Archives

All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘Steve Jobs’

Home / Tag: Steve Jobs

Jeff Bezos Is The Next Steve Jobs (Mediapost 10.26.11) 0

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

With the passing of a visionary like Steve Jobs, people are asking the obvious questions of who will that void.  What will happen to Apple?  Who will lead the path to the future of technology?  Kaila Colbin recently wrote a great article for the Spin on the challenges facing the heir apparent at Apple, but I want to think wider for a moment.  I want to answer the question of who will be the next Steve Jobs from an industrial and business perspective.  Jeff Bezos; please step up and take your place at the head of the table.

If you think about, Jeff Bezos is doing almost everything right.  Amazon has become the poster child for innovation in online retail, and the Kindle has become the other “must-have” device for any self-respecting digiterati.  The most recent announcements for the Kindle Fire, though maybe not as much of a barn burner as the iPhone 4S, definitely had an impact and poised Amazon as a continued player in the tablet market, if not only as a loss-leader platform for their retail services.

Apple gets a lot of the credit for consumer innovation, but Amazon is not far behind.  Apple focuses on form, function and design whereas Amazon focuses on access; access to what you want, wherever you are.  They make buying things easy and they effectively turn a considered purchase into an impulse buy.  For all that Apple does right, they are still a considered purchase. 

Amazon has risen in the ranks to become one of the most well-respected companies in the world, they dominate online retail, and they quietly own patents like the “one-click” ordering system, as well as whatever is on the inside of their Kindle line of products.  They are a force in digital music, second only to iTunes, they are the leader in eBooks, they own self-publishing platforms, and they are inevitably going to push Netflix if they can take advantage of the Netfliix/Qwikster/Netflix mis-steps of the last 6 weeks.  All that, and they basically invented affiliate marketing. 

Jeff Bezos doesn’t make lots of public presentations; he only speaks when he needs to.  He doesn’t make broad-sweeping proclamations from his pulpit-on-high, he just gets things done.  He also doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, and he doesn’t air any dirty laundry.  You don’t hear too many people complaining about working at Amazon.  Rather it is a desirable destination for legions of intellectual business people. 

Amazon does it right, and Amazon could one-day rival Apple as the leading tech-oriented company.   Bezos won’t need to get fired from Amazon and return to bring the company to glory.  He’s already there, and no-one is challenging him for the lead reins.   If you look at the 5-year trend for Amazon, it keeps going up.  Those are the kinds of things investors look for; stability, growth and innovation. 

What kept Apple in a position of growth was Steve Jobs, his vision, his passion for the business, and his unrelenting desire to improve the world, think different and challenge the status quo.   Jeff Bezos is cut from a similar cloth.  He is constantly challenging the way things are done.  He is ultra-focused on the consumer.  He is obviously very passionate about his business.  What is there to stop him from being that person to drive his business and become the person that others look up to?

Not much.

Here’s a toast to Jeff Bezos, as we look to the future and the visionaries that will shape the world for many years to come.

Good luck Jeff!

Posted on: 10-28-2011
Posted in: treffiletti.com

Meeting an Effing Need 0

I’ve been enjoying a recent issue of , an unusual magazine that has a lengthy feature on companies around the world that are proving that some of the truths we hold as givens aren’t really true at all. The article highlights newspapers that are growing in circ because of great local investigative journalism, small bookstores that are opening and thriving, CD stores very much in the black, and so on. These businesses are doing well because – what for it – they are focused on meeting real wants and needs.
And it got me to thinking about how much we in the media business tend toward lemmingness, in that we draw conclusions based upon the conclusions that others are drawing instead of thinking – really thinking – about how to meet changing consumer needs and preferences.
I think the US newspaper industry is the poster child for this tendency. It appears that many papers saw the success of TV and free online content and determined that the best way of responding to these trends is to make newspapers more like those kinds of vehicles. Shorter articles, more celebritrash, getting rid of many of the local staff to focus in favor of focusing on cheap content spoon-fed to them by companies and political figures.
The challenge, of course, is that what works in one medium doesn’t work in another. Let me pick on TV for a minute. When a 24-hour news channel displays four Twitter posts as if it is totally attuned to the public will and is as fast with trends as social media, it looks beyond pathetic. The whole idea of Twitter is participation and the cacophony of voices that you can choose (or choose not) to follow. And inasmuch as TV wants to be seen as at least a little more concerned about professional journalism than me and my friends mouthing off from our cell phones as we go to work, covering Tweets like they are the equivalent of the Watergate hearings makes them look beyond silly.
Similarly, when a newspaper tries to become more like TV – more of a headlines service – it fails at both what makes newspapers cool and as a competitor to TV. What makes newspaper journalism so distinctive – and dare I say popular with the people who choose to read it – is that it is both broad and deep. You read a newspaper because you want to get more than a headline and 4 minutes of two yutzes on political extremes throwing metaphorical crème pies at one another.
I get it that newspapers and other media need to do what they have to do in order to make ends meet. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta sing, I get that. But you don’t win by losing. You don’t win by trying to be more like things that are patently different from what you offer.
I don’t believe that Millennials who don’t pick up newspapers wouldn’t be interested in breadth and depth. Rather it simply needs to be delivered to them in ways that are relevant to them. That meet their needs. That give them a role in the discussion. All data seem to indicate that Millennials are more socially conscious than the generations that precede them. Given that, it’s nigh on impossible for me to believe that real investigating reporting, for example, wouldn’t appeal to them. It might not be on broadsheet newsprint. It might not be an entirely professional-reporter-class driven offering that would be appealing to them. But there’s a way to touch them and gain their loyalty.
The meteoric rise of Fox News provides an abundant example of how what newspapers do is actually very relevant to millions and millions of people who may not be picking up issues from their front steps. Fox News took the sensibility and approach of what the UK calls “Red Tops” and reshaped it into something that works on TV. By saying that Fox News is broadcast tabloid is not something I mean as an insult to Fox News. A UK tabloid is rather different from the US’s Weekly World News. It ultimately takes important issues and redefines them in the context of what matters to ordinary people in the street. It serves up news with visceral emotion.
OK, OK, and throws in a lot of pictures of Posh and Becks as well. But Fox News proves that the essence of at least one form of newspaper journalism has loads of legs.
Media challenged by the changing environment and the advent of digital need to think less like lemmings and more like Steve Jobs. To focus on transformation rather than a race to the bottom.

