Think Different

To help you jump start the new year, we’re posting thirty-one technology and business treats, one for each day of January.

Apple launched the Think Different campaign when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. Iconic individuals who forged new paths in their fields were selected. Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Miles Davis, Martha Davis, and Cesar Chavez were among the twenty-nine selected.

Apple’s success formula is creating devices we want before we knew we wanted them and providing the content we want too. New thinking.

If you’re wondering if that applies to the rest of us, look at the struggle established businesses are having finding their way in a changing world. Print media, television, movies, telephone service aka landlines. These industries are pushing back and pushing back hard because they don’t want to listen to what the rest of us want. One example: we want to watch network programs when we want to watch them, not at a certain time (7:30 pm) on a certain day (Monday) only over a certain device (a television).

So if the big companies are struggling to get it right, where does that leave the rest of us small businesses and organizations?

Good news! You can be the business or organization that thinks different and becomes the business or organization that creates value, offers products, or sells services that matter to the people who use them. If you do nothing else but offer an incredible user experience, you are already thinking different. Businesses and organizations think they’re offering a great user experience, but they’re usually just doing what they think is different and it’s really the same thing everyone else is doing.

A business usually has an objective they want to achieve with their customers. Let’s say it’s selling something. Everything they do is toward selling their widget, usually pushing information and incentives to make the sale.

What if that same business turned it around and planned everything from the perspective of the buyer.

• Who is the buyer? Create a personality for each buyer.
• What experience would that buyer want to have when buying? Create a start to finish buying universe.
• If the buyer needs or wants to exchange their purchase, what is that experience? Create a perfect customer service universe for that buyer.
• Pay attention to every single detail because they all are part of the total user experience.

For Apple, Think Different was more than an ad campaign. It really was part of the Apple culture. Think different was infused in their DNA. They think different in everything they do.

The paradox is that it isn’t anything new and yet it’s everything new. Think about that.