In the summer of 2010, Apple had a big problem and it was called Antennagate. Then the iPhone 4 terminal had been launched on the market and unfortunately it lost signal if a certain part of its case was covered with a hand. The whole scandal was called Antennagate then and Apple was heavily criticized by the world press for its iPhone, although the device turned out to be the best-selling iPhone so far. The problem for Apple was so big that Steve Jobs decided to ask for help to a former "genius" of marketing, named Regis McKenna, who had been retired for a decade.
Steve called me from Hawaii and told me he had a big problem. I knew what it was because I had been reading about it. He asked if I would meet him at Apple the next day, where he led a group discussion. I looked at the date, which was really interesting. They had more complaints and service calls on the phone before it than they did on the iPhone 4. Because of that, I didn't think it was a significant problem. I thought it was a media-cycle issue and that they should address it with the data they had and be confident about the outcome rather than be apologetic. That's what Steve did. The issue disappeared within probably 10 days. My conversations with Steve over the years became more friends and personal than business. That wasn't a business contact, at least in my mind or in his; it was more calling somebody who had been a friend for many years and asking "What do you think?"
At the request of Jobs, he came to the Apple headquarters in Cupertino and advised the Apple CEO to tell the whole world that the iPhone 4 had far fewer complaints than the iPhone 3GS and to offer the Bumper for free to everyone who needed it. he. According to him, the problem disappeared in 10 days, but many of those who bought an iPhone 4 experienced it until today if they didn't have a Bumper, but from the point of view of the PR strategy, everything was solved quickly and successfully.
