The Advertising-Marketing process can be a simple thing.

The parts of advertising process boiled down to its essence for any business … of course, you have to execute it correctly and be nimble to change on the fly …

Part I

Benefits to Buying/Using Our Product

Sometimes it’s obvious like a pain reliever or not so obvious like perfume.

Clearly, depending on your product or industry, the method in which you tell your message must be appropriate.

… also requiring Honest Evaluation

But the next part is the hardest – an honest evaluation of where you stand in the minds of the consumers/users of your product.

Are you the long established brand? But are people chipping away at you?

Are you the newcomer? Up against a giant competitor? Or lots of other smaller competitors?

What do people REALLY think of you? Or have no idea who you are?

Are consumers-users reasonable happy with the current OTHER choices?

That leads to Part II

What kind of advertising?

Benefits Driven?

Reminder to users why they have chosen this brand and you should continue to do so?

Strategic “Branding,” to associate your company brand with goodness, as a strong choice or the powerful choice?

Part III

How do you deliver this ad to the consumer/user? What is the most effective way to reach them?

And a key component that is often forgotten – consistency. While the AFLAC and the talking duck are not creatively brilliant, they are tactically brilliant – who has not seen the talking duck ads – you might even find them annoying but you sure know who it is and they even manage to repeat the company’s name over & over again to great effectiveness. And just as importantly, they didn’t just run them for a while, they keep running them with new people but the same theme OVER & OVER again.

and Part V

Does the advertising actually match your message? Are you over-reaching/over-promising?

Or in other words – what are you REALLY saying? Or trying to say?

What is the takeaway if someone has no idea who you are? When you see an ad and you have no idea after watching it – that is a waste of money.

Part VI

Advertising is only effective if you deliver what you are advertising. That seems redundant but that is the downfall of poor advertising. On the most obvious level, it’s when an airline says you should choose them for the great service. Maybe 35 years ago, but today? You really believe it?

Or you can do everything else right but if consumers have put you in the negative light because of credibility of your competitors or industry practices … Exxon? Or your local car dealership that promises no hassle and honesty – you might be honest but if your industry has a credibility issue, you have to address that one first.

At the end of the day, if you can change out the words for your product and substitute in fish sticks, yarn barn or an Operating System and the ad still mostly makes sense … it is POINTLESS advertising – you might as well just put your name on the screen for 30 seconds.

Microsoft

And if you go through this step by step with Microsoft, here’s what you end up with … of course, with Microsoft you have two main separate markets – consumer and enterprise. The good thing is the enterprise customers don’t or won’t pay all the much attention to TV advertising so unless you really go out on a limb and say something dumb, it won’t affect sales very much either way. However, with consumers – the enterprise ads that MS runs don’t make much sense to them and in fact and gives off the wrong impression … still life?

This is just wasted money. No enterprise decision maker is not going to not look at a Microsoft solution and what does this ad tell them? Nothing.

What does this ad tell consumers? You are buying the same software that this stodgy office with a lot of old geezers in it use.

25 years ago, you wanted the same “powerful” office software to use at home – now? the last thing anyone wants is “office” software so why remind people?

Well, computers certainly contain a lot of benefits – no doubt there but in many cases, it’s too overwhelmingly but worse, for 75% of computer users, they feel like they been sold a bill of goods.

In 1996, this is supposed to be speed and access of the information out on the world wide web. While more computer savvy users accepted that 56k really meant more like 22k in the real world and good luck playing video – the ads certainly does say not “dramatization,” – the implication was if you were not able to access not just the internet this fast but also to find information this fast, the result as interpreted by ‘average consumers’ meant you were stupid and not up to snuff – whether it was your budget or your brainpower, you felt slow.

Or while not directly under Microsoft’s marketing control, Intel’s campaigns for their chips also reinforced the story …

For most of us, a computer is like magic but the impression from these ads is that if you turn it on – it’s magical – things will just basically come shooting at you – not just information but entertainment.

Of this ad from just a few years ago … do magical illustrations pop up and burst from your screen?

When you send an email, is it texty like in a drab computer screen window or is it like this woman’s … where an elaborate half gilded henna envelope lifts out of your screen to traverse to the recipient?

Sure, you want to jazz it up a little but for most consumers after using computers now for 10+ years ….

Or that using MS products and its OS will unlock all your child’s potential?

Anyone still buying this line after using computers for 10-20 years?

Isn’t this the same line Kellogg’s pitches for the cereal?

Of course, in a sense, it’s true – how many people can succeed these days without touching a computer but it over-promises because everyone knows that you have to do most of the work. Unlike in the ads, art does not burst out of the screen when you turn on a computer.

Or even until recently, MS did ads where a couple kids were able to produce a movie using MS software – the problem is that it’s not they don’t believe it to be true, it’s the people’s actual experience is more akin to plugging in a camera only to get an error

THE ATTACHED DEVICE IS NOT RECOGNIZED (an actual XP warning message).

The main problem with Microsoft’s advertising is that Microsoft seemed clueless about the people they were advertising to. Microsoft’s message as in essence that your life has been dull, drab and formless until you use our products.

Does anyone really feel that way about MS?

