Return to the Little Kingdom_ Steve Jobs and the Creation of Apple - Michael Moritz [86]
“We don’t want the ads to step on the editorial,” Fred Hoar said. He pointed out that news reports would appear for a few days following the introductions of Lisa and the Apple IIe. “This is going to be a skyrocket. I want to give the PR some impact.”
Alan Oppenheimer, an Apple marketing manager with a generous smile and steel-framed spectacles, touched on a running sore. Though Mac and Lisa both relied on a mouse and on visual symbols, programs written for one wouldn’t work on another. So the marketers had their hands full trying to conceal the fact that Lisa and Mac might have been designed by different companies. “Maybe the master plan is not quite appropriate,” Oppenheimer said. “Mac and Lisa aren’t compatible. The technical press can see through it. They could take us apart.”
“The master-plan harmonic wouldn’t be something we’d ram home,” Hoar said, “but we’d like to dispel the idea that Apple is opportunistic, haphazard, and uncoordinated.”
John Couch rocked on the edge of his chair and commented sharply, “What we really want to say is ‘Here’s a personal office system. There’s been a hardware revolution in the seventies and there will be a software revolution in the eighties.’ That’s the message.”
A few seats down the table, Linda Goffen, who worked for Couch, nodded vigorously and added, “We have to preempt that terminology and make it our own.”
As the debate subsided Clow described the advertising agency’s proposal for linking advertisements for Lisa and Mac. He recited the tag line: “Introducing computers you don’t have to be afraid of even if you have to hold a mouse in your hand.”
“I think that’s almost technical suicide,” said Paul Dali, the tousle-haired head of marketing for the Apple II and Apple III. “Apart from the mouse interface they’re not similar. We shouldn’t be trying to create a family.”
“The only people that’ll beat us up on compatibility will be the Fortune 500,” Couch said in a soothing manner. ‘They’ll say, ‘Why can’t I take my word processor home from Lisa and plug it into Mac?’ They’ll think we’re a bunch of dummies.”
“It’s an issue.” Henry Whitfield sighed. “These things are incompatible. People are going to find out sooner or later that they’re not going to talk to each other. Most of the Fortune 1000 companies think we should have more compatibility. We’ll say we’ve tried to keep the price down to get back into more of a consumer marketplace.”
John Couch returned to the central theme of the meeting: how Apple could persuade people in large companies to buy Lisas and Macs. He started to complain about the data-processing managers who were used to controlling the computer power at large companies. “They’re more concerned about putting barriers up to prevent computers from getting to the rest of the world. They didn’t like Apple IIs running all over the place and now they’ve got IBM calling on them. We cannot compete with IBM from a sales and service standpoint so we’ve got to rely on technology. We’ve got to say, ‘It’s new technology. There’s a revolution out there. If the technology doesn’t meet your needs, still buy Apple because they’re way out in front of everybody.’”
“We’ve got to plant the flag right,” Paul Dali emphasized.
“There just isn’t enough money,” Fred Goldberg said, spreading his hands in a resigned way.
“We’ve been banging our heads against the wall to get more money,” Henry Whitfield observed. “We’re significantly underspending. We just don’t have enough money.”
“You cannot have a revolution and approach it with quarter-page ads,” the advertising agency’s Maurice Goldman agreed. “It costs a helluva lot to have a revolution.”
MERCEDES AND A CORVETTE
Apple Computer was caught in a thin, flimsy world of amateurs. It was a comfortable place that many microcomputer companies were content to occupy. The engineers could argue into the small hours about circuits and clever pieces of code. The founders could revel in their newfound authority, snipe at the staid ways of large companies, place large advertisements in small publications, lick