Posted on: 10-13-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

A PC’s Thank You to Steve Jobs 0

Thank you.

Thank you for making the entire tech industry so much better and smarter.

For your passion for the emotional side of the “user.”

Heck, for thinking about us as people instead of as “users.”

For destroying the putty-colored commoditization of the device business.

For making a PC in “Tangerine.”

For proving that desktop software needn’t be buggy and frustrating.

For forcing MSFT to give up DOS and provide the Windows GUI.

For introducing millions of kids to the remarkable technological frontier.

For instilling passion and excitement into an industry that has enlivened and enriched the creativity ofhumanity.

For showing manufacturers the virtue of simplicity and how a few products that are well thought through can be more popular than thousands of permutations of disappointment.

For making a cell phone I actually could work and enjoy using.

For making every other cell phone manufacturer follow suit.

For creating a fertile field on which thousands of developers can create mobile apps – and make a decent living doing so.

For showing us the virtue of recognizing when you are on the wrong track, admitting it, and making the tough decisions to correct a company’s course.

For creating brands instead of products.

For delivering creative ideas instead of bullet-point-riddled sell sheets.

For teaching “tech marketers” what marketing actually is.

For never standing still.

For never resting on your laurels.

For making every other company struggle to keep up, or at least not fall too far behind.

I was never an Apple groupie. I never owned a Mac. I buy books with a Kindle. I use an Androidphone.

But I have always been thankful that you were such a force in tech.

Because without you, the industry would still be making buggy, confusing, insular crap.

Because without you, so many things I now take for granted wouldn’t exist.

Though I didn’t buy many of the things that bore the best logo in tech, I know that they and you were what made everything I bought better.

And inspired everyone to be better.

 


Sent from my iPad

Posted on: 10-6-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Lessons From A Week Without The Interwebs (Mediapost 4.6.11) 0

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; }

Wow.  I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to do it, but I did!  I actually survived an entire week without the Internet.  It was tough at times, but I wanted to see if it could be done and I’m living proof to say that with some careful planning and a little bit of patience, you too can be successful for 7 full days without the web!

My family and I just finished a week’s vacation in Aruba, and I managed to go from Saturday to Saturday with zero access to my beloved Interwebs.  With the exception of the iPad (for which I and my wife owe a solemn debt of gratitude to Steve Jobs because it was the only way to get our 2 year old son to sit still for extended periods of time when we weren’t playing with him directly) we didn’t even use any gadgets.  No iPhones.  No laptops.  It was amazing to experience the world what it must have been like 20 years ago!

Amazingly I went 7 full days without reading any of my favorite blogs.  I didn’t peruse one single piece of content related the advertising business either, and the only news content I had came from a printed New York Times sheet distributed at the front desk of the resort.  It was refreshing to find other outlets for my time rather than sitting in front of a small, backlit keyboard and a luminous screen (as I am doing here at 5:30am).

There were so many other things to do with my time! We went for walks, engaged in happy banter with the family, and spent hours cuddled up with my son, a book, some fruit and a smile on my face.  It was refreshing to have few cares and ample time in the day to just sit back, relax and be a human being!

Of course, there were some awkward moments too.  For example, I found myself looking for something to do in those fractured moments when I was alone at the dinner table for 120 seconds, while my wife would take my son to the bathroom.  Those times are usually reserved for errant glances towards my phone and the ubiquitous deluge of email messages.   Come to think of it, it was strange to look around the restaurant and not see at least 50% of the people at the tables looking down, gazing longingly into the semi-bright halo of light that typically emanates from inside their cupped hands.  People were actually looking at one another, engaging in the moment and enjoying the presence of real flesh and blood people.  It was truly eye-opening!

