“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

There’s a widely held trope in the tech community — strong even among Mr. Jobs’ disciples — that the product is the marketing. Or as venture capitalist Fred Wilson once wrote, “marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks.”

But Mr. Jobs didn’t see it that way. While Apple’s seductive products and luminous storefronts are core elements of its brand, Mr. Jobs saw the advertising as inextricable from the product. That’s because the product wasn’t an iMac, iPod or iPhone, it was the brand itself and how a well-designed product — any product — can make your life better.

“Even a great brand needs investment and caring if it is going to retain its relevance and vitality,” Mr. Jobs said to staff at after he returned to Apple in 1997 and unveiled the “Think Different” campaign.

Heineken continues to roll out some of my favorite TV spots – nicely done.

I love this observation about taste and creative work from Ira Glass:

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.

The quote is an abridged version of the transcript from this video interview with Glass:

No one wants to go concerts or sports events alone.

So its not surprising that when Facebook users see that their friends are going to an event, they’re more likely to go too. What’s more surprising, perhaps, is how much more likely.

Facebook said Wednesday that every time a user posted on their news feed that they bought a ticket from TicketMaster, friends spent an additional $5.30 on TicketMaster (presumably for the same event). At Eventbrite, a social site for selling tickets to lesser known events, every link shared on Facebook generated $2.52 in ticket sales, Facebook said.

For our upcoming PSFK SALON at SXSW this year, we’ve invited Aaron Sedlak to discuss the future of mobile marketing. Aaron is the Creative Director at SarkissianMason. Here are a few questions we asked him in preparation for the event.

What is the most interesting challenge that SarkissianMason (SM) is addressing right now?

The most interesting challenge we face is finding the intersection between technology and reality. Clients and agencies alike tend to get caught up in games of technological one-upsmanship. Far too often we get myopic and focus on the technology, instead of the application of that technology. The danger is that you can create something that is outrageously cool yet has zero significance to those that don’t wake up and log in to their lives before they shower. We never advocate putting the brakes on innovation, but we do think it’s always a good idea to give pause… and think… would someone that doesn’t use buzzwords use this?

“Product placement means bigger budgets. Bigger budgets means bigger explosions.” Awesome.