Marketing Apple: Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine

The future arrived early.

I was one of the lucky ones who managed to score a new Amazon Echo early...and I have to tell you I am impressed!  First, this isn't what I thought Amazon could create - a super fast, seamlessly integrated personal assistant.  This is Amazon not just copying Apple's simple and delightful user experience, but actually going beyond it.

You ask "Alexa" (or you can call her "Amazon") to play a song, or take a note, or turn off the lights, or check the weather, or traffic, or play an audio book...and it happens...in seconds.  There is no delay at all - it almost seems like it is anticipating your request.  Further, you can ask her to reorder something you already purchased at Amazon (we reordered dog food for Lucy) and it reads back your order waiting for a simple "Yes" from you to place it.  From the time we thought about needing dog food to the time it was in our home was like 2 days...and we never approached a computer, or iPhone or Apple Watch.  Did I mention the speaker/microphone array in this thing sounds great?  When you get her attention a cool blue light "looks" in your direction then runs off with your request. Pretty cool stuff.

I've been demoing Amazon Echo (they should have just called it Alexa) to all my friends and family and while there are still a few rough edges everyone has come away impressed by what the device and the cloud can do when they are paired in this way.  I tell people this is what I expected the future to be like and it has finally arrived.  Amazon needs to steal a page from Apple marketing and start showing the world what this can do.  I don't have that many friends ;)

Just learned today that anyone can now purchase Amazon Echo (there is no more waiting list), so here is a handy link if you are so inclined.  

Inspired by Steve: My New Book on Apple Marketing

After spending the last few weeks thinking about Steve and the impact he had on the world, I've decided to write a more detailed book about my life and Apple.  This book will reveal what it was like to work at Apple during the dark days before Steve returned as well as how Apple changed the world under Steve's leadership.  You'll learn some secrets about Apple that I've shared in some of my keynote speeches including how I almost died the same year that Apple almost died, why the original iMac was translucent, and how iTunes was an accident.

As an experiment, I will begin by releasing some of chapters on these pages under new posts.  My hope is that you will enjoy my writing and give me some feedback and in return I may release some chapters for free as I've done with my short ebook.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your help on this labor of love.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs' death hit me in a way I wasn't expecting, even though I was expecting Steve Jobs' death. 

I'll write much more on these pages soon, but I was inspired to quickly create this tribute video to him: Here is Steve Jobs narrating and starring in his own Think Different commercial.  I couldn't wait for Apple to do this so I had to - of course using all Apple tools.

True Power of Apple Marketing Part Deux

Love it when the AP picks up a story we've been talking about here for months.

How is it that anyone (especially in this economy) can stand in line to plunk down $499-$900 on a brand new iPad when they've never even seen one? Hey, Jessica Mintz, it's simple:

Thanks to the power of the World's Best Marketing Machine (aka Steve Jobs) you simply follow this formula to demonstrate the true power of Apple marketing:

1. Surprise and Delight.  Get in a habit of overachieving your own goals.  Make what people buy today more powerful tomorrow (think AppStore...not even in sight when people bought their first iPhone)  Do that often enough, and you get people to trust you.  Or give them rebates when it seems like you took advantage of them for buying too soon. In fact, Apple's current brand trust is ranked #1...but it has been for years.

2. Take the Order.  Apple made it easy to gauge demand for iPad and dynamically shifted demand into building the right number and type of iPads.  Simply putting up a "Pre-Order" page did the trick.  Oh yeah, and circling back and reminding people that their iPad will be waiting for them is a nice touch.  UPDATE: April 1 - Apple refunds all rush shipping charges - another way to earn cred!

3. Ship It.  Okay, sounds easy, but please...JooJoo (er CrunchPad) all the way back to the Osborne have failed to deliver on their promises.  Apple shows it, takes the order, ships it.  Or as this earlier post states: "Ship delight.  Repeat."

Then goes back and improve it all again.  Yes, Apple has made a living on this form of marketing and customer experience.  There is no one better.

Win the new Apple iPad

Win an Apple iPad!

That's right, Dimdim Web Conferencing can help you get a new Apple iPad!

Simply sign up for a 30-day Dimdim Pro trial via this URL and you instantly qualify to win the new Apple iPad!  It's that simple.  No credit card required.  You will fall in love with Dimdim, the easy, open, affordable web conferencing tool while you wait to win your iPad.  We'll pick a winner in the next week, so sign up now!

The Magic of Apple Marketing

"Real Artists Ship."

This is a quote attributed to Steve Jobs when the first Macintosh was being developed.  His engineers were struggling with every nuance of the new machine and wanted to slip the launch until they got it just right. Steve compelled them to do better.

Today, Apple has come full circle - they ship a finished product then go back to improve it over and over again.  Look at the iPod - it was great in 1999 and it is even better now.  Other vendors promise something but never seems to ship it, or it comes so much later that the enthusiasm wanes.

But Apple ships.  You'll see it with the Tapplet and I was going to write a similar post, but Joel from Gizmodo says it all:  "Consumer audiences have grown wary of nearly a century of predictable sleight-of-hand. We've seen too many companies promise us the future, then fail to deliver it."

Read the rest of the article.

Meet the real magic of Apple marketing:  Ship delight.  Repeat.

Sometimes you get noticed

Been traveling a lot (just returned from India!) and haven't been able to check out the Internets.  Found this story about me and how Dimdim is much like Apple and thought I'd pass it along.  BTW, we are out to change the world for the better.  In the future your ability to show someone your computer screen while chatting with them live using VoIP and video will be as commonplace - and as expected - as your email address or mobile number.  I truly believe that real time, rich media collaboration the likes of Dimdim will make the world a better place.

Why Dimdim?  I believe that the future is simply the practical application of common sense.  This makes sense.  Someone once said, "the best way to predict the future is to invent it."  We're literally in the process of inventing the future right now.  Come try it out for free, (no plug-in required to try!) and stay around for some stunning new features that will curl your toes real soon now...