*Disclaimer: Microsoft is an incredible company, whose contributions to business, culture and lifestyle I benefit from every day. This is intended not to criticize Microsoft as a broader company, but to be a candid and thoughtful critique on one particular communications strategy.*
It's 3:00 P.M. on a Wednesday. I close my Mac Book at the library to clear my head from the public relations campaign project I've been working on. I scroll through my iPhone and decide to knock out a 15 minute chunk of Ken Burns' latest "Country Music" series. I'm greeted – for the millionth time – by a clever Microsoft ad, which peddles out Mackenzie Book (I'm sure he's a good guy) to tell me that my Mac Book actually stinks. It feels like Microsoft is waging a holy war against me and other Mac users that totally misses the mark and this is why:
1. I'm Not Dumb
I bought my Mac Book the summer before my freshman year of college. It cost me an arm and a leg, so you better believe I considered the specs. Yes, I looked at computers with touch screens. No, I didn't want one. It didn't bring anything to the table for me then (just as it doesn't now)!
Here's my bone to pick with Microsoft: you seem like you're trying to be smarter than me by having a tall, well-groomed and well-spoken Mackenzie Book tell me things I already know about Microsoft products. It's a classic marketing failure to make a smooth sales pitch out of features instead of benefits.
Ironically, Microsoft US Chief Marketing Officer Valerie Beaulieu wrote earlier this year, "Customers are far too sophisticated to deal with standard sales pitches, as time is a precious commodity for all."
Let's practice what we preach. Rather than a slick 30-second ad trying to convince me that I'm unaware of features that I'm already aware of, think about a 90-second demonstration that shows me how Microsoft features will enhance my experience with the Adobe Creative Suite, the ultimate reason I went Mac Book.
2. Avoid the Turf War
I'm operating on the assumption that a vastly powerful Microsoft, digital ethics aside, has access to the type of data that would show them that I've come to bleed in six colors over my four years with Mac.
In the past six months, I purchased "Steve Jobs," by Walter Isaacson on Amazon, scoured through Google for a research project on Apple's management principles and YouTubed the "Think Different" video no less than a dozen times just for kicks.
When I see the Microsoft logo pop up on my Apple products, I strap in for a turf war, not a polite consideration of product alternatives. I find myself thinking, "How dare Windows step into my ios/Mac os, telling me what to do?!"
To extrapolate a quote from General Jim Mattis, "I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are, if you cannot create harmony... based on trust across service lines... you need to go home."
In terms of marketing tactics, Microsoft doesn't have to bash my Mac screen on my Mac screen to sell its products. For now, find harmony with me because you already have a foothold. Trust me when I say that I actually love Microsoft Office products (minus PowerPoint) and think that Outlook is the superior email provider. Launch your sales pitch from this point. Remind me how awesome Microsoft Office is and explore why an integrated experience on windows is so much better. Eventually, you might get me. At least, you might not make me so entrenched to your advances.
3. Wait, You're Still Not Over that?
When the anger finally subsided from my first Mackenzie Book encounter, I couldn't help to feel nostalgic for the "Get a Mac" ads from my childhood.
Whether intentional or not, the cues in Mackenzie Book videos spark the neocortical pattern recognition chains in my brain that are attached to Apple's other iconic campaign. In a counter-productive way for Microsoft, Mackenzie Book unlocks that ancient feeling of coolness I felt on Christmas morning in 2007 when Santa pulled out all the stops with an iPod shuffle.
While Apple has pivoted to stripped-down ads that showcase the beauty of its products in recent years, Microsoft is still hung up on an almost 20-year-old campaign style that (personally) recalls a marketing nightmare for the company.
In Closing
Perhaps I'm the only one who feels this way about these Microsoft advertisements but I had to synthesize my own reaction. In the coming months, I hope nothing but the best for the campaign's creators, executors, those dependent upon its success and Mackenzie Book.
Comments