Steve Jobs: Marketing Genius

Why Apple’s Steve Jobs is a World-Class Marketing Genius

Like many consumers I have long been enamored with the product designs, enhanced functionalities and overall quality of the Apple products brought to us by Steve Jobs.

As a marketing professional, though, I have also been enthralled by the power, story lines and production values of the TV commercials produced by Apple under the eagle eye and branding brain of Jobs. And yet this is only part of the story behind the marketing genius of Jobs.

Apple is often seen as a company built through product design. But it is more, much more.

Led by the instinctive and intuitive insights of Jobs, Apple has had a foundational focus on the customer experience, long before “customer experience marketing” entered our industry jargon.

The customer experience was often the focus of Apple’s advertising campaigns. And it has certainly been the key element in how the Apple retail stores have been designed, from free availability of products test and trial to the clever concept of the Genius Bars. It is little wonder that Apple’s retail stores have a higher sales-per-square-foot level than any other retail chain in the USA, including high-end retailers like Tiffany’s, Gucci and Coach.

How was Apple able to produce a steady flow of brilliant advertising over the years? Two key factors:

a) Jobs was heavily involved in the creative process at all times

b) Jobs used only one agency (Chiat/Day, which eventually merged into TBWA)

Together they produced a litany of powerful, emotive, brand building advertising campaigns, including:

• 1984
• Mac vs. PC
• Meet iPad
• Silhouettes
• Think Different
• Meet Her
• Stacks
• Quotes

Which of these were your favorites? Any to add? I will be adding the ones I like best to my favorites at our Howard Marketing YouTube channel.

Designers call Steve Jobs an inspiration to their craft. Computer geeks claim Jobs as their own guru. And those of us in the marketing profession know that, above everything else, Jobs is a marketing genius.

We can only hope that Jobs will do for marketing in the Boardroom what he has done for marketing as CEO.

Americans less interested in Australia as a holiday destination

Australia drops to third position among favored destinations

A few weeks ago, in Monday Morning Marketing Memo #244 on Sustaining Competitive Advantage, I wrote:

“In almost every case of industry leadership decline, the blame lays clearly at the feet of poor marketing execution and organizational cultures that are not customer centric and therefore not capable of sustaining market leadership.”

We unfortunately have another example of this, as verified by the most recent Harris Poll of American adults. Conducted in July, the survey asked “if you could spend a vacation in any country in the world outside the U.S., and not have to worry about costs, which would you chose?”

Australia, which has always been first or second choice in the eight year history of this survey, has suddenly been bounced to third position behind Italy and Great Britain. (The survey was conducted before the recent UK riots which filled news headlines around the world, but after the latest royal wedding, which may have provided some spark of renewed interest in the UK as a holiday destination.)

For the past several years, Tourism Australia and its global advertising campaigns on behalf of the country’s tourism industry have seemed to lack a coherent strategy.

First there was the dubious “Where the bloody hell are you?” advertising campaign in 2006, which generated plenty of controversial press coverage but did little for the country’s image as a preferred holiday destination. It also did not generate any major increase in visitor numbers despite its A$180 million price tag.

This was followed last year by the “There’s nothing like Australia” spot, which is basically a compilation of actors, pilots, surfers, ferry boat operators, zoo staff and other so-called “average Australians” repeatedly singing the jingle “there’s nothing like Australia.”

Quite frankly, in my opinion, this spot has more emotional appeal to Australians, encouraging greater domestic tourism, than it does for Americans or other nationalities as an enticement for overseas visitors.

No wonder that visitor arrivals in Australia from the USA in the first six months of this year have dropped 3% compared to the first half of last year. In fact, for the full year ending June 2011, visitor arrivals from the USA have dropped nearly 5% over the corresponding period.

Of course, the extraordinarily high Australian Dollar is hitting tourism in this country on two fronts — making it cheaper for Australians to holiday in places like Malaysia, Bali and Fiji, and making it much more expensive for Americans and others to visit Australia.

But remember, the Harris Poll specifically included the criteria “not have to worry about the cost,” when asking Americans to name their most preferred holiday destination. Thus, with costs and exchange rates taken out of the equation, Australia still dropped to its lowest ranking ever. Even worse, Australia is only the fourth most preferred holiday destination for the Generation X (age 34 to 46) respondents to the Harris Poll, as well as for all the female adults surveyed.

Global economic conditions and currency exchange issues aside, the recent advertising and marketing efforts by Tourism Australia and its agencies are, in this writer’s considered opinion, strategically off target and incorrectly executed. As a result, as seen in the results of the latest Harris Poll, Australia has lost its position as the most favored and preferred holiday destination among American adults.

One is tempted to ask Tourism Australia: “where the bloody hell is your strategy?”, while simultaneously pointing out that “there’s nothing like excellent marketing execution.”

Online Product Resarch Now First Step for Shoppers

58% of consumers conduct pre-purchase online research

The investigative phase of the buying cycle of the typical adult shopper in the USA now frequently starts with online product research.

