After killing Apple, Microsoft turns its attention to Google
Microsoft is currently a bit-part player in the search market. But it isn’t alone. Everyone else is also a bit-part player due to the dominance of Google, which at last estimate had at least a 60 percent share of the market. But Microsoft hasn’t given up the fight quite yet and is preparing to launch a new search engine and an expensive new ad campaign to push it onto the public.
Microsoft currently has its Live Search search engine, which holds about a 10 percent share of the market. Which isn’t bad but also isn’t great. Microsoft clearly wants more and has been working on a new, more refined search engine for a good while now. A name change is guaranteed, although no one is quite clear yet what it’ll be. Kumo and Bing are the front runners but I have a sneaking suspicion it’ll be something completely different.
While most of us who use Google, Yahoo, or even Live Search are happy with our search engine of choice and the way they deliver results, Microsoft feels there is an opening there – people just need to be led right to it.
Which is why, according to AdAge, Microsoft is preparing a new $100 million ad campaign to support its new search offering. The budget compares to the $50 million usually spent on a nation product launch and Google spending just $25 million on all advertising last year. Although that’s mainly down to the fact Google doesn’t need to advertise because it’s already so well-known.
The campaign will cover all media, including the Web, TV, print, and radio. Google and Yahoo, Microsoft’s two main competitors in this field, will not be directly named in the ads but there will be obvious overtures to asking if the current search providers are really doing a good job or not.
A few months ago I would have questioned the logic of spending this kind of money on an ad campaign for a product that is unlikely to take a big chunk out of the market leader. However, having seen what simple and to-the-point advertising can do for Microsoft I’m now not so sure this is a bad idea.
Love them or hate them the ‘Laptop Hunters’ ads have gone down a storm. And the results are starting to show they are actually making a difference to consumers as well as just being a viral treat. Can Microsoft now do to Google what it has already done to Apple. Possibly, but the product will have to be great for the company to stand any chance of doing so.
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May 25th, 2009
I think Google does the job for most people in most cases in all honesty, and everybody knows that when it comes to searching, you say ‘oh well, let’s google it’ or whatever, it just has a ring to it and has become the main established search engine due to working well and being simple.
It will take quite a lot to knock Google off its perch, even by throwing $100m at it. There are few criticisms most people have of google, whereas there were many negative things you could point out about Apple if you tried, such as price which seems to be the main sticking point in that argument.
Then again, if anybody can knock Google off its perch, I guess its Microsoft.
May 25th, 2009
Have you priced equally comparable computers between HP, Apple, and Dell. Apple is NOT always the most expensive. That old dog won’t hunt. Sounds like you a MS shrill. And throwing advertising money at poor software and interface will not work. When will MS learn its Vista, Windoze lesson?
The real question is not if 7 is better than Vista; is 7 better than XP? Why switch when it costs (money and aggravation) more?
May 25th, 2009
Have you priced equally comparable computers between HP, Apple, and Dell. Apple is NOT always the most expensive. That old dog won’t hunt. Sounds like you are a MS shrill. And throwing advertising money at poor software and interface will not work. When will MS learn its Vista, Windoze lesson?
The real question is not if 7 is better than Vista; is 7 better than XP? Why switch when it costs (money and aggravation) more?
May 25th, 2009
The main criticisms people might have of Google would be privacy concerns as well as nondisclosure of paid search result placements, which Microsoft is or will be equally guilty of. I’ll be curious to see how Microsoft sets itself apart from Google in the ads…
May 25th, 2009
The more money MS wastes on these exercises, the less money Ballmer has to do something really evil. Me? I’m waiting for the $7 trillion campaign to convince people the moon is actually made from green cheese notwitstanding what NASA tells you.
May 25th, 2009
Just more Microsofthinking from the last century…
May 25th, 2009
What has Microsoft already done to Apple [with their current advertising campaign]? I would posit, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again! But I would like for Microsoft to continue as always. That leaves the door wide open for Apple or someone else who wants to raise the bar above mediocrity. And while it takes time to root out a monopoly (that doesn’t deliver), time is on our side—with a splash of Cocoa.
May 25th, 2009
Google is too entrenched in the market.
People “google” things, not “yahoo it”, people use “Word” instead of “writer”, Excel instead of Calc, even if they do not use Google or MS Word, or MS Excel.
The name brand is stuck in our memory. Breaking that habit is almost impossible (band aid, kool aid, google, iPod, kleenex) are just a few example of products who’s brand has replaced the product names.
I don’t think there is much that MS can do in already established markets, especially given their track record (Zune anyone?).
May 25th, 2009
The MSFT “laptop hunter” ads, so far, have been stupid. I don’t think Google has anything to worry about. If MSFT wants more growth, maybe they should have thought about crafting Vista and (soon) Win 7 way better than they did.
May 25th, 2009
If you made this column a bit narrower, then we could spend all day scrolling to the bottom of the article.
The AdAge poll was very flawed and is mostly trying to simply prove that it’s MS campain actually worked.
Which as far as AAPL is concerned was a total failure.
NT 6.1 is just a service pack for Vista. Big deal.
May 25th, 2009
MS killed Apple with their ads? Pretty funny.
MS was stupid enough to promote Apple as an equal to them even though they have just 10% market share. Free advertising for Apple. They just reinforced the idea that Apple products are really great but if you can’t afford them you can settle for for a windows machine. How dumb.
May 26th, 2009
People didn’t know Macs cost more than PCs before Microsoft’s ad campaign?
May 26th, 2009
Uhm, laptop hunters didn’t do anything to Apple. Did you see HP’s sales that were just announced? Their PC sales fell off a cliff. I hardly see how AdAge’s surveys prove anything when the proof of the pudding is actual sales of Dells and HPs.
May 26th, 2009
Remember this: It’s better to be in the top 10% than in the bottom 90%.
May 27th, 2009
Hi John and lrd…
Well put it… Nothing else to say. XD