Oh, Microsoft… Part 2

I’ve been waiting for a commercial ever since I wrote about Microsoft’s Geniuses awhile back.  I might stop writing about them for awhile, I feel like I’m beating a dead horse.  Anyways, here’s Microsoft’s latest failure:

I never understood why companies do these commercials with disclaimers that say “Real people. Not actors.”  It’s a TV ad!  Why would you try to deliver a genuine message on the medium that’s known for distorting reality?  Besides, you edited out everything you didn’t want people to see, so it’s inherently biased anyways.  It doesn’t matter that they’re not actors — we’re still not going to trust your commercial.

Microsoft does not have a marketing budget; they have an advertising budget.  And there’s a huge difference between the two.

Advertising is what you tell people to think about your company.  Marketing, on the other hand, is what you get people to think about your company on their own. So when you tell me your software is great in an ad on TV, that’s advertising.  When I find out that your software actually sucks after installing it and I complain on a message board about it, that’s marketing.

If you don’t have great content, you’re standing on a very weak foundation.  Scrap your advertising budget and put all your money into finding a way to get your product to market itself.