Filip Novotny The great personality of advertising and marketing Ken Segall is in Prague. As we informed you yesterday, he personally presented the official Czech translation of his book here Insanely Simple. On this occasion, we interviewed the author.
Ken Segall initially surprised me by starting to interview me. He wanted to know details about our server, he was interested in the opinions and positions of the editors on various topics. After that, the roles of interviewer and interviewee were reversed and we learned a lot of interesting things about Segall's friendship with Steve Jobs. We took a look at the history and possible future of Apple.
Video
[youtube id=h9DP-NJBLXg width=”600″ height=”350″]
Thank you for accepting our invitation.
I thank you.
First, tell us what it's like to work at Apple.
At Apple or with Steve?
With Steve.
It was truly a great adventure in my advertising life. I always wanted to work with him. When I started in advertising, he was already famous and I would never have thought that I would get a chance to work with him one day. But I ended up working at Apple under John Sculley (former CEO - editor's note) before I got an offer to work with Steve on advertising for NeXT computers. I immediately jumped at the chance. It was funny because Steve was in California, but he had given responsibility for NeXT to an agency in New York, so I moved across the country to New York to work with Steve, but I had to commute every other week to meet him to California. Steve had certain gifts that could not be denied. He was very convinced of his opinions, I think he was a very complex personality. You hear all these stories about how tough he could be, and that's really true, but there was also a side to his personality that was very engaging, charismatic, inspiring and funny. He had a very good sense of humor.
As long as things were going well, he was very positive. But then there were worse times when he wanted something but didn't get it, or something bad happened that made his wish impossible. Doing what he was doing at that moment. I think the key was that he didn't really care what you thought. I mean your personal opinion. He was interested in what you thought about business and creativity and things like that, but he had no problem hurting your feelings. That was key. If you couldn't get past that, he might be hard to get along with. But I think everyone who worked with him realized that you just can't take what he's going to do personally.
Is there a competition at Apple for new ads? Do you have to fight with other agencies for work?
First, I don't currently work with Apple. I'm not sure if this is what you were asking, but working at Apple and working with Steve really changes your perspective on how things should work. That's actually why I wrote my book, because I found Apple to be very different from other companies. And that the values that Steve had made things easier for everyone and that they ensured better results. So every time I work with a different client, I imagine what Steve would do, and I imagine what kind of person he wouldn't tolerate and kick them out, or just what he would do because he felt like doing it, no matter what. who will like him for it, who won't or what the results will be. There was a certain rawness to it, but also a refreshing honesty, and I think I've always missed that spirit when working with other clients.
So, in your experience, what should the perfect ad look like? What principles are most important to you?
You know, creativity is a wonderful thing and there are always many ways to create an ad based on a few ideas, so there really is no perfect formula. Each project is very different, so you just try different ideas until one really excites you. That's how it's always worked at Apple and pretty much everywhere else I've worked. You're two weeks into it, you're getting frustrated. You tell yourself that you don't have any talent anymore, that you're finished, that you'll never get an idea again, but then somehow it comes, you start working on it with your colleague, and before you know it, you're incredibly proud again. I wish there was a formula you could always rely on, but there isn't.
During the press conference, you talked about creating an "i" in the name like iPod, iMac and others. Do you think product naming has a significant impact on sales and popularity?
Yes, I really think so. And it's also something that a lot of companies fail at. I often deal with this right now. Some people hire me because they have trouble naming their products. Apple has a wonderful naming system that isn't perfect, but it benefits from having only a few products. That's what Steve implemented right from the start, cutting all unnecessary products and leaving only a few. Apple has a very small portfolio compared to HP or Dell. They focus all their resources and attention on creating fewer but better products. But by having fewer products, they can also have a naming system that works better. Every computer is a Mac-something, every consumer product is an i-something. So Apple is the main brand, "i" is a sub-brand, Mac is a sub-brand. Every new product that comes out automatically fits into the family and doesn't need to be further explained.
When you're Dell and you come out with a new… now I'm trying to remember all the names… Inspiron… These names are not really related to anything and each one stands on its own. These companies thus have to build their brands from scratch. By the way, Steve also dealt with that. When the iPhone came out, there were some legal issues, and it wasn't clear if the iPhone could be called that. The reason why Steve wanted it to be called iPhone was very simple. The "i" was the "i" and phone clearly stated what device it was. He didn't want to make the name any more complicated, which was the case with all the other alternatives we considered in case the iPhone couldn't be used.
Do you use an iPhone or other Apple products yourself?
I personally use an iPhone, my whole family uses iPhones. I account for a large part of Apple's sales in the world because I buy everything from them. I'm kind of addicted.
What product would you like to see as a customer and as a marketing manager if you could make a commercial yourself? Would it be a car, a TV, or something else?
Currently, there is talk of a watch or a television. Someone once pointed this out, and it was a good point, that Apple products are kind of meant to be bought every few years because you don't want to be left behind. But television is not like that. Most people buy a TV and keep it for about ten years. But if they were to introduce a TV, the content would be more important than the TV itself. And if they could do content like they did on iTunes, that would be awesome. I don't know how it works here, but in America you get a package from a cable company where you have hundreds of channels that you never even watch.
