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Microsoft Wants to Project "Cool" Image
rocketjam writes "C-Net is reporting that Microsoft is working to get their products placed in popular TV shows like Fox's "24" and HBO's "The Wire" as part of a push from executive Jim Allchin called 'cool form factor'. Like MacDonald's recent hip-makeover marketing efforts, Allchin wants to engender a hip, consumer brand image for the company which is largely perceived as an enterprise software company. Microsoft would like to capture some of the cachet that Apple Computer has among the fashionable and Hollywood tech elite."
Yeah, a bit of a stretch. On Thursday night, ER not only showed the iPod but even gave it a one-liner...something like "It's an iPod, plays digital music". Too early in the day to remember the actor's name; same guy who played Jobs in the movie from a few years back.
It has to look cool, which, IMHO, Microsoft has not grasped yet. A large part of the appeal -- and probably a good reason why the directors of 24 allow it -- of Apple is the cool factor. The hardware is slick, the buttons are shiny, and it doesn't look like most other computers out there.
What product would microsoft have in its arsenal that could fill the above description?
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound
Since when was a massive omni-mega corp ever cool? They are currently the bully in the arena. Smaller companies that are more agile and willing to accept major risks will always come out on top as far as "cool factor" goes. That's the nature of the game. MS's reputation is all about ubiquity and uniformity - and image that they've crafted very carefully through the years.
Sadly, MS will always win out by ripping off a smaller company's ideas and making knock-offs. I don't know why they wouldn't be happy with that. Let the other guy take the risk, and if it works - steal the idea! Let the other guy be cool, then emulate him. It's been working quite well for them, so who cares?
Crystal Meth: Would you ingest somthing made from a poisonous gas and an explosive metal? You do it every day -- Salt!
Cool can be manufactured. Witness things like Nike Air trainers, smoking, Levis 501 jeans. The difference is that these things are aimed at the younger market, people who are desperately trying to find their place, so don't want to do or say anything that would alienate them from their peers.
Computers on the other hand are not exactly the sort of thing that people get worried about. You don't have kids going home and crying to his dad because some of the kids in school laughed at him because he didn't have some cool make of computer. (Well, geeks might, but we already know they're not the exact epitomy of coolness).
So, yeah, I'll agree with your outcome, even if I don't necessarily agree with your original statement. Still, we'll get to laugh at the dad thinking he's cool. Like we can do with McDonalds - No really, its more fun to go and dance outside a McDonalds than it is to go to a nightclub, no it is...
From the article: After some early success with shows like "24" last season...
Maybe last season but in the first series: 24's Good Guys Do Use Macs
While Bauer and most of the other agents in his unit used Macs, the traitor used a laptop made by Dell. The baddies, a group of renegade Serbs, also use Dell machines.
They may want to make there OS as stable as Apple or Linux before they try to advertise it all over the place in television shows. On numerous occassions I have seen M$ computers on TV at there trademark blue screen. This has happened on several shows including Howard Stern and CNN. I have also seen this on electronic billboards. M$ obviously needs to take a break from there marketing tactics and get back to programming, this is obvious as there is a constant threat of new vulnerabilities in there software due to the poorly laid out architecture.
They don't get it. They were cool once, back when they were the underdogs, and they really were innovating with cool new products that took market share away from the big boys: WordPerfect, Quattro Pro. And OS/2. I mean, how cool is it to take on IBM and win?
They put Windows on cheap PCs, so people didn't have to buy expensive Macs. That was cool.
Microsoft put easy Internet access on people's home PCs. That was cool (at first).
But once their innovations become successful, the monopolist behavior took over. That was uncool.
Embrace and extend is uncool.
Now, they aren't competing against WordPerfect and IBM, they are competing against OSS. They could compete in a cool way or an uncool way. They have chosen to be uncool about it.
If they want to be cool again, they have to start doing the cool things they used to do.
The setup is that a besuited guy wanders in on a what is presumably the IT department. The IT department looks like the commercial director has taken the most boring people on the talent agency's books and told the costume and make up people "think bland". They are all dancing extremely awkwardly and drinking some unidentified liquid (the way these people are acting, it sure ain't alcohol) out of blue plastic cups.
The guy asks what's the party, at which point the head IT guy explains how they had magically consolidated the Active Directory groups from 70 to 4 thus allowing them to roll out new apps to the sales force in minutes (or some such hooey). The suit looks nonplussed, until Head IT Guy explains that this will save the company millions of dollars. The ad closes with the suit leading the IT department in a line dance, which they manage to make look just as awkward and dorky.
I realise the ad probably has to be designed to it can be shown everywhere from Salt Lake City to Singapore, but, jeez, if you want to make your brand cool try not to associate it with complete dorks... :)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Manufactured products can be cool, but cool can't be manufactured.
I personally thought back to my first use of OS X, and "cool" was amongst the first thought.
"Right On" and "Fucking-A" soon followed.
