Microsoft Pulls Its Punch on Laptop Hunter Ads
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It was inevitable that Microsoft would fight back, after spending three years taking broadside after broadside hits from Apple and its "Get a Mac" ad campaign. However, many people seemed surprised at the effectiveness of Redmond's counter-campaign, titled "Laptop Hunters" and featuring quote-end-quote normal people choosing to buy a cheaper PC over a presumably more-expensive Mac. In one of the spots, a law student named Lauren compares a $2,000 MacBook to a $972 Dell laptop, prompting her mother to ask, "Why would you pay twice the price?" The ads were effective because they played on Americans' newfound need to save cash amidst a global recession. Sure, Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign had hipster Justin Long talking up how cool Macs were, while stodgy John Hodgman wandered in circles trying to defend PCs' spreadsheet-making ability; but when you purchased a PC, Microsoft seemed to be saying, at least you had enough money left over to fill up your gas tank for the ride home. Until last week, Microsoft seemed determined to shout from the rooftops about the effectiveness of the campaign—not to mention the irritating effect it had on Apple. "Two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, 'Hey'—this is a true story—saying, 'Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered out prices,'" Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, said during a July 15 speech at the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. "They took like $100 off or something." Turner characterized the event as "the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business. I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, 'Is this a joke? Who are you?'" Microsoft spent a large portion of the conference suggesting that it would begin to assume a more aggressive competitive stance against Apple, even going so far as to suggest that a number of its upcoming retail stores would be opened a stone's throw away from Apple's. By the time Turner announced that the release of Windows 7 on Oct. 22 would be an "incredible opportunity for us to fight back," I was half-convinced that Redmond's next big announcement would be that it was commissioning a new series of 30-second TV spots, ones in which a netbook-wielding John Hodgman clubbed Justin Long into submission like a baby seal. But two weeks later, Microsoft seems to be backing down. A little bit. In the updated version of the "Laptop Hunter" ads, the portion where Lauren and her mom talk about the price of a Mac relative to a PC has been edited out; the clip replacing it has Lauren mention, "It seems like you're paying a lot for the brand," and leaving it at that. Nonetheless, Microsoft claims that the new version of the ad in no way suggests that Redmond is pulling its punches. "We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to AdAge. "This does not change the focus of the campaign, which is to showcase the value and choice of the PC." As AdAge helpfully points out, retailers have found themselves in legal hot water before over comparison ads with outdated facts. And as triumphant as Microsoft may be publicly feeling at this moment, they would also likely want to deny Apple the chance to launch private jets full of chattering lawyers in their direction. In any case, Microsoft seems to have already gotten what it needs out of the campaign. Within the U.S. PC market, Apple's share declined from 9 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to 7.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to a search note from Gartner. A number of analysts attribute the solidification in PC-sales numbers to greater concern among consumers about their computers' bottom-line price, an impulse that has also led to ever-increasing sales of ultra-low-cost netbooks. Even if Microsoft can claim something of an unexpected victory in the ad wars, Apple will not exactly be slinking away to lick its wounds: During its July 21 earnings call, the company reported profits and revenue exceeding Wall Street analyst predictions, with earnings of $8.34 billion for the quarter ending June 27. Profit rose to $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per share, representing a 12 percent rise from the same quarter in 2008. Meanwhile, despite any ad boost, Microsoft continues to wrestle with declining revenues. In its own July 23 earnings call, Redmond reported a 17 percent decline in year-over-year revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009, with earnings of $13.10 billion. Those weak numbers are attributable to a number of factors besides the recession, including lower overall sales of PCs and the uptick in sales of netbooks, which can only use lower-margin Microsoft products. |
Comments (7)
These were long overdue commercials from Microsoft.The message is the same for the modified version.
Posted by evan2k | July 27, 2009 12:33 PM
it sounds more like the Microsoft guy didn't understand what that phone call really meant and that was that they had to change the ad. He could dance all he wanted but his ignorance to the meaning of the call does not mean he'll continue dancing. Although the press seems to allow the dance to go on by blowing over the fact that they had to change the ad.