According to the latest Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 58% of American adults have done research online about the products and services they buy, up from 49% in 2004. The study was conducted with over 3000 adults between August 9 and September 13, with the findings released earlier this week.

On a typical day, one in five adults (21%) are searching for product or service information online, a 40% from the 15% level reached in September 2007.

According to Jim Jensen, a senior fellow with the Pew Research Center, the research clearly shows that more people are going online first to compare prices, make product comparisons, and read product reviews, even if they make their purchases in retail stores rather than online. As Jensen says, “even if they end up making their purchases in a store, they start their fact-finding and decision-making on the Internet.”

Interestingly, nearly a quarter (24%) of the respondents said they have posted comments or reviews online about the products and services they buy.

The Pew research also reported that 52% of Americans are now purchasing products online.

It definitely appears that shoppers start with the Internet, and then decide if, what and where to purchase.

Green Travel Not a Huge Concern for Asian Travelers

The third Asia Pacific Retail Travel Benchmarking Survey has revealed that travelers in Asia Pacific are less concerned about green tourism than they are about getting value-for-money.

This is a major marketing and environmental concern, since three of the largest outbound travel markets in the world are found in Asia: China, India and Japan.

While sustainability and carbon footprint reduction are headline news and concerns in the USA, Europe and Australia, it appears that these issues have yet to take hold in the Asia Pacifc region, at least with the region’s travelers.

Customers of travel agents in Australia topped this Travelport survey, with 31 percent of agencies reporting that customers were “very concerned” about sustainable tourism. Unfortunately for Mother Earth, this figure was more than double the Asia Pacific average!

In Singapore, both business and leisure travelers were the least concerned about reducing their carbon footprint according to the survey. A whopping 53% of travel agents in the Lion City said their customers were “not concerned at all’ about sustainable tourism, which is very surprising given the neat, clean and green environmental image that Singapore projects to the world.

For Singaporeans and Taiwanese business travelers, pursuit of profits outweighs environmental concerns, as business travelers from these two markets expressed the least interest in paying for sustainable travel, indicating that financial considerations were a priority for them.

“The lack of promotion to raise awareness of green travel may have contributed to these findings,” notes Brad Holman, president and managing director of Travelport GDS Asia Pacific, who adds “only 10 percent of travel agents proactively promote eco-friendly tourism on a regular basis.”

In my opinion, the results of this survey highlight a huge opportunity for travel agents in each market to develop eco-friendly travel programs that will appeal to those who put environmental concerns ahead of their own purses, pocket books, and corporate bottom lines.

Sponsored by Travelport, the 3rd Asia Pacific Retail Travel Benchmarking Survey was conducted with over 240 retail travel agents in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

What do you think? How can travel agents in Asia better promote sustainable tourism? Share your thoughts or comments.

The Marketing of Presidential Candidates

You’d think that with the tens of millions of dollars they have in hand to spend on their campaigns that American presidential candidates would be better marketers. Or at least have better marketing results.

But alas they seem to have fallen to the same disease of short-term sales (i.e. votes) and quarterly results (i.e. the next set of primary elections) as many corporate CEOs. This is why even when they win they often lose for their support is not deeply engrained and there is no voter (customer) loyalty post election.

This is also because none of the current crop of candidates has shown any ability to strongly position themselves (i.e. brand themselves). There’s not a solid brand amongst them. These candidates have no branding power (unlike JFK”, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan). As one astute observer wrote to me last week, the current crop of candidates can be described (branded in my words) as:

a) a mean-spirited woman

b) a slick-talking,” Oprah-backed inexperienced quasi-Muslim

c) an old man from Arizona with a trophy wife

d) a womanizing 9-11 opportunist from New York

And those are just the leading candidates!

Change seems to be a major topic in this election. Perhaps the true change that is needed is the way the few remaining candidates need to start employing strong branding and marketing strategies to create some brand power and customer loyalty building with the American voters.

Otherwise,someone in November is going to win the election and lose the electorate (ala the current incumbent in the White House).

Super Bowl Ads

One of the most anticipated advertising events each year is the showing of new television commercials during the American Super Bowl football championship game.

The game which was played this past Sunday night, attracted an audience of approximately 97.5 million people in American, and countless millions more across the world. A tight contest,this was the most watched Super Bowl in history.

Thirty-second TV commercials during the game reportedly cost as much as US$3 million per spot.

Anheuser-Busch aired the best-liked Super Bowl ad for a record 10th-consecutive year, according to results of the Super Bowl Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group testing. Unlike many previous winners, the Anheuser-Busch ad did not rely on humor. Instead, it featured a Dalmatian who becomes personal trainer to a dejected draft horse eager to make the team pulling the famous Budweiser beer wagon.

