Posted on November 11th, 2009 by Chris Brennan

Is Microsoft listening too hard to customers?

The current Windows 7 advertising campaign can’t fail to have grabbed your attention. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that you, the user designed this latest incarnation of the world’s most popular operating system. They listened to what you wanted and put it in Windows 7. Does that mean you were responsible for Vista too I wonder? Could an advertising campaign convince me to switch?

The I’m a PC campaign was launched in 2008 in response to the I’m a Mac advertising campaign, which believe it or not started way back in 2006. I have never liked the I’m a Mac campaign as at it’s heart is a childish message: you’re not me and I’m better than you so ner.

There’s no doubt that the Apple campaign has been successful, it wouldn’t have run and still be running all these years later if it wasn’t. The ads are slick and well produced, even dare I say it amusing. But perhaps the most important thing about them is that there’s rarely a price or product in them. It’s your own imagination, with a nudge from the caricatures that sells you into the brand.

The I’m a PC adverts are all together more friendly and human. The man at the gym, the woman in a taxi, the mum at home with the kids they’re real people in the real world that I can associate with. Do I really want them designing an OS though? Is Microsoft saying that after 20 odd years of designing operating systems that Mimi, Crystal and Ramin were the missing link?

There’s a tale that’s probably not true, but it makes a nice story.The Microsoft Word team were praised to the high heavens for Word 5.1 for the Mac, it was slick, quick and just what people wanted then they listened to the users and added all the extra features that those users demanded. Today users complain about a bloated, creaky and crash prone application when all they wanted was Word 5.1 with this ‘one’ extra feature. It’s not because the developers are poor that Word for Mac is so maligned it’s because users are sometimes the worst judges of what they need.

Perhaps, that’s the difference between Apple and Microsoft laid bare in the marketing and their products. Microsoft listens too hard to too many users and tries to please every one where Apple doesn’t listen to anyone; it’s already perfect you just didn’t realise. The Microsoft adverts aren’t really having much of an effect on my opinion of Windows 7, but they’re better than the wow starts now of Vista. It’s a start.

In the latest part of our bid to convert a Mac user to Windows 7, Chris Brennan compares the adverts of Microsoft and Apple and draws some interesting conclusions

The current Windows 7 advertising campaign can’t fail to have grabbed your attention. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that you, the user, designed this latest incarnation of the world’s most popular operating system. They listened to what you wanted and put it in Windows 7.

Does that mean you were responsible for Vista too I wonder? Could an advertising campaign convince me to switch?

The I’m a PC campaign was launched in 2008 in response to the I’m a Mac advertising campaign, which believe it or not started way back in 2006. I have never liked the I’m a Mac campaign as at its heart is a childish message: you’re not me and I’m better than you so ner.

There’s no doubt the Apple campaign has been successful, it wouldn’t have run and still be running all these years later if it wasn’t. The ads are slick and well produced, even dare I say it amusing. But perhaps the most important thing about them is that there’s rarely a price or product in them. It’s your own imagination, with a nudge from the caricatures that sells you into the brand.

The I’m a PC adverts are altogether more friendly and human. The man at the gym, the woman in a taxi, the mum at home with the kids; they’re real people in the real world that I can associate with. Do I really want them designing an OS though? Is Microsoft saying that after 20-odd years of designing operating systems, it turns out Mimi, Crystal and Ramin were the missing link?

There’s a tale that’s probably not true, but it makes a nice story. The Microsoft Word team were praised to the high heavens for Word 5.1 for the Mac; it was slick, quick and just what people wanted, then they listened to the users and added all the extra features that those users demanded.

Today users complain about a bloated, creaky and crash-prone application when all they wanted was Word 5.1 with this ‘one’ extra feature. It’s not because the developers are poor that Word for Mac is so maligned - it’s because users are sometimes the worst judges of what they need.

Perhaps, that’s the difference between Apple and Microsoft laid bare in the marketing and their products. Microsoft listens too hard to too many users and tries to please everyone, where Apple doesn’t listen to anyone; it’s already perfect, you just didn’t realise. The Microsoft adverts aren’t really having much of an effect on my opinion of Windows 7, but they’re better than the wow starts now of Vista. It’s a start.

Click here to read the rest of Chris Brennan’s blog on converting from Mac to Windows 7

Posted in: Windows 7

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9 Responses to “ Is Microsoft listening too hard to customers? ”

Tibbs Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Judging a book by it cover, or in this case software by its advertising is weak and idiotic.

