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Steve Jobs: Marketing Is About Values. Nike Sells Shoes. You Feel Something Different.

By Steve Jobs · Strategy · 2 min read

Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. Yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, they never talk about the product. They honor great athletes. That's who they are.

Key Points

Marketing is about values — not speeds and feeds, not why you're better than the competition
Nike never talks about air soles vs Reebok. They honor great athletes. That's who they are.
Apple at its core: people with passion can change the world for the better

Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. Yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company.

Not About Speeds and Feeds

Jobs: To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. A very noisy world. We're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.

The way to do that is not to talk about speeds and feeds. Not to talk about megahertz. Not to talk about why we're better than Windows.

We're not going to get people to remember much about us. Be really clear on what matters.

Got Milk. And Nike.

Jobs: The dairy industry tried for 20 years to convince you that milk was good for you. It's a lie. But they tried anyway. And the sales were going like this. Then they tried 'Got Milk?' — and the sales went like this. Got Milk doesn't even talk about the product. It focuses on the absence of the product.

But the best example of all — one of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen — is Nike. Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. Yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, they don't ever talk about the product. They don't tell you about air soles. What does Nike do? They honor great athletes. They honor great athletics. That's who they are.

Nike never talks about air soles. They honor great athletes. That's who they are.

Apple at Its Core

Jobs: Our customers want to know — who is Apple? What do we stand for? Where do we fit in this world? What we're about isn't making boxes for people to get their jobs done. Although we do that well — better than almost anybody.

Apple at its core — its core value — is that we believe people with passion can change the world for the better. And those people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do.

People with passion can change the world. Those crazy enough to think they can — actually do.