Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 after a 12-year absence, finding the company on the verge of collapse. One of his first moves targeted the brand’s faded image. During a town hall meeting that year, he told employees the Apple name had suffered from neglect. “We need to bring it back,” he said, according to accounts in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs.

Jobs laid out his vision for marketing amid a noisy, complicated world. “No company is going to get people to remember much about us,” he explained. “So we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”

He dismissed talk of processor speeds, megahertz or comparisons to Windows. Instead, Jobs pointed to Nike as the ultimate example. “Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes,” he said. “And yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company.”

Nike’s ads, Jobs noted, skip product details like air soles or edges over Reebok. They celebrate great athletes and athletics. “That’s who they are, that’s what they are about,” he told the Apple staff.

Apple, Jobs argued, stood for more than hardware. “We’re not just making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that better than almost anybody,” he said. At its heart, Apple believed people with passion could change the world for the better. He wrapped up with a line that became iconic: “Those people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do.”

Reflecting later to Isaacson, Jobs emphasized the campaign’s focus. “This wasn’t about processor speed or memory,” he said. “It was about creativity.” That approach fueled Apple’s turnaround. The “Think Different” ads launched soon after, honoring innovators from Gandhi to Einstein and helping restore the brand’s luster.

The mutual respect between Jobs and Nike ran deep. In 2006, when Nike tapped Mark Parker as CEO, Parker reached out to Jobs for guidance. A decade later, Parker recounted the call in an interview. Jobs cut straight to it: “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

“He was absolutely right,” Parker replied. “We had to edit.” Nike simplified its lineup under Parker, echoing Jobs’ obsession with quality over quantity.

Jobs’ 1997 pep talk marked a pivot. Apple posted its first profit in a decade by 1998. The Nike lesson stuck: sell values, not specs. Today, that philosophy shapes tech giants chasing emotional connections with customers.