Marketing

I like to pretend that people still read my blog. It's actually quite liberating to know that it isn't the case, though...I can type whatever I want, no need to read over it or edit, just post it. Too long? Oh well. Too brief? Hasn't happened yet...

Well, since UGA football isn't worth talking about, I'll move on to something else for this post. And it's not exciting, really (hence, the title of this post). So...you've been warned.

I have all my computers running Windows Vista. You know, Vista...that thing that is absolute crap...it sucks. I'm sure you've heard of it.

Anyway, I've been thinking about product marketing as a result of this Vista upgrade of mine. People almost always expect the next version of something to be better than the previous and current versions. The marketing for products usually feeds off of that eagerness for improvement. So when people's expectations - however inflated - are not met, it makes us go crazy.

High definition discs (Blu-Ray and the now-defunct HD DVD) have been disappointments. The video quality is there, but it's not really the big leap that VHS > DVD was.

The Mac vs. PC stuff has raged on for a long time, and it only got more entertaining with the TV ads that had the dorky PC guy and the fun, young Mac guy. Then Vista came out and Apple had a field day.

Every single product manufacturer - no matter what they make - has a tendency to fall short of expectations, make mistakes and generally fail in one or more areas. Knowing which areas and how the failures work can be a real benefit to the end user, however, as we can use that knowledge to keep on keepin' on.

I moved to Vista because - based on my own research - I was pretty sure it would be better than my old XP setup. So, long story short - HOLY CRAP. My video editing machine is blazing fast now, and all I did was change to that poorly marketed, formerly bug-ridden piece of software called Vista.

No more details here (I mean, if you really want to know what's happening, you can e-mail me and I'll explain) but it's hard to admit that poor and negative marketing has so successfully tanked a product that works so well for me. And if it works for me....well, aren't there probably at least a few others?

Marketing is powerful...it can make and shape the nature of discussions. Marketing points can even become substitutes for real-world facts and figures as people quote advertising rather than results.

It's not just product marketing, either...just look to our recent presidential election for an example. Obama won the marketing war, and won the White House as a result (whether or not it's right is irrelevant...it happened nonetheless).

Sometimes the marketing is just a simple shouting match. The louder and/or more persistent party wins. That's probably more likely the cause of the recent Mac/PC stuff regarding Vista. Microsoft made mistakes and then buried their head. Apple poked fun at them and Microsoft took over a year to fight back. All the while, Apple's ads got funnier, more pointed and aggressive.

So is it fair, that a product (that is perhaps better in many ways) loses ground simply because the marketing was bad? I would argue "yes."

Opinions drive the swiping of the credit card, and if you win the opinion, you win the purchase. Failure to win opinions is a failure in total, unfortunately.

So I feel like a bit of an outsider using Vista and being all satisfied about it, but facts are facts. Microsoft blew it, and as a result, many people will never be able to take advantage of a good product because they will never take the chance on something that so many advertisements said was laughable.

SIDE NOTE - Many of the "expert" end-users out there do agree that Vista isn't as bad as originally thought, but all concede the point on marketing. It's generally agreed that Microsoft's PR caused this failure more than any bugs or missing features ever could have. So these "experts" agree that Vista is a generally useful product but there is about 0% chance you will find them all spending their time and money trying to save Microsoft's butt on this one. That's one lonely kid playing all by himself on the playground.