Steve Jobs: the Power of Large M Marketing

With the recent announcement of Steve Jobs’ medical leave of absence (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/technology/18apple.html), I have been thinking about his contribution to culture and technology.  He has been called many things, mostly superlative and positive, however, I believe his great contribution is to show technology companies how to market, truly market their products and services.

Some background... when I was getting started in telecom at Bell Labs, I had a conversation with an older manager who was probably in service marketing in the Long Lines organization.  I asked what he did: he said he did focus groups to determine willingness to pay for new services and then he set the price point for the service.  In further conversation, I learned that he was an engineer by training, who, over time, had moved into service marketing and management.  “Where are the marketing people?” I asked.  He responded that AT&T had difficulty hiring and retaining the good ones.  “Why’s that?” I asked.  “Because they can make so much more money and have so much better careers in other industries like consumer products.”  We then had a conversation about the value created by a good marketing person at companies like Pepsi or Proctor and Gamble.  By understanding market segmentation, by manipulating perception and desire through advertising and branding, a dollar’s worth of detergent can sell for $2.50 or more.  All that extra value is created by marketing.  In telecommunications, the additional value add of a top brand and an advertising campaign was rarely more than 15%.

Later, as I worked on new product and service launches in various companies, I came to distinguish between what I called “small m marketing” and “large M Marketing.”  What I meant by that is that small m marketing helps with collateral, names, trade shows, publications, interviews, press releases, etc. required to launch and sell products and services.  Large M Marketing, starts with a fundamental understanding of the market, it’s segments, the problems that need to be solved, how people solve those problems now, how our competitors address the problem, how our new product or service addresses the problem and what a solution is worth to each segment.  Then, armed with that knowledge, the product is re-conceived (sometimes abandoned) to optimize value and position for each segment and to develop a launch plan, segment by segment, customer by customer until maximum value is extracted from the market.  Sadly, most of my career has been spent working with marketers, not with Marketers.

Getting back to Steve Jobs... he is the master Marketer of personal computing.  He understands the technology deeply, but that is not the most important thing.  The value the technology delivers is the great user experience.  He is the master at getting every detail of the user experience to line up and constantly exceed expectations, year after year, product after product.  His technology is a pleasure to buy, to install, to maintain, to use for work and for play.  The average, non-technical user is the key segment he addresses, not just the segment with the advanced technology degrees.  And, by the way, this allows Apple to command a premium compared to it’s competition...and not just 15%.  This is his contribution to our industry... I wish him a speedy recovery and return to daily leadership of Apple.  What are your thoughts about Steve Jobs’ contribution to technology and culture?