Windows Vista secret Wow!
OK, we are often pretty harsh on Microsoft here, mostly because the Zune launch and the Vista restrictions have demonstrated about as much marketing savvy recently as I have hair. And occasionally, I wonder if I've been living in my folicle-and-Windows-free cocoon too long. But today, I read an article by Roger Ehrenberg over at Information Arbitrage that reached similar conclusions. One of my favorite pieces was the following reaction to the recent NewsWeek interview with Bill Gates:
Bill's poor press presentation is classic when companies don't craft a clean and honest message. If a person doesn't have a major point he or she is trying to make, the person tends to react to questions with whatever comes to mind. Media-trained people usually use the question as a way to make the point they are trying to get across in a different way. And despite Roger's speculation above, Bill Gates has had media training in the past, big time.
So if Bill Gates is not applying the lessons he knows, we have to consider the possibility that Microsoft didn't bother crafting key messages for Vista and Office. The allocation of marketing dollars at Microsoft today ranges from quirky to bizarre. The latest example: the whatswrongwithu.com Web site that asks Asian consumers what's wrong with them for not buying XBox 360 consoles in droves. Hmmm. It's not clear whether that web site or Vista marketing is working harder at destroying Microsoft's brand, because both are doing such a good job of it.
Oh, one more detail about Vista and Office marketing. One of the best ways to figure out how a company feels about its product is to look at its warranty and support costs as a marketing message. If the company charges a low price for its warranty and support contracts, that communicates high confidence in their products; after all, if they expected to get inundated with toll-free calls and warranty demands, they'd lose money hand over fist. So a low support price signals high quality product. On the other hand, if a company charges a lot for its warranties and support calls, it exhibits low confidence in the product and implies that the company needs high revenue from its support center to offset the high costs of running it. The simple story: low support price, good product; high support price, bad product.
With the release of Vista and Office, Microsoft just raised its per-call support prices 51% and 40% respectively. I'd expect to see similar numbers for corporate support fees.
Microsoft's right. The Wow! does start now.
UPDATE: Matt Hartley at OSweekly.com joins in wondering whether anyone at Microsoft actually thinks about what they are spending their marketing dollars on. I had been to the Clearification.com site once before, but hadn't realized it was a Microsoft-sponsored Vista promotion. But no, Microsoft appears to be building on its Zune marketing model with Clearification for Vista. Yikes.
Full disclosure: I have no position in Microsoft stock.
Bill sounds a little like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, and that he is getting ready to boil Steve Jobs' bunny. First off, Bill, after having spend an amount exceeding the GDP of several sovereign nations - $500 million - to launch Vista, don't you think you could have spent even a little of that on media training? THAT is your elevator pitch? Sorry, Bill, but you're not getting the VC funding you desire. You're not even getting out of the elevator. Your answer on security: poor. Your paranoia and irritation at Apple's successful branding and image-making? Nauseating. You're the richest guy in the world. You do lots of great things with your money. You're a brilliant man. The Apple threat and a changing world is making you become unhinged. Do something about this. Fast. For your shareholders sake. Please.
And if you think that's bad, our friend Bill a/k/a Mr. Malaprop is getting the crap kicked out of him by former friends in the media - everywhere. For some reason Microsoft and Bill just don't get the props they used to.
Bill's poor press presentation is classic when companies don't craft a clean and honest message. If a person doesn't have a major point he or she is trying to make, the person tends to react to questions with whatever comes to mind. Media-trained people usually use the question as a way to make the point they are trying to get across in a different way. And despite Roger's speculation above, Bill Gates has had media training in the past, big time.
So if Bill Gates is not applying the lessons he knows, we have to consider the possibility that Microsoft didn't bother crafting key messages for Vista and Office. The allocation of marketing dollars at Microsoft today ranges from quirky to bizarre. The latest example: the whatswrongwithu.com Web site that asks Asian consumers what's wrong with them for not buying XBox 360 consoles in droves. Hmmm. It's not clear whether that web site or Vista marketing is working harder at destroying Microsoft's brand, because both are doing such a good job of it.
Oh, one more detail about Vista and Office marketing. One of the best ways to figure out how a company feels about its product is to look at its warranty and support costs as a marketing message. If the company charges a low price for its warranty and support contracts, that communicates high confidence in their products; after all, if they expected to get inundated with toll-free calls and warranty demands, they'd lose money hand over fist. So a low support price signals high quality product. On the other hand, if a company charges a lot for its warranties and support calls, it exhibits low confidence in the product and implies that the company needs high revenue from its support center to offset the high costs of running it. The simple story: low support price, good product; high support price, bad product.
With the release of Vista and Office, Microsoft just raised its per-call support prices 51% and 40% respectively. I'd expect to see similar numbers for corporate support fees.
Microsoft's right. The Wow! does start now.
UPDATE: Matt Hartley at OSweekly.com joins in wondering whether anyone at Microsoft actually thinks about what they are spending their marketing dollars on. I had been to the Clearification.com site once before, but hadn't realized it was a Microsoft-sponsored Vista promotion. But no, Microsoft appears to be building on its Zune marketing model with Clearification for Vista. Yikes.
Full disclosure: I have no position in Microsoft stock.
Technorati Tags: Marketing, Media training, Microsoft, Support costs, Vista
posted by Carl Howe at
1:10 PM
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