I was cleaning out a drawer the other day and came across an old Apple iPod.The original iPod hit the market back in 2001andit revolutionized the way we bought and played music. Back then, it was hard to imagine that it stored 1,000 songs and had a battery that would last ten hours!

How did they market the iPod? You may remember a string of pop music performers in commercials with silhouetted dancers. Cold Play, Jet, Bob Dylan, U2, to name a few, were part of Apple’s marketing campaigns. Here is a retrospective of some of the best iPod commercials. If you’re old enough to remember, the rock band U2 debuted a song called "Vertigo” on Apple iTunes in 2004. Why did Apple pay so much to market this device? Apple had more than an MP3 player to sell, they had a new wave of innovation to market. They needed their brand to be seen as the tech leader in all things new and groundbreaking.If they could make a device so small,yet so powerful, what was stopping them from putting a chip and a battery in anything?

The iPod was just the beginning of a series of electronics that changed the way we live. Think of this: before Apple introduced the iPod, sending large electronic files over the internet was not a thing. Downloading music changed the way we share information. It also changed the way we shop. Before the iPod and iTunes, there were no online sales. Websites were primarily for information gathering only. Purchasing and downloading music changed that. Mobile phones were clunky and just used to make phone calls – nothing more. Apps were nonexistent. Cloud storage was not a thing. The iPod led the way for other innovations from Apple, including making devices mobile. Tablets, phones, watches, Bluetooth headphones, smart thermostats, smart doorbell cameras …all of them can be traced back to the iPod. Why? Because marketing opened the floodgates of innovative thinking.

How is your marketing opening doors for you? Does it challenge consumers to think differently or are you just giving your customers what they ask for? If you want your marketing to be effective, you have to think beyond what your customers already know about you and push them to try something new – from you!And they will never really know what you have to offer them until you effectively market to them as a leader, not a follower. What do I mean by that? Leaders promote their brand as the solution to a problem or as a way to make life much more enjoyable. Followers copy their competition. That distinction makes a difference in the mind of the consumer. They will see you either as the go-to expert in your field or just one of the many brands who can give them what they want. If you are marketing as a leader in your industry, you are opening doors for the consumer. You are offering solutions they have not thought about before. If you are a follower with your marketing, the only difference between you and your competition is your price. You have become a commodity to them.

Apple used the iPod to launch a whole new world of possibilities. Their marketing opened the door for a flood of innovation. What is your marketing doing for you?