AdAge has a piece profiling the "180" Microsoft made in marketing the Zune; many have already seen this year's far less, shall we say,
esoteric ads, but few (including us) realized the new hardware's marketing onslaught was the result of Microsoft's doubling -- even quadrupling -- its Zune ad budget, switching advertising firms (which resulted in those trippy Flash sites), and, oh yeah, killing off "the social". Sorry obsessive
Zune guy, we hate to be the bearers of bad news but the truth can be hidden no longer. "You make it you" is officially confirmed as the new brand tagline and the ever-so-slightly-less-grammatically-correct "Welcome to the social" is deader than a WiFi-shared song after three plays. So now that we don't have to worry about the ever-lingering
peer pressure to get social, does that mean we can loosen up a little and start to proudly love our still-virginal Zunes just as they are?
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posted November 5th 2007 11:48PM
Obviously you and I saw different adverts.....
No matter how much money you throw at something it will not make it cool. That comes for free, the advertising just helps it along.
The Zune, outside of gadget fan circles, is not perceived as 'cool' no matter what features it does or doesn't have. Seriously, this is not a jab - it is an experiment; ask 10 ordinary (read: non tech blog readers) people today their opinion of the Zune, and nothing more. 50% will say "What's a Zune?" or at least know nothing about it. This is not a dis, it is a fact - try it. Ask these same people about the iPod. Even elderly people will at least be aware of what it is.
If Microsoft never put their name on the Zune, and marketed it under a made up company name that appeared to have no connection to MS, and had a chance of being perceived cool, I think it would have fared much better. Whenever I hear Microsoft now, I picture Steve Balmer, all loud-mouthed with sweaty pits sticking his tongue out. Makes me want to step away quickly, not embrace it
'Welcome to the Social' was a better tag than the new one by far, and that's not saying much.
Bottom line: Microsoft is trying to hard. Remember that kid we all knew in school who tried too hard to be cool, and in effect achieved the opposite? Well, you make it you.
Really? Then how come for years we've seen tons and tons of iPod commercials? It was the norm to see silhouette dancing on vivid color backgrounds while the famed U2 sung aloud. These days it's an iPhone "story" every other commercial break. None of this has anything to do with the iPod or iPhone awareness campaign? Please.
While the iPod's popularity is undoubtedly king, it has had six years to climb to that spot with little or no competition for the first four generations (or its first three years if you prefer). In 2002, a year after the iPod had been out, the same amount of people that are currently clueless of the Zune would have been "what's an iPod?" However that number quickly diminished due to the fact that there was no competition and the digital audio player was a new and novel product thus catching everyone's eye.
These days the game has completley changed. The market is saturated with portible media players that offer a variety of features and performance. The Zune has been out for nearly a year now and has gained a considerable amount of market share (10% in competition to iPod, 2% overall). I'd say those numbers for what is considered a non-essential product in a saturated market are pretty good only twelve months out of the gate.
Bottom line: Try looking at things realistically.
Loop, I work in marketing, and have for a while. I look at things on a marketing / advertising level, and I stand by everything I said in the original post. What do you do?
The Zune will never be anything like the iPod when it comes to the consumer perception. Apple has better marketing all around and always have. This is an areas where Microsoft's monopoly does not work in their favor, as it did with most of their past successes. As I said, Microsoft tries to hard, and it shows. I do believe the Zune could have had a chance if the name Microsoft were not associated with it. They could have engineered it, manufactured it, and distributed it, but under a different name & it would have been a bigger initial success. It is like when Buick tries to appeal to the youth market with their cars.
But hey, at least they will always have Steve Smith.
Hah...so you work in marketing huh? Sure you do. I'm guessing you have a whole wall of ASPY awards and whatnot right?? Yea, ok. Your'e more full of crap than a fanboy.
Since you're all high and mighty, you should know the first thing in marketing is to "never say never" as you boldly started. Even the basic advertising interns know you CAN'T polish a turd, but you CAN make everybody want one. Wait - I have to stop here as I could have sworn your first post was more about public awareness of the product but then in your second post, you focused on the opinion of how Microsoft is a disease to be associated with. So what is it? Because in the real world, the two are hardly ever related.
