Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere

Comment

Comment by Craig Eubanks on June 29, 2010 at 9:21am

You see, Craig, I knew that if pushed, you could apply the argument you're making to hypnotists. It makes your presentation that much more compelling.

The presentation was compelling already, as you can see in the comments below, and by the fact that you read it.

If hypnotists are to succeed they will need to be able to look outside their industry for ideas without my hand-holding. They need to see the valuable lessons in business and marketing they can apply to their practice.

This would include you, my reply was to help you understand better. Not to make the article more compelling.

Cheers,

Craig

Comment by Licentious Maladay on June 28, 2010 at 4:19pm

"A similar situation in Hypnosis was when a small group of hypnotists decided it's better for the client to use instant inductions instead of boring them into trance because then the client gets more session time for the actual change work. While this may have irritated those using relaxation inductions, I doubt it would have stopped referrals between hypnotists."

You see, Craig, I knew that if pushed, you could apply the argument you're making to hypnotists. It makes your presentation that much more compelling.

Lic

Comment by Craig Eubanks on June 27, 2010 at 11:14am

well, i read your article...but a boss telling the world that the iPhone 4 should be held in a different way to avoid reception problems seem too arrogant to me.....

I'm doing my best to keep this as a discussion of marketing not about Apple. So, to bring Rudy's comment back in that direction...

Rudy has a valid concern, and this likely removes him as an ideal customer for Apple. Again, not everyone is your customer.

This is such an important lesson it's worth repeating. Everyone Is Not Your Customer! (warning, generalization coming) Hypnotists as a group are very guilty of trying to make everyone a customer. I have written a number of articles about how to niche your hypnosis practice and how to be perceived as the obvious expert here on Hypnothoughts and on my blog at HypnosisMarketingTips.com, so I won't cover it again here.

And another lesson worth repeating is You Will Make Mistakes. The critical point is, how fast do you admit and correct your mistakes.

Rudy is uncomfortable with Steve Jobs as a benevolent dictator. There are many who feel that way, including many of my geek friends from my days working in Information Technology.

These are people who like to tinker with machines and operating systems use Linux variants (Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo etc.) or BSD variants (NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD etc.). They are very much against a central control point like Steve Jobs has over all things Apple.

These people don't buy iPhones either, they get smart phones with Android and hack it to do what they want.

They are not Apple customers.

But, there are former IT guys like myself who got tired of dealing with all the pain-in-the-butt driver dependencies, library syncing and other sys-admin issues, and want a rock solid computer that just freaking works. For me, Apple has delivered and I never have system issues to steal time out of my work day.

When I go to marketing conferences, near 100% of the room has Apple laptops and iPhones because of the easy to use multi-media tools Apple provides.

Fast company recently had an article about kids 3 years of age being able to figure out to use iPods and I recently saw a video about a 96 year old grandmother who's first computer ever was an iPad. She learned how to use it in 45 minutes.

This is Apple's Market. And we are OK with Steve Jobs.

Sure, I have a few gripes like my iPhone being 'locked' so I can't pop a simm chip in it when I travel overseas, but overall my user-experience on the good side so outweighs the little downside, it's no big deal.

The point here is there are very few companies I have had such a good experience as a customer. Yet many where I have had a very bad experience. So, it's worth studying the rare exceptions to see what you can learn and apply to your business.

Cheers,

Craig

Comment by AJ on June 25, 2010 at 9:26am

I added number 11: • Go Into Your Cave • It's Okay to Be King • Transcend Orthodoxy • Just Say No • Serve Your Customer. No, Really • Everything Is Marketing • Kill the Past • Turn Feedback Into Inspiration • Don't Invent, Reinvent • Play by Your Own Clock • Maintain Consistency!

Comment by GAIL GUEVARA on June 25, 2010 at 7:56am

Thanks Craig. This one gets a "print out" for me. Its a keeper. I live in Marin Co. neighbor :D

Comment by Craig Eubanks on June 25, 2010 at 6:37am

haha - "The customer will be your success or your ruin. Do everything you can to make them happy. Especially do the unexpected." I remember when I called the Apple Care number (or whatever its called), the number was constantly busy. I called the number for like a year, off and on for various issues and it was always busy. Either way, I use ubuntu, so I don't have to deal with either of those c#$$%y companies.

