Transcription
[Music] Good morning. Um, we were up till three o'clock last night finishing this advertising up, and I want to show it to you in a minute, see what you think of it.
I've, uh, I've been back about, uh, eight to 10 weeks, and, uh, we've been working really hard. Uh, and what we're trying to do, uh, is is not something really high-futin. We're trying to get back to the basics. Uh, we're trying to get back to the basics of great products, great marketing, and great distribution. Uh, and I think that that Apple has has pockets of greatness, but in some ways has drifted away from from doing the basics really well.
So we started, um, with the product line. We looked at the product road map going out for a few years, and we said, "A lot of this doesn't make sense, and it's way too much stuff, and there's not enough focus." And so we actually got rid of 70% of the stuff on the product road map. I mean, I couldn't even figure out the damn product line after a few weeks. I I kept saying, "What is this model? How does this fit?" And I started talking to customers, and they couldn't figure it out either. And so you're going to see the product line get much simpler, and you're going to see the product line get much better, and there's some new stuff coming out that's incredibly nice. Uh, in addition, we've been able to focus a lot more on the 30% of the gems and add some new stuff in that is going to take us in some whole new directions. So we are incredibly excited about the products, and I think we're we're really thinking differently about the kinds of products we have to build. And the engineering team is incredibly excited. I mean, I came out of the meeting with people that had just gotten their projects canceled, and they were they were 300% off the ground with excitement because they finally understood where in the heck we were going, and they were really excited about the strategy.
In the same way, we, I think, have not been as we have not kept up with innovations in our distribution. Well, I give you an example. I'm sure it was talked about this morning, but, you know, we've got anywhere from from two to three months of inventory in our manufacturing supplier pipeline, and about an equal amount in our distribution channel pipeline. So we're having to make guesses four, five, six months in advance about what the customer wants, and we're not smart enough to do that. I don't think Einstein's smart enough to do that. So what we're going to do is get really simple and start taking inventory out of those pipelines so we can let the customer tell us what we what they want, and we can respond to it super fast. And you're going to see us be doing a lot of things like that. Today is is just the first of many things we're going to be doing with you. So we're going to be not only, I think, catching up to where the best of the best are in distribution, but we're going to actually be innovating and be breaking some new ground, I think, uh, in the coming several months, and I'm I'm pretty excited about that as well in the distribution manufacturing side of things.
And that gets us to the marketing side of things. Um, to me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It's a very noisy world, and we're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. Now, Apple, fortunately, is one of the half a dozen best brands in the whole world, right up there with Nike, Disney, Coke, Sony. It is one of the greats of the greats, not just in this country, but all around the globe. And but but but even a great brand needs investment and caring if it's going to retain its relevance and vitality. And the Apple brand has clearly suffered from neglect in this area in the last few years, and we need to bring it back. The way to do that is not to talk about speeds and feeds. It's not to talk about nips and megahertz. It's not to talk about why we're better than Windows. The dairy industry tried for 20 years to convince you that milk was good for you. It's a lie, but they tried anyway, and the sales were going like this. And then they tried "Got Milk?" and the sales have gone like this. "Got Milk?" doesn't even talk about the product. Fact, it focuses on the absence of the product. But but but the best example of all, and and one of the greatest jobs of of marketing in the the universe has ever seen, is Nike. Remember, Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, as you know, they don't ever talk about the products. They don't ever tell you about their Air Soles and why they're better than Reebok Air Soles. What does Nike do in their advertising? They they honor great athletes, and they honor great athletics. That's who they are. That's what they are about. Out. Apple spends a fortune on advertising. You'd never know it. You'd never know it.