I was also wondering about that Apple marketshare drop until I read the numbers later on in the article. Apples revenues went up while Microsofts revenues dropped quite a bit and netbook sales bumped up. Wow, do ya think the economy has anything to do with the Apple market share drop since their products are firmly in the premium cost/value side of the market? And I don't see Apple dropping support for products and laying off personnel while Microsoft has been doing that for some time now. Not an Apple fanboi but come on, this article sounds like a marketing piece or from an industry n00b.
Posted by Doug | July 27, 2009 1:12 PM
As far as revenue goes, comparing Microsoft to Apple is not really an apples to oranges comparison. Microsoft does a lot more than sell an OS, and Microsoft does not sell hardware(well they sell hardware just not actual PCs).
While Apple only has a teeny tiny piece of the market, it's a nice chunk of the market to have, seeing how those customers are zealots that'll buy anything you flash in front of their eyes regardless of price performance. For this reason Apple isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's just too hard to beat a religion. On the flip side, they aren't exactly killing Microsoft either.
Posted by JMB | July 27, 2009 8:23 PM
I agree. The pro Microsoft ads are long overdue. The Mac ads showing PCs as only for the "spreadsheet crowd" are simply not true anymore. At one time, it was indeed true that Macs had some pretty cool software that you just couldn't find on a Windows PC. Likewise, old Windows OSs paled in comparison to the old Mac OS. Now, however, there are many more software companies focusing on Windows PCs, if for no other reason than market share. And OS usability, well, I'd say that it's pretty darned comparable.
In addition, the Mac ads showing Vista as a poorly-designed, hacked-together piece of junk are, likewise, not true. The Mac ads were brilliant at kicking Vista squarely in the groin. I would go as far as to say that the Mac ads were the single most damaging piece of propaganda to Vista's success.
Because of the Mac ads, I had a horrible perception of Vista. The Mac ad that had me was the "Cancel or Allow?", "Cancel or Allow?" ad. It made Vista seem as if it were a hack job by MS. I swore that I would never switch from XP to Vista. Of course, that was until my XP machine became seriously infected. After installing Vista, I was pleasantly surprised. If for no other reason than security and invirusability, XP users should switch to Vista. They'd be much happier and a hell of a lot more secure.
I have seen numerous XP machines seriously infected, time and time again. I have seen the same XP machines, after switching to Vista, and brand new Vista machines go for years now with nothing more than a hiccup.
Hopefully, Microsoft will quickly counter-attack any fallacious ads against Windows 7. That is, if Windows 7 is a good and solid OS. I will never forget the old Windows ME. Now that was a piece of junk OS.
Posted by Argus | July 28, 2009 3:37 PM
JMB says:
"While Apple only has a teeny tiny piece of the market, it's a nice chunk of the market to have, seeing how those customers are zealots that'll buy anything you flash in front of their eyes regardless of price performance."
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Agreed that it is a nice tiny piece of the market to have, selling 91% of laptops $1000 and up in the USA is a great thing for Apple. Not nice for MS, thus we have the Laptop Hunters ads, which at least for now, are not working well. As far as "Mac zealots" buying anything, sure there might be a few of those, but from what I have seen, the flight to Mac is very similar to the flight to Linux. I would suggest that the out of the box internet security experience with Windows, is what is causing a lot (if not most) of the flight.
UAC is only a partial bandaid, its not really a limited or a normal user account, and as such only stops about 1/3 of the malware getting though, at best. Setting up a real normal (limited) user account in Windows XP, Vista, or Seven, does help to secure it, but still not to the degree of Mac or better Linux. The question is why MS does not want to setup its Windows install to automatically create these normal (limited) user accounts? Is it because they believe that most users will not have the knowledge to be able to use these accounts? Installing software and being able to use them in the normal user account does require some effort. Also, some programs will not be compatible, as well.
Windows security is one of the problems that MS seems to neglect by and large, and only tries to do incremental things (UAC) for show that they are doing something. If MS wants to keep its share on the Desktop, it has to do a far far better job on security, else the trend will continue and even perhaps accelerate.
Every Mac convert I have talked to has bought a Mac to get away from the Windows Malware problem. An expensive solution, Linux being a free alternative, but still in terms of repair, it might be the cheaper solution, if you have to take your Windows computer in and have someone else fix the malware problems all the time.
Vista machines still get infected, and Seven will too.
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Disclaimer: I am not a Mac user.
Posted by Chips Malroy | July 29, 2009 3:04 PM
Quote Argus "The pro Microsoft ads are long overdue."
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Don't be silly and play "tit for tat" anyone with half a brain knew what Apple was doing with their ads.
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Quote "Microsoft will quickly counter-attack any fallacious ads against Windows 7"
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Come on. Did a massive clever TV advertising budget get Firefox a chunk of IE's share? With all of MS's war chest could it get Zune into the hearts (and more importantly pockets) of the "mainstream" audience.
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I hate to burst your bubble, but I dont think people in the main see adverts as some kind of war and I certainly think they do their own research more now than ever. Maybe thats why (whatever the figures) alternatives to Microsoft products are becoming more popular than they ever were in the past?
If Microsoft (IMO) concentrated on substance rather than show, they might salvage what is in my opinion a downward spiral created by Vista.
Which brings me on to your point of:
"If for no other reason than security and invirusability, XP users should switch to Vista."
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Or for even more peace of mind move to a platform altogether?
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Quote "They'd be much happier"
LOL, you serious? Why do you post something which is so easy to disprove? Happy Vista users? Check the mainstream press, check the sales figures or more importantly check the users. A quick Google can be very revealing.
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Quote "and brand new Vista machines go for years now with nothing more than a hiccup."
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Please can I use that comment? I don't think Ive ever read anything as funny as that on a IT related forum.
Yes Argus, Ive seen some of those "hiccups" thank God we don't have them on Linux.
Posted by Goblin | July 29, 2009 6:16 PM
Respectfully Nick, I have to disagree with a lot of what you wrote.
Nick says:
" However, many people seemed surprised at the effectiveness of Redmond's counter-campaign, titled "Laptop Hunters""
"The ads were effective because they played on Americans' newfound need to save cash amidst a global recession."
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Well, lets talk about the effectiveness of these advertisements. The figures I seen on the internet, was when these ads came out, Mac had 88% of the laptop market in the USA. And now it has 91%. How effective is that Nick?
Nick also says:
"In any case, Microsoft seems to have already gotten what it needs out of the campaign. Within the U.S. PC market, Apple's share declined from 9 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to 7.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to a search note from Gartner"
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A very valid point it would seem on the surface, but misleading as everything. A better statistic would be the actual number of Laptops or computers that Apple actually sold. You would find that it did decline, be not a great as what Gartner trys to portray. Most of that decline in percentage (but not all) is because of the increase in sales at the low end, Netbooks. Apple just had one of its best quarters every, and MS, despite selling more Windows licenses, had its worse. People are buying cheap Netbooks, which does not much for the bottom line at MS. Netbooks were the one area of computer sales that greatly increased.
Are PC's cheaper than Mac's? Yes, but not because of Wndows, because of the competition between the OEM's, which Apple does not have, unless you count Pystar. PC's could be even cheaper with Linux on them, or sold with a bare drive option. As the recession drives users to cheaper computer, MS puts advertising up (Laptop Hunters) that says they are cheaper, as the main message. The race to the bottom has begun for MS, and therefore, the cost of Windows will have to continue to decrease, or the OEM's, in an effort to compete, will start installing Linux.
Posted by Chips B. Malroy | August 5, 2009 10:01 PM