Devoted to branding and building and protecting brands

There’s so much written about Steve Jobs and Macworld that there’s no new angle.  There is, however, one fundamental angle as it relates to how to build a strong, Apple-class brand and it’s worth repeating here: To the extent that you see your product through the eyes of your consumers/customers, and avoid the temptation to see your consumers through the prism of your products, you will succeed.  This, boiled down to its fundamentals, is precisely what Jobs and Apple do when they’re at their best.  In fact, Jobs and Apple are virtually the same entity.  You don’t have one without the other.  Ask the Apple Board, or shareholders.  

Will you succeed as wildly and consistently as Jobs?  There are no guarantees, of course, but to the extent that you look at your marketplace, your competitors and your customers strictly through the lens of the stuff you’re selling, as so many marketers typically do, you’re practically guaranteed to underachieve.  Watch Jobs this week at Macworld.  He sounds more like a consumer than a CEO.  And this is at the root of what’s made him and his products so successful.  He just doesn’t “listen to customers” or “know his customers”, the way every corner-office suit parrots at every opportunity.  He IS the Apple customer. He demands cool products on a regular basis.  And he supplies the demand.  Always has.  He's customer.  Ask the people who work for him.