With your thinking, that's like a business not going with Apple because of the name associated...which is simply ridiculous as a business would not go with Apple because it lacks business products - not because it makes shabby products. Businesses buy on two main themes: need and availability. I'll save today's economic class thus sparing the long explanation, but that same functionality is also found at the individual consumer level. People aren't avoiding Zunes because it's made by Microsoft, it's just simply a matter of people not currently buying as many Zunes as the iPod due to the combination including: iPod market dominance, market saturation and the product being still relatively new (all I discussed above). Even a bigger factor is the established consumer which has bought a DAP in the past couple of years. Unlike the majority of readers here, people aren't going to go out and buy a new Zune or DAP when they have a relatively new one purchased during the HUGE growth we've seen the player market have in the past couple of years.
And quite the contrary, one of the best selling points of the Zune to the average consumer is the fact that is has Microsoft's name on it. Would you even think twice about buying it if it had Flextronics name on it? Probably not and neither would the majority of consumers. Flextronic who?? Which by the way, is who makes the hardware portion of the Zune.
I can take the last paragraph and run with it by bringing up the HUGELY SUCCESSFUL Xbox 360. That has Microsoft stamped all over it, right? But for fear of being labeled a "fanboy" I'll digress and let you ponder that one on your own Kind of seems funny when the Xbox came onto the PlayStation dominated scene...we both know how that is worked out so far. So "never" huh?
I feel sorry for the firm that hired you.
Loop,
you know you had some credibility with your first post but then in your reply you just started getting bitter and mean.
Seeing that the easily riled, defensive, extremly bitter, attack dog Loop never answered the question "what do you do" judging by his/her attitude and long winded self righteous rant, which as far as I can see was unprovoked we can easily deduct the answer to the question of what it is he does:
Starbucks
M, sorry. You just read enough worthless opinions day after day from armchair professionals and sometimes you snap. I usually don't comment but enough was enough. I thought the tone in my response was just and par.
Barista Barbarian...I really didn't think our titles had jack to do with topic at hand as facts are facts and it's best left at that. But since you so kindly pursued, I currently work for a PR/Marketing firm in Nashville which specializes in the music industry. Currently our company (headquartered in LA) is the top firm in our multi-billion dollar industry. Prior, I came from the tech industry where I've had ten years in both business and consumer products. Now, run along and fetch me a latte.
Hey, this is gonna sound like a stupid question, but I'm wondering is there any way to use itunes with a zune?? I bought an ipod because my friends told me they were good and the itunes interface was easy to use, but now im sorta pissed at at them and my ipod. i know the whole zune software thinger, but will that transfer songs over from my itunes library or will all the songs i bought on itunes not transfer? I'll probably use the zune stuff once i have it, but i dont wanna lose all my other music. any help?
Well... I have both an iPod and a Zune, and when I plug my Zune in and the Zune software opens, I see everything that's in iTunes EXCEPT DRM'd music/books that I downloaded and paid for through iTunes. Music I ripped myself (through iTunes or Zune software), non-DRM'd music that I downloaded through iTunes, and podcasts all get synced to my Zune without a problem.
So yes, you can, with exceptions.
I find the title to this article misleading. I was expecting to see something about Microsoft giving up on the Zune entirely.
Or I'm just an idiot. Either way, the new slogan is bad.
as did i - it was a bit worrying, considering i'm buying an 80 on launch day.
Clever...Is So Last Week.
I was expecting more of this.
Hey, as Charles Barkley said:
Someone's gotta be me, it might as well be me.
Honestly, I'd like to make it "me", but I'm on a Mac, so I'm stuck with this year's underwhelming release of chubby iPod Nanos.
:(
I prefer the original Zune (even the Mr Hanky special edition) to any of the iPods. But what's up with the mishmashed bag of horsecrap over at zunejourney.net?? If that's the ad campaign that's supposed to take Microsoft to the next level, they are sunk. They do have the target demographic of schizophrenics, the blind and heavy LSD users sewn up; for anybody else who actually wants to learn something about the Zune, "sucks for you!" as Grandma used to say.
i was playing halo 3 and a marine said "welcome to the social, arbiter"
Regardless. I'm still interested in the Zune.