Monday, September 24, 2018

Lessons from an Apple presentation


1)     Set the supremacy context

a.      Making statements like “we’re not the number 1 smartwatch in the world, we are the number 1 watch period” energizes the audience right at the start of the presentation.

b.      This keeps them engrossed to hear what got them here, and more importantly, what’s going to keep them here.


2)     Land one big reveal

a.      Every Apple launch is studded with one big feature that no other device offers, and somehow becomes the staple of the market once they’ve come out with it.

b.      Face recognition, finger print recognition, smartwatch, touch screen, going back all the way to GUI and the mouse, Apple has always set the standard in electronic device features, and this time was no different with the ECG feature on the Apple watch.

c.      Apple watch becomes the first OTC device to measure ECG, something doctors have struggled prognosing so far given the time gap between the moment the patient experiences a symptom to the moment their statistics are recorded.


3)     Celebrate the incremental achievements

a.      Most Apple features are just incremental changes, but they’re still always celebrating them, crediting the teams that have turned these around in just one year, a time frame that is almost impossible to achieve even the smallest packaging change where I work.

b.      9x faster core processing, 1/10 the power usage, 30% bigger screen size; some of these sound too technical, and possibly not even noteworthy, but just think about the last time your own organization presented something that changed a trajectory by 30%! In Apple’s case, its almost the base level increment, while most things move in x factor like 9x and 0.1x

4) Be the change you wish to see outside

a.      Being purposeful is part of the vision statement for most organization and brands right now, but what's rare to see is how this is internalized before going outright with activations - MCD with the reversed arches on Womens Day is a classic case of backfiring when the organization isn't authentic about their purpose
b.   In the case of Apple, being authentic to their sustainability is showcased through a number of actions like the the zero carbon footprint office space they have created and by installing the robot (very nicely called Daisy) to disassemble iPhones to reuse or recycle them as required

5)     Finish with an encore

a.      Just when you think you’ve heard it all, Apple comes up, “oh, by the way..”. They’ve done this with the Apple watch in the past, and this time it was the iPhone XR; the phone to democratize the X experience with the lower price point of $750.

b.      The price point of $750 sounds ludicrous for something to be democratized, but then again, you know people will still stretch themselves to still go ahead and buy it.

c.      The X UI is going to be commonplace in the coming months.  Will be interesting to see what Apple does to further stretch themselves in the next releases. My guesses are speech recognition and a completely sealed phone (no charging point therefore).