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In FastCompany (H/T: M G Siegler)
“It’s a complicated and noisy world,” muses a younger Steve Jobs, “and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us.”
That chance to make a memory, he says, is the essence of brand marketing.
[…]
Nike sells a commodity, they sell shoes. And yet when you think of Nike you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, as you know, they don’t ever talk about the product, they don’t ever talk about their air soles, how they’re better than Reebok’s air soles. What’s Nike do in their advertising? They honor great athletes and they honor great athletics. That is what they are about.
[…]
Our customers want to know, “Who is Apple and what is it that 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, though we do that well. We do that better than almost anybody in some cases. But Apple’s about something more than that: Apple, at the core, its core value, is we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe.
It is not easy but is the key. What are your values? What do you stand for? What does your program/solution stand for? What are your remembered for? The best social programs need good branding.