Marketing and Campaigning the Windows Phone
If you're Microsoft, and you want to market a new product like Windows Phone 7, how would you choose to do it? How could you penetrate a market that's already saturated with choices like the iPhone, Blackberry and Android super smartphones? What would work? And what wouldn't?
The timing of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 release was in itself a challenge. Many super smartphones were already showing their respective strengths and Windows Phone 7 was coming in like a baby born in a jungle to be cared for by wolves.
Timing vs. Apple
The iPhone, like all new products, started out as something that needed introduction. Back then, it was riding on the popularity of the iPod. However, Apple added that it is an Internet communicator as well. Nothing new, if you think about it... but then there's the touchscreen.
Apple's campaign strategy includes showing-off what their product can do, no matter how simple, to be something that can be hyped about. Hyping something like it's original or unique to the product, even if it's not, actually works -- well, it worked for Firefox and Chrome... so why wouldn't it for the iPhone?
Most iPhone ads correctly put the iPhone front and center. Even if the ads were showing off applications and features that were not even created by Apple, people still saw the iPhone. People easily agreed with the ads. They were simple and straightforward. There was always something special about the iPhone and people could immediately appreciate it.
By the time Windows Phone 7 came out, the iPhone was already appealing to the emotions of its target customers. Not all products can start out with commercials as boldly implying that they can truly affect people's lives. It takes time to build that relationship and even more time to make people believe in it. Apple has these already. Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn't -- well at least in the smartphone business. If you analyze it in this context, Windows Phone 7's "Really" ads, can actually fail to reach out to its target customers. There's no "connection" yet, so to speak. Like an ad for a new vanity drug, the "Really" ads were just claims and they beg the question back, "Really?"
I think, just like how Apple started, Microsoft should start by making ads about the features of Windows Phone 7. Make them appear special. Let the people know what they can specially do with it. What's unique about Windows Phone 7 anyway? There are actually so many of them and these should be shown in ads in order to let the people decide faster with the least need to research.
Windows Phone 7 is not like Windows. Windows Phone 7 is unknown to many. I don't think Microsoft can rely on it's "Windows" branding to make a product sell anymore. If it's new, they should sell it like it's new.
Timing vs. Android
Android enjoyed great support from developers to quickly build a huge inventory of Android applications. Android ads boasts of these. That is their strength. Everything else about Android is what anyone could expect from a super smartphone after the iPhone. Android's strategy just works. It worked for the iPhone, so it could work for Android phones as well.
Then here comes Windows Phone 7 launching with 1,000 applications or so in its Marketplace. Now, where's the follow-through? The database is growing fast but are people learning about it? What applications are available that's making the Windows Phone 7 even more special? Are potential customers learning about them? Where are the ads about these little things that could make the Windows Phone 7 look big?
So what does Microsoft do? Microsoft, for all its worth, is letting their telecom partners do the selling for them. Conflict of interest Microsoft! They will first and foremost sell what they know would immediately sell. Meanwhile, your Windows Phone 7 is an alternative. Remember on the first day of its release in the US when stores didn't even have any poster or were not even making the much needed noise in their stores to announce that the Windows Phone 7 has arrived? It's like that.
I always thought Microsoft is more of a skilled marketing company -- considering they could sell Windows, right? If they can do that, why can't they do it right for Windows Phone 7? It's like Microsoft's problem with the Zune -- there are so many things good with the Zune but they didn't use them as their selling point. Now, it seems like Windows Phone 7 is suffering the same treatment. I think Windows Phone 7 is great. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't know how to sell it.
The timing of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 release was in itself a challenge. Many super smartphones were already showing their respective strengths and Windows Phone 7 was coming in like a baby born in a jungle to be cared for by wolves.
Timing vs. Apple
The iPhone, like all new products, started out as something that needed introduction. Back then, it was riding on the popularity of the iPod. However, Apple added that it is an Internet communicator as well. Nothing new, if you think about it... but then there's the touchscreen.
Apple's campaign strategy includes showing-off what their product can do, no matter how simple, to be something that can be hyped about. Hyping something like it's original or unique to the product, even if it's not, actually works -- well, it worked for Firefox and Chrome... so why wouldn't it for the iPhone?
Most iPhone ads correctly put the iPhone front and center. Even if the ads were showing off applications and features that were not even created by Apple, people still saw the iPhone. People easily agreed with the ads. They were simple and straightforward. There was always something special about the iPhone and people could immediately appreciate it.
By the time Windows Phone 7 came out, the iPhone was already appealing to the emotions of its target customers. Not all products can start out with commercials as boldly implying that they can truly affect people's lives. It takes time to build that relationship and even more time to make people believe in it. Apple has these already. Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn't -- well at least in the smartphone business. If you analyze it in this context, Windows Phone 7's "Really" ads, can actually fail to reach out to its target customers. There's no "connection" yet, so to speak. Like an ad for a new vanity drug, the "Really" ads were just claims and they beg the question back, "Really?"
I think, just like how Apple started, Microsoft should start by making ads about the features of Windows Phone 7. Make them appear special. Let the people know what they can specially do with it. What's unique about Windows Phone 7 anyway? There are actually so many of them and these should be shown in ads in order to let the people decide faster with the least need to research.
Windows Phone 7 is not like Windows. Windows Phone 7 is unknown to many. I don't think Microsoft can rely on it's "Windows" branding to make a product sell anymore. If it's new, they should sell it like it's new.
Timing vs. Android
Android enjoyed great support from developers to quickly build a huge inventory of Android applications. Android ads boasts of these. That is their strength. Everything else about Android is what anyone could expect from a super smartphone after the iPhone. Android's strategy just works. It worked for the iPhone, so it could work for Android phones as well.
Then here comes Windows Phone 7 launching with 1,000 applications or so in its Marketplace. Now, where's the follow-through? The database is growing fast but are people learning about it? What applications are available that's making the Windows Phone 7 even more special? Are potential customers learning about them? Where are the ads about these little things that could make the Windows Phone 7 look big?
So what does Microsoft do? Microsoft, for all its worth, is letting their telecom partners do the selling for them. Conflict of interest Microsoft! They will first and foremost sell what they know would immediately sell. Meanwhile, your Windows Phone 7 is an alternative. Remember on the first day of its release in the US when stores didn't even have any poster or were not even making the much needed noise in their stores to announce that the Windows Phone 7 has arrived? It's like that.
I always thought Microsoft is more of a skilled marketing company -- considering they could sell Windows, right? If they can do that, why can't they do it right for Windows Phone 7? It's like Microsoft's problem with the Zune -- there are so many things good with the Zune but they didn't use them as their selling point. Now, it seems like Windows Phone 7 is suffering the same treatment. I think Windows Phone 7 is great. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't know how to sell it.
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