Steve Jobs (7 page)

“Genius lets you automatically create playlists

Genius feature for iTunes

from songs in your music library that go great

together, with just one click.
”9

22
CREATE THE STORY

Avoid Self-Indulgent, Buzzword-Filled Wastes of Time

Answer the one question in all of your marketing materials:

website, presentation slides, and press releases. The people

who should know better—public relations professionals—are

often the worst violators of this rule. The majority of press

releases are usually self-indulgent, buzzword-filled wastes

of time. Few members of the press even read press releases,

because the documents fail to answer the one question that

matters most to a reporter—Why should my readers care? As

a journalist, I’ve seen thousands of press releases and rarely,

if ever, covered a story based on one. Most other journalists

would concur. Far too many press releases focus on corporate

changes (management appointments, new logos, new offices,

etc.) that nobody cares about, and if people should happen

to care, the information is far from clear. Read press releases

issued on any given day, and you will go numb trying to figure

out why anyone would care about the information.

For fun, I took a few samples from press releases issued

within hours of one another. The date does not matter. The

majority of all press releases violate the same fundamental

principles of persuasion:

” Industries announced today

that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement

with

.

Under

terms

of

the

agreement, will be the exclu-

sive national distributor of

’s

diesel exhaust fluid.” Now, seriously, who cares? I wish

I could tell you how the new distribution agreement

benefits anyone, even shareholders. I can’t, because

the rest of the press release never answers the question

directly.

“

has

been

named

2008

Pizza

Chain of the Year by Pizza Marketplace.” The press

ANSWER THE ONE QUESTION THAT MAT TERS MOST
23

release said this honor comes after the chain delivered

consistent profits, six quarters of same-store sales

increases, and a new management team. Now, if the

chain offered its customers a special discount to cele-

brate this honor, it would be newsworthy, but the press

release mentions nothing that distinguishes this pizza

chain from the thousands of other pizza parlors. This

type of release falls under the “look at us” category—

announcements that are largely meaningless to anyone

outside the executive suites.

“ has announced the addition

of the ‘Annual Report on China’s Steel Market in 2008

and the Outlook for 2009’ report to their offering.”

Really? I’m sure millions of people around the world

were waiting for this new report! Just kidding. This is

another example of a wasted opportunity. If this release

had started with one new, eye-opening piece of infor-

mation from the new report, I might have been slightly

more interested. However, that would have meant put-

ting the reader first, and, sadly, most PR pros who write

press releases intended for journalists have never been

trained as journalists themselves.

Here’s another gem, courtesy of an electric company in Hawaii:

” today announced that

has been named president

and

CEO,

effective

January

1,

2009.

replaces

,

who

stepped

down

as

president and CEO in August of this year.” We also learned

that the new CEO has thirty-two years of experience in

the utilities industry and has lived on the big island for

twenty years. Isn’t that wonderful? Doesn’t it give you a

warm feeling? Again, this press release represents a lost

opportunity to connect with the company’s investors

24
CREATE THE STORY

and customers. If the release had started with one thing

that the new CEO planned to do immediately to improve

service, it would have been far more interesting and

newsworthy.

For the most part, press releases fail miserably at generat-

ing interest because they don’t answer the one question that

matters most to the reader. Do not make the same mistake in

your presentation, publicity, and marketing material.

Nobody has time to listen to a pitch or presentation that

holds no benefit. If you pay close attention to Jobs, you will see

that he doesn’t “sell” products; he sells the dream of a better

future. When Apple launched the iPhone in early 2007, CNBC

reporter Jim Goldman asked Jobs, “Why is the iPhone so impor-

tant to Apple?” Jobs avoided a discussion of shareholder value

or market share; instead, he offered the vision of a better experi-

ence: “I think the iPhone may change the whole phone industry

and give us something that is vastly more powerful in terms of

making phone calls and keeping your contacts. We have the

best iPod we’ve ever made fully integrated into it. And it has

the Internet in your pocket with a real browser, real e-mail, and

the best implementation of Google Maps on the planet. iPhone

brings all this stuff in your pocket, and it’s ten times easier to

use.
”10 J
obs explains the “why” before the “how.” Your audience doesn’t care about your product. People care

about themselves. According to former Apple employee and

Mac evangelist Guy Kawasaki, “The essence of evangelism is to

passionately show people how you can make history together.

Evangelism has little to do with cash flow, the bottom line, or

co-marketing. It is the purest and most passionate form of sales

because you are selling a dream, not a tangible object.
”11 Sell

dreams, not products.

ANSWER THE ONE QUESTION THAT MAT TERS MOST
25

D IR EC TO R ’ S N OT E S

 Ask yourself, “Why should my listener care about this

idea/information/product/service?” If there is only one

thing that you want your listener to take away from the

conversation, what would it be? Focus on selling the

benefit behind the product.

 Make the one thing as clear as possible, repeating it at

least twice in the conversation or presentation. Eliminate

buzzwords and jargon to enhance the clarity of your

message.

 Make sure the one thing is consistent across all of your

marketing collateral, including press releases, website

pages, and presentations.

This page intentionally left blank

SCE

SCENNEE 3

3

Develop a

Messianic Sense

of Purpose

We’re here to put a dent in the universe.

STEVE JOBS

New York’s luxury, Upper West Side apartment build-

ing, the San Remo, is located on Seventy-Fifth Street

with commanding views of Central Park. Its most

famous residents read like a who’s who of contempo-

rary culture: Tiger Woods, Demi Moore, Dustin Hoffman, Bono,

and, at one time, a young man on a mission—Steve Jobs.

In 1983, Jobs was aggressively courting then PepsiCo

president John Sculley. Apple desperately wanted to bring in

someone with Sculley’s marketing and managing experience,

but despite Steve’s charm, Sculley failed to budge. The posi-

tion would require that Sculley relocate his family to the West

Coast, and it paid less than he wanted. One sentence would

change everything. One sentence that would transform Apple,

shift the trajectory of Sculley’s career, and begin Jobs’s amazing

path from whiz kid to failure to hero and, finally, to legend.

In his book
Odyssey
, Sculley recounts the conversation that

would lead to his decision to take the job. The conversation

27

28
CREATE THE STORY

also provided one of the most famous quotes in the history of

corporate America.

According to Sculley, “We were on the balcony’s west side,

facing the Hudson River, when he [Jobs] finally asked me

directly: ‘Are you going to come to Apple?’ ‘Steve,’ I said, ‘I really

love what you’re doing. I’m excited by it; how could anyone not

be captivated? But it just doesn’t make sense. Steve, I’d love to be

an adviser to you, to help you in any way. But I don’t think I can

come to Apple.’ ”

Sculley said Jobs’s head dropped; he paused and stared at the

ground. Jobs then looked up and issued a challenge to Sculley

that would “haunt” him. Jobs said, “Do you want to spend the

rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to

change the world?
”1
Sculley said it was as if someone delivered a stiff blow to his stomach.

The Reality Distortion Field

Sculley had witnessed what Apple’s vice president Bud Tribble

once described as Jobs’s “reality distortion field”: an ability to convince anyone of practically anything. Many people cannot

resist this magnetic pull and are willing to follow Jobs to the

promised land (or at least to the next cool iPod).

Few people can escape the Jobs charisma, a magnetism

steeped in passion for his products. Observers have said that

there is something about the way Jobs talks, the enthusiasm