Just look at the ads for Vista. They REALLY believed that people would essentially be blown away.

I don’t hate Vista. It’s an OS – big whoop. It’s like a new Chevy 4-door sedan. It’s probably nice but WOW! Really?

Really?

Windows 95 from Win 3.1 – okay, that might be wow or Mac OS8 to OSX? Okay … but the bottom line is they seemed to have no clue about their audience.

It’s like those ads where the announcer runs off with the product – oh yeah, that’s realistic.

Clueless.

The first miss is when MS did not realize that personal computers were no longer an idolized and idealized part of our lives. In the first big market explosion, people were buying into the PC revolution – in effect making themselves feel smarter and a part of the future, into technology and an investment for their kids – as well as showing off to their neighbors they could afford $2,500 (close to $4k adjusted for buying power inflation). By the late 1990′s – it was really a matter of price – reinforced EVERYDAY by PC makers eager to grab up market share. It didn’t really help that WIN OS seemed to be held together by bailing wire and gum – either crashing, freezing or infected. Again, MS’ silence meant that consumers just presumed they were the stupid ones who didn’t know what they were doing but of course, what this created in the minds of consumers is that the PC makers are right – why spend a dime more than I have to – not only does this “thing” work wonky – and it’s pretty much obsolete in another few months as the fast and furious 486 to Pentium to Pentium II , etc, etc … arrived at faster and faster speeds – each release poo-poohing the one from 3 months as so over … So that now PC buyers believe they should not have to pay more than $250? $399? $499 for a computer.

So, now we arrive at the latest Microsoft marketing/advertising message.

First, the strange Seinfeld-Bill Gates ads. Yes, they garnered a lot of attention but is that really a strategy for an operating system? As with many Microsoft products, they seem cobbled together by a) the equivalent of a high budget version of the GoDaddy.com ads – the JUST TRY TO IGNORE US school of advertising. It can serve a purpose for disposable throwaway items or where your consumer hardly matters – an web host being one. As long as their servers do not go down, what do you care if their ads feature ads written by a boy who just discovered a woodland creature who builds dams is also the slang for …

It’s something – it’s not necessarily much of anything but it’s something.

And in typical MS fashion, they sexed it up by choosing the two unsexiest guys – maybe EVER? Bill Gates & Jerry Seinfeld. The first ad ends with Jerry talking about all the things missing from Vista and the second ‘home invasion’ ads talk essentially about how out of touch MS is to the average consumer and how annoying everyone is that Jerry & Bill G are at their house … much like Vista OS? Nice association?

Again, it depends on what you are advertising – the great untouchable kahuna of WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT advertising is MENTOS, the Freshmaker!

But the Mentos campiagn of the late 1990′s are like HR Pufnstuf - completely unexplainable. The Mentos ads seem to have been created a Eastern European filmmaker who broke through the Berlin Wall in 1989 or an alien – told to do a series of ads seemingly an average setting in anywhere US but really, just slightly off in nearly every aspect to be entirely weird – brilliant and perfect for a candy coated mint … much as ORBIT GUM has tried to recapture that with their current campaign but failing to capture lightning in a bottle but that seems to be MS’ agency intent also in addition to an out-and-out attention grab, to add to it the WEIRD ATTENTION GETTER type of ad as hopes to get attention for MS but as with most ad agencies, they do not seem to have thought much further than Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates together … after that, who cares, right?

They had to quickly abandon that as another failure and instead had people send in grainy videocaptures of themselves saying they are a PC. The purpose was to say that John Hodgeman (of the Apple I’m a PC ads) were not representative of them and they are the rainbow of the world … which in theory is fine but honestly, it seems artificial and non-relatable … when a teacher in an African orphanage says they are a PC, you pretty much believe either Angeline Jolie, Oprah or Bill Gates just brought them the PC … and have a lot of people send in grainy videocam captures of themselves saying they are a PC – doesn’t that just reinforce the preconception that the OS they choose is low quality? Wouldn’t that be like have a guy in county lockup saying he’s a big fan of Frosted Flakes?

As noted above, one reason you want to do an ad campaign is to decide where you are now and where you want to go – in terms of branding.

What message does MS want to say? After Seinfeld, grainy videocaps, international folks and now “PC Hunters,” what have we learned and what are they saying about MS or Windows?

Sure, we can gleam a quasi direction but then you need visual images to buttress what you are saying … the takeaway after seeing the ad series so far is:

Jerry & Bill G annoy average people.
PC cams are low res.
No one normal seems willing to concede they are PC.
And lastly, PC buyers go to a Mac store first – decide they can’t afford it and buy a PC on the slimmest of reasons (I need a keyboard … big screen and I’m not cool).

That’s what’s wrong with Microsoft advertising.

They have no idea what they want to say.

They spent the the 1990′s through 2005 that a PC can make all your dreams come true.

2005 telling you that you’ll be WOWed by Vista …

And now? That you are a PC if you only have a few needs in buying a computer and not a lot of money? Choose us?

Really? THAT is your selling message?

