New Microsoft Ad Says Being Sexy Isn't Everything
Microsoft has released the latest installment of Laptop Hunter, the company’s advertising campaign which endeavors to find customers a laptop that meets their requirements all the while keeping within a certain budget.
This next advert focuses on Giampaulo, a “technically-savvy” young man who seeks portability, battery life and power for under $1,500. Giampaulo eventually settles on a HP (again, really?) with 4 GB of RAM, a GeForce 9600M GT, Windows Vista (Home Premium) and a 500 GB hard drive. Again, the buyer briefly considers an Apple computer before deciding that while the MacBook was “so sexy” he didn’t believe in paying for the brand as opposed to the performance.
This ad addresses the problem I had before (about Lauren visiting the Mac store first) and offers a logical reason for not buying an Apple machine. Giampaulo doesn’t believe in paying a huge price for a certain brand and makes it clear that he doesn’t WANT to buy one, and probably wouldn’t even if he had the money.
Click here to view the commercial on YouTube.
That said, while this ad hits the spot for me with the PC/Mac price argument, I can’t help but notice Microsoft has yet to advertise something manufactured by the company. Sure, point out that Macs are more expensive, and PCs are a much smarter option if you’re working from a specific budget or want something customizable, but if the Microsoft is counting this as part of the same campaign as those Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads (which also didn’t advertise anything), the company is spending $300 million shouting about hardware it can’t lay claim to. Sure, for every PC purchases, the average consumer will purchase a copy of Windows, but if I remember correctly, Microsoft has a new OS in the pipeline, surely it would do well to save its money advertising something it’s spent a lot of time, money and effort in creating?
Keeping the Mac vs. PC arguments to a minimum (if you can), do you think Microsoft would be best off spending its $300 million on products it can actually take credit for or do you think it’s pushing something that will ultimately up the sales of Windows is just smart marketing? Leave your thoughts below.
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Since, when people buy a PC, their first thought isn't "Windows or OSX" I don't think trying to advertise a specific version of Windows is a good idea. Instead, advertising the very thing that carries the Microsoft OS is a better idea.
Afterall, vendors are the ones who choose the OS they use. And, anyone who custom builds is already going to know what they want.
vista was not an improvement from XP, it was a new different os, it takes me 2x-10X times more lcicks to do the same as i did in xp, and needs more hardware to perform as fast or tin bit faster than xp, i think thats the whole problem, seriously try to change date and time in xp and then on vista its ridiculious
Yeah the whole deal about "Apple/OSX" Vs "PC" needs to be properly redefined. a Personal Computer can be any machine that is YOUR, hence personal + computer. I have a McPro and an HP. While I certainly do love the mac's METAL contruction Vs this POS plastic crap every "PC" maker has flocked to like a stupid religious cult. The Mac's quality control and attention to detail is leagues ahead of any PC laptop. Metal case, tight fitting components etc. etc, while the PC looks like you tossed in some plastic beads and some dye, and out pop's this shiny POS waiting to be cracked and scratched up.
Apple by far wins in build quality for laptops... But the internals/guts are all x86 Based, so Apple only builds cases and a bogus OS that doesn't improve upon anything windows, aside from initial inter-OS permissions. The rest is some oddly and annoyingly designed OS/app structure that just makes little logical sense, but why? B/C Windows GUI is so much more superior to OSX it's laughable... I've got to run through a ton of extras just to get the view I want, to configure the layout the font, the boarder size blah blah... Apple just packages it up to look all nice on the surface, but it's a mess to actually configure. aka OS X is for people that generally know less about their hardware/machine than a PC user would (I'm not talking bumbling Baby Boom Gen)
This seems to be the second half of Microsofts advertising plans.
Does anyone remember the "I'm a PC" adverts. This was an attempt to get people away from Linux (Because every PC 'must' use a Microsoft based OS - If it has Linux, it cant be a PC !!).
This just looks like an attempt to get people away from Mac systems now, as long as people have seen the I'm A PC advert, then the only other alternative is to buy a Mac.
So you can't buy a Mac, so you must buy a PC, meaning a Microsoft OS.
Like the old Vacuum Cleaner / Hoover marketing !!