All that being said, it is nice to come back to the “real world”, as my wife put it when we were in the taxi.  One thing I learned from being away is that I want to maintain some of the learning I acquired while away on vacation.  I want to take some of that “vacation-spirit” with me back into the real world.   Just in case you haven’t been on vacation lately, maybe these suggestions will help you feel a little more peace during your otherwise hectic and fast-paced days…

1.     Try to remember that not every waking second has to be “productive”, because the simple fact is that filling every waking second with glances towards email are not productive.  They’re distracting.

2.     Be where you are, when you’re there.  Right now, the most important place for you to be is where you are, and not trying to be mentally somewhere else.  The people you’re talking to, and the places where you are right now are important, so don’t discount them by thinking of other places and other people, or engaging in conversation with other people in other places.  Be here.  Now.

Those two nuggets of wisdom are ones that I feel are important, because when you’re present, focused and calm you are actually far more productive than when you’re scattered, distracted or unfocused.  The best executives in the world take vacations, and they also make you feel important when you’re with them.  That works equally well when you’re with family.  You never want to hear your son say “Daddy – what’s going on in your email”?  You would rather hear him say “Daddy – want to play catch”?

So even though it’s back to work, a little vacation spirit and the legacy of my week without the Internet will live on for as long as I can allow it.  I hope you’re able to get away, and if not then at least let your mind get away a little.  It will do wonders for your attitude.

Posted on: 04-10-2011
Posted in: treffiletti.com

Brand Belief Starts with You 0

Do consumers believe in your brand? Do you?

I’ve talking to my Father a lot over the past few days, and one of his favorite topics is the Dodgers.

The Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a proud Brooklynite. And a major Dodgers fan. Until they moved. For him, the move was a betrayal. A realization that the team owners cared not one whit for Brooklyn or its people.

Which was, in his view, a violation of the brand though he wouldn’t use those words. But the nature of Brooklyn and its people was a big part of the Dodgers brand. They weren’t just a group of players brought together by paychecks – they were an embodiment of the spirit of the Borough – always in the shadow of Manhattan, and determined to scrap and scrape to be on top.

In my 25 or so years in marketing, I have been struck by the number of people I’ve met who were charged with building brands they disdained. People who had contempt for their targets if they were downscale or religious or extremely pedestrian in their aspirations and dreams.

Enter social media. The powerful thing about a TV ad you produce once a year or a print ad you spend thousands on is that it gives the savvy the opportunity to pretend – to pretend to share the values of the users that drive the brand. To pretend that a product is far better than it is. Car photographers and food stylists and supermodels can also be used to obfuscate product issues instead of focusing resources on fixing them.

What I love about social is that there’s no place to hide anymore. No way to paper over fundamental product issues or elitism. In this new environment, truth will out. If we don’t believe in what we are selling, we’ll surely be found out.

We have instincts about which brands care about their products – and us. Is there any doubt in your head that Steve Jobs is a believer? Jeff Bezos? Tony Hsieh?

Even when we don’t know who is behind brands, we love it when brands and the people behind them demonstrate genuine belief in their offerings. Take Cadillac. There are lots of reasons why Cadillac is back, but I think a big part of it is that Cadillac got its groove back – the brash, in your face, look at me sense of this aspirational brand returned as the design team started designing actual Cadillacs again, and everyone else – from the dealer to the men and women on the line – felt good about what they were making and doing. You could feel it. You can feel it.

What other brands feel like they believe in what they are doing?
• Tide
• Hyundai
• Contadina
• Ford
• Flip
• Tyler Perry Studios
• JC Penney
• Tourism Australia

Those are some on my list, anyway.

The popularity of cause related marketing is an interesting side to this belief thing. Many brands are using borrowed interest to give their brands a sense of purpose. I think that’s great – but it doesn’t replace the need for everyone involved in a brand to actually care about their product. Because cause related marketing makes me feel good about this purchase, whereas brand pride and brand belief make me feel good about being loyal to the brand. Now, causes can make me feel better about buying a brand, but they can only supplement – not replace – genuine belief in the things were are making and doing.

Let’s head back to Ebbets Field for the closer. There were a lot of reasons why the Dodgers moved, not least a big fight with the city over a new stadium. Sound familiar?

Anyway, whatever the reasons, there’s no doubt that most Brooklyners felt betrayed. For the Dodgers it didn’t matter much – after all, baseball was a local business and LA was a long ways away from Coney Island. But when we fail to believe in the people that buy our products — and in those products themselves, the consumer can sense that betrayal.

Think about that the next time those consumers you disdain aren’t signing up in droves for your FaceBook page.

Thanks to for publishing this first.

Posted on: 01-3-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer