After reading the 1,347th article on the iPad this month, I got to thinking about buzz. What does Steve Jobs know about creating buzz that could help the rest of us take our business ideas from good to breakthrough? What does he understand that makes otherwise normal people wait on line with grungy strangers for days on end without food or porta potties to get their hands on a device that nobody has even laid eyes on?

As we all know, buzz is created when news spreads that an idea, product or service is cool and worth trying. The news usually comes through channels regarded as reliable by others; a few “knowing” early testers who have credibility with others say the word. Buzz grows as more and more credible sources spread the word. Past success doesn’t hurt; In Apple’s case its blockbuster cool factor is enough to launch a stampede.

Even if you’re a cynic, and I know many of you are because you write to me from time to time, it is intellectually dishonest to dismiss buzz as simple hype. Sure there’s some marketing voodoo involved. Computer whizzes with access to the internet and a relationship with some opinion leaders can generate buzz within hours; still there has to be something real there to build and sustain excitement. If it isn’t really cool, or if it doesn’t work, or if it isn’t of value to the buyer, the buzz dies fast.

So buzz is not smoke and mirrors – there has to be a high level of value underneath it all. You actually have to deliver something your customers really want to buy and that works very well. What gets people talking about you isn’t phony marketing hype; it’s the experience they have with your product or service that kindles the desire to share information with others.

So Steve Jobs can teach us some things about buzz that are universal. I think there are at least three factors that any of us can recreate in our own businesses.

1. Unique Value

When people believe that you or your company offer something they cannot find anywhere else, and they perceive that you or your product or service are highly valuable, they will buy it and pay top dollar for it. And if that experience confirms their suspicions and it works, they will be eager to tell others; it’s just human nature to spread the word.

Creating real, unique value for your customers or clients is the key. Apple is focused like a laser on what its customers want. They know their faithful buyers are creative; they are learners, mavericks, free thinkers who see currency in owning and using the new, new thing.

Who are your customers and what do they value? It seems like such a fundamental question but herein lays a path to breakthrough. And don’t think that you just have to ask them. Sometimes you have to know them better than they know themselves. Steve Jobs has a small creative team which includes a few top executives. They don’t rely on market research so much as their own internal compasses.

2. Obsession with Quality

Jobs is reportedly so obsessed with perfection that he is known to barge into an engineer’s office and say, “no one will understand this. You need to fix this.” Apparently he does this regularly. This is probably comforting for anyone who has ever been accused of micromanaging a project.
In noting that obsession with quality is part of creating products that generate buzz, I’m not suggesting it gives you license as a leader to breathe down people’s necks. You can’t create new stuff by reigning in creativity or punishing people for failures. However, it does suggest that quality is a huge part of the equation; which means you need to set the standard and make it known that nothing less than the best is good enough. No matter how cool the new product or service is if it doesn’t work really well, it won’t generate any buzz.

3. Innovation

Apple is considered one of the most innovative companies of our time, maybe all time. Innovation is certainly a buzz word today. Every company is talking about innovation at its team meetings. So why do so few achieve it? I think it’s because deep down they doubt themselves. They’re insecure about their own ability to create or evolve.

Returning to the Apple example, I read in the Boston Globe that Carl Yankowski, who worked with Jobs and also competed with Apple as the CEO of Palm and Sony Electronics said Apple will work with suppliers “to get them to do things that (they) don’t think they can do, like make ultra-thin, ultra-light products that incorporate all kinds of new technologies.”

So as you think about driving innovation as a leader in your company I guess I would ask what are you doing to make people believe?

Of course buzz isn’t everything. There are those people who are not swayed by buzz. Many years ago, I’ll never forget our family’s first trip to Disney World; we four kids had heard the buzz that that Space Mountain was the coolest ride. But when my dad saw the long line snaking around past the giant turkey drumstick stand he refused to wait. “I wouldn’t wait 45 minutes to see the President,” he declared with that tone of finality that wouldn’t even tempt us to challenge the decision.

But most people aren’t like my dad. Most people will stand in line to buy your stuff if they hear the buzz see value. So it really is possible, in fact likely that you’ll succeed when you execute on these principles. Always invest in marketing, but know that before you can get people talking about you, you have to create unique value, insist on quality and foster innovation. That’s how you define breakthrough.