Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had a very important mission in the 70s: to sell what was going to be the first personal computer in history. And since it was the first, the technical achievement that had been achieved from that Palo Alto garage was not going to be enough. It was a computer for everyone, not just for professionals or enthusiasts of the time.
In other words: The Steves needed a marketing expert to help them sell the product with the focus they had in mind. It wasn’t going to be an easy task for anyone, so they had to choose someone very capable. And that someone ended up being Regis McKenna.
Selling a home computer when no computer was home
The Apple II, a pioneering computer when it came to being sold for the home and not only for the professional.
Regis began fully in the world of technology: after leaving his arts degree at Duquesne University, he immersed himself in National Semiconductor, where he spent several years gaining experience as a marketing agent selling semiconductors. A interview with Stanford He reveals that at that time Regis learned everything he needed about marketing and sales. Not studying it, but doing it.
That experience allowed him to later enter better-known companies such as AMD and Intel, to help with the marketing of their chips. And already at that time, Regis promoted the creation of a complete system at Intel beyond just a microprocessor. Ultimately the manufacturer did not take that course.
For that same reason he liked what he saw when he was contacted by Steve Jobs. The Apple co-founder called Intel looking for a marketing expert, and Regis’ name immediately came up.
“I sat with Jobs and Wozniak… two of the people who had the best vision of the future, were clear about what they wanted, that I met. At that time they were already talking to me about children using computers, teachers using computers, businessmen using computers… at that time it was crazy.
What Apple did was ultimately not revolutionary. At a time when you built your computer by buying the parts, Apple sold you everything already assembled. They put it in a box for you, with lots of ports to make it flexible.
Regis not only outlined the sales strategy for the Apple II: he also made a complete business plan for Apple in which he outlined the idea of avoiding being like IBM. It was a time when employees were not convinced of Apple’s strategy as a brand and as a philosophy, but McKenna made it clear: there was no need to emulate IBM: Apple had to be everything that IBM was not. It was necessary to differentiate. He even led the team of people that ended up designing Apple’s multicolored logo.
Regis’s worst mistake: a “no” that kept him from being a billionaire
Apple ended up very happy with McKenna’s work positioning the company’s philosophy and style in the world of marketing, so it made him a very succulent offer: instead of hard cash, Regis He was offered 20% of the company. As it is.
Of course, at that time no one was going to know that Apple was going to be worth three billion dollars on the stock market. And Regis already had his own firm with revenues already reaching seven figures, so he declined. In an interview with the newspaper ‘The Independent’ He describes it as the biggest mistake he has made in his career, although he argues that decision:
You must run your business like a candy store. If you have money to buy candy you buy it and if not, you don’t buy anything. When I saw that I was being offered a share of Apple instead of cash, I prioritized having cash. With 20% of Apple I would have made a billion dollars in seven years, but if I thought about all the mistakes I have made in my life I wouldn’t be able to get up in the morning
McKenna agreed with Jobs who, now with a much more mature Apple, complained about how entrepreneurship had changed. Regis remembers in Fast Company to the then CEO of Apple to say: “Doesn’t anyone want to build a company anymore? Now entrepreneurs only want to create to sell, without knowing where they want to go. There is no experience.”
In fact, Regis he dared to say in 2002 that Branding as it was known at its time “had died.” But even with the disagreement on these changes, we must recognize the merit: Without McKenna, perhaps Apple would not have had that magic, that marketing, that reality distortion field that is so often attributed to Steve Jobs. It is part of Apple’s history.
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2023-11-07 16:41:18
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