Comments on: The Windows “I’m a PC” campaign

By: Seanito

Seanito — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:42:30 +0000

Grant–I checked out a job with CP+B as an in-house ethnographer about 5 years ago. At the time I did not have enough experience to qualify. But I wonder if they did find someone for that position, since as you suggest–they seem to have ther finger on the pulse of culture (which they could arguably do without ethnographers).

By: kranky kritter

kranky kritter — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:22:52 +0000

Does the marketing appeal work if MS can’t deliver?

Fact is, even with the convergence we’ve seen, MS never seems to quite reach Mac’s level of intuitive plug and play functionality. MS often provides superior functionality, but only if you climb the learning curve. Folks who have already climbed the curve tend to fail to notice this.

Presuming a good level of proficiency, does one or the other really hinder productivity or creativity? Probably not. Once you reach that level it becomes an almost coke-pepsi argument.

Why won’t MS be even more daring and take aim right at Mac users, instead of just trying to protect market shareI. MS really wants mac users to switch to PCs, al they have to do is bundle their much lower cost with some sort of satisfaction guarantee or marketing promise of the same.

Mac users would love to pay $400 instead of $1100 for a new laptop. But not if they have to learn what a C drive is.

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:19:55 +0000

When or where is your talk? Is it open to the public?

Thanks.

By: srp

srp — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:31:14 +0000

I’m not sure whom the ad is intended to influence–I suspect, like Michael Powell, that the intent is defensive (hold onto the customer base) rather than aggressive. Since I am not in that target group (I only use Windows at work because that was what was put on my desk) it’s hard for me to introspect the degree of cultural validation a PC user might feel when viewing the ad. (The only place where I might fit in to that target group is that I am so not a hipster.)

From my point of view, the new MSFT ad is too bland. I don’t get why I would want to be anything like the Windows users it shows.

The ad also doesn’t poke hard enough at Apple by linking up its message with the hard truth it has in its favor–there are LOTS more applications in zillions of niches for Windows compared to OS X. They should make fun of us Mac users for being cosseted, unadventurous types who willingly forego 90+% of all the software in the world just so we don’t have to look at some ugly graphics.

At least that’s how I’d try to spin it: Only hopeless wimps are afraid to venture out of Steve Jobs’s cocoon. They probably stick out their pinky fingers when sipping their lattes and use lots of expensive products in their hair.

By: Richard Band

Richard Band — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:29:18 +0000

If all great ads are just fundamentally about creating positive associations with brands, regardless of any specific functional message, I think these spots (and the Gates/Seinfeld ones that ran first) definitely do that for Microsoft. Finally, PC users have something to smile about instead of having to deal with the smirking smugness of the Mac user. I love the way that Microsoft has reframed the argument from an us vs. them paradigm to something that’s way more inclusive. It might not be a siren call, but I think the battle for the consumer’s heart will be a long one for Microsoft.

By: Michael Powell

Michael Powell — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:50:57 +0000

It’s interesting to hear you talk about the “siren call” of the Apple ads. It does seem that while Apple is geared towards stealing market share from the PC world, MS’s new, “I am a PC” seems to be more about holding/retaining market share. I’d be interested to hear what you think of this reading, but I interpreted their ads as saying, “it’s okay to be a PC user; don’t believe what Apple says, we’re not total losers.” As an Apple user, for example, the “I am a PC” ad doesn’t feel like a siren call to me.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:57:26 +0000

Now all MS has to do is deliver on a product.

I gave up counting how many friends and acquaintances have had really serious problems with Vista and have downgraded or given up all together. It probably is the case that they are overstating their pain, but there is a very strong perception the product has problems.

MS seems to have moved away from the term Vista in the newest ads … probably very deliberate.

By: peter spear

peter spear — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:48:49 +0000

This campaign is exciting as hell, simply from a cultural perspective. when was the last time we had two juggernauts going at it like this? i think what criticism of this campaign misses is exactly how dominant apple has been in shaping the aspirations and imagination of a generation of computer, media, consumers. these war-room conversations, i imagine, were about saving the microsoft brand from a fundamental irrelevance in the imagination of the young and, as you say, the uncertain.

i think you’re right that apple’s campaign is now made to look a bit simplistic and binary. but this is only because CP+B chose to burrow into the imaginary frame that apple had set up. i think it takes some balls to propose to Microsoft that you simply use apple’s binary set up and then explode it with traditionally avant-garde personalities. (CP+B gets the social mimicry of us all i think particularly well. all human all the time).

it remains to be seen if PC can deliver from a product perspective and if they can sustain this new set of values for the next bunch of years . . .

By: Grant McCracken

Grant McCracken — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:01:46 +0000

Lynne, lovely incisive question. Thanks. I agree with you that the industry insiders will scorn this campaign for the same reason they scorn Microsoft. But I think the real target for this advertising was not insiders and not geek hipsters. It was people like me on the margin who could feel themselves falling into the gravitational field of the Apple campaign. We might even say that the Apple vs. PC was meant to deputize people like me with insider and hipster coolness. I think PC+B wanted to get to a larger, group of the unaffiliated, neither cool nor geeks, and give them a reason to buy PC, give them, that is to say, a way to buy Windows and maintain their self respect. Thoughts only. Best, Grant

By: Lynne

Lynne — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:30:08 +0000

But Grant, how do you reconcile your argument with the fact that most folks in the computing/IT community deride the MSFT campaign? And here I don’t mean the devoted Mac fans, I mean the typical Slashdot reader, Register reader, etc.; the folks who write Perl scripts to solve the Sunday morning NPR puzzle (yes, I’m married to one …) I can argue that that audience is “geek hipster” of a sort, and I’m not sure that your model captures or helps us to understand their reaction. Perhaps you’ll say that their response is uniformly anti-Microsoft, regardless of what MSFT does, and that’s pretty true. But your model does not fit with my experience of this campaign.