The Mac adverts, Humm.
Don’t go there, Both PC & Mac users hated them. Why try to provoke conflict?

Chris, Nothing wrong with Microsoft listening to the people, (also known as market research) Don’t bee fooled into thinking Apple dictate what people are having, like it or not. They use market research too!

These are marketing concept’s, or ’spin’ and are used to give a blank faced corporate company a ‘personality’, as market research shows some people like the illusion of the ‘human touch’.

If you read your customers comments on this blog you would understand that your rants are getting more obscure and often missing the plot. What next? Who’s packaging of the OS Software is best!
Chris Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I was hoping this blogseries might be a bit the good, the bad and the ugly in balance. However really its just been a Mac user explaining the bad, the bad and the bad of Windows. Is there really nothing you like about Windows? or prefer over OS X?

I realise you prefer the Mac way of things, but really would it hurt to find something you do like?
Windywoo Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 10:59 am
The ads aren’t saying Vista was our idea, they are saying that Microsoft listened to the negative feedback from Vista and tried to deal with the issues brought up. To some extent they have addressed those issues since Windows 7 runs faster on old hardware than Vista and has had an impressive UI overhaul.

Another thing that they are trying to do is take back the phrase “I’m a PC” from Apple and show PCs for what they are, the tools for work for a much wider demographic than Apple portray in their own adverts.

Your experience with MS products on the Mac may have been less than favourable, but the same can be said for Apple’s software on PCs. iTunes and Quicktime were always bloated in comparison to other more capable media players. The update software will decide arbitrarily to download “updates” for software you don’t even have installed. By this I mean if you don’t have Safari installed the iTunes updater will install it for you.
It has always been my experience (dating back to Quicktime 3) that Apple treats their PC software with some contempt. This lead to my early negative impression of Apple which has since softened but means I am under no illusion that they are some sort of saviour of the computing world or visionaries who change it for the better.
Steve Cassidy Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I thought the “I’m a PC” series of ads from MS were absolutely superb – a genuinely new statement from a company not that good at making statements, and a clearly better response to the smugness of the initial Apple campaign.

Unfortunately… the “I thought of X in Windows 7″ adverts are a cock-up. They just make you think “no you didn’t, you banana” and move on. I guess we all have our good and bad days…
Paul B Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Yes, I’m a Mac user and also like the new “I’m a PC” ads. unlike the equivalent Apple ones, they don’t resort to taking cheap pot-shots at the competition, and generally have a good vibe to them.

Also, I’d echo some of the comments above, and wouldn’t mind a more balanced account of trying to switch to/use Windows – it’s not all bad is it?

Picking out the bad points of Windows, just panders to the Apple user stereotype and leaves this blog open to the anti-Apple comments.
Tomasz Says:
November 13th, 2009 at 9:28 am
That’s a really lame attempt to discredit microsoft. seriously, even if they really did listen to people when designing Windows 7 then the product itself is a proof that such experiment can work as Windows 7 is an excellent OS we all can agree. Therefore your comment of “it’s because users are sometimes the worst judges of what they need.” is proven wrong.

I have been reading every one of these posts and was honestly hoping for a good criticism of flaws of the new OS if any can be found. If none can be found why not just admit that it’s great instead of desperately trying to discredit it with no arguments at hand?
John Gray Says:
November 14th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
“Microsoft has been listening to its customers”? Really? Then why did Office 2007 have the wretched Ribbon, which puts all experienced users back to square one, and reduces productivity for weeks? This was in spite of significant user resistance in the Testing Laboratories…

And yes, I agree with most other people, even though I don’t watch adverts, and have almost no idea what the author is talking about (nothing like a bit of prejudice, is there!)
milliganp Says:
November 15th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I agree with John Gray about Office 2007, often Microsoft introduces “features” not because they are better but because they aid product differentiation and can be made proprietary through software patents. I don’t seem to remember anyone pointing out that one of Windows 7 key features is that it’s so compatible with previous versions that all viruses and malware still “work”.
If all the time and effort expened in managing windows malware were costed out I suspect the extra hardware cost of a mac would pale into insignificance.
And by the way I’m a PC user and my most hated app is Quicktime -it keeps insisting that I should upgrade and install iTunes.
patricia Says:
November 16th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Two parts missing:
1. System-level integration of .pcx graphics format that was taken out after 2003. Much archive material and cliparts used .pcx by default. It should be restored, and usuable as imports to MS Word
2. MS Office has dropped animated text in Word. Big mistake.
Perhaps someone knows of add-ons or utilities that do the above.