PC to Mac: I’m Cheaper

[soumya]

For months, Microsoft has jabbed at Apple with an, at times, baffling advertising campaign for Windows PCs. Now Microsoft may finally land a solid blow against its rival.

In a new chapter to its ad campaign that will begin airing during the NCAA basketball playoffs on CBS Thursday evening, Microsoft will begin hammering on a theme that could resonate in these times of economic hardship: how much less expensive Windows PCs are than Macs. For the commercials, Microsoft’s advertising agency, Crispin Porter + Boguksy, recruited prospective computer shoppers in the Los Angeles area through Craigslist and other sites, with a tantalizing offer to give them between $700 and $2,000 to purchase a new PC.

According to Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows consumer product marketing at Microsoft, the agency told recruits it was a market research firm and didn’t mention it was working with Microsoft. The recruits were told they could keep whatever money they didn’t spend on a PC so they had incentives to look for good values.

The first commercial shows a woman named Lauren, who had a $1,000 budget and says she wants to buy a laptop with at least a 17-inch screen and a comfortable keyboard. With a camera crew following her, she visits an Apple retail store, leaving disappointed because the least expensive laptop is $1,000 and has only a 13-inch screen (that would be the $999 MacBook .

“I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person,” Lauren says sarcastically while driving her car.

Lauren ends up at a Best Buy, ogling a bounty of Windows PCs, where she’s able to purchase a H-P Pavilion notebook with a 17-inch screen for $699.99, before sales tax. Brooks says that, off camera, Lauren spent about $900 total after also buying a printer. “I’m a PC, and I got just what I wanted,” Lauren says at the end of the ad.

The message of this advertising campaign is much more easily comprehensible than Microsoft’s recent Windows commercials. An early batch of ads featured Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld in strange situations that had nothing to do with Windows PCs. Later ones featured a mixture of celebrities, Microsoft employees and ordinary people proudly declaring “I’m a PC,” an effort to counter a multiyear effort by Apple in its ads to portray Windows PCs as stodgy, technically inferior products.

Increasingly as the economy has headed south, Microsoft executives, including CEO Steve Ballmer, have started questioning whether Apple will be able to sustain its gains in the PC business with its traditionally higher-priced Mac products. Apple’s cheapest laptop, per Lauren’s experience, is $999. Users can easily find Windows “netbooks” — inexpensive laptops — for $300.

Microsoft’s recruiting process for its commercials is interesting in this regard. Brooks says of the roughly dozen computer shoppers its agency recruited, not a single one ended up spending their money on a Mac. Brooks says he “swears on a stack of Bibles” that the agency didn’t in any way steer the shoppers towards a particular brand of computer or operating system. “Value is on the top of everybody’s mind these days with the economic situation we’re in,” he says.

Source

[gxsaurav]

The campaign line should have been "PC to Mac - I provide different choices according to what you require"

[amritpal2489]

Oh... Why dont they start these sort of campaings in India ??
Imagine getting 1,00,000 rs. to buy a PC..
WoW....

[IronManForever]

It's so stupid. Now it seems they had nothing to say about Windows, so they brought the cost factor into picture.

Linux is free, and might bring the cost of a computer further low. Has it been able to capture an appreciable market sector? Despite the countless distribututions that exist.

Recession might be in favour of MSFT though. But one never knows, AAPL might have something up their sleeves. Also, Mac people wont stop buying Macs, though we might speculate that we will see lesser switchers.

[Faun]

Originally Posted by IronManForever

It's so stupid. Now it seems they had nothing to say about Windows, so they brought the cost factor into picture.

Linux is free, and might bring the cost of a computer further low. Has it been able to capture an appreciable market sector? Despite the countless distribututions that exist.

Recession might be in favour of MSFT though. But one never knows, AAPL might have something up their sleeves. Also, Mac people wont stop buying Macs, though we might speculate that we will see lesser switchers.

Lol...marketing makes even sh!t smell like pie. Linux has virtually no marketing, it stands on its own.

[Krazy Bluez]

I'm sick of this rivalry....why don't they start supporting each other so that we, the end user benefit from them ???

[IronManForever]

@ichi
Marketing is not sh!t. Windows environment is important to many now that it has a great share of market.
But this sort of marketing based on cost factor could give a negative impression that they know no better, which is not so. So I said it was stupid on their 'marketing' department, not Windows as a whole.

Linux cannot be compared at all levels. Its different. A large population of computer users have a respect for the platform and the ecosystem, regardless of what they use.
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@Krazy Bluez
LOL.. Its the rivalry which has been beneficial for the consumer. No way could Microsoft and Apple not-be-rivals at some point or the other.

[tarey_g]

Originally Posted by Krazy Bluez

I'm sick of this rivalry....why don't they start supporting each other so that we, the end user benefit from them ???

Rivalry is always in the interest of consumer. When corporates shake hands sh1t happens.

[MetalheadGautham]

Most of these PC vs Mac wars have been about Windows vs MacOSX.
Thats because PC traditionally meant IBM PC which used DOS/Windows as its official OS.

And later, PC meant x86 architecture while Mac meant PowerPC architecture, but seeing that PPC is gone, the comparison is again fruitless. Besides, today many prefer x86_64 computing.

So I don't think its right to include linux into PC vs Mac wars. Linux has the pride of not being hardware boud.

[Liverpool_fan]

Duh!!! Mac is a premium product and people buy it for its premium status only. This advertising will not work.

Microsoft should concentrate about marketing their own OS rather than trying to counter Apple.

[Pat]

LoL! What a silly gimmick!
http://www.macworld.com/article/1396...customers.html

[tarey_g]

Originally Posted by Liverpool_fan

Duh!!! Mac is a premium product and people buy it for its premium status only. This advertising will not work.

Microsoft should concentrate about marketing their own OS rather than trying to counter Apple.

Making fun of rival company has worked for Apple for many years, rather than promoting their own OS they chose making fun of other.

[IronManForever]

^ Poing fun is a diffeent thing. Apple ads did poke fun, but they also highlighted 'What Macs are about..' And Microsoft's reply based just on the cost factor sounded illogical. That's it.