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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."
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.
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?)
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