Today is like a second birthday for Apple nerds. It’s Keynote Day. Because unlike Dan Wilson (my friend and client) and me, you’re not obsessed with this sort of stuff, you probably neither know nor care that most of the super-secret stuff Apple will share today has likely been leaked.
Yes, Apple prides itself on secrecy, but it takes more pride in the stories it tells. Do you? I think it’s one of the two things that makes Apple the most valuable company in the world, worth more than $650,000,000,000.
Yesterday, on his blog Six Colors, longtime Mac journalist Jason Snell wrote about Apple’s gift of storytelling:
Stories are compelling. The famed Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field wasn’t about blazing specs, it was about telling a story that put you and a new Apple product in the center of a miraculous future that had just arrived in the present.
Oh… sheesh…
Hey, Snell gets it… continuing:
Even if you roll your eyes at that, consider this: The way Apple describes its new products says something about how Apple views those products itself. Which features is it emphasizing? Who is being targeted?
So, today, even if—unlike Dan Wilson and me—you’re not live-streaming the Apple event, consider what stories your products or services tell? How do they make your customer the star and blaze a trail for her or him into a miraculous future?
Even if you roll your eyes at that, consider this:
Each product or service or interaction you offer improves (or should improve) the life of your customer. How? I don’t mean general marketing-speak. I mean the little specifics that customers tell their friends. That’s the good stuff that Apple gets.
If you don’t know, ask them. You can use the same system Apple does.
Know your story. Know how to make your customer its hero. With these two arrows in your quiver, you won’t fall far from Apple’s tree.
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