Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: March 27, 2009
Tags : Apple, microsoft
As we reported yesterday, Microsoft is back with a new ad campaign from Crispin Porter + Bogusky that pits PC’s against Macs on price.
The pitch is partially understandable: these are difficult times with a screwed economy and increasing unemployment, and every cent counts.
But here’s the issue: the ad doesn’t really make a value proposition outside of price. Screen size may be a selling point, but RAM and HD size? In a day and age where nearly every computer you buy runs what you want it to run, do consumers really care about that stuff any more? The sort of people who would care about those sorts of things aren’t going to buy an entry level laptop to begin with.
The big takeaway is that PC’s are cheap, and Mac’s cost more. Now lets put that into some more perspective: what do you think consumers would prefer?
Even if we do accept that price is an important selling point now, isn’t pitching PC’s as being cheap diminishing brand value for when the economy picks up again? While Crispin Porter + Bogusky challenged Apple’s ads with the “I’m a PC” campaign (and well I might add), these ads have the opposite effect, and actually emphasize the differences between the two brands, with Mac’s coming out as the premium brand.
When I think cheap, I normally think of the term “cheap and nasty.” Is this really where Microsoft wants to be?
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Mar 27, 2009
Oh ffs. Go get back in your bubble and pick your toes or something, Duncan. What, yours was only the 50th article to pop up in the last 24 hrs which desperately attempts to turn a benign ad into some monstrosity of marketing…this time with pictures!! It's obviously struck a nerve…sensitive much?
Mar 27, 2009
Rather comedic how Apple brown-nosers *cough* Duncan Riley *cough* get defensive about their Macs and take cheap shots at PC. Even when they know PCs are superior.
Mar 27, 2009
And, the idea behind the ad was that PCs offer more than Macs do for *much* less money, not that they're “cheap”.
Mar 28, 2009
Take off your Mac hued sunglasses and look. May be you will see something different, something the rest of us are able to see.
You fail. Again.
Mar 28, 2009
i dont think Microsoft's message is im cheap so buy me it is sort of a subtle way of saying i am better than apple couz i dont charge huge prices for harware that costs hardly anything … i really think apple shuld reconsider this primume pricing monopolistic strategy cuz it isnt at all recetion proof if i wer aple ceo id reduse prices lower than competitors just to gain market share and load up on extras and software the way microsft dose coz it makes a heel lot more sence …to be the best rite ..? back to the add if laura dint say im not cool enuff to be a mac person it wld be a lot better …..for microsoft !!! and microsoft has so dam much mac dose not they shuld block window on a mac like apple did stop mac office and boast about there cool stuff like direct x 10 … nd all sorts of other things then after no1 buys apple and macs become paper waits welll they shuld buy apple only for final cut studio ……!!!
Mar 28, 2009
Terrible, terrible thought process. Your logic fails.
Mar 28, 2009
Hate to say it but I'd take Sarah Palin over Barack Obama any day, especially considering his recent performance.
That being said, you otherwise made the point pretty well. But you might want to realize that PC and Windows users are of different political persuasions. Keeping politics out of computing is always a brainy scheme.
By the way, did you know Rush Limbaugh is a Mac user? Look it up
.
D
Mar 28, 2009
I bet he wrote his article on MS Word for MAC. Where would Apple/Mac be without MS spending a few hundred million to keep them alive a few years ago?
There is very little that you can do on a Mac that you can't do on a PC. You can't say the same about a Mac though.
Mar 28, 2009
Duncan's analysis is spot on. Sad that the Apple bashers here fail to understand the ad. Those claiming it has to do with PCs being better values than Macs are clueless about there being plenty of PCs that cost what Macs do.
Microsoft didn’t need to show the Apple logo and Apple Store (the “Mac Store”) if they were simply claiming a $700 17 inch PC was as good as a $1K 13″ one. They could have shown an example of the latter from HP right there at Best Buy. But they didn’t. Microsoft brought Apple into the ad as the “expensive” proposition, as if it's impossible to buy a PC for a “Mac-like” price. The ad is NOT about buying a $700 Windows PC instead of a $2,000 Windows PC, it’s about buying a $700 Windows PC — or any PC — instead of a Mac.
I'm not surprised the Apple bashers don't get it. Stockholm Syndrome is a bitch.
I don't care what people buy, but cheap is cheap; nothing more, nothing less. Nothing wrong with that — it has its place, it has its adherents — but don’t kid yourself into thinking you got anything more than you paid for, or found some sort of computer bargain, or know some secret the rest of us aren’t clued in on. You asked for little, and that's exactly what you got.
Mar 29, 2009
Arnev,
I'd learn how to spell before I got a computer or any more beer!
Apr 4, 2009
Your last 2 photos to compare “cheap” and “costs more” probably said more than intended, as I assume you were just taking another mindless disrespectful left-wing “cheap” shot at SP. Instead, you correctly identified the president who is going to spend us into oblivion, diminish our freedoms, and reduce our standing in the world until we answer to the U.N. Talk about “costs more”, we will be paying for this one for generations.
May 19, 2009
Great idea.
Crispin has been doing things like that for a while. About a year or so ago, they auctioned “products” like towelettes and face straighteners related to their “mini” campaign.
They´ve used CVC too…
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2009/01/jef…
Jul 7, 2009
there are differences between people and materials that why it is called cheap and the other one which costs more, its for those which get the high quality and good features.