July 15th, 2008
Should the Empire strike back?
Microsoft still has yet to show off the fruits of the $300 million plus it spent to create a new consumer-focused ad campaign designed to make Windows Vista and Microsoft “cool.” But in the interim, some bloggers are weighing in with advice for the Redmondians that runs contrary to what some Microsoft backers had been advocating Microsoft do to “take back” the operating-system conversation from Apple.
Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle had a good post yesterday, entitled “Memo to Microsoft: Don’t Be Cool.” In it, Silverman links a post from Michael Mace, a principal with Rubicon Consulting and — back in the 1987-1997 period — a marketing director with Apple.
Even though Mace hasn’t part of the Cupertino camp for 10+ years, he, too, had some advice for the Redmondians, which boiled down to “don’t let yourself be goaded by Apple.” Mace noted:
“When I was at Apple, one the competitive team’s central goals was to goad Microsoft and Intel into targeting us in public. We used all sorts of tactics to irritate them. We printed bumper stickers that read ‘Honk if your Pentium has bugs.’ We hounded them in online discussions. We did press and analyst tours demonstrating all sorts of annoying flaws we’d found in Windows.
“The whole idea was to get them so pissed off that they would lash out at us in public. Because we knew that when a market leader attacks a challenger, it just makes the challenger more credible.”
To date, Microsoft has been following this advice in regards to Vista. The result? Apple has been talking more about Vista than Microsoft has. OK, that’s an exaggeration. But it isn’t an exaggeration to say that Apple’s “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” commercials have provided many a casual Windows PC user with all the Vista information s/he has absorbed.
So what should Microsoft do? I’ve been an advocate of Microsoft striking back at Apple, preferably with some uncharacteristically self-deprecating humor. But now I’m wondering if that might result in Microsoft playing right into Apple’s hands.
(I had been thinking Microsoft might be well-served on the Office side of the house by some kind of similarly satirical campaign aimed at skewering the myths around Google Docs/Apps demolishing Office’s market share. But again, now I wonder if such a move might be just what Google wants: An acknowledgement by Goliath that David’s stone hit right where it hurts.)
Do you think the Empire should strike back at Apple and/or Google? Or is Microsoft right to continue to (at least publicly) take the high road, in terms of not lashing out at its competitors?
Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 20 years. Don't miss a single post. Subscribe via Email or
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Nice one! 