So when I got here, we, Apple just fired their agency. They were doing a competition with 23 agencies that, you know, four years from now would have picked one, and we blew that up. And we we hired Chiat/Day, the ad agency that I was fortunate enough to work with years ago. We we created some award-winning work, including the the commercial voted the best ad ever made, 1984, by advertising professionals. And, um, we started working about eight weeks ago. And what we, the question we asked was, "Our customers want to know who is Apple, and what is it that we stand for? Where do we fit in this world?" And what we're about isn't making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well. We do that better than almost anybody in some cases. But Apple's about something more than that. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That's what we believe. And we've had the opportunity to work with people like that. We've had an opportunity to work with people like you, with software developers, with customers who have done it in some big and some small ways. And we believe that in this world, people can change it for the better, and that those people that are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do. And so what we're going to do in our first brand marketing campaign in several years is to is to get back to that core value. A lot of things have changed. The market's a totally different place than it was a decade ago, and Apple's totally different, and Apple's place in it is totally different. And believe me, the products and the distribution strategy and the manufacturing are totally different, and we understand that. But values and core values, those things shouldn't change. The things that Apple believed in at its core are the same things that Apple really stands for today. And so we wanted to find a way to communicate this. And what we have is something that I am, um, I am very moved by. It honors those people who have changed the world. Some of them are living, some of them are not. But the ones that aren't, as you'll see, you know, that if they ever used a computer, it would have been a Mac. And the theme of the campaign is is "Think Different." Is the people honoring the people who think different and who move this world forward. And it is what we are about. It touches the soul of this company. So I'm going to go ahead and roll it, uh, and I hope that you feel the same way about it I do.
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. Round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. Now, the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some, they see them as the crazy ones. We see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
So that puts it out there. That puts us out there. This is who we are. This is what we stand for. I know. Do you like it? Yeah. Good. I I know that some people will criticize us for, you know, not talking about all those things about why we have better plug and play. But we've got to let people know who Apple is and why it's still relevant in this world. And I think this will do a pretty good job.
Job. We are breaking this campaign this Sunday, uh, in a rather poetic way. The wonderful world of Disney is restarting on ABC, and the first thing they're showing this Sunday night, I believe it's at 7 o'clock, uh, is the network premiere of Toy Story. And, uh, we, uh, we're going to have two 60-second spots. This commercial will run twice, once in the first hour and once in the second hour. We are then, uh, going to break some newspaper ads in the Journal, the Times, the the Mercury, the Examiner, USA Today, really stating the manifesto, the words. And then I'm going to show you what's going to break within two weeks. We've got some phenomenal print. This ad will run throughout most of October on television, and we're breaking some phenomenal print within a few weeks, uh, mostly on the back covers of magazines, some on the inside. We've got some incredible billboards, and we're even painting some giant walls in in about five or six major cities. Before I show you this stuff, I I want to let you know that, um, in this day and age, to use any of these people, whether alive or dead, you need major permission from them, either themselves if they're alive, or their estates' representatives if they're dead. Uh, almost all of these people have never appeared in an advertisement before and never would until we asked them. I mean, I got permission from Yoko Ono a few days ago to use John, and it's been an incredibly moving experience for me that these people, both living and dead, their estates have felt so strongly about Apple that they were willing to let us do this. I don't think there is another company on earth that could have done this campaign, and that to me is is something very special.
So I got a videotape here of some of the print and the outdoor stuff, and if we could just run that, I I want you to get a feel for that. This is an example of a print ad you might see on the back of a magazine. This was an image owned by by Tom Warner that they've never released before. Martha Graham. Thomas Edison. Alfred Hitchcock. You can't see it on the video, but these these images are just stunning. Look at this outdoor. Muhammad [Applause] Ali. All this stuff is going up in the next two weeks. You know who that is? Rosa Parks. There'll be five buses running around five major cities like that. So that's what we're doing. And, uh, we've been working pretty hard to wrap this up the last few days and nights, but it's, um, it's the best work I've seen in an awful long time. I think it's the best work Apple's ever done.
Now, advertising is is not everything, and, um, we've got some incredibly exciting product announcements coming up, um, soon. Some incredibly exciting things in general are going to be happening over the next 90 to 120 days. And and, uh, I really deeply appreciate all of the commitment that's in this room and and with the people not in this room to turning this company around. Uh, this company's absolutely going to turn around. As a matter of fact, I think the question now is is is not, "Can we turn around Apple?" Uh, I think that's the booby prize. I think it's, "Can we make Apple really great again?" So thank you for your [Applause] time.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and the wonderful typography that they do. Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.
My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I love to do early in life. Life, when I was 20, the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. And don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.
My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me. And since then, for the past 33 years, I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will truly become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Were the words, "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin a new, I wish that for you. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Thank you all very much.