My first use of Windows XP followed a similar vein, only the complete opposite; "Oh...MY...GOD", "What the FUCK!!", "Make it STOP!!", "For the love of GOD MAKE IT STOP", "What fucking rocket scientist thought this was a good idea?", "Why am I having childhood flashbacks of Romper Room?"
Here's a clue for Microsoft:
Make it simple: Turn the crap OFF/un-integrate.
Make it look good: See above (XP looks HORRIBLE)
Make it secure: Turn the crap off by default.
Make it functional: see all of the above.
Oh, and *LISTEN* to what people want. Not like windows 98 beta when 78% of people said "NO!" to integrating Internet Explorer into the OS.
(sheesh)
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Anyone see the new M$ WinServer 2003 Ads (I live in Australia, if you want to know)
Boss: Whats the party?
Geek: We just finished a Active Directory rollout, merging 70 domains into 4
Boss looks confused
Geek goes on about some crap 1 day instead of weeks
Geek: Its going to save us 2 million dollars
Boss smiles and takes drink from Geek.
Here is a better version:
Boss: Whats the party?
Geek: We just finished a Linux rollout. Now customers can get their data 24/7 instead of 3/24. We also managed to merge 1,000 servers into 100.m
Boss looks confused.
Geek: Its going to save us
Boss takes drink from Geek.
Are you saying people use macs for free because they see Aqua?
And are you saying with all the form factor mini ITXs out there, you're not going to find computers as cool as Macs?
Barriers to geekingess:
But seriously, how is this different (to a markeeting firm) than any other lifestyle?
I don't think it would be hard for a savvy marketing company to make geeks cool. When you try to make a lifestyle or personality cool, you don't present all the aspects of that thing, and you certainly are not honest about presenting it.
Nike doesn't spend much time showing us how injuries affect athlete's lives. Or how early in the morning practice is. Or how intensely stressfull that level of competition is and how hard it is on them.
Marketers will probably not focus on the less "cool-able" aspects of geekiness, but in the increasingly tech-driven society we live in I don't think it will be long before geek is cool. You don't have to make average people into geeks, you just have to get them to admire aspects of geeks and aspire to those aspects. Make it look like geeks earn more money than regular people. That's a good place to start.
bad sig...no donut.
Wintel laptops are used as Trojan Horses filled with C4. (no really!)
I've seen a treatment of the final episode of the show, funding is cut and a new manager is brought in who attempts to "modernize" and "standardize" the MI-5 by "upgrading" to Windows boxes.
I will not reveal the ending, but let's just say its not pretty.
I like microcars
Yes, Apple's products definitely have the advantage of being recognizable in a way that other brands aren't: you can tell just from the shapes and materials. I like it when shows cover up the logos on the computers so as not to be giving free advertizing: what, are we going to think it might be that other rectangular brushed-metal laptop?
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
From a production standpoint Macs have an advantage that PC's will have a hard time overtaking. If you are a prop master, you like Macs for three simple reasons:
A: they look good just sitting there. it's a prop, that's all. and the audience can recognigize the "computer" aspect of it as well as the "new glitizy paperweight" without looking like several beige turds stacked on top of each other. Clearly our hero has his act togething since his computer looks so much better then ours
B: They are very reliable. When you need them to perform in front of a camera, they do. back in the day of DOS, no one wanted a PC on the set unless you were trying to show frustration..
C: not universal, but the "all in one" design had a lot to do with it. less parts to keep track of means less work for the propmaster. the SE30 was a revolution for the stage. it could fit in a little cardboard box and it didn't weigh a ton. The mouse you hired as the set designer could move it without calling for the gaffer. The iMac brought that back.
Compared to the price of a product in which all of the bugs were fixed - yes I am saying it's cheap.
There is a general rule, which applies particularly to software development that 80% of the value takes 20% of the effort. That last 20% of the value costs the remaining 80%. It's the 80:20 rule. Microsoft are masters of this rule. Many failed companies failed because they didn't take this rule into account. Edward
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
see what OS they are using. All the good guys in episode 1 and 2 used Macs. All the bad guys (including Nina, it was a giveaway) used PCs.
Do you drink cola or soda/pop, and if you do what national or multi-national marketing effort does it have?
Would you feel OK holding on to a can of RC Cola? How about a Vernors? Celray?
Where did that 'street cred' come from anyway?
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
This ad is actually an interesting departure for Microsoft -- they are actually selling directly to the techs in the trenches rather than promoting generics like "reliability" to the PHBs.
Bullshit. When MS started making Windows and Office, it didn't sell these products with 80% margin. Neither did its competitors. The market was simply too small to support high margins. Software costs money to develop and it costs almost nothing to produce and distribute. Once the market reached its current size, people naturally expect MS to lower prices, as microeconomics dictate. The problem is, MS highjacked microeconomics by becoming a monopoly. That's why people are pissed off.
You see, most hardware drops in price as the market grows. But for some reason, this doesn't happen with MS software.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.