Wouldn't it be great if you could just sign up and say you want this channel for $2,99 and that channel for $1,99 and create your own package. It would be awesome, but the people who control the content are not that open to cooperation and don't want to give Apple that much power. It would be an interesting case though, as Steve Jobs had enough influence to get record companies to do what he wanted. This is probably why TV and movie content providers don't want to give up those powers, in large part. The question is what influence Tim Cook has when he goes to negotiate with these companies. Can he do to movies what Steve Jobs did to music? And perhaps an even more important question is whether Steve Jobs would have achieved with movies what he achieved with music. Maybe it's a bad time and nothing will happen.
But I personally like the idea of an Apple watch. I wear a watch, I like to know what time it is. But when someone calls me, I have to take my phone out of my pocket to know who it is. Or what the message is about. It might sound a little silly, but I think it would be really cool if I could see who's calling right away, answer with one touch to call back and stuff like that. In addition, the watch could be capable of other functions such as heart rate measurement. That's why I think the Apple Watch would be a cool device that everyone would love to wear. In contrast, for example Google Glass is a cool thing, but I can't imagine mothers or grandfathers wearing it the way they wear watches.
But they should definitely have more features than the original AppleWatch…
Oh yes. I have something else for you. Not many people ask me this, so feel free to cut it out. Do you know my website Scoopertino? It's a satirical website about Apple. Scoopertino actually follows a lot more people than myself because he's funnier than I am. I have a colleague who used to work at Apple with whom we write fake news. We build on the values that are important to Apple, which we then apply to current topics and new products. A friend of mine can imitate Apple's style really well because he used to work there. We do really realistic stuff, but of course it's jokes. In a few years we have collected over 4 million visits because there is a lot of humor in the world of Apple. So I invite you and all your readers to Scoopertino.com.
I would also like to add that we don't make any money at all from Scoopertin, we just do it for love. We have Google ads there that make about $10 a month. This will hardly cover the operating costs. We just do it for fun. All the time we worked at Apple, we liked to joke around, and Steve Jobs could appreciate it. He liked it when, for example, Saturday Night Live took a little shot at Apple. We've always thought it's fun to take Apple's values and make a little fun of them.
So I understand that there is still fun in the Apple world and you don't believe the critics who write Apple off after the death of Steve Jobs?
I don't believe. People assume that without Steve Jobs, all the positive things that happened at Apple cannot continue. I always explain to them that it is like a parent instilling certain values in their children. Steve transferred his values to his company, where they will remain. Apple will have such opportunities in the future that Steve Jobs could not even imagine in his time. They will handle these opportunities as they see fit. The current management has fully embraced Steve's values. What will happen in the longer term, when new people come to the company, we can only guess. Nothing lasts forever. Apple is currently the coolest company in the world, but will it last forever? I don't know when or how things will change, but there are plenty of people in the world who would love to say they stood by Apple's demise. That's why you see so many articles that see Apple as doomed.
However, if you look at the numbers, you can see that it is still a very healthy company. I have no worries at the moment. It's like anything else, if you keep beating something up. People will start to believe you after a while. Samsung does something like that. They are trying to convince people that Apple is no longer innovative. But he is, he also spends a lot of money on it. I think Apple has to fight back in some way, but it's still just a matter of impressions, not reality.
Unfortunately, we have to end now. Thank you so much, it was great talking to you and I wish you all the best for the future.
You're welcome.
Great interview, thanks! :)
Good job, talking to advertising people is not a piece of cake. Ken was downright nice to you, I have a feeling :-)
I was interested in the sentence "He was very convinced of his opinions, in my opinion he was a very complex personality.".
It occurs to me that a person who has devoted much more time and much more attention to the subject than the people around him will think like this. Jobs devoted weeks to the study of calligraphy, months to the study of Eastern philosophies, that is, to the study of himself and thus to the study of the people around him.
In 1987, Jobs presented his vision (voice-controlled personal assistant, Youtube video, search "Apple Future Vision 1987") of how the computer should serve the user. He mentally "worked" on that project for over 30 years. Try tuning, tuning and polishing your vision for 30 years. Every new technology takes you further and further. In addition to the above, he devoted decades to the idea of using computer technology in some way.
When you think about one topic for several years and you get really far, then I can imagine the following situation. When someone spouts the first piece of crap that comes to mind about the use of computers in the home, and I know after thirty years that it's crap, then they're clearly an idiot. But if someone sweats something that I haven't figured out after decades, then they're a genius.
I guess I'm missing the note from the book where it says "According to Steve, everyone is either a jerk or a genius". In my opinion, it is distinguished by whether he has overcome that twenty-year brainstorming. And that leads to my final, complete and final question.
Has a person obsessed with usability, design and quality been working in the leadership of some other technology company for more than twenty years with the ability to set trends? Or are there rental experts who only show the shareholders the numbers in the pavrpojnt prezoskies and change employers every 5 years? Huh?
Nice thinking ;)
Great interview. Better than the competition :)
Thanks for an interesting interview!
Great job, great interview. Keep going, Apple lovers :) That's exactly what we applists are interested in :)