Steve Jobs Is Too Much of a Control Freak

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John_Keck

Limp Gawd
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Adidas has pulled out a $10+ million ad campaign from the iAd platform because of Steve Jobs being too controlling. Personally, I’d probably listen to them; Apple is nothing if not marketing genius.

According to one industry exec, Adidas decided to cancel its iAds after Apple rejected its creative concept for the third time.
In an effort to dial up ad quality, Apple has taken more control over iAds than any other program in the industry, including making the actual ads themselves
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"This ad sucks, try again
Sent from my iPad"
 
Adidas' funeral. Hate Apple all you want, but Steve Job *is* a marketing genius and knows what he's talking about.
 
Somehow I doubt that Adidas will wither and die, like an unpicked fruit, because they chose to retain some semblance of creative control over their own marketing.
 
While Steve Jobs is a marketing god. Its still not his product so the emphasis will be on the Apple product and nobody will remember what the other product was to begin with.
 
TurboGLH said:
Somehow I doubt that Adidas will wither and die, like an unpicked fruit, because they chose to retain some semblance of creative control over their own marketing.
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Probably not, but they are going to miss out on potential growth in sales by passing on this ad campaign.

Their decision, but the bottom line is that if this $10m ad campaign got them $50m in increased sales, then they made a bad decision pulling out of it because their "delicate flowers" in their marketing department couldn't handle Steve Jobs' input/control of something that's going to be served on HIS company's device.
 
"This ad is not suitable for me sheep!"
 
Apple has good marketing, but is not the end all.

I'm sure in using their iAds service there are fees for designing the ads, at least it only makes sense if they design the ads increasing the cost and reducing the actual dollars spent on advertising. A huge company like Adidas I'm sure has their own marketing department so outsourcing to Apple for ad development doesn't make sense hence them pulling their ads.
 
[Tripod]MajorPayne;1036252715 said:
Probably not, but they are going to miss out on potential growth in sales by passing on this ad campaign.

Their decision, but the bottom line is that if this $10m ad campaign got them $50m in increased sales, then they made a bad decision pulling out of it because their "delicate flowers" in their marketing department couldn't handle Steve Jobs' input/control of something that's going to be served on HIS company's device.
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There's no way to know about a potential increase in sales, your number(s) are pure conjecture. They want, and rightfully expect, that THEIR ad's for THEIR products are THEIRS to produce as they see fit.

I'm flabbergasted when people pull this argument "in their marketing department couldn't handle Steve Jobs' input/control of something that's going to be served on HIS company's device" when referencing apple. It's like all common sense leaves the building. You don't expect TV stations to reject ad's on quality, and are more than happy to allow people to make an ad as good, or bad as they like (Also, I'm not talking about rejection on the basis of decency, situations where they would expect a fine from the FCC for running an ad). Same for newspapers, people are free to write all the bad prints and commercials they want.

But super control freak Steve Jobs acts like lord and master of all he spies, and it's ok because it's HIS device (not the people who paid for the phone or paid for the app's the ad's appear in). Insane.
 
Azhar said:
Adidas' funeral. Hate Apple all you want, but Steve Job *is* a marketing genius and knows what he's talking about.
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Apple (Jobs) has built its fortune on closed platforms and varying levels of despotic control. I don't think it's a point in their favor that much of what they have seems to go back to public image and marketing.
 
Azhar said:
Adidas' funeral. Hate Apple all you want, but Steve Job *is* a marketing genius and knows what he's talking about.
Click to expand...

Yea, he's such a marketing genius that he couldn't save Apple Computer and instead renamed the company (to just "Apple") and shifted the focus of the company towards cell phones and MP3 players and away from personal computers, and in so doing Apple's share of the PC market is pretty much what it's always been--around ~5% internationally.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8

He is such a marketing genius that before he left Apple the first time, involuntarily, I might add (he was such a genius that he couldn't avoid being fired by his own company), he couldn't fathom why anyone would want "color" instead of gray scale in their visual computing interfaces, and indeed, his NeXT venture, which failed abysmally despite his "marketing genius," initially started with gray-scale machines, offering no color options at all.

And this is "genius" coming from a guy who had no trouble understanding that he preferred color television to black & white? If Gil Amelio hadn't been so poor an administrator, and Jobs hadn't been so desperate and broke because of the NeXT fiasco, there's no way that Jobs would have convinced the Apple Computer board of Directors to pay off the $512M in debt Jobs had accrued with NeXT as a "condition" of his agreeing to serve as a fake "interim" CEO (fake because Jobs had no intention of leaving the company a second time)--a debt that Jobs with all of his "marketing genius" just couldn't pay.

