He struts into the meeting in his trademark black turtleneck,
He’s all business as he says:
“I gotta question for you all. What’s the difference between a bunch of rotting apples and the current Apple company? Answer: absolutely nothing! The point is, nobody wants to eat a rotten apple and nobody wants to buy from a rotting company. In other words, Apple’s lost its way. Our marketing sucks more than a Dyson vacuum, and we gotta turn this ship around pronto!”
What followed was a 16-minute marketing masterclass. (you can see it on Youtube)
Here’s the key point:
“To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world, it’s a very noisy world, and we’re not gonna get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be REALLY clear on what we want them to know about us.”
This was the beginning of the most remarkable comeback of all time. Jobs guided Apple back to prominence and it remains today one of the most valued brands anywhere.
So, my question to you dear reader is, “What do you want them to know about your business?
Do you want them to think of you as those ‘nameless, faceless tools who are constantly trying to sell you stuff’? OR
Do you want to be that ‘cool company with great products, super service and quirky emails that for some reason they actually want to read’?
P.S. If you’ve been thinking about signing up for Storymails, you should do it today! Why, now? Is there some type of special or discount being offered today?
Nope.
The reason is simply this:
Because putting off doing something that can truly help you is, uh, what’s the word…
…Stupid!