We often think of Apple’s amazing run over the past 20 years as a series of innovative gadgets that have been perfectly timed to captivate our media lives. From the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad, Apple seemingly comes up with just the right device at the right time. (We’ll see if Watch ends up joining this iconic list of tech accomplishments.)
But their success is more about the feeling we get from their brand that it is about gadgetry. Anyone can make a smartphone, but the Apple value proposition speaks to a deeper marketing mission. Speaker, author, and consultant Simon Sinek summed this up best during a TED Talk a few years back, “Start With Why.” He clearly laid out the tenet that consumers don’t buy what you do – they buy why you do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sioZd3AxmnE
Apple’s “Think Different” campaign wasn’t just a marketing statement. It was a connection point between their company and consumers that made us want to connect with their brand and the products they make. They captured a deeper feeling, a cool vibe, and a spirit of innovation. It’s not what Apple makes. It’s how Apple makes us feel. And that mindset motivated millions and millions of people to gleefully stand in line to buy their gadgets, and anxiously await new ones.
Taking that a tactical step further, former Apple marketing exec Allison Johnson recently spoke about the process of creating marketing campaigns that incorporate the simplicity of a single phrase. In a story in Campaign, she boiled it down with this single line:
“If you could tell the story in a single line, we knew we had it and that we could build a communications platform off that.”
Apple could have positioned its App Store in the same way we might do it in radio:
“The World’s Biggest App Store.”
“The App Authority”
“THE App Store.”
“The First App Store.”
Instead, they thought about the story behind the product, and they listened to how other people used apps, including Apple employees during the course of normal conversation.
And that’s how “There’s an app for that” was born back in 2009.
In many ways, it was what inspired us to launch jācapps and to start developing mobile applications in Apple’s App Store. Yes, we had reams of Techsurvey data that strongly indicated smartphones would, in fact, be “the next big thing.” But it was talking to those first iPhone owners that was the tipping point. I distinctly recall sitting on a plane shortly after Apple launched the App Store. A group of three guys were showing off their iPhone apps, each trying to outdo the other to see who could discover the coolest apps. That says a great deal about the emotional connection Apple was in the process of creating between consumers and their smartphones.
It’s insightful that even Apple had no idea how some of their most successful products would play out in the consumer landscape. For example, Johnson notes they could not fathom how outside software developers would turbo-charge their App Store or that iPad would become a must-have device.
The power of that single line shouldn’t be lost on radio. While it may be important to capture your so-called “format hill” by using liners like “Boston’s Country Station” or “Iowa’s Alternative,” the need to listen to consumers and how they use our stations moves us closer to the emotional underpinnings behind every great product. And that where that single line that addresses “the why” of our radio brands becomes so powerful.
Think different.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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