Forbes Jonathan Salem Baskin _CMO Network_ (http://www.forbes.com/cmo-network) | 11/10/2012 @ 9:27AM |3,972 views Microsoft's Marketing Malfeasance (http://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft/) _Microsoft_ (http://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft/) is almost a month into actively marketing its Surface tablet, its first branded smartphone, and a radically new and unique Windows 8, and the brand has settled into a comfortably routine communications strategy. I expected more for a rumored $1.5 billion price tag. Microsoft should have, too. It could emerge as a case history in the merits of fast vs. slow, clear vs. vague, and bold vs. safe. Announcements have driven brand awareness since P.T. Barnum promoted _Jenny Lind_ (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pt-barnum-brings-jenny-lind-to-new-york) , and _Apple_ (http://www.forbes.com/companies/apple/) has used them to achieve somewhat similar buzz. I know Microsoft is busily spending many millions every week to deliver expertly integrated brand content to everyone in Known Space but, so far, the stuff is amazingly pedestrian and forgettable. They had the chance to jump out of the gate with a series of big announcements and use every surface they’re covering with beautiful ads to, well, say something shockingly and meaningful different about what the brand’s up to, yet I’m still waiting for a compelling punchline that proves things aren’ t business as usual for the company. Which is too bad, since I think Microsoft is doing some truly radical and important things. Windows 8 represents a new approach to user interface, replacing icons and programs/apps with live tiles that link up to social communities, Internet services, and cloud-based data storage and retrieval. It has installed this interface across computers, tablets, smartphones (and game consoles?), creating the first-ever semblance of an integrated ecosystem for its users, something previously only available from Apple (and not on the table from _Google_ (http://www.forbes.com/companies/google/) , at least yet). This fact alone makes its tablet and phone offerings different, not just other options. It’s as if the company has finally figured out what business it’s in, and evolved to the point where it can credibly pull together all the disparate pieces of technology and software it has thrown at consumers over the years. This is big news. But no, what’s important for us to see in its TV ads is that kids can draw pictures and show them virtually to distant relatives, or print ads (and posters, which I saw plastered across Philly’s train station last week) that array Surface units as if they’re the tiles on the OS screen. I saw another spot last night in which people flipped their tablets shut in time to a dance beat. Windows 8 was unveiled to the press as an update, not the wildly new interface that it is. This isn’t marketing strategy, it’s malfeasance. No amount of content marketing, conversation, or other tactic can remedy this problem, no matter how expertly realized. No huge counts of views or clicks can stand-in for what ’s missing or, in CPG lingo, the RTB (“reason to buy”). The message is the message, to butcher _McLuhan_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message) a bit, and that means the key challenge for Microsoft’s marketers (or those at any brand) isn’t to come up with evermore creative ways to promote what they’re doing, but rather get more creative in devising what they’re doing in the first place. Marketers need to think like business operators. Where’s the new customer service plan to guarantee that every new user will be able to migrate to the new interface? Why not anoint every customer as a beta tester for Windows 9, and incentivize their participation (and future purchase)? What about pointed offers for customers to switch, backed with real benefits for doing so? We should be seeing local news stories showing people throwing old smartphones into big public garbage cans, or bringing their older Wintel boxes in for exchanges (or whatever). The cover of Newsweek should portray _Steve Ballmer_ (http://www.forbes.com/profile/steve-ballmer/) talking about inventing the future after Windows (and before the mag disappears). If ever there were a time for being bold instead of playing it safe, it’s now. I know, I should just be patient. There’s a complicated PowerPoint slide somewhere filled with boxes and lines that show how all the marketing fits together and makes perfect sense. Microsoft’s strategy will play out over many months, if not years. The problem is that there’s ample evidence that such an approach no longer works. Big news deserves big, bold, immediate moves that break the rules of established convention instead of emulating them, however expertly. Brands need to get to the punchline quicker, more substantively, and work harder to continually support and expand it, not dither around with entertainment or other excuses that aren’t relevant or useful. By the time Microsoft gets through its wind-up and throws the real pitch, if it plans to make one, it risks that the market may have moved on. We may not believe it. Its competitors very well might have gotten to their punchlines faster. So I wonder if its marketing will do anything more than convince consumers that it’s not really doing anything different at all. That wouldn’t be much of an accomplishment for a $1.5 billion investment. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
