Microsoft's Marketing Makover
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Is Microsoft finally turning around its marketing? Gulp. Maybe. |
I've watched a steady, but increasing, change in Microsoft product marketing over the past 12 to 18 months. While Microsoft has lots of improvements to make, the company's marketing is a whole lot better today than any time since 1997.
Good marketing isn't complex in concept. The goal is simply to articulate benefits, to explain what a product will do for the buyer and why it will make his or her life better. Marketers will rant about ad impressions, brand awareness or how many key concepts consumers might retain. But the core objective is to articulate the benefits of a product, so that people will want to use it.
The mechanisms are many and many are indirect. The best marketing is sometimes viral, when people wear certain clothes to be cool or buy based on friends' recommendations. Microsoft hasn't done well, for a long time, selling benefits, aspiration or cool—or generating viral buzz. But change is afoot.
This morning, I poked around the Office Live Workspace Web site, because of the new team blog. The video below really caught my attention. The marketing video clearly identifies real benefits—what the Office Live Workspace service will do for you.
Working backwards: The video's subject character ends with, "Have time to enjoy your life." That's the big benefit. People who use the service to collaborate and communicate will have more time to do other things. Isn't that what technology is supposed to do, create more time for living? It's a benefit too often missed in high tech marketing.
The subject touches on other benefits, but without working through a laundry list of features:
- Work from home, work from anywhere
- Share documents without sending them by e-mail
- Work better with others
The language is loaded with reinforcing connotations. In describing workspace permissions, the video's subject character says, "So," pausing and crossing his arms over his chest, "I'm always in control." He doesn't talk about encryption, SSL keys or other security protections but asserts his authority, his control—that he's the man.
The language is loaded up elsewhere in the way he talks about "your very own Office Live Workspace," with emphasis on "your very own." This is an usually good Microsoft advertisement.
The new Zune commercials are hot, too, but more for their aspirational qualities. A week ago, I blogged about the first new Zune commercial. This is great marketing, as is the second one below.
The background music is the Shin's "Sleeping Lessons," which "a thousand different versions of yourself" lyric matches the video content—and makes the point: Your music is the many versions of you.
Microsoft succeeds elsewhere: Silverlight is a real marketing turning point for Microsoft, and one the company may not fully recognize as being pivotal. Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere hit the ground with a resounding thud. About a year later, Microsoft relaunched the same technology as Silverlight, with a cool logo, new tools and broad community outreach. The strategy paid off. Silverlight is everywhere.
Maybe Microsoft should take the same approach with Windows Presentation Foundation. One idea: Relaunch WPF with the release of .NET Framework 3.5. It's time for a new name and logo around which Microsoft can create another developer brand and renewed developer interest. Who's really developing WPF applications for Windows Vista? The New York Times Reader is an increasingly tired example of WPF development. Microsoft needs to generate the kind of excitement with WPF the way it did with WPF/E. Another approach: Expand Silverlight branding to include both WPF and WPF/E.
The point: Microsoft is on a roll, but can still do much better. A month ago I panned Office Live nomenclature, but the marketing is a promising improvement.
Related Posts:
- What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, Microsoft Watch, Nov. 2, 2007
- What's In a Name?, Microsoft Watch, Oct. 9, 2007
- Office Goes Live and Online, Microsoft Watch, Oct. 1, 2007
- Art of Office, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 28, 2007
- Brand Matters, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 19, 2007
- Microsoft Scratches the Surface, Microsoft Watch, May 30, 2007
- One Redmond Way | Razorfish, Microsoft Watch, May 21, 2007
- Silverlight: What's In a Name?, Microsoft Watch, April 16, 2007
- Windows Live Hotmail Is Too Hot, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 8, 2007
- Ouch! You've Been Live Branded, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 2, 2007
Comments (12)
Why was Microsoft CIO Stuart Scott fired?
Did you know what the rumor is on minimsft blog?
"illegal activity requested of him by his supervisors - esp in the realm of electronic document retention"
A mormon with seven kids and he's having an affair? THAT's illogical.
A guy that worked 17 years at GE ruin his career with "sexual harrassment? THAT's illogical.
A Mormon that won't delete electronic documents? THAT's logical.
A guy brought in two years ago after Microsoft lost their XML technology used for a pawn? THAT's logical.
Posted by I-Man | November 9, 2007 6:05 PM
Ok what was the point of this.
.Net is not effectively cross platform. re spinning a old product does not give it new live magically.
This is the problem we need better products not just re spinning. Looks more and more MS is lost.
Vista was there last chance to make a good OS before the war with Linux was due to start. So far they have been give a extra 3 months due to problems on the Linux side. Yet they are still not showing anything in the quality required to win.
Posted by oiaohm | November 9, 2007 7:07 PM
I don't understand Joe? What was wrong with Microsoft's marketing in the mid 90's? Their consumer offerings were probably not articulated at best, but they had a strong hold then and even today. When I look through old Time and US News mags, I see a powerful PowerPoint ad called 'Mary Sue Will You Marry Me?'
Products like Office and Windows were popular regardless of how they were marketed by the Company. In fact, Microsoft never had to do much, since factors included word of mouth, Windows had already been the dominant desktop platform since 1990, this drove the integration value for both Server and Client desktop applications which we all know formed and generated the Windows ecosystem.
