122 DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE
Some people will look at the language in this table and say
Jobs is a master of hype. Well, hype is hype only if there’s no
“there” there. It would be hard to argue with Jobs that the
Macintosh (the first easy-to-use computer with a graphical inter-
face and mouse) wasn’t “insanely great” or that products like
the MacBook Air aren’t “stunningly” thin.
Jobs isn’t a hype-master as much as he’s the master of the
catchphrase. The folks at Apple think long and hard about the
words used to describe a product. Language is intended to stir up
excitement and create a “must-have” experience for Apple’s cus-
tomers. There’s nothing wrong with that. Keep in mind that the
majority of business language is gobbledygook—dull, abstract,
and meaningless. Steve Jobs is anything but dull. Inject some
zip into your words.It’s Like This...
Another way to add zip to your language is to create analogies,
comparing an idea or a product to a concept or product familiar to
your audience. When Steve Jobs shakes up a market category with
the introduction of an entirely new product, he goes out of his way
to compare the product to something that is widely understood,
commonly used, and well known. Here are some examples: ”Apple TV is like a DVD player for the twenty-first century”
(Introduction of Apple TV, January 9, 2007) ”iPod Shuffle is smaller and lighter than a pack of gum”
(Introduction of iPod Shuffle, January 2005) ”iPod is the size of a deck of cards” (Introduction of iPod,
October 2001)When you find an analogy that works, stick with it. The more
you repeat it, the more likely your customers are to remember it.
If you do a Google search for articles about the products just
mentioned, you will find thousands of links with the exact
comparisons that Jobs himself used. Following are the three