04 Apr “Logistics means marketing”
Not the most glamorous of thoughts. Isn’t marketing supposed to be sexy?
Well, in fact, this quote comes from someone describing one of the sexiest, most successful businesses of our lifetime; Apple. “Logistics means marketing” is a quote from Regis McKenna, the man who in 1976 figured out how to market Apple computers. Surprisingly perhaps, he is not reminiscing over yesteryear, rather, he is describing Apple’s current marketing. Elaborating; “Having the product that you want, when you want it, and where you want it, is marketing.”
Essentially Mr McKenna is saying that satisfying a need, delivering your product at the desired time and the right place, is the bedrock for effective marketing. It is a fascinating appraisal of something Apple do religiously but so often gets overlooked. Rather than pass comment on Apple’s scarcity demand creation model, the intuitive design, the amazing user experience, the simplicity of their advertising, the store experience, he focused on logistics.
Too often the marketing community concentrate on the fireworks around their product, losing sight of the fundamentals of business; right product, right time, right place. In a world where people are becoming increasingly disengaged from the brands and businesses they buy from, getting the basics right carries phenomenal weight.
How often have we been led to believe a product is going to change our world and solve all our problems only to be sorely disappointed when we give it a try? Yet when a business takes the care to craft a product that really does make a material difference to our lives, we reward them with our loyalty, our gratitude and our advocacy.
So here at Sonder, we salute Regis McKenna, for shining a light on the less-sexy side of marketing. Let’s get the basics right before we light the fireworks.