Steve Jobs’ Inspiring Legacy on Creating Memorable Brand Experiences
4 Minute Read
Steve Jobs left an iconic legacy in technology and innovation. His brilliance at Apple revolutionized the way generations interact with technology. And beyond incredibly sleek and sophisticated tech, he was also a master at creating powerful brand experiences 🤹♂️.
Through Jobs’ speeches, teachings and ways of work, we can grasp a few valuable takeaways on creating memorable and impactful brand experiences that you can implement in your small business to better connect, scale & grow.
Like Disney, HP and many other billion-dollar global businesses, Apple started in a garage.
As Jobs grew Apple from garage HQ to 2,820,000 square foot Apple Park, he consistently placed branding at the forefront. And while brand alone isn’t to attribute all of Apple’s success to, it certainly had and continues to have a monumental impact on the brands’ success.
Steve Jobs’ inspiring legacy on branding can teach us 3 key lessons, among many valuable insights if you keep looking -
Design makes or breaks brand experiences
Your brand story has impact
Your customer journey is an ecosystem of opportunity to delight
Let’s dive in:
Design makes or breaks brand experiences
One of the most important things Steve Jobs taught us is that design matters.
While design is important from a visual aesthetics perspective, it’s also critical to effective functionality, usability and accessibility. Apple’s products wouldn’t continuously sell-out if they weren’t as easy to use and intuitive as they are beautiful and sleek.
Appealing, strategic layouts, interesting visuals and well-written, easy-to-read words are all a few elements that play into an effective design.
Whether your website, marketing materials or tradeshow booth - a thoughtful, strategic approach to design garners a better ROI and end-product for your investment.
Strategic design is also the right (and required) thing to prioritize. In fact, the American Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses open to the public have websites that are equally accessible to people with disabilities 🖥.
Accessibility guidelines help ensure your website is optimized for users with a variety of disabilities. Such critical check-points include color contrast, text optimization for screen-readers, heading structure and much more. To gauge your website’s accessibility level, visit here.
Dismissing design as just an extra for those who value the nice-to-look-at will do your business a disservice.
Design is both function and beauty - Critical digital experience elements that help your brand grow.
Your brand story has impact
What you say (& how you say it 💬) can turn prospects into clients and clients into loyal fans.
Your brand message is powerful. Another lesson we can learn from Steve Jobs is that the content, tone and emotion your marketing and advertising portray are essential to establishing your brand identity and creating memorable brand experiences.
Jobs understood that people buy experiences and emotions, not just products. Infusing Apple's products with a sense of wonder 🔮 through creative advertising campaigns, product launches and events helped create a passionate and fanatic, forever customer base (us included 👀).
Honing in on your brand messages, and communicating them consistently across client touch-points will help position you connect with your dream clients.
In addition to listening to brands that convey emotion and tone consistently, consumers gravitate towards brands that provide value beyond product and/or service-related benefits, such as free tips & tricks or motivation/inspiration. Apple inspires you to create, to be tech savvy, to be next-gen and forward thinking.
Take Nike as another example - They don’t just sell you sports goods, they sell you an aspirational version of the most athletic, healthy, optimized-you 🏃. This is why you watch, follow & buy Nike beyond liking their product. Their brand message is inspiration and motivation.
Discovering and narrowing in on the fundamental narratives of your brand, and telling them in stories, will generate content marketing gold .
Your customers’ journey is an ecosystem of opportunity to delight
As you interact with clients across a number of touch-points throughout the customer journey 🔄, you’re presented with numerous opportunities to delight and create a positive association with your brand.
Jobs took advantage of all customer experience opportunities by conveying the functionality, simplicity and aesthetics of Apple’s products across the board.
When you purchase an Apple product, even the packaging screams quality - we know you too have a collection of the sleek iPhone boxes somewhere.
A sampling of client touch-points to consider (beyond your website & digital experience), include:
Packaging Design 🛍🏷
Proposals, Estimates & Invoices 🧾
Email Communications 📩
Uniforms 👕
Signage 🪧
Client Portals 📲
Post-Sale Thank You’s, Review Requests & more
Approaching each interaction within the customer journey ecosystem through a lens of opportunity will help you reap the benefits of an integrated and consistent brand experience.
Each client touch-point should reinforce your brand strategy and visual identity, strengthening your brands’ equity, and ultimately your customers’ perception of their experience with you. Take advantage!
Thank you, Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was a visionary innovator and master of creating brand experiences.
By valuing and investing in branding throughout the entire customer journey, Apple has amassed into a powerhouse brand with millions of lifelong, cult-like followers.
The legacy of Steve Jobs and the lessons he taught us about the power of design, emotion, and storytelling in creating unforgettable brand experiences can be applied to business of all sizes. Every Apple was once a small business.
It’s a series of sound, strategic decisions that put brand at the forefront that helps the small become big 💎