Microsoft

Microsoft (MS) is the worlds most successful software company. Established in 1975, it is the 3rd most valuable brand in the world. To achieve this it established the DOS operating system, and created a user acceptance through consumer behaviour that expects revamped editions to its products. It has also successfully marketed to consumers via having its operating software pre-installed on Personal computer (PC) hardware in collaboration to IBM.

MS mostly advertises within PC magazines. MS has also successfully launched a series of Windows operating systems, from windows 95 to Windows 7.

In 1995 MS successfully launched Internet explorer providing its software to customers free, in a bundle with its MS Office products. That is, automatically users of MS office became MS Explorer users. The brand has been associated with providing software for effective computers at low cost.

During its launch of Windows Vista, MS's brand image was tarnished due to a series of bugs experienced by customers.

During its time of experiencing issues with windows vista, Apple released a series of campaigns aimed at tarnishing MS's brand reputation as being pron ed to viruses and bugs. Fundamentally, Apples aim was to deposition MS's brand and tell customers what they stood for at this time. However recently MS has released a series of ads using Apple's campaign creating its own marketing message creating the "I'm a PC - and I've been made into a stereotype". MS is successfully using humor to break this stereotype using celebrities to open stories to create deeper engagement with consumers, and continue to learn firsthand about what they want and how they purchase their MS software. For example, one of the ads features Bill Gates (CEO) commenting on how the company has successfully used its software to connect billions of people.

This insight helps me to understand that in the future if I was a manager such as Bill Gates, and my company encountered a similar deposition issue, it is a good thing to acknowledge tarnishing ads to gain customer trust back in this manner. The main reason for this, is because, I believe that you want to connect with customers on the same level that made them choose your brand in the first place. That is, reconnecting with them creates a deeper engagement and provokes the reasons they choose your brand, or remain loyal to it, and from a marketing perspective, I must understand peoples views of them self, others, organisations (such as apple) about my brand. I must also take into account the accelerating pace of technological change, opportunities for innovation (windows 7) and how to market these factors in an ever changing world of marketing.