Ah... I see some MINOR (sarcasm) problems in such a strategy....
1. where do you put your stores in order NOT to piss off the closes biggest retailer of your products?
2. the aforementioned retailer will fight back with discounts and the like so you cannot compete on price (as "geniouses" and "win" experts will be more expensive than the average salesperson in a conventional retail shop)
maybe open only flagship stores?
3. on which brands are they going to showcase Windows? Choose brand A and you will piss off brand B and so on...
4. if they choose to have multiple brands then the Windows experience might be very different (speed, performance, screen resolution, color, you name it) from one another, thus providing NO PERCEPTION of Windows as a brand.
5. Microsoft is in music (cough cough), computers, office software, games... How can they possibly convey a uniform message and feeling when their products are so different in target, experience, design?
6. How are they going to choose which brand makes the store and which doesn't? By asking money?
7. Since Microsoft mainly sells software, what are they going to sell there? Couple of Xboxes? Zunes? Windows software but no PC? A whole PC? Which brand???
Answers:
1) Next to an Apple store. How else they gonna generate foot traffic.
2) That way that solves the discount problem. Apple doesn't do discounts.
3) They will highlight the "Brand" that agrees to pay MS to be "highlighted" over the other "Brands".
4) Nah, M$ can tweak the bloat ware out of the display machines to make them go fast. Besides Apple's iMac can't be looked upon at the same performance level and speed as one can look upon the PowerMac and neither can the MacBook Pro vs the MacBook.
5) Simple, again M$ can look to Apple... Maybe call it their, and I am paraphrasing, "digital hub to their digital lifestyle" as Steve Jobs said when he first introduced iLife. Maybe M$ can call it "MiLife"?!
6) Yes, money is what makes the world go around. No different then product placement at your local supermarket or local Apple Store.
7) You forgot the Zune Phone. In any event. M$ will stock first the items they have in their repertoire. That should cover a couple of displays around the cash register. the rest of the store will stock willing 3rd party products and apps.
How much of an "experience" a visitor will get out of it? Remains to be seen...
I can see it now. John Doe drags his Wal-Mart special through the door into the MS Store and schlepps it up to the Guru counter.
"I paid $300 for this computer and I can't make a cd" says John Doe to the Guru.
The Guru after 10 minutes discovers the cd drive is bad and tells poor John about his discovery.
"Well fix it. I spent good money on this thing" says John.
The Guru spends another 10 minutes explaining Microsoft just wrote the software, but for any hardware failures he will have to contact "x company" to get authorization to send it somewhere.
"That's just bullshxt, where is your manager. You don't know what you are talking about. This damn computer is broke and I want a new one you idiot" exclaims John.
and so it goes... Good luck with your retail store Microsoft!
In a press statement, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said, "We're working hard to transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience at retail by improving the articulation and demonstration of the Microsoft innovation and value proposition so that it's clear, simple and straightforward for consumers everywhere."
You might start by making a statement that's clear, simple and easy to understand.
Analysts expected Apple to fail when it announced plans to begin opening stores back in 2001. Consultant David Goldstein of Channel Marketing Corp said at the time, "It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever for them to open retail stores."
Goldstein claimed Apple's retail strategy wasn't going to work because consumers "haven't indicated that they're having trouble finding outlets that sell Macs," adding, "It's another case of Apple being Jobs driven and not consumer driven."
It must be nice to be such an idiot and still have a job.
Quick! Somebody call a policeman! Retailers are being killed... Oh hang on, I get it now, you meant it figuratively, not literally. Thank God for that.
And thank God for you, too, allblue! Abuse of the word "literally" is one of my pet peeves. It grinds on me like fingernails on a chalkboard (I guess we're going to have to update that cliche for the times -- like a dry-erase marker squeals on a whiteboard? Maybe not.)
When I think I am alone at trying to make sure the word "literally" keeps it true and useful meanings, someone like you comes along and helps me fight the good fight (or, at least, the pedantic fight. )
I can see it now. John Doe drags his Wal-Mart special through the door into the MS Store and schlepps it up to the Guru counter.
"I paid $300 for this computer and I can't make a cd" says John Doe to the Guru.
The Guru after 10 minutes discovers the cd drive is bad and tells poor John about his discovery.
"Well fix it. I spent good money on this thing" says John.
The Guru spends another 10 minutes explaining Microsoft just wrote the software, but for any hardware failures he will have to contact "x company" to get authorization to send it somewhere.
