Apple News, Analysis and Podcasts

Dell recently began poking at Apple, giving us an "Apple's to Apple's" spec and price comparison site. I get that, it makes sense. Dell shows basic, surface feature specs., and show they are cheaper. It's what they do.

Not only is Dell attacking Apple's Macs, but they are specifically targeting back-to-school shoppers. But should Dell be mentioning the competition on it's site? Recent survey's have shown Apple is the number one back-to-school selling computer, thus Dell is correctly following the marketing 101 playbook; always mention and assail the #1 player in the market.

Enter Microsoft, who continues to wage a highly visible war against Apple, and their latest website attempting to educate people on why Windows PC's are better than Macs is their latest marketing blunder. According to IDC's latest Q210 report, Apple commands less than 5.8% worldwide market share. Microsoft has no business evening mentioning Apple's Mac product on it's website, but here we are... again.

What we are seeing is Microsoft again throwing out the marketing 101 playbook, and playing by their own rules. As long as Microsoft is #1 in the desktop OS market (which will be a long, long time), they should never acknowledge Linux, Google's forthcoming Chrome and certainly not Apple's Mac running OS X. When you are #1 you only compete with yourself. Period.

The only thing these Microsoft campaigns against Apple serve to do is raise the idea that an Apple Mac is legitimate competition. "Oh, Microsoft is trying to tell me why Windows PC's are so much better than a Mac... But lots of people are buying Macs, why is that? I'm going to check that out..."

This potential Windows PC buyer walks into an Apple store and presto, for a decent percentage of them, it's game over, Apple wins.

A measure I like to use in determining whether a marketing approach is going to be successful or not, is in asking the question "Who is this message targeted too?" I walk away with the idea that Microsofts Mac vs PC website is to keep Microsoft buyers to continue buying Microsoft products, making them feel good about their decision. That's playing defense and it won't slow Mac sales. So far we've lived to see Microsoft spend (perhaps billions) on:

- Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates buying shoes, suggesting to us that Microsoft will no longer be out of touch...

- A wanna-be Hodgman stating he's a PC and he's not alone... Not alone, boy, what a warm fuzzy that is...

- Ditzy red-heads or average actors, errrrr, average people, shopping for a new computer and buying a PC because it's cheaper than a Mac...

- Now the latest installment via a Microsoft website advertising to their why they are much better than a Mac.

I must ask the question, would Apple have grown more or less in Mac sales should Microsoft simply chosen to sell against itself and never mentioned Apple?

There is one more basic question that needs to be addressed: Why does Microsoft continue to go after such a small player in Apple, in continuing to break basic marketing fundamentals?
A. Microsoft marketing folk are arrogant and believe rules of marketing does not apply to them...

B. Management at Microsoft is jealous and perhaps obsessed with Apple.

C. Microsoft's ad agencies know how to sell back to Microsoft their own paranoia and inferiority complex, turning it into ad agency cash in the form of new advertising campaigns!

0 Comments

Leave your reply