The Simple Way to a Billion Customers
Apple is one of the most successful businesses in history. It creates products used by billions of people, charges premium prices, inspires extraordinary customer loyalty, and in doing so has earned a market valuation in excess of three trillion dollars.
How?
Simplicity. Applied five different ways.
In The Simple Way to a Billion Customers, we break down Apple’s extraordinary success into five distinct applications of simplicity. Together, they form a roadmap for creating products, services and experiences customers find impossible to ignore. Expect fresh thinking, surprising insights and a roadmap that might just inspire your own simplicity-fuelled shot at world domination.
Case Study — iTunes
iTunes changed the way the world buys content. It helped persuade a generation to pay for music again after Napster made it free. It introduced millions of people to online commerce. And it grew from nothing to become the world’s largest music retailer in just seven years. iTunes changed the world, and is the perfect case study in the five ways Apple apples simplicity to succeed
1) A Product That Makes Life Simpler
Every Apple product makes life simpler. They deliver other benefits too, but the loyalty they inspire comes from the way we depend on them to make everyday life easier. Part of Apple’s genius is solving habituated problems—the frustrations and complexities we’ve become so used to that we barely notice them.
2) A Simple Vision
Before customers experience a product, they experience an idea. Apple makes that idea instantly clear through product design, marketing, packaging, Apple.com, unforgettable taglines and meticulously choreographed launches. Every touchpoint answers the same question: Why should I care?
3) Simple First Steps
The hardest part of any customer journey is the beginning. Apple removes every barrier to taking the first step. What do you think all those Apple Stores are for? And every new service app comes pre-installed on every iPhone, ready to use. The easier it is to take the first step, the more likely customers are to do it.
4) Simple Flow
The journey to satisfaction is only complete when the product's value is fully realised. Apple products are so simple and intuitive to use they come with no instructions and can, for better or worse, be mastered by pre-schoolers.
5) A Simple Decision to Own
Customers don’t evaluate products in isolation. They evaluate the whole ownership experience. Apple removes the doubts that stop people buying: a trusted brand, exceptional reliability, strong resale values, environmental credentials and an ecosystem where everything simply works together. The result? Fewer reasons to hesitate. More reasons to say yes.
• For leaders and teams with big ambitions.
• Available as a keynote or a two hour / half day / full day interactive training session.
• Every session combines memorable stories, original ideas and practical tools your audience can put to work immediately.
• Based on the lessons from It Just Works: The Nine Simple Rules of Apple's Success.
• Led by the author, Neil West.
• Get in touch at hello@neilwest.com
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