"That's just bullshxt, where is your manager. You don't know what you are talking about. This damn computer is broke and I want a new one you idiot" exclaims John.
and so it goes... Good luck with your retail store Microsoft!
The opposite might also be true... Not all of Windows users a tech "illiterates" there are many "über-geeks" as well.
I imagine a line with an "über-geek" near the counter asking a MS Guru which motherboard, CPU, GPU he should purchase to run the lates Microsoft Direct X game ("if I build it that way, will it run Crysis??" cough cough).
Seriously... Microsoft is not a brand. Office, Windows, Zune (whatever its worth) are.
Imagine a small "Office Shop" showcasing all the advantages of Office for Mac, PC, server and all solutions in a interesting "café-like" setting placed in the heart of a financial district.
People can enter, get a peak about Office, be informed about the latest innovations and then maybe also have training lessons about Office (how many users really know how to get the best out of it??). THAT IS WHAT MICROSOFT SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT...
Then, maybe a couple of blocks away, closer to a residential area, an XboX shop. Where people can "demo" games, buy everything for their XboX, maybe organize competitions, get their XboX tuned....
That is a concept I would look favourably. But just another "shopping mall" with a different name is not going to help Microsoft get positive mind share.
Ah.. They should pay me for these bright ideas (which, by the way, were written on a Mac )
I can see it now. John Doe drags his Wal-Mart special through the door into the MS Store and schlepps it up to the Guru counter.
"I paid $300 for this computer and I can't make a cd" says John Doe to the Guru.
The Guru after 10 minutes discovers the cd drive is bad and tells poor John about his discovery.
"Well fix it. I spent good money on this thing" says John.
The Guru spends another 10 minutes explaining Microsoft just wrote the software, but for any hardware failures he will have to contact "x company" to get authorization to send it somewhere.
"That's just bullshxt, where is your manager. You don't know what you are talking about. This damn computer is broke and I want a new one you idiot" exclaims John.
and so it goes... Good luck with your retail store Microsoft!
That's why I don't think they'll have a genius bar or tech support area.
Okay... Yes, Microcrap Cough ( i mean Microsoft) is the largest software company in the world. But, in the last deacade the have copied mac to the point where its pathetic.
Microsoft Board- " hey, lets put a new taskbar in windows7!!" " How should we change it?"
Lets make it look like OS X's dock but instead of it looking like the icons are sitting on the dock, lets make them just sit there like it was in OS X 10.1" Its soooooo original
Windows XP was a hit.
Vista started to look more and more like OS X. Hmmm..... lets see, apple has their logo at the top left. Vista "ball" bottom left. Spotlight top right. "search" bottom left.
I was a windows user at one point. I hated Apple. I got vista, and it crashed my machine. I said I was done and that was it. I have used a mac every since and i think its the best computer software, and hardware company out there
You're an idiot. Above my words are your misspelled statements of idiotic absurdity.
(pause, to give MH01 a chance to reflect....)
Now, quit wasting electricity- and go back to bed.
Thanks champ! People make mistakes, these can corrected , shame its not that easy when it comes to personalities. May all potential idiots stay our of your way this weekend....
P.S Yeah electricity wasters suck, but so do oxygen thieves....
This is a freakin riot! Steve Ballless and Swill Gates wouldn't know a truly original idea if it bit them in the ass.....
The only way any of this will work would be if they actually made a decent product that wasn't a complete pile of SHIT! If they did that then maybe some of these lame ass ideas would work....
They should call these Hindenburgs (sp?).... because these lame ass stores are going to go down in flames...... This idea is about as good as the Zune.....
It's one thing to "me too" everything Apple does, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But what galls me is that Ballmer disses everything Apple does, then he copies it. Hypocrisy is not pretty.
This is a freakin riot! Steve Ballless and Swill Gates wouldn't know a truly original idea if it bit them in the ass.....
The only way any of this will work would be if they actually made a decent product that wasn't a complete pile of SHIT! If they did that then maybe some of these lame ass ideas would work....
They should call these Hindenburgs (sp?).... because these lame ass stores are going to go down in flames...... This idea is about as good as the Zune.....
Z
Their next 'idea' will be to get their customers to 'love' their M$ products, you know like we Mac users love our Macs, iPods and iPhones. Look out for heavy M$ investment in love inducing phemerones that can be distributed via holding a mouse.
The biggest problems I foresee are the store doors locking up at random intervals and the windows turning an opaque blue.
That, and MS's total long-established obliviousness to the concept of "cool." Bringing in a "Dreamworks" animation guy won't help.
