For a flagship product that has spent five years in development at a reported cost of £6 billion, has involved millions of beta testers, and is predicted to run on 100 million computers by the end of this year, you’d expect a launch campaign to match its millionary proportions. And you probably wouldn’t be disappointed.
Microsoft’s newest operating system – Windows Vista – the first major release since it introduced Windows XP in 2001, was rolled out on 30 January to 70 countries, accompanied by the fanfare of a £250 million marketing campaign. However, what you may not have noticed is that that the software giant had already launched Vista to the business community in November 2006 – a launch that went by somewhat unnoticed. It seems B2B marketing activity has been largely ignored, which for a product that is according to the company, “the most significant product launch in Microsoft’s history,” a rather unusual strategy.
Microsoft Vista consists of five different versions with two options for businesses: Vista Business is designed for small companies, while Enterprise Vista meets the needs of large global organisations with complex IT structures. Paul Stoddart, Windows marketing manager at Microsoft, says that the main benefits of these versions to businesses are increased security, easier mobility and improved productivity. These benefits, he explains, are being communicated to the company’s partners, although there is, “no broad brushstroke marketing campaign as such, because the majority of our businesses are volume licenses, so they are ongoing and we don’t need to market to them in the traditional way.”
Instead, he adds, it’s a “multi-layered approach,” using feedback gathered from partners, who took part in the testing phase of two earlier releases, and sending back messages based on the benefits found. “We talk to partners and tell them what is going – the important thing is not to bombard them with lots of marketing material.”
An issue of timing
This strategy makes sense. “Microsoft has rightly assumed that big business users will hold off moving up to Vista for a year or so – and then only as inhouse systems are automatically replaced and reprogrammed,” explains a spokesperson from the British Computer Society (BCS). It takes time and money to replace IT systems in business and it’s a similar story for SMEs.
Ben King, strategic director at digital solutions agency Bit 10, says his company only completed its Windows XP rollout a year ago. “SMEs take time to replace work stations – it can take two to three years and it has to be done properly as if it goes wrong it can kill the business,” he says. “There’s no point in Microsoft pushing Vista to businesses at the moment – they’ll do it when they are ready.” James Gardner, lead consultant at B2B agency, Volume, agrees. “It’s all about timing – perhaps it will market to businesses in 10 months time. The consumer is more likely to pick it up straight away, but the average business won’t touch it until their hardware is up to date.”
Business people are consumers too
Although the consumer is Microsoft’s initial target, Simon Mahoney, founding partner at SMP, the agency responsible for the launch campaign in the UK, says it is important to remember that business people are consumers too – and are not immune to the consumer advertising, which is centred around the tagline, ‘The wow starts now’, with a TV ad, radio ad and competition on the Vista website. “Although this is a consumer campaign, we were asked to get one message across to both consumers and businesses – it was that simple,” he says.
“There are however, aspects of the campaign that allow us to split up benefits according to the audience. So on the website for example, we dicuss the benefits for consumers such as the detailed 3D graphics and enhanced media centre, but we also cover benefits for businesses, such as how Vista helps connectivity, productivity and security, which all helps make work more efficient. But again, both messages are relevant to businesses,” he adds.
There is also a Vista roadshow running from March until June. It will take place five days a week, airside, at four major airports: London City, Birmingham, Gatwick and Manchester, offering business travellers and other customers the chance to see a demonstration of Vista. “They will have the opportunity to see what they want – if they’re interested in connectivity, we can show them that, or if they’re interested in the media aspect, we’ll demonstrate that,” says Mahoney. The roadshow is also at shopping precincts. “We wanted people to actually experience Vista,” says Mahoney. “Using experiential marketing is what the gaming industry is doing now – Nintendo Wii for example, is doing it very successfully.”
Stoddart agrees that Microsoft is looking at new ways to communicate its message. “In 2001 when the last Windows was released, the world was a different place,” he says. “Then it was all about press, but at that time, less then one percent of the UK had broadband – now 75 per cent does. So we’re adapting to what’s going on and trying different forms of communication, such as online demonstrations and a competition with fantastic prizes.”