Why do you think Microsoft does not do ads for Windows and Office on TV? They don't need to, the product is ubiquitous. Its everywhere, people know it and expect it.
Posted by Andre Da Costa | November 9, 2007 7:45 PM
Here's the link
http://vcsy.blogspot.com/
Posted by I-Man | November 10, 2007 5:11 PM
LOL IBM's "secret SaaS". LOL
Maybe IBM doesn't know what they're doing in SaaS either, or maybe they have been in stealth on it with VCSY.
http://www.internetnews.com/reporters_notebook/article.php/3710331
By: waitin-on-news
11 Nov 2007, 12:31 AM EST
Msg. 202729 of 202729
Actually I don't need to know ANYTHING about SaaS. And it doesn't matter what DC-Steve knows about SaaS. And it REALLY doesn't matter what ukantc knows about SaaS.
What matters is that VCSY/NOW Solutions does and so does Verizon and so does IBM.
Posted by I-Man | November 11, 2007 12:42 AM
I-Man ,it is hard to understand your English.
Are you from Mars or Neptune or ..?
Posted by Marty | November 11, 2007 4:42 AM
"Have time to enjoy your life." People who use the service to collaborate and communicate will have more time to do other things.
If you have been in this business (IT technology) for any length of time, you know that that's a load of $%#^. IT technology in general may have let us accomplish more in less time but it has also created 10 time more work than before. In the place where I work the yearly budget document took 2 people 3 months to complete (in 1995). Now there are 6 people who take 9 months to get it ready. Business analysis / data mining have created paralysis by analysis and wireless access only means that your employers now expect work from you anytime, anywhere. The more you accomplish, the more you will be given to accomplish.
A few years back I saw a huge banner in the Denver airport touting MicroSoft wireless application access. The ad said "Your flight is 30 minutes late...You could
A) Work on tomorrows presentation files
B) Send e-mail to the New York office about the order change
C) Update the sales spreadsheets
My first thought was D) Kick back and relax for 30 minutes.
Posted by clowe | November 11, 2007 3:50 PM
IBM's "secret SaaS"
I think IBM suckered Cisco into buying WebEx in much the same way Google suckered Microsoft into buying into Facebook.
It places Cisco in the position of using money on something they don't have technology currently to integrate WebEx with just as Microsoft is faced with attempting integrating AdCenter and aQuantive Atlas with Facebook.
If IBM has access to the 744 patent, they will be able to roll out a far more advanced system than either Cisco/WebEx or Microsoft/Facebook will be able to achieve.
IBM can thus afford to remain silent about SaaS while getting their ducks together as Microsoft struggles and flounders with traditional technology for SaaS and as Cisco struggles attempting to bring their unified communications out. Both Microsoft and Cisco say their efforts will require 18 months to two years to bring their mature systems out.
IBM is saying they will roll out in early 2008.
from
http://www.internetnews.com/reporters_notebook/article.php/12075_3710331_2
But even though Cisco continues to talk up the virtues of its network-as-a-platform mantra, it still doesn't really know what it has with WebEx Connect. But at least it has it.
Connect probably won't be ready for primetime for at least another 18 months to two years. Right now, a beta version is in the initial testing-and-tinkering phase inside Cisco and may be ready for external consumption early next year. To be sure, it's still a work in progress.
"For now Cisco has an empty plate, but IBM doesn't even have a plate," Gotta said.
Posted by I-Man | November 11, 2007 10:10 PM
VCSY Short interest data
10/15 - 10/31
ShortInterest PercentChange Average Daily Volume
752,616 29.34 1,088,491
Therefore, 75% of the average daily volume for VCSY are shorts or 3 of every 4 trades are short sales.
http://www.otcbb.com/asp/OTCE_Short_Interest.asp
Who said 2 cent stocks can't be shorted?
Posted by I-Man | November 11, 2007 10:30 PM
Andre da Costa said: What was wrong with Microsoft's marketing in the mid 90's? Their consumer offerings were probably not articulated at best, but they had a strong hold then and even today.
Maybe that's because M$ didn't have any real conmpetition. IBM dropped the ball on OS2 and could never catch the market's imagination. Linux wasn't even being marketed much back then. In other worsds, Micro$oft succeeded because the competition (whatever there was) didn't do a decent job at marketing either; and because Micro$oft used its dominant position to stifle competition.
M$ is still doing the latter today. Just look at their ridiculous anti-Linux FUD.
Posted by Maddog | November 12, 2007 4:07 AM
Despite what everyone thinks, Microsoft is good at innovation and lousy at marketing.
Posted by Lin Rapid | November 12, 2007 5:57 AM
Despite what everyone thinks, Microsoft is good at innovation and lousy at marketing.
I believe MSFT is good at using it's monopoly position to make money from OS licensing deals with OEMs. If you want to call that "innovation", OK, I'll give them that one.
Can you educate us on other innovations that have spewed from the great R&D labs in Redmond? For a company that claims to spend upwards of $7 billion a year on "R&D", I'm having difficulty seeing the results.
Posted by lacitpecs | November 12, 2007 12:18 PM