I mean, here's a guy with so much "genius" that he writes Bill Gates in the early years and asks how Apple Computer can sell more machines and become more profitable, and Gates writes back telling him to license hardware clones for the Mac and open up Apple's OSes to compete in the broader software markets--and Jobs ignores that advice utterly. Ironically, Amelio had put Apple well on the path to following Gates' advice--when Jobs came in declared that "the war is over" and that "we lost it years ago," and destroyed Apple Computer's fledgling Mac clone efforts even though the program was scarcely two years old and had yet to really get off the ground. Gone--down the drain, and it's precisely because of this "marketing genius" that Apple Computer is no more, and only Apple, principally a purveyor of MP3 players and cell phones, remains.

I absolutely do not "hate" Apple, btw. What I do hate, however, is blind worship of Steve Jobs as a "genius." Certainly, he's a bright guy and although the list of his flops and failures is a lot longer than the list of his successes, that's true of any successful chief executive. The thing folks like you should be thinking about, and worrying about, is what's going to become of Apple when Jobs leaves? His leaving is inevitable, and I'd say the time when that will happen is sooner rather than later--for what ought to be obvious reasons.

I find the insistence of Apple to first charge Adidas what has to be a hefty sum in order for them to advertise in iAd, but then to turn around and try to dictate to Adidas what kinds of ads Adidas can make, even though Adidas is paying for everything--to be just one stop short of lunacy. I mean, that's really nuts. Adidas is the company with the experience and skill in marketing tennis shoes and sportswear--not Apple. Apple, including Jobs, has no experience whatever in marketing the kind of products Adidas makes, but that's really beside the point. No company like Adidas is going to consent to allow Steve Jobs, a marketing megalomaniac, in truth, to usurp their control of the marketing they produce to sell their own products. That Apple would even try this underscores the very definition of megalomania.
 
Any smart person sees right through Steve Job's marketing "genius" and is why smart people buy PC.
 
TurboGLH said:
There's no way to know about a potential increase in sales, your number(s) are pure conjecture. They want, and rightfully expect, that THEIR ad's for THEIR products are THEIRS to produce as they see fit.
Click to expand...

[Tripod]MajorPayne;1036252715 said:
but the bottom line is that if this $10m ad campaign got them $50m in increased sales
Click to expand...

if
if
if

Exactly, it was pure conjecture. Someone else said that this was the harbinger of Adidas' demise, and I was saying "No, it's not, but IF they miss out on potential sales because of this, it was still a bad business decision."

You misunderstood my point pretty badly, I think.
 
TurboGLH said:
There's no way to know about a potential increase in sales, your number(s) are pure conjecture. They want, and rightfully expect, that THEIR ad's for THEIR products are THEIRS to produce as they see fit.

I'm flabbergasted when people pull this argument "in their marketing department couldn't handle Steve Jobs' input/control of something that's going to be served on HIS company's device" when referencing apple. It's like all common sense leaves the building. You don't expect TV stations to reject ad's on quality, and are more than happy to allow people to make an ad as good, or bad as they like (Also, I'm not talking about rejection on the basis of decency, situations where they would expect a fine from the FCC for running an ad). Same for newspapers, people are free to write all the bad prints and commercials they want.

But super control freak Steve Jobs acts like lord and master of all he spies, and it's ok because it's HIS device (not the people who paid for the phone or paid for the app's the ad's appear in). Insane.
Click to expand...

+1 and insanity indeed. Apply the idea for the justification with a broader stroke and see how far one would get.
 
WaltC said:
Yea, he's such a marketing genius that he couldn't save Apple Computer and instead renamed the company (to just "Apple") and shifted the focus of the company towards cell phones and MP3 players and away from personal computers, and in so doing Apple's share of the PC market is pretty much what it's always been--around ~5% internationally.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8

He is such a marketing genius that before he left Apple the first time, involuntarily, I might add (he was such a genius that he couldn't avoid being fired by his own company), he couldn't fathom why anyone would want "color" instead of gray scale in their visual computing interfaces, and indeed, his NeXT venture, which failed abysmally despite his "marketing genius," initially started with gray-scale machines, offering no color options at all.

And this is "genius" coming from a guy who had no trouble understanding that he preferred color television to black & white? If Gil Amelio hadn't been so poor an administrator, and Jobs hadn't been so desperate and broke because of the NeXT fiasco, there's no way that Jobs would have convinced the Apple Computer board of Directors to pay off the $512M in debt Jobs had accrued with NeXT as a "condition" of his agreeing to serve as a fake "interim" CEO (fake because Jobs had no intention of leaving the company a second time)--a debt that Jobs with all of his "marketing genius" just couldn't pay.

