Understand the response you want from consumers, and to do that.

As a marketing professor, I do blame the ads, and perhaps the product, but the ads don’t give us enough information to judge the product – that in my opinion is the problem. Most current Windows users are concerned about productivity, not the flashy interface that’s featured in the ads. How does the new Windows 8 affect my ability to do my job? How does it work on a PC/laptop, not a tablet, as that’s still where most work productivity gets done?

Up until now, Windows has stood for facilitating productivity – it was functional, even when it occasionally didn’t function as we’d hope. I myself was in the market for a new laptop prior to this launch, and I am now a fence-sitter as I don’t understand how Windows 8 will help me do my job. I look at these ads and I see flash, not function, and I don’t have time for flash in my job.

The core lesson I teach about marketing communications is to understand the response you want from consumers, and to do that, you must understand the steps customers typically go through prior to purchase – a process many refer to as the purchase funnel. It starts with awareness, and the Windows 8 campaign has done a great job of buildinWg awareness. Next is comprehension – do consumers understand the benefits offered by the product.

If Microsoft were selling beer, this wouldn’t be so crucial, but they are selling an operating system, which by definition is about functional benefits. The ads need to help consumers understand how Windows 8 will help them be more productive. Remember Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads? Sure those ads were entertaining, but more importantly, they communicated the relative benefits of a Mac. As a Windows user, I find their new ads somewhat entertaining (bright colors and flash), but they do not help me understand any of the benefits of Windows 8. Until they achieve that, consumers like myself can’t move on to the next stage – liking and preference, which then leads to purchase and eventually loyalty. So Microsoft, if you want sales, you need to help customers like me understand why I should buy your product.

Lisa Abendroth, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Marketing University of St. Thomas    

The problem IS in fact with the Windows 8 commercials

I think the problem IS in fact with the Windows 8 commercials. In a bid to be Apple-like, with quick editing and snappy music, they fail to clearly communicate how it is different and better than Windows 7. Everything I’m reading says that Windows 8 is very different from Windows 8 and will require a lot of re-learning and re-training. So why not run ads that more slowly, clearly, show why all this is going to be worth it, and easy enough? Instead, after having watched maybe 30 Win8 spots, I still have no idea why it is better and why I should change to it.

Rajeev Batra Professor, University of Michigan

Advertisement: The Click philosophy……“Creating compelling conversations and experiences between Brands and consumers and helping clients shift from interruptive messages to immersive experiences.”

The power that Social Advertising gives an agency!  The way you sell computers have changed and Microsoft needs an agency that fully understands the changes that have taken place over the last 3 to 5 years. Selling a computer or software is easy to do and I’m hoping Microsoft will take a step back and give new eyes a look at handling their account!

Because Social Advertising is the future and Madison Avenue doesn’t have a clue about the process or how it will allow their agencies to place real world sales on the table, instead of Ratings and Social Buzz! And for those that think the amount of people that you reach is the answer, please think again! It doesn’t matter how many people watch a Windows 8 commercial? The way people buy tech products has changed.

Agencies have to know how each product market has changed. And they need people that can count beyond 30 seconds! What an agency must always keep in front of them is this simple principle: At the end of the day when all the Social Buzz has died down and the Press Releases become a part of a bird cage, Sales is what a Marketer Needs! So the first question I would ask Microsoft is this, How Many Tablets and Copies of Windows 8 would you like to sell over the next 6 months? Then place a 90% to 100% Sales Guarantee on the table and then demand the account!

This is the power that Social Advertising gives an agency!

Now lets take Microsoft numbers… They might sell about 500,000 to 600,000 this quarter? Social Advertising would allow me to offer Microsoft a 3 million units, sales Guarantee per quarter, and for those of you that can’t count that’s 12 million units for 2013 and increase their own in-store consumer traffic by 60%! Here is where the if comes in? What if I don’t sell 12 million units in 2013? I would simply return the money with interests!

Why would any company want to be paid when they have failed to do the job! But at the end of 2013, after I complete my task that’s when I would hit Microsoft Over the Head, with an extension, and charge them 3 times as much, for 24 million sales for 2014!

Social Advertising is always on people! Constant Motion… Its always moving a client’s inventory! And that’s where the problem lies! It moves so fast that you run out of inventory! And yes as big as Microsoft is, it would not be able to supply the system with enough inventory! So one would always have to find a safe number; not for the client but for the system!

The future is simple dealing with today’s idiots is the problem!

Charles Allen Cofounder Moviegazoo.com F