This video, which has been circulating for quite a while, should be required viewing for introductory marketing classes. While it picks on Microsoft (admittedly an easy target) the real point of the video is to illustrate that less is more. Anyone caught in the ‘design by committee’ death spiral will be able to relate to the added ‘enhancements’ that get thrown into this packaging exercise.
The challenge with simplicty is that it is really risky and most companies are risk averse. Complexity in packaging is just another way of hedging your bets – making sure that no group goes undifferentiated and that no bit of information goes unmentioned. Having the confidence and insight to be able to communicate to your target audience in a very clear and very simple manner is not the norm.
{As the story goes, this is an internally produced video by Microsoft to illustrate the unnecessary management layers that gum up the marketing process. Good for them if this is true.}
Someone has managed to unlock the code behind the Apple marketing juggernaut. The ’secret sauce’ has finally been revealed: Hyperbole – incredible, unbelievable, sensational hyperbole. And repetition. Lots and lots and lots and lots of repetition.
To be fair to Apple and Steve Jobs you could likely take any video presentation and edit it down to make a presenter look silly, given enough free time to do these things. Is the best pitch man in the business guilty of a little exaggeration, a little too much hype – sure he is. But that ceaseless cheer-leading, optimism and excitement (often referred to as ‘the reality shield’ within the walls of Cupertino) has also led the company to stunning (Steve would have liked that one) market success. What makes Jobs so great is that you know he really, really, really believes what he is saying and he truly wants to build great products and he wants everyone to understand how great these products are. It’s a little manic, a bit (maybe a lot) over the top, but it’s genuine.
I hope Steve remains healthy enough to continue leading one of the most successful companies on the planet.
The Linux Foundation is tapping the open source community and the collaborative masses to submit entries into it’s “We’re Linux” (true, it isn’t exactly ‘I’m a Linux’) video commercial contest. The above entry is one of close to a hundred videos developed over the last three months. As you might expect many of the videos are silly, bad parodies or just plain strange, but that’s not really the point. Linux is community driven and this contest is a great way to get the developer and creative communities to rally around the Linux project.
The Linux Foundation doesn’t have Apple’s or Microsoft’s financial muscle but it does have a worldwide community of enthusiasts and promoters and this video is a great way to energize these groups. That said, I would have liked to see a different approach than employing Apple’s “I’m a {name here}” format. Microsoft was so threatened by the “I’m Mac” that they felt they had to respond with “I’m a PC”. I don’t think it helps Microsoft or Linux to allow Apple to set the promotional agenda. There are plenty of parody and professional “I’m a Linux” ads (Novell created a good series of these a while back) already. ”How Linux is changing the world” or “Linux where you least expect it” or something that highlights why Linux is important could have served them better.
It’s hard not to root for the underdog – I hope this promotion does well for them.
