Shadowing Practice: Steve Jobs "Think Different" Campaign Speech 09/1997 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Good morning.
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Good morning.
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We were up till three o'clock last night finishing this advertising up, and I want to show it to you in a minute, see what you think of it.
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I've been back about eight to ten weeks, and we've been working really hard.
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And what we're trying to do is not something really highfalutin.
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We're trying to get back to the basics.
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We're trying to get back to the basics of great products, great marketing, and great distribution.
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And I think that Apple has pockets of greatness, but in some ways has drifted away from doing the basics really well.
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So we started with the product line.
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We looked at the product roadmap going out for a few years, and we said a lot of this doesn't make sense, and it's way too much stuff, and there's not enough focus.
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And so we actually got rid of 70 percent of the stuff on the product roadmap.
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I mean, I couldn't even figure out the damn product line after a few weeks.
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I kept saying, well, what is this model?
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How does this fit?
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And I started talking to customers, and they couldn't figure it out either.
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And so you're going to see the product line get much simpler
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and you're going to see the product line get much better.
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And there's some new stuff coming out that's incredibly nice.
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In addition, we've been able to focus a lot more on the 30% of the gems
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and add some new stuff in that is going to take us in some whole new directions.
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So we are incredibly excited about the products.
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And I think we're really thinking differently about the kinds of products we have to build.
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And the engineering team is incredibly excited.
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I mean, I came out of the meeting with people
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that had just gotten their projects canceled and they were three feet off the ground with excitement because they finally understood
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where in the heck we were going.
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And they were really excited about the strategy.
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In the same way, we, I think, have not been as – we have not kept up with innovations in our distribution.
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Well, I'll give you an example.
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I'm sure it was talked about this morning, but, you know, we've got anywhere from two to three months of inventory in our manufacturing supplier pipeline
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and about an equal amount in our distribution channel pipeline.
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So we're having to make guesses four, five, six months in advance about what the customer wants, and we're not smart enough to do that.
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I don't think Einstein is smart enough to do that.
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So what we're going to do is get really simple
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and start taking inventory out of those pipelines
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so we can let the customer tell us what they want and we can respond to it super fast.
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And you're going to see us be doing a lot of things like
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that today is just the first of many things we're going to be doing with you.
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So we're going to be not only, I think, catching up to where the best of the best are in distribution,
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but we're going to actually be innovating and be breaking some new ground, I think, in the coming several months.
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And I'm pretty excited about that as well in the distribution manufacturing side of things.
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And that gets us to the marketing side of things.
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To me, marketing is about values.
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This is a very complicated world.
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It's a very noisy world.
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And we're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us.
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no company is and
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so we have to be really clear on what we want
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them to know about us now Apple fortunately is one of
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the half a dozen best brands in the whole world right
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up there with Nike Disney Coke Sony it is one of
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the greats of the greats not just in this country
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but all around the globe and but but
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But even a great brand needs investment and caring if it's going to retain its relevance and vitality.
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And the Apple brand has clearly suffered from neglect in this area in the last few years.
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And we need to bring it back.
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The way to do that is not to talk about speeds and feeds.
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It's not to talk about MIPS and megahertz.
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It's not to talk about why we're better than Windows.
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The dairy industry tried for 20 years to convince you that milk was good for you.
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It's a lie, but they tried anyway.
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And the sales were going like this.
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And then they tried Got Milk, and the sales are going like this.
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Got Milk doesn't even talk about the product.
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Matter of fact, it focuses on the absence of the product.
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But the best example of all, and one One of the greatest jobs of marketing in the universe has ever seen is Nike.
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Remember, Nike sells a commodity.
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They sell shoes.
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And yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company.
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In their ads, as you know, they don't ever talk about the products.
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They don't ever tell you about their air soles and why they're better than Reebok's air soles.
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What does Nike do in their advertising?
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They honor great athletes and they honor great athletics.
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who they are, that's what they are about.
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Apple spends a fortune on advertising.
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You'd never know it.
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You'd never know it.
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So when I got here, Apple just fired their agency.
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They were doing a competition with 23 agencies that, you know, four years from now would have picked one.
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And we blew that up and we hired Shaiate, the ad agency
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that I was fortunate enough to work with years ago we
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created some award-winning work including the the commercial voted the best ad ever made 1984 by advertising professionals
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and we started working about eight weeks ago
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and what we the question we asked was our customers want to know who is Apple
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and what is it that we stand for where do we fit in this world
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and what we're about isn't making boxes for people to get their jobs done,
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although we do that well.
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We do that better than almost anybody in some cases.
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But Apple's about something more than that.
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Apple at the core, its core value is that we believe
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that people with passion can
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that people with passion can change the world for the better that's what we believe
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and we've had the opportunity to work with people like
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that we've had an opportunity work with people like you with
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software developers with customers who have done it in some big
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and some small ways and we believe
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that in this world people can change it for the better
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and that those people that are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do And
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so what we're going to do in our first brand marketing campaign in several years is to get back to
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that core value.
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A lot of things have changed.
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The market's a totally different place than it was a decade ago. And Apple's totally different.
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And Apple's place in it is totally different.
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And believe me, the products and the distribution strategy and the manufacturing are totally different.
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And we understand that.
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But values and core values, those things shouldn't change.
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The things that Apple believed in at its core are the same things that Apple really stands for today.
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And so we wanted to find a way to communicate this.