First, that’s totally redundant. The majority of PC buyers simply look at the Sunday ad, decide on a screen size (or as in the recent Best Buy ad – want a pink computer) and call it a day – as evident by the actress, the kid and the mom … their list is shorter than if you’re shopping at 7-11. And there’s nothing wrong with that. To them, a personal computer only has to satisfy a few requirements with the over-riding factor – price. That’s fine. My couch buying requirements are sitting on it, figuring out if it can fit into my house but 90% of it is the price – but then couch makers are not spending $300 million a year trying to tell me what I already know.

That is really the pointlessness of the MS ads. They already have hundreds of companies spending a billion dollars telling people THE EXACT SAME THING.

Buy a PC, don’t spend too much. Buy from us.

Why is MS spending $300 million to repeat what a) their buyers already know and b) already selling Vista/XP included on the machine!

How exactly does saying – yea, Apple is cool but we’re cheaper help them sell more $299 Premium OSes?

In fact, they don’t even mention Windows – all it does is say, “We hear ya man, we are so totally with you on the short list to buy a PC and under $1,500 thing! You go man!”

They are essentially public service announcements for the PC industry … the ads would at least make more sense if the kid goes, it has Windows Vista! Right now, the ads are the equivalent of showing a Tide detergent box from every angle and at the end tag – we make the box your Tide comes in! Does anyone care?

Conversely, what about Apple?

Of course, you have to start with the iconic 1984 ad which was perfect in nearly every aspect. When a personal computer was seen as a blow against information locked away elsewhere … what better way than 1,000 colorless drones, space tubes, a gorgeous girl with a jackhammer and a giant talking head.

But as with any ads, they have to work in context – an Apple ad with that imagery now would make very little sense … after Steve Jobs returned, he realized he needed to buy some time until the products could come out matching what he thought Apple needed so the THINK DIFFERENT campaign launched first …

This is one of the greatest AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU BOUGHT US-ARE WITH US campaigns. The Microsoft apparent equivalent is the grainy videocaps of people saying, “I’m a PC.”

These campaigns don’t immediately sell you anything but it was right for Apple in 1997. While financially they were not really beleaguered, the perception was that they were or worse, irrelevant … so this was step 1 – to remind people that Apple is still around … and whether you liked the ads or not (or hated Apple), the icons of the 20th century are impossible to look away from and you can’t help but notice the ads … and of course, it’s not so bad to be associated visually, imagery-wise with Lennon, Einstein, MLK and Picasso …

Then Apple launched the iMac.

Again, not very relevant now but Steve Jobs was again on the cusp of consumer change. By the late 1990′s – it was clear that a computer was just another thing in the house and with the advent of the consumer internet, you didn’t really need that many apps anyway – as long as you could surf the internet and email – the rest required too much learning anyway … and adding to it, even most games played better on a PS2 or the forthcoming Xbox – reducing the need of a home computer to do all that much anyway … plus after a generation of computer buyers, they realized they were not going to randomly create art nor was it automatically going to make their rugrat a prodigy … a computer was just a computer but damn, it was ugly …

Apple realized you didn’t to really explain why you should buy a personal computer – you’ve bee using one for years … but now, don’t you want one that looks much more interesting?

And of course, finally – a few years ago, Apple & the ad agency created the brilliant I’m a PC, I’m a PC campaign. Here’s why the ads are brilliant.

They are two guys standing in a white room – you cannot help but notice them and after a dozen and three dozen ads, when you see two guys in a white room talking – it’s an Apple ad! Sound off, you catch it for 2-seconds or FF through it … you know what it is …

Plus the visual perception of two guys in a white room – sometimes with a few props is that they are not trying to gloss over anything. It comes off as honest and clutter free. And again, Apple understands that personal computer ads have promised the moon so now, they are coming forward and responding to ONE problem at a time … hey, we’re just an average guy trying to help.

There is ONE message per spot. No complicated trying to shoehorn in a couple dozen selling messages. ONE Ad. ONE message and of course consistency … even if you don’t listen, you know it’s to point out some flaw in the PC that the Mac can help resolve or help you avoid that. And the brilliance is the MORE ads you see with them dressed differently, you know it’s ONE more flaw on the PC and one less on the Mac so you don’t even have to hear a word right now in the campaign – you could be at a noisy bar, you look up – and it all adds up so when you see is, it’s ANOTHER ONE! So even if you are a diehard PC user, how can they keep coming up points?!

It also helps that John Hodgeman gets to do amusing things and the Mac is only trying to help – no overpromises.

And you know what else is brilliant, iPhone ads take place over a black background … subtle but also a reinforcement that it’s Apple but NOT a Mac ad … but the OTHER big difference. There are no “demo” ads for the Mac … it’s at this stage in computers that people either know it or they think it’s FAKE anyway (“Yea, I’ve seen people edit movies on a computer but those people are gearhead brainaics”) … so while the I’m a Mac will talk up features, no real point in showing it on screen, people will either believe it or not … and again, with two guys on a white soundstage, the message is also – nothing hidden – just two guys talking (with some props) … but iPhone ads, they are all about the demo because it is new and people need to see it – “benefits and demo.”

Appropriate advertising for appropriate times at the appropriate production history of your product.

So, yea, Apple ads are better than MS’