Monday, December 03, 2012

Microsoft’s Big Ad Push Is the Latest of Its Brilliant Hits, Gnarly Misses

Microsoft has spent between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion on television commercials and online and print advertisements for their Surface tablet. But the question remains, will unleashing this flood of cash in advertising really convince consumers that the Surface is the equivalent of the iPad?

The co-founder of an advertising firm, Paul Venables, mentions in the article that he does not believe that it is about the amount of cash, it is about Microsoft using these advertisements to clearly present their values to potential customers. He argues that Microsoft has had a technical and rational approach to selling things, in contrast to Apple; however, the company is finally understanding how to approach humans, who don't buy on rational, but more on the values they share with a brand.

Until the Surface, Microsoft was seen as a company driven by software engineers trying to sell software. They are now changing their approach, however many argue that Microsoft does not have a clear audience or purpose for Surface and WIndows 8. This resulted in a scattered campaign that is not convincing many that the Windows technology is worth spending money on. This goes to show that no matter the cash you put behind a campaign, if you do not understand who your customer is then your marketing strategy is set to fail.



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