Antonio has provided some useful lessons with his comment:

1. You will make mistakes - His experience shows that no matter how much you try, you won't be perfect. The goal is to make very few mistakes and catch them, admit them, and do what you can to fix them.

2. People remember the bad longer than the good - They will also make the effort to tell others and will tell more people. I spent time on this point in my session on word-of-mouth marketing at the 2nd HypnoSummit.

3. Not everyone is your customer - Antonio says he uses Ubuntu. This is a Linux variant operating system used by those who want full control over their computer and have the technical knowledge to tweak and manage such systems. He is a tech savvy power user, and not Apples target market.


Apple may have dropped the ball with Anotonio, and at this point they may not be able to change his mind, but they can focus on making current customers experience a positive one. And based on how they are doing, it would seem they are doing this well.

Cheers,

Craig

Comment by Craig Eubanks on June 25, 2010 at 6:23am

This article would have been much more effective if it had been tailored to the HypnoThoughts environment. A Hypnotherapist does not make a product, they sell a service. They don't have customers. They have clients. There is an important distinction there. I expect that hypnotherapists, on the whole, do care a rat's whisker what other people in the industry think because they are a potential source of referrals. Doing everything you can to make your customer happy is a short term solution. Sometimes therapists create short term unhappiness in order to help the client achieve longer term stability and happiness.

Licentious, this is a common response for a small business owner. And not just for professional hypnotists. One of my mentors, Dan Kennedy, has a big banner he hangs at his conferences that say "But my business is different!" He does this because people let their profession blind them to the fundamental principles of effective marketing and business.

If you'll read what I wrote above it says "ask yourself this question "How can I apply this principle to my business?"

Apple took the concept of the Concierge Desk in 5-star hotels and applied it to retail stores. If Apple had said "we do not rent out rooms for people to sleep in, so this doesn't apply" it never would have happened.

And when I say "don't give a rat's whisker what other in your profession think", it doesn't mean be an asshole to them. It means don't let industry 'group think' dictate how you run your business.

Again using Apple, they have boldly taken a stand that says the future of web design does NOT include Adobe's Flash. The elephant in the room is that Flash is buggy, eats up memory and CPU, and regularly crashes web browsers so much so that Firefox built in special code to isolate flash so as of Version 3.6 it's a separated process that can be killed without crashing the browser.

And HTML 5 does what flash can do without proprietary code required, but no one was willing to say time to do something else.

A similar situation in Hypnosis was when a small group of hypnotists decided it's better for the client to use instant inductions instead of boring them into trance because then the client gets more session time for the actual change work. While this may have irritated those using relaxation inductions, I doubt it would have stopped referrals between hypnotists.

There is always value in studying how a business or an individual became successful. Even more so when they were on the ropes and most people had given up on them. If for no other reason than to help build your own success mindset.

Cheers,

Craig

Comment by Licentious Maladay on June 25, 2010 at 5:19am

This article would have been much more effective if it had been tailored to the HypnoThoughts environment. A Hypnotherapist does not make a product, they sell a service. They don't have customers. They have clients. There is an important distinction there. I expect that hypnotherapists, on the whole, do care a rat's whisker what other people in the industry think because they are a potential source of referrals.

Doing everything you can to make your customer happy is a short term solution. Sometimes therapists create short term unhappiness in order to help the client achieve longer term stability and happiness.

Lic

Comment by stevenbym on June 24, 2010 at 5:27pm

Thanks for the post Craig, being an Apple fan it was a great read and so true. Reading blogs lately you would think that the new Iphone would be a bust because Apple is too picky on apps and it is a closed system blah blah from the android and apple haters on the blogosphere but they don't understand that the average user wants a product that looks good, and more importantly is easy to use. I think the long lines today speak for themselves.

Comment by Antonio on June 24, 2010 at 4:14pm

haha - "The customer will be your success or your ruin. Do everything you can to make them happy. Especially do the unexpected." I remember when I called the Apple Care number (or whatever its called), the number was constantly busy. I called the number for like a year, off and on for various issues and it was always busy.

Either way, I use ubuntu, so I don't have to deal with either of those c#$$%y companies.