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Executive Interviews: Interview with Owen Linzmayeron Government and Business
March 2010 - By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
Owen Linzmayer Owen Linzmayer is a respected San Francisco-based freelance writer 
What does Steve Jobs mean to
you?What does the brand ‘Steve Jobs’
stand for?
Steve’s brand is one of the style and
performance married to simplicity
and elegance. He has always been
concerned with creating useful
products that are easy to use, dating
back to the early days with the Apple
II, through the Macintosh era, and
now with the iPod and iPhone. Many describe Steve Jobs as the
greatest marketer ever. What are your
impressions about Steve Jobs as a
marketer?What is your assessment of
Apple’s and i-series (iPod, iTunes,
iPhone, etc.) marketing strategies?
How was it that for all these years,
one of the top-rated Global 100
brands never had any brand
ambassador?
Without a doubt, Apple has had
many memorable marketing
campaigns, but nobody can just “put
lipstick on a pig,” which is to say that
no matter how good the campaign, it
will fail if the associated product is no
good. Fortunately, Apple has had
tremendous products over the years
and these are much easier to market
because of their inherent advantages.
In fact, to play the devil’s advocate,
one could assert that Apple was once
a lousy marketer because the original
Macintosh was so much better than
anything the competition came up
with over a decade, yet Apple failed
to capitalize on its superiority and
allowed its personal computer market
share to drop to the low single digits.
Fortunately, Apple seems to have
learned from its mistakes. The iPod
campaigns were perfectly targeted at
their audience of young, hip
consumers with images of dancing
silhouettes. That was a pure lifestyle
campaign, but the iPhone ads are
completely different in that they focus
on product benefits that appeal to the
practical side of the mobile phone
market. In one of the widely watched and read speeches (Commencement
address at Stanford, in 2005), Steve
Jobs observed, “ Your work is going to
fill a large part of your life, and the
only way to be truly satisfied is to do
what you believe is great work. And
the only way to do great work is to
love what you do”. What specific
qualities make Steve Jobs stand out as
a unique and enigmatic leader? Is it
his love for what he was doing or was
it his love for what he created?
read speeches (Commencement
address at Stanford, in 2005), Steve
Jobs observed, “ Your work is going to
fill a large part of your life, and the
only way to be truly satisfied is to do
what you believe is great work. And
the only way to do great work is to
love what you do”. What specific
qualities make Steve Jobs stand out as
a unique and enigmatic leader? Is it
his love for what he was doing or was
it his love for what he created? read speeches (Commencement
address at Stanford, in 2005), Steve
Jobs observed, “ Your work is going to
fill a large part of your life, and the
only way to be truly satisfied is to do
what you believe is great work. And
the only way to do great work is to
love what you do”. What specific
qualities make Steve Jobs stand out as
a unique and enigmatic leader? Is it
his love for what he was doing or was
it his love for what he created?
I’m not really sure I understand this
question. Sorry What distinguishes Steve Jobs 1,
the young man who started Apple,
and Steve Jobs 2, the guy who came
back to Apple and turned it around?
They are two different people with a
common background. The original
Steve had too much success too early
in life and was unable to appreciate
how much of that success came from
being in the right place at the right
time with the right product. Certainly They are two different people with a
common background. The original
Steve had too much success too early
in life and was unable to appreciate
how much of that success came from
being in the right place at the right
time with the right product. Certainly
When he returned to Apple after
selling NeXT, he had spent a good
deal of time on the margins of
importance in the industry, and that
must have been very humbling for the
once great boy wonder. He obviously
had learned a lot during this time, as
he is single-handedly responsible for
returning Apple to profitability and
significance in the industry.
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