Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 06:34
Opinion and Analysis
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Many years ago, the late Dr Laurence J. Peter set out a principle under his own name; one of its corollaries was that the final professional move by a person or a company was from one of competence to one of incompetence.
Microsoft would do well to pay heed to the good doctor and his famous Peter Principle.
The company is adept at several things but is constantly trying to compete in areas where it is nothing short of incompetent - and one of these areas is in trying to make cool promotional ads that help a product gain mileage in much the same way that other tech companies have.
The
Windows 7 launch party video which has been put up on YouTube is an example of the pathetic, bumbling mess that Microsoft's marketing arm has become.
Having failed miserably twice recently - with the series of ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and the attempt to counter Apple's "I'm a Mac" campaign - Microsoft appears to be quite some distance from learning that it just cannot portray itself as a cool company making cool products.
The video on YouTube shows a group of four: two white women, one nerdish white young man and the token black man - remember, this is aimed at American audiences. The black man makes little contribution to all the talk during the six-plus minutes that the video runs.
The talk is a "discussion" of how to run a Windows 7 launch party at your own home. It is pathetic, disingenuous, silly, and inane. It makes anyone with the intelligence of the common cockroach want to puke. It is the best example of how not to market your product.
Microsoft has very wisely turned off comments on the video - else by now the flow of vitriol would probably have burned out a server or two at the YouTube server ranch.
