Steve Jobs on Marketing

These are the exact words of Steve Jobs before he announced the Think Different Ad Campaign. So, in the words of the genius himself, here we go:

What follows is a transcription of Steve Jobs' 1997 remarks introducing the Think Different campaign. The speech is third-party copyrighted material and is not reproduced in full here. A short summary of its key points follows.

Jobs opens by arguing that marketing is about values, not specs. In a noisy world, a company gets only a sliver of attention, so it must be crystal clear about what it wants people to know about it. Apple, he says, is one of a handful of truly great brands in the world, but a great brand still needs investment and care to keep its relevance and vitality.

He contends the way to do that is not to talk about speeds, feeds, megahertz, or why Apple beats Windows. He points to "Got Milk" (which sold milk by focusing on its absence) and, above all, Nike: a company that sells a commodity, shoes, yet never talks about the product in its ads. Instead Nike honors great athletes and great athletics, because that is who they are.

Jobs then describes hiring Chiat/Day and asking the core question: who is Apple and what does it stand for? His answer: Apple's core value is the belief that people with passion can change the world for the better, and that the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do.

He closes by noting that while the market, products, distribution, and manufacturing have all changed, core values should not. The new campaign, "Think Different," honors the people who think differently and move the world forward, touching the soul of the company.