The other Top 10 ads:

FedEx (FedEx beats giant carrier pigeons)

Bridgestone (critters scream with squirrel missed by car)

Doritos (gian rat goes for guy’s bag of chips)

Bud Light (fire-breather heats up romantic dinner)

Bud Light (men sneak beer into wine-and-cheese party)

Coca-Cola (cartoon-character parade balloons go after Coke Classic)

Diet Pepsi Max (star-studded cast stops dozing)

Planters (scent of nuts makes homely woman alluring)

Tide to Go (shirt stain is louder than a job candidate) tied with SoBe Life Water (Lizards dance with model Naomi Campbell)

You can watch all the Super Bowl ads as often as you like courtesy of Advertising Age at http://adage.com/superbowl08/article?article_id=124815.

Marketing Wisdom 2008 now available from MarketingSherpa

The sixth annual edition of the eclectic and interesting Marketing Wisdom report from MarketingSherpa is now available as a free PDF download at http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30298. 

The report features dozens of real-life test campaign lessons and tips, and has been collated from 101 stories and submissions submitted by MarketingSherpa’s readers. The topics cover just about every aspect of marketing – advertising, B2B, B2C, customer service, direct mail, email, lead generation, search – and such hot topics as landing page and website design, mobile marketing and Web 2.0.

I have all six of these annual reports and refer to them frequently. And while you are at their site, I also highly recommend signing up for the free MarketingSherpa weekly newsletter. It’s one of the best in the business.

L.L. Bean Tops Retailer Customer Service List

L.L. Bean has jumped to the #1 position in customer satisfaction in the USA, according to the third annual National Retail Federation Foundation/American Express Customer Service Survey.

Ranked third last year, L.L. Bean shot past both Amazon and Nordstrom to take the top position. The company was judged the best across all retail formats and is the only “old school” retailer ranked in the top five this year. The other top five included Internet retailing giants Zappos.com in second, followed by Amazon.com in third, Overstock.com in fourth and Newegg.com in fifth.

The survey was conducted amongst 8,877 consumers in September and asked “which retailer delivers the best customer service?”

“Good customer service starts and ends with how the customer feels about their experience with a retailer,” states NRF Foundation Vice President Kathy Mance. “Retailers are especially challenged because of the multiple touch points that exist between the customer and their brand, but these companies have shown that great customer service does exist.”

I would suggest that rising customer expectations is another challenge for retailers, since four of the top ten from last year’s survey (Boscov’s, Kohl’s, REI and Macy’s) have fallen off this year’s list entirely. As we have often written, customers have too many choices to put up with failed or falling service.

One of my favorite quotes is that “life is too short to drink bad wine.” I would also suggest that “life is too short/precious/busy to put up with poor service.”

Add to Onlywire

The NBA Launches In China

It is not often that I get to write about two of my most passionate interests at the same time, but an announcement yesterday has given me an opportunity to write about both basketball and marketing in the same article.

Four Chinese companies and global sports broadcaster ESPN (owned by the Walt Disney Company) are investing US$253 million for an 11% stake in the newly formed Chinese subsidiary of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

This is huge.

Not only in terms of the dollar value, which values NBA China at about US$2.3 billion for a subsidiary company with little or no current revenues. But also in terms of what this means for the global sporting world, sponsorship opportunities, and marketing in general.

It is also huge for the NBA brand, one of the best sporting brands globally and one that has yet to suffer from the drugs scandal and player misbehavior taints of several other major professional sports.

NBA China has the right to create teams in China and will own all broadcasting rights and merchandising rights. It reportedly will also have the right to retain partial ownership in the teams created in China.

The NBA has never been secret about its long-held desire to turn this North American professional league into a global franchise. But previous to this announcement its efforts have been limited to a handful of exhibition matches played in Europe, Asia and Latin America, plus the obligatory global broadcasting of regular season games through ESPN and of its annual All-Star weekend classic and its year-end playoff series.

Interestingly, the league currently has about three dozen international players performing on its 30 teams, making it one of the most “internationalized

The 2007 Brand Marketers Report: Interbrand’s Annual Survey on Brands and Branding

The 2007 Brand Marketers Report from Interbrand is available as a free PDF download from BrandChannel.com at http://www.brandchannel.com/papers.asp.

This 17-page report is based on a survey of brand leaders and decision makers conducted online in the fourth quarter of 2006. The participant group comprises 299 senior level brand owners, all directly involved in the management decisions across a span of industries and geographies, with equal representation from B2B and B2C businesses. As BrandChannel states, “this survey of global brand owners further validates the influence brands have on the customers’ decision process, and yet shows that most marketers feel stifled in delivering on the full impact of their brand’s value.”

I found the report to be a good read and concur with the opening paragraph of the report’s Executive Summary:

“The state of brand management at the beginning of 2007 can best be described as healthy but not living up to its full potential. It is clear that branding remains an integral, yet evolving, practice and profession.”

To read some of my own articles on branding, or excerpts from my book Corporate Image Management: A Marketing Discipline for the 21st Century, go to http://www.howard-marketing.com/resources.php?mid=6&id=61.