Check out the iPhone!

Man, if you've been under a rock lately and haven't heard about the iPhone, go check it out. It's quite a revolutionary product from Apple. They have applied for 200 patents in this one device.

Here is some similar great technology related to touch screen applications. Wow, neat stuff coming for the future.

Aside from the neat phone though, take a look at Steve Jobs' keynote address at Macword where they launched the iPhone. It's a great presentation. Simple, clear use of presentation aides. Each slide had minimal text in a large font but really drove home the point. Presentation was well rehearsed and choreographed as well. At one point, Steve Jobs brought on stage CEOs from Google, Yahoo, and Cingular - these guys were not near as prepared as Jobs and were not near as inspirational.

This could be a "How To" for making presentations. Note, however, that even this great presentation was not without flaw. At one point, Jobs' remote stop working for a minute. He make a joke, went off-topic for a moment (while support back stage was scrambling, I'm sure), then went back to the presentation.

10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint

Hello all,

Check out Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint. Hmmm, interesting.

Here is some more info about "Fixing Your Pitch" (presentation)

Happy New Year - a bit about marketing

Happy New Year everyone!

Check out this bit about marketing by Seth Godin.

... Jeff

Electable vs. Marketable

It's easy to get the two confused, but if you do, you'll probably regret it.

To be marketable, you must be remarkable. Marketing isn't about getting more than 50% market share, it's about spreading your idea to enough people to be glad you did it... 3% of a market may be more than enough, especially if you have a local business or an expensive service.

The temptation of the marketer is to try to get elected. To be beloved by everyone. As a marketer, you hear from someone who doesn't love your product and you work to change it. Eventually, that strategy leads to boredom, to sameness and to stagnation.

I know it's tempting to create electable products, but it never works. All the tried and true warhorse successes (Nike, Starbucks, Apple... the NSA of marketing examples) didn't accomplish market share until long after they accomplished becoming remarkable. If the founders had set out to get elected, they would have failed in creating much of anything.

Contrast this with the plight of the typical politician. To her, 45% market share is total failure. In my opinion, remarkable politicians (using the word non-judgmentally) like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, David Duke and John Ashcroft are unelectable.

Not because there aren't some people who are passionate about them. Obviously, there are people who are quite passionate. And the media loves to feature politicians that generate passion on the cover of magazines. The challenge isn't coming up with a remarkable story... the challenge for a politician is ensuring that the story is both authentic and appealing enough to spread to the majority.

If I were a marketer, I'd forget about getting elected. I'd ignore the dissidents, even if they are in the majority. You don't need the most popular blog, the consulting firm with every single company as a client or the flavor of ice cream that almost every single person loves. What you need instead is a passionate minority, a minority so passionate that they spread the word. Jackie and Ben call these people the 1% and they exist in just about every community.

If I were a politician (heaven forfend), I'd studiously ignore the 1%. The 1% are the fringe, and they don't actually want you to get elected. They merely want you to make a point. I'd skip this group and pay attention to the next 3% of the population. These people still have passion but they also understand what it takes to get elected.

So, back to my original point: Who have you offended today? You're not running for anything exept perhaps Mayor of the Edges.