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The Mojave Experiment

Posted by Jesse Friedman | Posted in Business,Consumer,Technology | Posted on August 30, 2008

The Mojave ExperimentMicrosoft’s Mojave Experiment can be seen on youtube and is being advertised on several sites across the internet.  Microsoft essentially puts people in a room and asks them how they feel about vista (even though they have never tried it) and then shows them a new OS called Mojave.  Every one of the subjects had nothing but negative things to say about Vista, again, their feelings are generated by colleagues, friends and families experiences not their own. Soon the new OS, Mojave is unveiled to glowing testimonials.  Every one seems to be genuinely excited to try Mojave and if you can’t see where this is going, they love it.  Here’s the kicker Mojave is Vista just re-branded with a new name and logo. I think advertising this experiment is a great way for Microsoft to make attempts to reverse people’s feelings about Vista.  By people I mean anyone who won’t buy it because they think it’s terrible but haven’t even tried it yet.

Aside from my feelings on Vista (I can’t stand it and it’s been nothing but trouble for me). I do believe that this is a great marketing strategy.  Microsoft has acknowledged a poor following of Vista and found a great way to try and change people’s minds.  They made a very bold move by marketing a piece that discusses the negative connotations of Vista. I really believe it took “guts” for Microsoft to stand up admit that Vista has a poor following.  Branding “See For Yourself, Decide For Yourself”, hits the nail right on the head.  The only chance that Microsoft has to try and gain a better following is to convince people who haven’t purchased it to do so and the only way that is going to happen is for those people to ignore every bad thing they’ve heard about Vista.  In the end no matter how good your marketing strategies are if you are selling a product that people don’t like, don’t want, or that doesn’t work the end result will inevitably be failure.

  • admin
    @Erin
    People don't dislike Vista because of "change" or because it's different. If that were the case Apple wouldn't be posting a 43% sales increase from just last year (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/24/technology/apple.php). People can deal with change especially when it comes to technology.

    I'm not saying that Microsoft has changed any minds or that Vista is really a better product (in fact I mention that in the last sentence). In reality Microsoft's only chance to try and change consumers perception of Vista is to try and prove them wrong.

    I'm not implying that "Praying on the ignorance of the general population" is a good thing I'm just saying that Microsoft had to do something bold and step out of the box, and they did.
  • Erin Lawless
    I suggest reading a consumer psychology book before making such claims. If you did, you would find that often in experiments when consumers are trying a new product, they say what they think the experimenters want to hear. There have been many double blind experiments testifying to this end.

    Praying on the ignorance of the general population is never a good marketing strategy. With the resources that Microsoft has on hand it should be downright embarrassing that one of their products is getting such negative consumer reviews.

    In my opinion, people don't like change and are resistant to the Vista program because it's different and takes some time to get used to. However, this is just my opinion and I have no market research nor evidence to back it up.

    The rest of what you say seems to make sense... just not the bit about good marketing strategy.
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