Microsoft: Building a Brand Without Really Trying

It'll be a short-ish RCPU today, but we'd like to lead off with a topic we'll come back to later in the week: Microsoft's marketing efforts. By now, you all know about Redmond's ad campaign shifting from Bill and Jerry to the very PC Guy Apple parodies so skillfully in its ads. More on that in future editions.

For today, though, we were shocked to see that a branding survey this week placed Microsoft as the No. 3 brand worldwide, behind only Coca-Cola and rival IBM. Now, there are a lot of branding surveys out there -- really, a whole lot -- and we understand that they take a lot more into account than just how clever a particular ad campaign is or how much a company gets hammered in the blogosphere.

So, the title of the entry might be a little harsh. Obviously, Microsoft has built a brand over the years through more than just advertising -- and it's a good thing, too, because Microsoft's ads have mostly been pretty lame, as have some of its business-targeted marketing campaigns. The new crop of consumer-oriented ads has promise, but there aren't many Microsoft plugs from over the years that stick in our minds as having been particularly effective.

Still, having 90-plus percent market share in what is still (for now) the most important category in the software market must have engendered some goodwill over the years. And, for partners, that's a good thing. After all, everybody's a consumer, even enterprise customers. If Microsoft's brand really is that strong, maybe Redmond should forget about spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising and focus on innovation and product marketing.

Of course, Microsoft's current ad campaign is mostly about trying to boost Vista, so dumping the ads might be the first step to Redmond dumping the forlorn OS altogether. And, really, that doesn't sound like that bad an idea.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 23, 20080 comments


McAfee Snaps Up Secure Computing

It's a $465 million deal.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 23, 20080 comments


Windows Live Wave 3 Beta Starts

Catch a wave, and you're sitting on top of the world. OK, maybe not, but this is still pretty interesting.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 18, 20080 comments


Not a September To Remember for Ingram

Channel titan Ingram Micro is caught up in the economic slowdown with everybody else, apparently, and lowered its third-quarter earnings outlook this week.

Incidentally, we're still looking for comments on how you're handling what we think we can safely call a financial crisis. Send them to [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 18, 20081 comments


VMware CTO Looks Ahead

Stephen Herrod apparently filled in some of the blanks that CEO Paul Maritz left open earlier this week.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 18, 20080 comments


We Just Can't Wait for Windows 7

Very often, we use the royal "we" here at RCPU even though the same person writes the newsletter 90 percent of the time because "we" just sounds a little more elegant and perhaps less arrogant than "I." (Besides, we do have an editing and production team -- all your editor does is type.)

But today, when we use the word "we" to describe folks waiting on Windows 7, we're not just talking one person or even a few people. We're talking about the masses of people who have rejected Vista (in which RCPU is, to be fair, presently included) and are more than a little curious to see what its successor will look like.

In fact, as far as we here at RCPU can tell, the "we" that's waiting for Windows 7 represents the overwhelming majority of computer users -- meaning a fairly impressive percentage of people on this planet. Maybe that's why rumors about Windows 7 get approximately the same treatment as Sarah Palin these days -- every rumor, leak or commentary about the forthcoming operating system gets exposed, analyzed, criticized and dissected by bloggers and the trade press.

The hubbub gained steam this week when the release of the OS to private testing spurred rumors about a possible release date. Honestly, we haven't seen a Windows OS get this much buzz since...well, um, since Vista. And we all know how that turned out.

It seems in this corner of the Web as though Windows 7 has the potential to be Super Bowl operating system -- desperately awaited, massively over-hyped...and ultimately a disappointment. Oh, it's not that we don't think that it'll be a good product. It's just that there's almost no way it'll make up for the general malaise created by Vista, especially since it might not actually be that different from Vista.

We here at RCPU wonder whether maybe Windows 7, if it does fail to sweep users off their feet, will speed the move toward cloud computing and push the concept of an operating system further into obsolescence. We also wonder how much of a hit Microsoft will take -- more image-wise than money-wise, for the time being -- if Windows 7 isn't a blockbuster.

As it stands, for Microsoft, partners and the very model of desktop computing, there's actually a heck of a lot riding on Windows 7. Will it make up for the damage Vista has done? We -- meaning the waiting millions, not just the folks here at RCPU -- will see soon enough.

What do you want from Windows 7? If you didn't like Vista, what does Microsoft need to do to win you back? Tell us at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 18, 20086 comments


VMware CEO Mumbles, Citrix Shouts

Apparently, Paul Maritz's keynote did little to answer the big questions surrounding VMware. Really, Maritz giving a keynote and not mentioning Microsoft, executive departures or the company's over-a-cliff stock price is a little like ESPN doing a review of the year 2008 in sports and not mentioning the Olympics.

Meanwhile, still in Vegas, still at VMworld, Citrix busted out with the announcement of XenServer 5.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 17, 20080 comments


Redmond Dives Deeper into Data Warehousing

With the DATAllegro acquisition closed, Microsoft is making some noise about SQL Server and data warehousing.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 17, 20080 comments


Microsoft Finally Thinks Small(er) with Dynamics

"You wouldn't know a diamond if you held it in your hand."
-- Steely Dan, "Reelin' In the Years"

Have you ever really gotten into a TV show, or maybe even a movie, and just had a terrible sense of foreshadowing that the whole plot was about to go down in flames like the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football? (Sorry, we really tried to avoid the sports reference there, but your editor really enjoyed watching his Dallas Cowboys win that game. Look at it this way -- we've officially jinxed the Cowboys for the rest of the season. You're welcome.)

