Comment Re:What's the target audience think? (Score 2, Interesting) 830
People who aren't cool enough for a Mac. Haven't you seen laptop hunters?
In fact, they're marketing to people who have enormous chips on their shoulders about being so entirely uncool (or poor) for Macs.
I jest. They're talking to themselves. Microsoft's insecurities have been laid utterly bare in all their marketing attempts for a decade.
There was a joint interview with Jobs and Gates not too long ago that I'm too lazy to dig up, and a question was asked "what do you envy about the other" -- Gates' answer came off as snide, yet honest: "I wish I had your taste"
They've been at this since the Zune came out and they started marketing to the Wal-Mart demographic. Because Wal-Mart folks like brown things that work almost sorta as well as an iPod at the same price. Because you're not cool enough for an iPod, and you've got a chip on your shoulder about it.
The weird part is... that demographic's pretty much stuck with MS out of ignorance, and MS is tilting at windmills whenever they go against apple. They inevitably end up looking as insane (and sad) as Don Quixote himself.
They're trying so hard to astroturf these days, build a viral movement. I'm not sure they understand that apart from a handful of lunatics/idiots/middle managers out there, there is nobody on earth who actually likes Microsoft. Maybe they do understand, and they're trying to overcompensate?
Their messaging isn't helping any.
So, as a career advertising guy (15 years & counting) I don't get it either.
Round about Vista/Zune, MS and their various agencies of record starting shooting themselves in the foot. I'm here to tell you Crispin/Porter is a great, kooky agency... but they just can't speak to the Wal-Mart moms that MS thinks they're in danger of losing.
Microsoft's achilles heels are Office (in the near term) and Mobile (in the long term). If they lose control over file formats and Exchange lock-in, Microsoft as we know it gets pushed over their tipping point. Over the long term, so many of our common tasks will be moving to mobiles or embedded devices instead of PCs -- and MS let Mobile languish as a steaming pile for the better part of a decade.
But now they're just shitting out me-too copies of consumer electronics.
Maybe the whole thing is misdirection? I don't think so, but there has to be a few smart folks at that company who can see the forest for the trees.