I've (for whatever reasons) enjoyed every Pixar film and (for whatever reasons) have never even been able to sit through any of the Dreamworks cartoons. The talent gravitating around Steve Jobs have always "gotten it," while the nerds and suits agglomerated by Gates, Ballmer and Co. never have.
Microsoft Bob, "Clippy," etc. I rest my case. Ohhh, but wait, Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes at the recent TED conference to give the comfortable a "a genuine 3rd World fear of malaria experience," now that was cool. If cool means bizarre.....
All in all, I believe this "me too," Apple-emulating, catch-up effort will be nearly as successful as the Zune.
Its interesting reading all the comments and how everyone is so negative to the idea. Though for some of us that actually use both a PC and Mac might be a good idea. I am not going to ridicule it till they announce what products they are going to sell.
Keep laughing but it might actually be a success.
For one if they had an equivalent of the Genius bar, that would do wonders for them, cause these shops would be a central point for users to come with questions about windows os. It basically gives Microsoft a way to interact with their clients at a retail level.
Also who knows what products they might have up thier sleeve for these stores.
Now that Apple has become popular i find them acting more like Microsoft and Microsoft acting like the old apple. Apples behavior around the Iphone is pure old Microsoft. For some of us who are old school Apple users, today's apple is not the same, they got a taste of Big corporate $$$ and things are changing...
Clap for yourself, you can soon begin going to your Microsoft store.
Comments
Ah... I see some MINOR (sarcasm) problems in such a strategy....
1. where do you put your stores in order NOT to piss off the closes biggest retailer of your products?
2. the aforementioned retailer will fight back with discounts and the like so you cannot compete on price (as "geniouses" and "win" experts will be more expensive than the average salesperson in a conventional retail shop)
maybe open only flagship stores?
3. on which brands are they going to showcase Windows? Choose brand A and you will piss off brand B and so on...
4. if they choose to have multiple brands then the Windows experience might be very different (speed, performance, screen resolution, color, you name it) from one another, thus providing NO PERCEPTION of Windows as a brand.
5. Microsoft is in music (cough cough), computers, office software, games... How can they possibly convey a uniform message and feeling when their products are so different in target, experience, design?
6. How are they going to choose which brand makes the store and which doesn't? By asking money?
7. Since Microsoft mainly sells software, what are they going to sell there? Couple of Xboxes? Zunes? Windows software but no PC? A whole PC? Which brand???
Answers:
1) Next to an Apple store. How else they gonna generate foot traffic.
2) That way that solves the discount problem. Apple doesn't do discounts.
3) They will highlight the "Brand" that agrees to pay MS to be "highlighted" over the other "Brands".
4) Nah, M$ can tweak the bloat ware out of the display machines to make them go fast. Besides Apple's iMac can't be looked upon at the same performance level and speed as one can look upon the PowerMac and neither can the MacBook Pro vs the MacBook.
5) Simple, again M$ can look to Apple... Maybe call it their, and I am paraphrasing, "digital hub to their digital lifestyle" as Steve Jobs said when he first introduced iLife. Maybe M$ can call it "MiLife"?!
6) Yes, money is what makes the world go around. No different then product placement at your local supermarket or local Apple Store.
7) You forgot the Zune Phone. In any event. M$ will stock first the items they have in their repertoire. That should cover a couple of displays around the cash register. the rest of the store will stock willing 3rd party products and apps.
How much of an "experience" a visitor will get out of it? Remains to be seen...
"I paid $300 for this computer and I can't make a cd" says John Doe to the Guru.
The Guru after 10 minutes discovers the cd drive is bad and tells poor John about his discovery.
"Well fix it. I spent good money on this thing" says John.
The Guru spends another 10 minutes explaining Microsoft just wrote the software, but for any hardware failures he will have to contact "x company" to get authorization to send it somewhere.
"That's just bullshxt, where is your manager. You don't know what you are talking about. This damn computer is broke and I want a new one you idiot" exclaims John.
and so it goes... Good luck with your retail store Microsoft!
In a press statement, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said, "We're working hard to transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience at retail by improving the articulation and demonstration of the Microsoft innovation and value proposition so that it's clear, simple and straightforward for consumers everywhere."
You might start by making a statement that's clear, simple and easy to understand.
Analysts expected Apple to fail when it announced plans to begin opening stores back in 2001. Consultant David Goldstein of Channel Marketing Corp said at the time, "It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever for them to open retail stores."
Goldstein claimed Apple's retail strategy wasn't going to work because consumers "haven't indicated that they're having trouble finding outlets that sell Macs," adding, "It's another case of Apple being Jobs driven and not consumer driven."