I mean, here's a guy with so much "genius" that he writes Bill Gates in the early years and asks how Apple Computer can sell more machines and become more profitable, and Gates writes back telling him to license hardware clones for the Mac and open up Apple's OSes to compete in the broader software markets--and Jobs ignores that advice utterly. Ironically, Amelio had put Apple well on the path to following Gates' advice--when Jobs came in declared that "the war is over" and that "we lost it years ago," and destroyed Apple Computer's fledgling Mac clone efforts even though the program was scarcely two years old and had yet to really get off the ground. Gone--down the drain, and it's precisely because of this "marketing genius" that Apple Computer is no more, and only Apple, principally a purveyor of MP3 players and cell phones, remains.

I absolutely do not "hate" Apple, btw. What I do hate, however, is blind worship of Steve Jobs as a "genius." Certainly, he's a bright guy and although the list of his flops and failures is a lot longer than the list of his successes, that's true of any successful chief executive. The thing folks like you should be thinking about, and worrying about, is what's going to become of Apple when Jobs leaves? His leaving is inevitable, and I'd say the time when that will happen is sooner rather than later--for what ought to be obvious reasons.

I find the insistence of Apple to first charge Adidas what has to be a hefty sum in order for them to advertise in iAd, but then to turn around and try to dictate to Adidas what kinds of ads Adidas can make, even though Adidas is paying for everything--to be just one stop short of lunacy. I mean, that's really nuts. Adidas is the company with the experience and skill in marketing tennis shoes and sportswear--not Apple. Apple, including Jobs, has no experience whatever in marketing the kind of products Adidas makes, but that's really beside the point. No company like Adidas is going to consent to allow Steve Jobs, a marketing megalomaniac, in truth, to usurp their control of the marketing they produce to sell their own products. That Apple would even try this underscores the very definition of megalomania.
Click to expand...

Great post, but the simple explanation is that people love to hate "the man" and "the man" in this case is Gates. Jobs is the Robin Hood fighting the Evil Empire, to free the blah blah blah.
With the comments being made, everyone should just bow down to Jobs, , fire their CEOs, replace their marketing and PR firms with Apple, and in general just not worry about their own branding/marketing as Apple will take care ot it. Forget Skynet, all we need is Apple.
 
I may not like the guy at all, but in this case, I think I would defer to him. Sad thing. He was probably actually trying to make them money.

I actually love Adidas shoes. They are very durable and comfortable. When you wear the biggest shoe size commonly available, you find that some of the companies don't understand how to properly make a size 13 shoe. (I'm talking to you NIKE)
 
Azhar said:
Adidas' funeral. Hate Apple all you want, but Steve Job *is* a marketing genius and knows what he's talking about.
Click to expand...

Oh please. Lack of running ads on Apple's iAd wont cause the demise of adidas, not by a long shot. What an absolutely retarded commet. Can you say sheeple...
 
Zellio2010 said:
That would mean that holding things wrong is now dead

And Windows is dead too
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Those weren't market ads. Market ads are something like Mac vs PC or the iPhone ads. Steve's tirades don't count. I agree those are on the childish side as much as anyone else.
 
All I know is that Adidas doesn't need Apple to sell shoes. Nike doesn't need Tiger, either...
 
tlkimball said:
All I know is that Adidas doesn't need Apple to sell shoes. Nike doesn't need Tiger, either...
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No but certain fanboy's, think Adidas needs, Apple's iAd to stay afloat. :rolleyes:

This whole iCult is annoying at best, and a burden on real innovation.
 
iOpinion
The new add that shows all the new sheep in it, is an add that I comfortably forget. The singers voice is annoying and the people they show all look the same. For the life of me I can't remember the jingle.

That kind of advertising seem to go no-where
 
I just realized all of the clothes I'm wearing have not been featured on iAds. OH DEAR CHRIST, WHAT HAS BECOME OF MY LIFE?!

/strips off clothing, runs through the office, and goes to the Apple "Genius" bar to ask advice on what color turtlenecks to wear.
 
this is why apple product is so damn expensive, they control everything and when they have an opportunity to do some marketing for other companies who could provide millions of dollars to illeviate the cost expense of hardware/software to help the consumer... SHOT DOWN... im sorry but that doesnt sound like the mentality of a Genius that sounds like the mentality of an asshat...
 
