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Microsoft's Marketing Mistake
Admittedly, I'm no IT marketing genius. But Steve Ballmer's words last week about Microsoft's marketing strategies are troublesome to me...as a marketer.
During his speech last week at the People Ready launch, he said "IBM is increasingly a services company...and we are, at the end of the day, a software company."
To me, identifying your business by the products or services it provides is dangerous. It's too limiting and was the same issue buggywhip manufacturers faced over a hundred years ago. Companies like these take a product-focused attutude (a software company) versus one that is more market focused (a company that transforms computers into a person's best friend) and, in doing so, miss out on fundamental marketing opportunities.
Besides, Microsoft offers several products that most of us wouldn't consider software - Internet Explorer, Windows Media, and XBox come to mind.
But maybe I'm overthinking this. If you were Ballmer, would you be comfortable with describing Microsoft as a software business?
March 18, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
Good point. I think Ballmer might be confusing our core competencies with the products we sell. The thing to keep in mind, though, is that we have built our company around making great software.
What do Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and even the Xbox have in common? Great software.
Is our lead message when we sell the Xbox "great software?" No. Does it provide a competitive advantage? We think so.
Great blog!
Posted by: John Porcaro | Mar 18, 2006 11:23:36 PM
Jay, "services" in the IT world refer to highly paid consultants doing outsourced IT jobs, ranging from HelpDesk to custom software development. Microsoft does have a services arm, in the form of Microsoft Consulting. Services is not a nice business to be in, considering 1/4 of all I.T. projects failed, and there are price pressures everywhere.
Since software is cheap to replicate, making software that you can sell many times over is a nice business, assuming that you are lucky enough to have many customers who would preferentially buy your offering.
MS is signalling that it's doing well enough from publishing it doesn't have to get on the speaker's circuit to promote it's products.
I suppose Balmer is also signalling to the thousands of independent consulting shops who build custom solutions out of Microsoft software that they are not about to eat their lunch. The message has been pretty consistent over the last few years.
Posted by: Chui Tey | Mar 19, 2006 6:23:36 AM
