Why We Need a Marketing Makeover

A year after Steve Jobs’ death, we are left with a legacy of amazing tech. Jobs’ imagination and innovation changed the way we live – and for that we will always remember him.

He also was quite the showman, and changed things up in the marketing world. From his trademark blue jeans and black turtle necks, to his schemes of sending Apple employees out to bars with proto-types of iPhones, and having them intentionally lose them to get front-page coverage -- even outside the tech media. 

Steve Jobs knew how to work a crowd, and always did have “one more thing” as he was famous for saying towards the end of a product launch, that really did “change everything.”

As Jobs’ marketing success of Apple products became obvious, many followed, having their own similar press events, with executives dressed down in jeans and their favourite casual shirts. They all began to have similar staged events, with rumours starting months before the product launch about the release date, the features, or even intentionally having a piece of never before seen tech suddenly disappear only to make it into the headlines.

There have been rumours circulating for months about an iPadmini, and today, Apple’s biggest competitor Samsung leaked rumours about theirown mini to compete against Apple’s – yet neither product officially exists yet!

Enough already!

When competition to a product that doesn't officially exist is leaked to the press, you know it’s time for the marketing wizards to come up with a new way to engage and entice us.

Creativity, imagination, and innovation aren't easy. They take a lot of hard work, sitting, thinking, brainstorming, storyboarding, writing, researching, crumpling up paper, tossing it into the recycling bin and starting again – until that light bulb of an idea emerges which changes everything all over again.

When you reach the “changes everything stage” that’s your reward for all the hard work put into it – and the ultimate reward is being the person that came up with the idea in the first place.

There will never be another Steve Jobs. But somewhere out there, there is an ad exec, a marketing pro, or just some unknown entrepreneur about to have an idea that really does change everything.

I can hardly wait.