For Subscribers

How Steve Jobs Blew Up the Rules of Branding By throwing out the approved checklist, Jobs got customers to meaningfully connect with the Apple brand.

By Jonathan Salem Baskin

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Before Steve Jobs got his hands on Apple for the second time in 1997, things were far simpler. Serious business customers were different from their playful consumer counterparts. Men bought technology products; women were fashion buyers. Kids had disposable income to waste, and mature folks cautiously invested their pennies. Branding promises were made solely in beautiful advertising, price was pretty much all that mattered at retail, and customer usage and satisfaction were afterthoughts.

Oh, what a difference an iMac makes.

It's also what makes Apple so hard for marketers to comprehend. Most analyses of the company's branding success get it wrong. They highlight specific qualities: The ads were great; product design trumped the competition; the packaging was exquisite; Jobs was a magician, capable of casting a "reality distortion field" on anyone in his presence.

Apple blew up the rules of branding because Jobs simply didn't recognize them. He didn't follow the approved checklist, and he never did what he was supposed to do. He knew that someone else's success wouldn't be his own, not because of his ego, but because it's a fact that imitating others has never resulted in great successes. He left it to Apple's competitors to produce lame, unsold computers with colorful lids, knockoff ads that inadvertently made Apple look better and a world of smartphones and tablets that look like iPhones and iPads.No, he was an entrepreneur, just like you. And, by inventing a new reality, he ruined branding as we knew it.

In doing so, Apple focused on doing one thing right: It was a business with a vision, a sometimes monomaniacal approach to operations, and a product and service offering that was consistent with its purpose.

Jobs' insight was that you can never connect emotionally or meaningfully with customers by conceiving great marketing. No segmenting, strategy, technology or psychological insight will deliver a great brand. You must deliver a great business. The brand will be the words and emotions people use to narrate it. Jobs focused on the cart, yet even today, most marketers confuse it for the horse.

The bad news is that you can't copy how Apple executed on this promise. You can, however, copy the basic strategy, whether you're a startup or a multibillion-dollar brand. Do things better or, better yet, uniquely. Care about the details of your business more than your competitors do. Discover novel ways to communicate with customers. Circle back and improve what could get better, and replace what can't with something else. Then repeat.

Apple ruined branding as we know it.


Branding 2014

Introducing Entrepreneur's Top Brands of 2014: Learn Their Secrets
The Top Brands in Food Service, Hotels, Retail and More
17 Logos We Love
The 120 Most-trusted Brands
How Steve Jobs Blew Up the Rules of Branding

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Side Hustle

She Started a Creative Side Hustle While Working 'Dead-End' Jobs — Then Grew It From $10,000 to Over $50,000 a Month: '[It] Became Magnetic'

Alyssa O'Toole, 35, juggled "mismatched uniforms and odd hours" to turn her passion into a business.

Buying / Investing in Business

Former Zillow Execs Target $1.3T Market

Co-ownership is creating big opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Business News

Have You Made an Amazon Return in the Last Decade? You Might Be Getting a Refund.

Amazon is issuing refunds, and some returns are dated as far back as 2018.

Career

Apply Smarter, Not Harder—Automate Your Job Hunt and Outreach for $39

Let automation handle the busywork so you can focus on interview prep, networking, and closing offers.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

TikTok Is Laying Off Some U.S.-Based Employees This Week. Here's What We Know.

TikTok did not disclose the number of employees affected by the layoffs.