Response to criticism
Microsoft’s campaign is important as a means of proactively communicating the benefits of Vista. But the company has also developed a reactive strategy. Numerous launch date delays, as well as early criticisms of the system from the IT community have both been issues Microsoft has has to deal with. Steve Harris, strategic consultant at Chamelon PR, says he thinks the company has handled the criticisms well. “The social media aspect of PR such as blogging has really came to the fore with this launch and has left Microsoft firefighting. It did the right thing in that it focused on Vista’s plus points, homing in on aspects that would appeal to consumers, rather than the IT community, such as its media centre.”
Richard Houghton, CEO of IT PR agency Carrot Communications and chairman of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA), agrees, saying Microsoft has done as well as can be expected. “The online community is now so quick to respond to product launches, in blogs for example, that companies like Microsoft need to prepare for criticism and have a quick response in place. They also need to know which criticisms to focus on and which to discard,” he says.
It is also inevitable that a company like Microsoft will be under the microscope. “Of course, there is going to be a lot of negative attention,” adds Houghton. “Any successful dominant company, like Tesco, for example, is going to receive negative publicity in the British press. It’s important they prepare for, accept and understand the level of negativity.” Harris adds that perhaps launching a product at the same time as one of its key rivals could have been a mistake. “Going alongside Apple’s iPhone was a gamble in PR terms, which I think backfired. The iPhone is on a different level to Vista – it arrived in a blaze of glory – and in comparison, Vista seemed a bit flat,” he says.
Times are a changing
There are plenty of challenges when it comes to launching an IT product, and although Microsoft Vista is certainly a unique product, there are still lessons to be learned. “The challenge is how to excite both the consumer and B2B market as the IT sector moves into an era of stagnating development,” says a spokesperson from the BCS. “The IT industry has moved at a pace that has made it increasingly difficult and expensive for customers to keep up; no longer does the end-user jump onto new developments as they used to. For the computing/ IT industry to improve its marketing in the future, it needs to appreciate that their markets are no longer driven purely by the novel. New issues are coming to the fore like green computing, recycling and lower cost upgrades.”
In the six years since the last Windows launch, the world of technology and marketing has moved on, and some analysts predict that the Vista launch campaign may be the last of its kind, with future upgrades available as automatic downloads from the Internet rather then sold through retail partners. W hatever developments take place in the next six years, we can be certain they will have a powerful impact on Microsoft’s marketing strategy.
Microsoft Vista: the benefits
1. Research the product communication and its target customer Assuming the product or service has been researched, conclusions accepted, distribution is in place and the message hierarchy established, then you should research your media, message and format before launch. Common sense. Yet few brands do, which is why so many new products fail. It will be the best couple of grand you’ll ever spend.
2. Assess and evaluate the appropriate media Where are your customers, what media do they consume and when do they consume it? Find that out and then use the media that does the job. Don’t ever think business targets only consume business media. We are taking Microsoft’s Windows Vista to departure lounges demonstrating to bored business travellers sitting in the departure lounge.
3. Make your message compelling, simple and relevant and wherever possible, different This is it; this is what it does; this is why you will like it; this is what you do to get it/see it/experience it. Our Windows Vista launch was built around one compelling word, ‘Wow’ and we built the word out of a two and a half ton block of ice in the middle of Covent Garden in London. (see pic on previous page) People were asked to enter a code for the chance to win a Lamborghini laptop embedded in the ice.
4. Don’t assume you are lovers straight away Brands don’t create relationships, customers do. One mailer may not maketh a relationship, but sustained communications puts your brand top-of-mind in terms of delivering relevant information. This creates brand awareness and when the need arises, the call is likely to come to you first.
5. Gather the relevant data Tell the group of people you’re gathering data from, what you are going to do with the information. Involve them by perhaps offering a summary profile of their market (and peers) in return for information. But remember, collecting data is expensive and should only be done if you have a proper data strategy in place. This may mean setting up a marketing and sales database; try to avoid using a one-size-fits-all as there is no such thing. Remember, you only want information that you are going to use.