Anyway, you know what we're talking about here. It's the moment when your favorite show jumps the shark -- and we're very sorry for the tired, late '90s reference there, but if Microsoft can dredge up Jerry Seinfeld, we can get the ol' shark reference back out. Maybe an actor leaves, or a key writer quits, or -- worst of all -- a character gets pregnant, meaning a baby is on the way who will magically be seven years old the next season. It's just a sad, frustrating feeling, that sense of dreaded inevitability.

Well, that's the feeling a lot of folks have had for Microsoft regarding Dynamics, Redmond's enterprise software entry. There's just so much potential there, but Microsoft keeps messing with it -- not seeing, in the eyes of some, the diamond it holds in its bejeweled, exquisitely manicured hand.

First, Dynamics was going to be about simplicity, ease of use and, most importantly, cheapness -- if that's even a word. It was going to sweep into the enterprise resource planning market from the bottom up, giving hope to those mid-sized companies that trembled in the presence of monster ERP systems from SAP and Oracle (although, to be fair, both companies do have mid-market offerings of their own).

Then, somebody in Redmond -- keep in mind that the Dynamics leadership keeps changing -- got the notion that Microsoft could go up market with its ERP applications, and the big global systems integrators started sniffing around in territory where previously smaller partners had ruled. Right there, Microsoft began to approach the shark, as if to jump it; complicating Dynamics and jacking up its price tag would have killed much of its appeal and alienated its most potentially fertile market, mid-size businesses.

Well, according to RCP columnist, ERP guru and friend of RCPU Josh Greenbaum, folks in the Pacific Northwest have apparently come (back) to their senses and backed away from the shark again. Microsoft is taking Dynamics back down-market, where Redmond hopes that its massive partner army will crush the more direct-sales-oriented approaches of SAP and Oracle.

Greenbaum likes the move, and so do we -- especially from the partner perspective. The global SIs haven't completely disappeared, and goodness knows there was enough conflict in the Dynamics channel without them. But, with Microsoft mostly backing off of the Fortune 500 with Dynamics, at least smaller, regionally and vertically oriented partners will be back on the front lines of selling and customizing the applications -- and companies will have an attractive, simpler, lower-cost ERP alternative from a major (maybe the major) software vendor.

In other words, it's back to square one for Dynamics, strategically speaking -- back to the first season (to continue the TV metaphor) when the concept was unique, the writing was witty and the characters were engaging. Let's hope it stays that way.

What's your take on Microsoft's Dynamics strategy? Tell us at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 17, 20080 comments


VMworld Starts Spinning

Your editor woke up to approximately 346 e-mails about VMware, virtualization and VMworld this morning. While we understand and appreciate the importance of virtualization here at RCPU, we're still not experts in the technology. Luckily, though, RCPmag.com employs some folks who are, and one of them wrote up a pretty darn good VMworld piece here.

Also, don't forget to check VMworld news as it happens with our friends at sister publication Virtualization Review.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 16, 20080 comments


Gates To Buy Soccer Club?

Here at RCPU, we realize that most of our readers probably don't share your editor's passion for European "football," but trust us, this could end up being a huge amount of fun. Apparently, Bill Gates -- whose net worth seems to be dramatically underestimated in the linked article (surely we're talking billions and not millions) -- is thinking about buying Newcastle Football Club in England.

Long story short, Newcastle has a passionate fan base with Yankees-like expectations...but the club has more of a Cubs-like record historically. Current owner and Londoner -- that's kind of like a Yankees fan owning the Red Sox -- Mike Ashley is putting the club up for sale after just 16 months of ownership in part because he and his family can't safely attend games. The fans are quite literally revolting after the departure of popular manager Kevin Keegan, for which the fans blame Ashley.

And Gates thought the Macworld crowd back in '97 was tough...

Posted by Lee Pender on September 16, 20081 comments


The Global Economic Freak-Out and You

We're trying to stay calm here -- really, we are. We understand that this isn't 1929 or even 1987 -- and maybe not even 2001, for that matter -- and that the bright people who run our economy have the tools and the know-how to deal with what's happening.

We know that the economy is cyclical, that all sort of factors can affect it and that things have been much worse in the past. We're aware that 6 percent unemployment would have only been considered possible on Fantasy Island back in 1981 when jobless rates were closer to (or in) double digits. We get it.

But when names like Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers -- companies that have survived worse than a credit crunch or a recession, if we're even in a recession -- start to disappear from the roster of financial titans, we do tend to freak out a little bit. And when the U.S. government, which (rightfully) so loathes doing this sort of thing, steps in and nationalizes mortgage lenders (Freddie and Fannie, of course) because it has to, we freak out a little more. And when the stock market starts the week by dropping 500-plus points, we build an underground bunker and start buying bottled water in bulk.

OK, maybe not. In fact, we're writing this on Monday afternoon -- and by the time you get it on Tuesday, the market might be back up 500 points. That's how quickly the economy moves these days. Still, it's clear that there's reason for concern, so it obviously came as no surprise when we read last week that companies are cutting IT spending.

What we want to know is how the economic slowdown will affect you, the Microsoft partner, and what you're doing about it. We asked this question, or one very much like it, a few months ago and kind of hoped that things would be better by now. But they're not, really, so we'll revisit the topic again: Tell us, how bad (or good?) are things for you now, and what's your plan for riding out the downturn? As always, send your answers to [email protected]. As always, we'll only identify you by first name (so, if you're really hurting, don't be afraid to let us know), and we'll try to run the most interesting answers later this week.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 16, 20080 comments