While reading Federico’s post about Steve Jobs, https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/urw/lc5116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct, it got me thinking how important marketing is.  Steve Jobs and Apple were able to find at first a niche market and truly dive into it.  They segmented to users that wanted to be creative, passionate, and unique, like they were.  All points that Federico brought up that made him larger than Apple that made Jobs to be held in the highest regard. Contrast this to Microsoft and their CEO Bill Gates.

By picking out the segments that they did they were able to quickly develop a very intensive relationship with their users and create advocates for their company; willing to shout louder and on any domain than their competitors.  Steve Jobs made life more convenient for the world with many sexy products.  However Bill Gates definitely does not have the cachet or the appeal like Jobs does and I don’t think it is fair.  Gates decided to set his sights on actually helping people.  Gates’ foundation has spent over 25 billion dollars to help impoverished people all over the world live their life.

Both individuals created technological giants, and both advocated individuality, and to succeed in life even when things looked grim.  One was a marketing guru.

Marketing and the promotional activities have usually been
associated with waste.  Packaging and
advertisements are thrown in the trash with little thought of the
environment.  However a company,
GreenGraffiti is cleaning the filthy sidewalks and doing it with the help from
our favorite brands. I discovered them in an article on adweek.com http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/san-francisco-wants-advertisers-stop-cleaning-city-136183

They do ‘reverse graffiti’ essentially: it is using a
template on the dirty sidewalk and cleaning it.
This leaves an imprint of the logo in the sidewalk.  In a few weeks, the side walk gets dirty and the advertisement is gone. This form of marketing is exceptionally eco-friendly
and is cleaning up the sidewalks of our cities.
Instead of spending a significant amount of money on large billboard
signs around the train stations and on the side of buildings, it would be
etched in black and white right under our feet.
Every kid enjoys playing with chalk and writing on their driveway or
sidewalk.  That actually dirties the area.  In an age where the marketing
touchpoints have increasingly focused on social media, this kind of marketing
is a refreshing and sustainable marketing strategy that I hope is adopted
throughout the world.