"IT Manager World": Microsoft Windows7 lower your head

On the afternoon of October 23, walked into the Beijing 798 Factory Art District, the roadside is full of Windows7 billboards. Coming to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, it is already a sea of ​​joy. The scene is filled with nearly 200 different computers. In addition to the new features of Windows 7, participants can also play games.

The lights in the main venue are gone. After "one" to "seven", Liang Nianjian, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China, wearing a Windows 7 logo fur collar and a headset, sat on a high stool and shook his head with music, just like a professional DJ. same. Later, he and Mike Nash, Microsoft's vice president of the Windows platform strategy, demonstrated some of the new features of Windows 7. Whenever they complete a demonstration of a new feature, the scene sounds like a tsunami-like cheer.

At the end of the conference, when the red star singer Ren Renliang sang a song "Dream Window" customized for Windows7.

On the evening of the same day, Hunan Satellite TV's "Daily Up" program, which has a high audience rating, recorded a special program for Windows7. The famous host Wang Han also talked about Windows 7.

The King of Marketing's Mistakes

"Is Microsoft not a technology company? Does this entertainment and fashion style of Windows7 mean that Microsoft will overturn the past tradition and take technology? In line with the proposed "outside" issue, Liang Nianjian smiled slightly: "In fact, we have been targeting the consumer market from the very beginning, and we are very trendy. We have not changed."

Liang Nianjian said that it is marketing, not technology, that created the "king of software" Microsoft. You know, Microsoft's first operating system DOS is not even developed by itself but bought from others. Since its inception in 1975, Microsoft's products have often been no better than competitors, but they have been able to repeatedly beat the various princes who came to challenge. One of the most important weapons is marketing. In terms of marketing, Microsoft has dropped a lot of attention. In 1997, Microsoft spent almost $2.9 billion on marketing and sales, accounting for 25% of the year's revenue, while Microsoft's investment in research and development was only 16%. Just to promote Windows 95, Microsoft spent $500 million that year.

The secret of Microsoft's success has long been known. In 2000, four McKinsey experts published the book The Secrets of Success in the Software Industry. They surveyed more than 100 software and service companies from October 1996 to June 1998 and conducted 500 in-depth interviews. They concluded that marketing is the most important for mass market software companies. The success factors, followed by cooperation activities, globalization, and personnel management, and software development is only ranked fifth.

In the past, Windows product launches were not only the top priority in the IT industry, but also meant an absolute heavyweight marketing event that was as exciting and sensational as Apple today. Let's go back to August 24, 1995, when Windows 95 was released, Microsoft rented a 12-acre stadium in Raymond, and set up dozens of tents. It took more than 200 people to spend 20 days. The time is set. In the evening, the Windows 95 logo was lit up on the Empire State Building in New York, and the British "Times" was released for free by Microsoft on the same day. Of course, it contained a large number of Windows 95 ads. In Australia, shipping Windows 95 CDs even used warships.

The release of Windows Vista's previous operating system, Windows Vista, was also extremely luxurious in January 2007, choosing the iconic New York Times Square. However, the market performance of this product, which has been developed over five years and has been highly anticipated by Microsoft, is very disappointing. Vista, which was once predicted by analysts to become the most mainstream operating system this year, still has less than 30% market share. Windows XP, which has been "commissioned" for 8 years, still occupies the majority of the market, and there is no market at all. The intention to abdicate. What is even more embarrassing for Microsoft is that many consumers are asking for the uninstallation of pre-installed Vista when purchasing a PC, instead of replacing it with XP.

For Microsoft, which accounts for more than 90% of the PC client operating system, this is an unforgettable failure, and the problem is largely in marketing. For example, many consumers at the time saw the Vista promo of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, but they were both obsessed by the two in the shoe store and at home. The dialogue made it in the clouds. Although Vista's advertising cost investment was not lost this time, although Vista's advertising word is "Windows is not a barrier", the actual effect is to form a barrier between Microsoft and consumers. Even more difficult to understand is that although Microsoft has long planned to launch Vista in 2007, it still spent a lot of resources in 2005 and 2006 to promote the benefits of Vista's previous version of Windows XP.

So, in 2008, all year round, people saw Apple’s endless commercials, ruthlessly mocking Vista, and Microsoft’s counterattacks were not only weak, but also did not catch counterattacks. Focus. Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a market research firm, believes that Microsoft did not seize the opportunity to release the SP1 patch in February of that year, and strongly promoted to consumers that Vista has a lot of security and compatibility. improvement of.