January 19, 2005
welcome to the creative age, microsoft
Another Microsoft chappie, Kevin Briody agrees with my recent missive to Robert Scoble that “Microsoft needs to play more”:
The argument goes it’s about brand integrity and clarity for the customer. We have several top-level brands: Windows, Office, Visual (i.e. Visual Studio), and so on. Everything else needs to build off of those, and to avoid mass confusion and conflicts, be as descriptive as possible.
Neat, clean, simple, eminently sensible, and boring. Apple’s marketing folks get to do iPod, we do Portable Media Center. Hmmm…again, jealous of the XBOX marketing team for getting to toss brand convention to the wind.
Don’t get me wrong, I know for a fact that there’s plenty of “play” going on behind the scenes at Microsoft, as an integral part of the value chain. It’s just by the time the marketing guys (or whoever) have finished doing their thing, the play has had all the stuffing kicked out of it. And all we people on the outside– the customers– are left with is just the shadow of its former spiritual self.
“Play” is a central part of being creative. “Creativity” is the future of business. The people who are slavishly married to the old, tired idea that “It’s about business and business is all about work, work, work, dammit” (see above cartoon) are just prematurely and unimaginitively consigning themselves to the dustbin of history.
Welcome to “The Creative Age”, Everybody. Including you, Microsoft.
[UPDATE:]
On the subject of Scoble, his Blogging Book writing partner, Shel Israel, has just posted their book proposal. Way, way, way more professional-looking than mine. Heh.
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I have a feeling anything “playful” Microsoft will do will feel like it’s been forced and out of place. Apple seems to be more naturally playful, but if Microsoft suddenly changes to be playful it will feel kind of strange. Steve Jobs is playful … Bill Gates is not.
Anyway; Apples primary market seems to be the average wealthy consumer, while Microsoft seems more business like.
Microsoft is already playful internally… it’s the external that’s the issue.
The question is, how to better express the internal.
Hmm, I wonder whether Microsoft needs to split into separate companies to server home vs biz uses? (Not different customers, it’s the same person buying different things for different purposes.)
I’m not sure you want your backup software to communicate playfully.… (which doesn’t mean it has to be boring and dead, but it does need maybe a different personality).
Hmm, a different kind of Branding?
Well, MSFT may soon develop a sitcom, call it Windows of Opportunity, that will be an incumbent’s variation on my would-be disruptive ‘startup comedy’, Land of OpportuniTV…
Details coming online at OpportuniTV.com…
For us, the best case outcome of producing ‘Land’ will be having marketing function as a profit center, a la The Apprentice — which will make our startup REALLY disruptive…
As such, ‘Land’ is designed to grow into a hierarchy of integrated, participatory shows for which the navigational metaphor is the org chart (org graph, really, a la W.L. Gore)…
We’ll see…
The summary point being: in response to unfolding market dynamics, MSFT may get much more playful soon…
hugh, I hope to find a couple of your cartoons in the redbook. I commented “I second Hugh’s call-in !! Its will be fun to see Blog cards thrown onto some books pages… !!”
Christ on a Crutch! The last thing the universe needs is Microsoft getting playful!!
Remember Clippy? Remember BOB? Remember Windows ME?
Everytime Microsoft steps into the gentler kinder warm fuzzy world, they produce shit.
When they build a browser which should just render HTML, they tried a case of the cutes with Active X, the bastard control from hell(yes let me bend over the keyboard and let you pound broken glass up my asshole)
Oh No Wait! how about SMART TAGS!!! Word Macros weren’t enough, lets give everybody the ability to scrawl graffitti all over everyones websites!
The good news is even though Microsoft is losing market share in the browser, network and OS markets, the employment opportunities are vast for all us folks who can use FDISK and FORMAT..
Cute is the last thing the world needs from Microsoft.
Remember Service Pack=Electronic Suppository
Part of the problem is when Bill Gates is talking about the Media Center PC — you get the sense he’s NEVER actually watched a TV show himself let alone thought, I should tape this.
Has anyone ever asked him, what is your favorite Tv show? And I’ll be stunned if he doesn’t name a newsmagazine or just something airing on MSNBC … name a movie, Bill — any movie?
Or a song — what was the last CD you listened to Bill?
To him and Steve Ballmer, they’re all just DRM containers — kind of like looking at a Ferrai and saying, oh, tires.
At least with Steve Jobs, we know he listens to music and has watched at least watch 5 movies (Pixar movies) so he is starting from a different place.
So unless MS actually decides to partake in pop entertainment, they are looking at the tires when we’re oogling the Ferrari.
Gates has one of the most expensive movie theaters in his home, so I bet he’s watched a few movies.
In a recent interview Bill said that his kids liked watching “Finding Nemo” on their Portable Media Centers. So, I think he’s at least aware of the Pixar offerings.