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And what we have is something that I am very moved by.
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It honors those people who have changed the world.
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Some of them are living.
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some of them are not but the ones
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that aren't as you'll see you know that if they'd ever used a computer it would have been a Mac
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the theme of the campaign is is think difference is the people honoring the people who think different
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and who move this world forward and it's
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it is what we are about it touches the soul of this company
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so I'm gonna go ahead and roll it and I hope that you feel the same way about it I do
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years to the crazy ones misfits rebels troublemakers the round pegs in the square holes The ones who see things differently.
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They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo.
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You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
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But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.
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They push the human race forward.
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And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
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Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
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So that puts it out there.
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That puts us out there saying, this is who we are.
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This is what we stand for.
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I don't know.
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Do you like it?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Good.
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I know that some people will criticize us for,
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you know, not talking about all those things about why we have better plug and play.
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But we've got to let people know who Apple is and why it's still relevant in this world.
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And I think this will do a pretty good job.
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We are breaking this campaign this Sunday in a rather poetic way.
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The wonderful world of Disney is restarting on ABC.
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And the first thing they're showing this Sunday night, I believe it's at 7 o'clock, is the network premiere of Toy Story.
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And we're going to have two 60-second spots.
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This commercial will run twice, once in the first hour and once in the second hour.
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We are then going to break some newspaper ads in the Journal, the Times, the Mercury, the Examiner,
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USA Today, really stating the manifesto, the words.
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And then I'm going to show you what's going to break within two weeks.
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We've got some phenomenal prints.
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This ad will run throughout most of October on television.
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And we're breaking some phenomenal print within a few weeks, mostly on the back covers of magazines, some on the inside.
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We've got some incredible billboards.
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And we're even painting some giant walls in about five or six major cities.
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Before I show you this stuff, I want to let you know that in this day and age, to use any of these people,
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whether alive or dead, you need major permission from either themselves if they're alive, or their estates, representatives if they're dead.
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Almost all of these people have never appeared in an advertisement before and never would.
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until we asked them.
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I mean, I got permission from Yoko Ono a few days ago to use John.
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And it's been an incredibly moving experience for me that these people,
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both living and dead, their estates, have felt so strongly about Apple that they were willing to let us do this.
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I don't think there is another company on earth that could have done this campaign.
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And that, to me, is something very special.
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So I've got a videotape here of some of the print and the outdoor stuff.
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And if we could just run that, I want you to get a feel for that.
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This is an example of a print ad you might see on the back of the magazine.
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This was an image owned by Time Warner that they've never released before.
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Martha Graham,
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Thomas Edison, Alfred Hitchcock.
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You can't see it on the video, but these images are just stunning.
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Look at this, outdoor Muhammad Ali.
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All this stuff is going up in the next two weeks.
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You know who that is?
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Rosa Parks.
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There will be five buses running around five major cities like that.
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So that's what we're doing.
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And we've been working pretty hard to wrap this up the last few days and nights, but it's the best work I've seen in an awful long time.
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I think it's the best work Apple's ever done.
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Now advertising is not everything and we've got some incredibly exciting product announcements coming up soon.
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Some incredibly exciting things in general are going to be happening over the next 90 to 120 days.
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And I really deeply appreciate all of the commitment that's in this room
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and with the people not in this room to turning this company around.
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This company's absolutely going to turn around.
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As a matter of fact, I think the question now is not can we turn around Apple.
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I think that's the booby prize.
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I think it's can we make Apple really great again.
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So thank you for your time.
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Context & Background
In September 1997, Steve Jobs delivered a pivotal speech surrounding the "Think Different" campaign while re-establishing Apple's focus on innovation and simplicity. Jobs emphasized the importance of returning to basics, honing in on great products, and refining marketing and distribution strategies. His candid reflections about the complexities within Apple’s product lineup serve as a reminder of the value of clarity and focus in any enterprise. For English learners, understanding the context behind such a speech is beneficial not only for language acquisition but also for grasping the nuances of business talk and motivational speaking.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "Get back to the basics." - This phrase highlights the importance of simplicity in any task.
- "I couldn't even figure out the product line." - A relatable expression emphasizing confusion or complexity in a situation.
- "We're going to get really simple." - A call for clarity and straightforwardness.
- "Let the customer tell us what they want." - A phrase that reflects customer-centric thinking.
- "Marketing is about values." - This highlights the role of core principles in effective branding and communication.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively use Steve Jobs' speech for personal development, follow this structured shadowing guide, designed to help you improve English pronunciation and enhance your speaking skills:
- Listen and Understand: Watch the video while focusing on Jobs’ speech to grasp the nuances of tone, inflection, and rhythm.
- Break It Down: Select a segment (1-2 minutes) of the speech that resonates with you. Pay attention to challenging phrases that you can practice.
- Practice with Shadow Speech: Use the shadowspeak technique by repeating what you hear. Focus on mimicking Jobs’ pace and pronunciation to enhance your IELTS speaking practice.
- Record Yourself: Use a recording device to capture your shadowing attempts. This will allow you to identify areas for improvement.
- Refine and Review: Compare your recordings with the original speech, noting any discrepancies in pronunciation or intonation. Repeat this process to achieve mastering.
Experimenting with such a speech on a dedicated shadowing site or language platform can enhance your learning experience. By actively engaging with the content, you'll be better equipped to communicate effectively, embodying the essence of the phrases highlighted above.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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