Nov 22, 2024
Tech Marketing - Build a Brand like Steve Jobs & Apple to Elon Musk & Tesla + PT Barnum’s Impact
AZ TRT S05 EP43 (259) 11-17-2024
What We Learned This Week:
- PT Barnum the original Greatest Showman who understood the power of brand & advertising
- Apple Iphone release in 2007, big event w/ 1st smartphone
- Apple commercial Think Different, celebrate change
- Tesla EV Car is a marvel of tech, customer support & service + order online only
- Tesla $0 ad budget - use social, word of mouth, referrals, clean energy mission, & the following of an iconic Founder
Seg 1 - Tech Marketing - Apple
PT Barnum is considered the original entrepreneur and showman. He was all about hype and creating big spectacles.
He understand very early on the power of PR and the press. He knew he had to capture the public in interest with his posters and advertising.
He promoted the extraordinary to arouse people’s curiosity to go see his shows. Truly understood the audience and how to create a hook. His infamous museum, with the Fiji mermaid and Tom Thumb and the dog man.
Barnum was adaptive and innovative, changing his show from the museum to the circus. He was not afraid to be outspoken or controversial. He just wanted press and promotion.
Power of brand and Apple was able to build a $3 trillion company because people identify with their brand.
Steve Jobs - Unique and outspoken founder who believed it was all about the product, and making the best products. He also believed in simplicity, easy to use customer centric product. Knew how to demo a product.
Apple was all about the presentation and their events were covered yearly by the press. Key moment was in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone. Steve Jobs talked about having a phone, I pod and the internet. What if this could all be in one device and then introduced the first smart phone.
Apple built their brand as the young cool hip company for creatives. It was the McIntosh graphics card that originally attracted people to their products in the 1980s. Jobs was all about ease of use making a product simple. He would literally have kids test the products to see if it was too complicated. Jobs stressed simplicity, and focus. Make the best looking and sleekest products .
He himself was also very simple, wearing the same black shirt and jeans every day so you didn’t have to think about what to wear. This was an Einstein trick.
Understood the power of advertising. The original 1984 Super Bowl ad was a play on the book 1984 and smashing the status quo with a sledgehammer to introduce the Apple Macintosh
They had a big ad campaign in 1997 with thanking and celebrating all the eccentric rebel misfits, the change people like Einstein and Picasso and Gandhi. This positioned Apple with these iconic figures.
Apple had the ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign with a show versus tell method. People could see the videos and how good they were and how good the camera was on the iPhone.
Then the early 2000 ‘I am a PC, I am a Mac’ campaign. Where the PC was seen is an old stuffy guy with glasses wearing a suit vs the young hip Mac.
Apples products cost more but the customers who are actually fans do not care. It’s almost like a cult with diehard fans just loving the brand and wanting to be part of the community. They identify with the Apple brand.
There are actually more Android phone users, 3 billion users vs Iphone users of 1 billion. In the US iPhone is more popular with a 60% share, vs a 30% share in the entire world.
Apple is concerned with how good their products are spending billions on R&D, but also the look and design of products. Even the un-boxing of a Apple product. Constantly clean and simple. Even the Apple stores are very clean and easy to walk about.
Steve Jobs set the tone in Apple with the product, focus on the customer, be product centric. Keep it simple and build a great brand.
Ironically, Jobs did not work with consultants, nor did he ever do a survey to customers for product ideas. It’s like he knew his customers better than them, and gave them the next generation hottest product.
Seg 2 – Tech Marketing - Tesla
https://www.tesla.com/we-robot
Tesla company with a $1 trillion valuation that spend $0 on their ad budget. It is pretty amazing that they are the biggest EV car maker in the world with a 50% market share in the US and 20% market share worldwide.
Tesla actually had a 75% share in 2022, it has dropped a little. They sell 1.8 million cars worldwide per year, and the total EV car sales in the world is 14 million.
There is some smaller EV car makers who are considered rivals - Rivian, Lucid and Volvo / Polarstar, and they only have a 5% market share. Car makers, GM, Honda Nissan, Volkswagen, and Hyundai combined have like a 30% market share in the US.
1 in 4 new cars sold in 2023 was an EV, and currently EV is about 6.8% of US cars.
Tesla is all about brand and identity. Just like Apple, their customers connect with the brand. Tesla is obsessed with customer experience and service
Their cars are a marvel of technology and easy to use. They’re also connected to your phone and send you alerts when you need service on your car. Tesla is consistent in their messaging.
They have a zero dollar $0 ad budget, and spread the word about their online promotion, word-of-mouth, and social media.
Their founder Elon Musk is outspoken and not afraid of controversy. He has millions of followers online and tweet from him can change the Tesla stock price.
Tesla owns all distribution, they have no franchises. You cannot go into a dealership for buy your car. You have to shop online and order the car. One huge advantage of this is people do not like buying cars at dealerships.
Tesla also has a big referral system for promoting and selling cars. They use huge launch events and promotions to create hype.
They are also on a mission to be a clean energy company, not just the EV, but solar and the battery energy. Customers of Tesla have an identity with this brand and their mission of clean energy.
Tesla future plans involve AI and autonomous vehicles AKA the Robo taxi. As well as the Robo van to deliver goods.They also have the Tesla bot a robot that is expected to cost $25 grand, and be a serving around the house. Tesla has done stunts and promotions, even creating a flamethrower that was sold.
Tesla is all about the software, open source so even their competitors can look at what they’re doing.
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