The Mechanism Behind Apple’s Marketing Machine

I continue to be amazed by the marketing prowess of Apple. The company has a storied history of successful product launches and marketing campaigns. And perhaps with today’s announcement of the iPad touchscreen tablet, Apple’s fame has reached new heights.

But for the moment, forget about the frenzy surrounding the edge-of-your-seat announcement of the iPad. Instead, let’s peel back the curtain and discuss the mechanism behind Apple’s marketing machine.

So what lies behind the curtain?

Apple’s core values – the axis around which all else revolves.

Apple is forever loyal to its core values. It acts as a genetic code that defines everything about the company: its employees, projects, products, marketing and advertising.

So, who is Apple and what does the company stand for? According to the Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, the company maintains the following core values:

• We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products.
• We believe in the simple, not the complex.
• We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make.
• We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
• We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
• We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.
• We don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

“Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world. And, we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. Our customers want to know who is Apple, and what is it that we stand for. Where do we fit in this world.” – Steve Jobs

So what are the values that define your company? What are the things you stand for, or against?

Take action: List out your company’s core values. And remember, your company’s core values represent the axis around which all else revolves.