http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/perspective-you-can-take-it-you-135383

Perspective: You Can Take It With You

For close to 60 years, marketers have depended on the one attribute of technology that everyone understands: portability

This article from Ad Week begins by taking the reader back to the mid 20th century when technology and scientific advances were making the lives of American consumers easier. Their focus on creating ease and mobility for consumers eventually led to “portability”. 56 years later, the same marketing scheme is still at work. To show this, the article compares two ads; one from 1955 and one from today. The first ad is for Motorola’s newly designed radio, which was shrunk down so that consumers could take their music with them outside of the house. The second ad is for the Bose SoundDock Portable, which allows consumers to have a speaker system that moves with their music. One of the benefits of portability for brands was that it allowed them to market this evolving technology in a more understandable way. Marketers could leave out the confusing contents about the electronic radio and could just let people know that they could take the music with them. Portability remains a powerful marketing concept because it communicates the idea of “convenience” and “freedom”, which is something that nobody minds hearing.

1.) Besides the music market, where in advertising do you see a focus on portability as being the main marketing strategy?

2.) Do you think there’s anything negative about there being an increase in how portable everything is becoming?

3.) Do you think portability will always be an effective tool for brands to use?

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/advertising-leaders-reflect-jobs-legacy-135523

Advertising Leaders Reflect on Jobs' Legacy

'He taught ad people that design was king'

This article from Ad Week talks about Steve Jobs and his ability to think differently in an industry that spent way too much time inventing ideas about how to make the uninteresting interesting. He understood that a great product beats a ‘great ad’; ultimately teaching ad people that design is what’s important. For him, it was crucial to create your own paths of innovation and vision instead of always looking to the past. We live in a world that tries to define so much of what we do through focus groups. Apple’s advertising under Jobs was visually-driven and iconic. From Jobs, we can learn that advertising should never get in the way of brilliant innovations, but instead it should shine a light on them. Design, creativity and innovation are powerful tools for any brand. Steve Jobs enabled companies to become closer to consumers all around the world.

1.) What do you think is Steve Jobs’ greatest ad and/or product? Why?

2.) Do you think Apple with lose some of its visual and innovative power without Steve Jobs?

3.) Can you think of any examples of companies, other than Apple, that have effectively made a product so amazing that they only needed to show it to consumers? If so, which company and what product?