Why the 'Mojave Experiment' Fails

From Microsoft Watch:

http://tinyurl.com/5st5xn

Why the 'Mojave Experiment' Fails

July 30, 2008 11:50 AM


The "Mojave Experiment" is conceptually a fresh marketing effort?at
least for such a lame marketer as Microsoft. But after looking more
closely at Mojave and reviewing Microsoft Watch reader comments, I have
to call the experiment perhaps the worst kind of marketing.

I apologize to readers. I got caught up in the Microsoft glow after so
many months of marketing darkness. Did I drink Microsoft Kool-Aid?
Sadly, yes. The reasons why the Mojave Experiment fails should have been
obvious. They are:

1. Microsoft treats its customers like they're stupid. I've had this
complaint for a decade. Wizards perhaps best personify the attitude.
Microsoft compels customers to go through long and unnecessary
step-by-step processes to set up something. It's click, click, click,
click, click, click, click, where one or two clicks should be enough.
The iPod model is an example of the right approach. The end user plugs
in the device and it begins loading music.

Microsoft takes an infantile approach, of holding the end user's hands,
like a parent with a child learning to walk. But Microsoft doesn't let
go, doesn't let Windows users grow up. Microsoft's handholding holds
them down.

The marketing campaign presumes that people are too stupid to see how
great is Windows Vista.

"Telling the customer that they have been stupid is a great way to get
business," wrote commenter Ken Houghton. "Especially the customer who
then goes to her Corporate IT department and says, 'Gee, I see people
saying Vista is a great OS?' and is then told that there are no plans to
roll it out this decade." Or maybe if that person works in the IT,
they're fired for seeming to be so stupid or having given out bad advice.

2. Microsoft embarrasses Mojave participates. Continuing on the stupid
theme is how Microsoft finally gets that "ah-ha" or "wow" reaction to
Windows Vista. As I said yesterday, "I am wrong" isn't the best emotion
to elicit about a product. Nobody likes being shown they're wrong or for
it to be insinuated that they're stupid. "Wow, I feel like an idiot" is
light years removed from "Wow, this is a great product."

Good marketing campaigns tout product benefits, show how the product
will make the buyer's life easier. There's nothing aspirational or good
feeling about making someone look foolish or stupid.

Last night, I watched Monday's "Saving Grace" from a DVR recording. To
my surprise, Apple had two separate iPhone ads in the program. Right
now, iPhone 3G is one of the hottest products on the planet. The hype
alone, propagated by blogs, mainstream media and word of mouth, is like
billions of dollars in free advertising. Yet Apple chooses to advertise
on TV, to spend hundreds of millions more to tell its story.

What story does Microsoft choose to tell about Vista after about 15
months of silence: You the customer are too stupid to see how great is
Windows Vista. Wow, that's brilliant marketing, guys.

3. The marketing campaign blames customers for Vista's problems. It's
easy for Microsoft to say that bloggers, reviewers, forum posts and even
Apple advertising are major reasons for negative perceptions about
Windows Vista. But the blogs and reviews are negative for a reason. Many
advanced users don't like Windows Vista. Problem: Mojave doesn't really
blame them directly but the people in the videos. Everybody else is the
problem with Vista but Vista.

There's presumption here that there's nothing wrong with the operating
system. This was a consistent theme coming from Microsoft executives
during last week's Financial Analyst Meeting and the Worldwide Partner
Conference two weeks ago: Vista is OK now; Service Pack 1 has come to
the rescue.

Oh? Then why are so many customers still asking for Windows XP? And why
are so many OEM partners aggressively pushing XP over Vista when that
means, after June 30, shipping two Windows licenses on new PCs?
Something's wrong here that is much bigger than negative perceptions.

"The first step in fixing a problem is admitting that you have one. The
only way to read this campaign is that Microsoft considers Vista's
failure to be due to customer ignorance rather than failings of the
product itself," wrote commenter Phil. "Either fix the product, or lower
the cost to make it a justifiable purchase."

Microsoft isn't good at fixing some of its problems. On the one hand,
the company's corporate culture is self-deprecating, in a fairly
positive way. Company execs can laugh at themselves. But this "It's not
my fault," blame the customer or partner attitude is pervasive.
Microsoft treats many customers and partners with contempt. Licensing
polices are great example, but that's topic for another blog.

4. Microsoft denies there is a real problem. Contempt and blaming relate
to corporate cultural denial. Microsoft's way of deflecting fault is to
look ahead. Microsoft messaging consistently is that the next version
will be better. It's "Let's look to the future," when the problem is now.

The company will spend billions of dollars on research and development
for future products but barely a fraction of that promoting its existing
stuff. It's the same "tomorrow will be better thinking" that denies
problems now and arrogantly presumes research is the only way to make
things better.

When it comes to advertising, Microsoft is the worst kind of cheapskate.
Microsoft should spend a whole lot less on R&D for the future and lots
more now selling its products' benefits. Microsoft does advertise. Its
TV commercials are about corporate vision, about how people will achieve
their dreams. They're arrogant commercials. They're feel good for
Microsoft, rather than feel good for customers, by showing them how the
company's products could make life better.

5. Mojave seethes with arrogance. Microsoft's stated Mojave Experiment
hypothesis: "If people could see Windows Vista firsthand, they would
like it." The real hypothesis: If we trick people, they will see just
how stupid they are.

From conception to execution, Mojave carries a strong undercurrent of
arrogance: We're smart. You're stupid. The mechanism of tricking
customers, who were specifically chosen because they had strong negative
attitudes about Vista, is hugely arrogant. Microsoft says that "Hardy
har har har, we're better than you."

There's already a perception of arrogance about Microsoft, and now
company marketing executives want to reinforce it? Who's really being
dumb and dumber here?

If the Mojave Experiment is example of what Microsoft spent $300 million
on to promote Vista, bad is going to get much worse.
.

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