Part of my enjoyment with this industry is the opportunity to get up on a stage and talk about it. I love the speaker circuit. I really do. I also love watching really good speakers. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs is a really good speaker.
I’m fascinated with Jobs’s presentation capabilities. On occasion, I have emulated Jobs’s presentation style, like using a photo instead of copy to tell a story. When the iPad was released last week, I thought I would watch his latest presentation introducing the iPad to the world. He’s a master storyteller and takes you on a journey each time he gets on stage.
At the beginning of the presentation, he gives the audience updates on other Apple products. Apple just sold its 250 millionth iPod since 2001. Nice. The App Store has over 140,000 applications available for download to the iPhone and the iTouch, and it just recorded its three billionth download (that’s nine zeroes, folks). Very nice.
Jobs talked about Apple’s 284 retail sores, with the most recent store opening in New York City, on the upper west side.
Commenting on the newest store, he said, “It is so wonderful to be putting these stores, with their phenomenal buying experience, right in the neighborhoods of our customers. It feels great.”
Wait. Hold up. Let’s hear that again.
“It is so wonderful to be putting these stores, with their phenomenal buying experience, right in the neighborhoods of our customers. It feels great.”
Pregnant pause…
I wrote it down because I just had to break this sentence apart. It struck me how a CEO and regular mountain-mover like Steve Jobs can say this about an update. You would think he would save his best material for the iPad. Not for me. To me that sentence was a smack in the face, a kick in the shin, a wow moment. (Actually, that was me falling out of my chair after trying to readjust while starting to write this post. Darn you, rolling chair on hardwood floor!)
The customer experience inside a retail environment is one of the reasons for my existence This little comment was music to my ears. I wasn’t using iTunes. Shame on me. Look at the words he used in the sentence:
“It is so wonderful to be putting these stores, with their phenomenal buying experience right in the neighborhoods of our customers. It feels great.”
Wonderful. “Wonderful” evokes feelings of whole, positive joy, that it feels good from his head to his toes to talk about this, that he’s intimate with the new store. It’s not what Apple does, it’s what Apple is. This is not a CEO of business, this is a CEO of passion.
Phenomenal. A powerful word with more impact in this sentence than an adjective like outstanding, fantastic, or terrific. The word makes the subject feel bigger, more magical. “Phenomenal” is a word used by a CEO who believes that brand engagement with a customer or consumer is yin to the yang of high-quality products that make customers unabashedly loyal.
Experience. He knows that purchasing a product doesn’t end at the register (or the hand-held checkout). It starts when the customer walks through the doors, and ends when the product has completely served its purpose in the lifestyle of the customer many years down the road.
Neighborhoods. He didn’t say “city.” He said “neighborhoods.” That evokes a feeling of community, of local flavor, that several of your neighbors work there, and you shop there, and at any time you may find yourself sitting out front in the hot afternoon sun while recalling the old days of the Apple IIc. Brilliant.
Our. With ‘neighborhoods,’ this little word completes the sense of community, as if you may see Jobs jump behind the counter and actually start ringing up items. Using that word, instead of “the,” sells the brand strategy that you (Mr. or Mrs. Apple Product Consumer) are part of a family, not just on the other end of a transaction.
Great. He ends with a simple sentence that means two things: It feels great to drop another license to print money in New York City, and the store’s presences itself makes the entire physical and mental experience of the brand great.
And listen to the inflection and emphasis of those words. He wants to make sure you get this.
The best part of this quote is that it’s not scripted. It’s a point he wanted to make, and there’s no doubt that he has mastered the use of language as part of the presentation, but this is an update, and therefore not as scripted as the rest of the show. This was a comment. Yet it comes across with such insane passion that you can’t help but believe that this guy wanted to drop each pane of glass into place by himself. He’s really excited.
To me, this is why the cult of Apple continues to grow as a brand. Apple is a viral brand that emanates from the pores of its CEO down to the guy at the Genius Bar who can fix your MacBook Pro by just staring at it.
I have yet to watch the rest of the presentation.