So why hasn't Steve Jobs / Apple been axed yet like Microsoft has for including Internet Explorer in Windows versus giving consumers and browsers an equal opportunity in choice?
 
Some of the post here are funny. I think Adidas has been doing just fine for years making their own ads. I see nothing wrong with them making their own ads and them not using iads is not going to hurt them. there is still tons of other ways for them to spread their ads. It doesn't matter how good or bad their marketing might be companies want to have their own freedom for their own brand. Also no matter how well Apple might do at making ads for the iPod/iPhone that doesn't mean that they can do a perfect job of making ads for every type of product for every type of demographic.

According to the article Adidas is actually the second to pull out of iAds. And others just aren't jumping on board because of all the conditions of the iAd program. So it would seem that for some crazy reason most companies would perfer to stick with their own marketing they have used for years that has worked just fine for them.
 
Azhar said:
Adidas' funeral. Hate Apple all you want, but Steve Job *is* a marketing genius and knows what he's talking about.
Click to expand...

In your opinion maybe. Every time I see a blurb about Jobs and his shenanigans, I'm reminded of the movie "Idiocracy"... sigh. In other news, Google stock is still selling for twice the price of Apple's, and I'm only bitter since I don't currently own either.
 
ajira99 said:
In your opinion maybe. Every time I see a blurb about Jobs and his shenanigans, I'm reminded of the movie "Idiocracy"... sigh. In other news, Google stock is still selling for twice the price of Apple's, and I'm only bitter since I don't currently own either.
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It's not an opinion. Look at how easily persuaded the everyday populaces are. We are exception to the rule, remember? We oft times forget this.
 
Azhar said:
It's not an opinion. Look at how easily persuaded the everyday populaces are. We are exception to the rule, remember? We oft times forget this.
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Then why doesnt' every home have an iMac and drop all their windows based computers? Or why doesn't every house have an appleTV?

They can sell iPods / iPhones but that is all. They don't have the ablity to sell anything else to everyone. The rest is only sold to the small few that worship Jobs like he is the second coming of Jesus and a few outside of that group.
 
Exavior said:
Then why doesnt' every home have an iMac and drop all their windows based computers? Or why doesn't every house have an appleTV?

They can sell iPods / iPhones but that is all. They don't have the ablity to sell anything else to everyone. The rest is only sold to the small few that worship Jobs like he is the second coming of Jesus and a few outside of that group.
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I don't recall an iMac or AppleTV commercial, but you have to admit a ton of Macbooks are sold, probably as a result of the utterly stupid (and usually false) Mac vs PC commercials.
 
Azhar said:
I don't recall an iMac or AppleTV commercial, but you have to admit a ton of Macbooks are sold, probably as a result of the utterly stupid (and usually false) Mac vs PC commercials.
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"Mac's are over a thousand dollars"

Apple reprices to $999.00



Good grief. Talk about dangling a carrot. $925.00 is practically still the same as $1,000.00. $999.00 is just insulting.
 
Look Steve Jobs and Apple got away for at least a decade riding on the wave that Apple products are "creative and intelligent". I brand cannot rely on just those two legs to stand on.

They need to convince consumers that they are also a kind/compassionate if they want to endure another decade. But all the recent news regarding the IOS devices clearly shows that when given the power, Jobs is a greedy SOB.

Macbooks shouldn't even be discussed regarding IOS devices. They are a relatively open platform in comparison, and they have nothing to do with iAd campaigns.
 
Love him or hate him... we've gotta ask ourselves how well our strategies are doing. I can't argue with a guy who's assets are worth sixty thousand times more than mine.
 
Well Steve Jobs at least makes money... But remember that alot of the people who have more assets, have them for being retards (Golden parachutes)
 
Exavior said:
Then why doesnt' every home have an iMac and drop all their windows based computers? Or why doesn't every house have an appleTV?
Click to expand...
The cheapest Mac is $699. You can buy an eMachines PC at Wal-mart for $200. It'll be a shitty PC, but what do most consumers care? That $200 PC is going to be perfectly sufficient for the majority of users and people seem to get that. The $699 Mac mini is absolute overkill in comparison.

Jobs can't convince someone who's going to spend $200 on a computer to go out and spend over three times that much. He and the rest of Apple are damn good at what they do, but you can't realistically expect them to work miracles on consumers.
 
Sly said:
"Mac's are over a thousand dollars"

Apple reprices to $999.00



Good grief. Talk about dangling a carrot. $925.00 is practically still the same as $1,000.00. $999.00 is just insulting.
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You forgot tax!
 
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