Apple is considered the world’s most valuable company. Steve Job’s genius is legendary, and he doesn’t need another blog post extolling his mastery. But it is Steve’s failure with The Lisa that intrigues me since it proved to be so pivotal to his understanding of marketing.

Steve and Lisa – A Lesson in Failure

Starting in 1978, Steve Jobs and a team of engineers created the first computer to use a graphical user interface aimed at the business community. Some thought LISA stood for Local Integrated System of Architecture, but he told biographer Walter Isaacson that of course it was named after his daughter, Lisa. Only 100,000 units were sold – and this was considered a huge failure.

A Thousand Word Ad

The most intriguing lesson for Jobs wasn’t just in the engineering issues and problems inherent in the machine. It cost almost $10,000 which is like a $25,000 cost today. The price made it unable to compete with IBM’s personal computer which was starting to be accepted in corporate America in the early 1980’s.

Job’s decided to advertise the machine by taking out an eight-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with details about the hard drive, the interface, the memory and page after page of geek speak. There was no story being told. There was no problem being described and solved. It was a classic marketing blunder of talking about features not focusing on solutions through the story.

Moving The Time Machine Forward – What eventually replaced eight-page advertising for future computers were two words.

Think Different.

Job’s came to understand the power of story and the importance of empathy in marketing by providing a solution that heroically takes the customer on his or her journey. Job’s went on to go to Pixar and eventually became part of the master story telling the community who created Toy Story. Those lessons greatly influenced the return of Job’s to Apple. Steve had a fresh understanding of the role of marketing.

No longer did he need to extol the product he was marketing because, in fact, he was really selling a promise. He marketed through stories like one thousand CD’s in your pocket for the iPod.

Lessons from Steve’s Failure

• Is your communication overburdened with lists of features?
• Are you simply and clearly sharing in your messages, what problem you solve?
• Do you have a succinct and precise brand attitude that is uniquely yours?
• How do you use the story to explain simply why your business/brand exists?
• Does your marketing invite customer’s to be affiliated with a community of people who “think different”?
• Does your organization learn from an important product failure so that your company gets better and keeps improving?
• How confident are you that your customers truly understand how your business serves their needs?

Failure is just the path toward your success. Ask Steve. He will tell you a story.

 

 

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