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Microsoft has a new promotion for its much-maligned Vista operating system that could serve as an inspiration--or is it a cautionary tale?--for companies that are looking to tackle poor perceptions of their brands head-on.
Vista's problems are famous...or rather, infamous. Its press is so bad that cNet even advised Microsoft to ditch it altogether: "The road ahead looks dangerous for Vista and Microsoft must realize that. With Mac OS X hot on its tail, Vista is simply not capable of competing at an OS level with some of the best software around. If Microsoft continues down this path, it will be Vista that will bring the software giant to its knees--not Bill Gates' departure," the site wrote last year.
The ad campaign is called The Mojave Experiment. Basically, they have taken a bunch of Vista-haters (they should not have been difficult to find) and introduced them to Microsoft's latest OS, dubbed "Mojave," and asked them to give it a whirl. You probably see where this is going: Mojave doesn't exist, but rather is Vista; when the users tell their interviewer that they love Mojave, the interviewer pulls back the curtain. Conclusion: don't believe the bad press. Try Vista, and you'll like it.
It's bizarre to see a company--especially one with such a (justifiably) high opinion of itself as Microsoft--so explicitly acknowledge the major problems of one of its own brands. It's certainly refreshing. But is there a hazard to it as well? There is no denying that Microsoft is paying for people to hear other people badmouth Vista, even if the badmouthing is "proven" to be misguided.
The Mojave Experiment might be fake in terms of testing the "new" OS, but it is a very real experiment in a different sense: when a company--whether it's Microsoft or your own company--has a branding issue, is it best to ditch the brand or to try to convert people over to its side? We should all stay tuned to find out.
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Comments (5)
Vista has a poor reputation in many circles, and generally deservedly slow: from its hardware demands and incompatibilities with peripherals, to its issues with applications, many businesses are saying that they cannot afford to pay money for an unstable computer platform.
Add to it, there is no real compelling reason for a Windows XP user to upgrade to Vista. Sure, tech-heads can give you this reason or that, but the bottom line IS the bottom line: for the money, what does a business user get that they didn't have before? The real answer is not very much.
At the end of the day, Microsoft needs to examine how to make its operating systems more reliable and secure. Those are the things that the marketplace wants, not another gewgaw that will demand a computer upgrade to operate properly.
Posted by Charles Boyer | July 30, 2008 1:19 PM
Posted on July 30, 2008 13:19
Is it any coincidence that Microsoft and American Express Open -- the apparent sponsor of this blog -- share the same advertising agency? Gosh, that wouldn't have any bearing on the glowing write-up on Microsoft's new marketing campaign would it? Naaaaah. . .
Posted by Trevor | July 30, 2008 2:05 PM
Posted on July 30, 2008 14:05
Microsoft doesn't have a branding issue with Vista. The issue they have is that it's junk.
Posted by Mark Ciccarello | July 30, 2008 3:30 PM
Posted on July 30, 2008 15:30
I've no complaints about Vista.
MS Office 2007, however, is an entirely different thing altogether. It sucks, and it sucks it HARD. The interface is impenetrable, the online tech support forums are filled with MS shills carping at the audacity their users have to complain about their glorious software, and the only "solution" you get is to install an additional, third-party program on your machine, because the built-in "help" is nothing of the sort.
I love microsoft, usually, but Office '07 is almost enough to make me buy into the whole "M$ is bullshit" line.
-jpb, Houston, TX
Posted by HellifIknow | July 30, 2008 4:36 PM
Posted on July 30, 2008 16:36
Well I've been using Vista for close to 4 years now (yes I was part of the Beta program). And I find it to be at least as stable as XP. The two biggest hassles I have are
.
1) not all of my external devices (like my business card reader) are supported. But much of that has to do with the cheapo way that companies produce products for Windows. Sure on the MAC I could pay twice as much for a device that doesn't quite meet my needs but have it guaranteed to work pretty much forever (though not true for all printers), but that's more $$$ up front out of my pocket
2) Docking and undocking sucks. That's pretty much the only time Vista crashes on me.
Yeah there's some hassles with learning how to do things I knew how to do before, but overall its been a pretty good experience.
So I'm not surprised that rebranding it Mojave gets Vista Haters to like Vista. Vista's biggest problem was that about 1/2 way through its development Microsoft chickened out. It was GOING to be a completely new OS with only limited backwards compatibility to previous Windows Applications. Then they sacrificed a whole host of new ideas (WinFS, no OpenGL stack ) onto the great altar of compatibility and this did much to make it a less interesting release.
Posted by degsme | July 30, 2008 7:32 PM
Posted on July 30, 2008 19:32