It must be nice to be such an idiot and still have a job.
Quick! Somebody call a policeman! Retailers are being killed... Oh hang on, I get it now, you meant it figuratively, not literally. Thank God for that.
And thank God for you, too, allblue! Abuse of the word "literally" is one of my pet peeves. It grinds on me like fingernails on a chalkboard (I guess we're going to have to update that cliche for the times -- like a dry-erase marker squeals on a whiteboard? Maybe not.)
When I think I am alone at trying to make sure the word "literally" keeps it true and useful meanings, someone like you comes along and helps me fight the good fight (or, at least, the pedantic fight.
I can see it now. John Doe drags his Wal-Mart special through the door into the MS Store and schlepps it up to the Guru counter.
"I paid $300 for this computer and I can't make a cd" says John Doe to the Guru.
The Guru after 10 minutes discovers the cd drive is bad and tells poor John about his discovery.
"Well fix it. I spent good money on this thing" says John.
The Guru spends another 10 minutes explaining Microsoft just wrote the software, but for any hardware failures he will have to contact "x company" to get authorization to send it somewhere.
"That's just bullshxt, where is your manager. You don't know what you are talking about. This damn computer is broke and I want a new one you idiot" exclaims John.
and so it goes... Good luck with your retail store Microsoft!
The opposite might also be true... Not all of Windows users a tech "illiterates" there are many "über-geeks" as well.
I imagine a line with an "über-geek" near the counter asking a MS Guru which motherboard, CPU, GPU he should purchase to run the lates Microsoft Direct X game ("if I build it that way, will it run Crysis??" cough cough).
Seriously... Microsoft is not a brand. Office, Windows, Zune (whatever its worth) are.
Imagine a small "Office Shop" showcasing all the advantages of Office for Mac, PC, server and all solutions in a interesting "café-like" setting placed in the heart of a financial district.
People can enter, get a peak about Office, be informed about the latest innovations and then maybe also have training lessons about Office (how many users really know how to get the best out of it??). THAT IS WHAT MICROSOFT SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT...
Then, maybe a couple of blocks away, closer to a residential area, an XboX shop. Where people can "demo" games, buy everything for their XboX, maybe organize competitions, get their XboX tuned....
That is a concept I would look favourably. But just another "shopping mall" with a different name is not going to help Microsoft get positive mind share.
Ah.. They should pay me for these bright ideas (which, by the way, were written on a Mac
I can see it now. John Doe drags his Wal-Mart special through the door into the MS Store and schlepps it up to the Guru counter.
"I paid $300 for this computer and I can't make a cd" says John Doe to the Guru.
The Guru after 10 minutes discovers the cd drive is bad and tells poor John about his discovery.
"Well fix it. I spent good money on this thing" says John.
The Guru spends another 10 minutes explaining Microsoft just wrote the software, but for any hardware failures he will have to contact "x company" to get authorization to send it somewhere.
"That's just bullshxt, where is your manager. You don't know what you are talking about. This damn computer is broke and I want a new one you idiot" exclaims John.
and so it goes... Good luck with your retail store Microsoft!
That's why I don't think they'll have a genius bar or tech support area.
Microsoft Board- " hey, lets put a new taskbar in windows7!!" " How should we change it?"
Lets make it look like OS X's dock but instead of it looking like the icons are sitting on the dock, lets make them just sit there like it was in OS X 10.1" Its soooooo original
Windows XP was a hit.
Vista started to look more and more like OS X. Hmmm..... lets see, apple has their logo at the top left. Vista "ball" bottom left. Spotlight top right. "search" bottom left.
I was a windows user at one point. I hated Apple. I got vista, and it crashed my machine. I said I was done and that was it. I have used a mac every since and i think its the best computer software, and hardware company out there
You're an idiot. Above my words are your misspelled statements of idiotic absurdity.
(pause, to give MH01 a chance to reflect....)
Now, quit wasting electricity- and go back to bed.
Thanks champ! People make mistakes, these can corrected , shame its not that easy when it comes to personalities. May all potential idiots stay our of your way this weekend....
P.S Yeah electricity wasters suck, but so do oxygen thieves....
That is the beginning of the end of Microsoft.
What will they sell?
Software? Zunes and get
What will they sell? Broken Windows!
And imagine how big and busy the Glazer Bar will have to be.
The only way any of this will work would be if they actually made a decent product that wasn't a complete pile of SHIT! If they did that then maybe some of these lame ass ideas would work....
They should call these Hindenburgs (sp?).... because these lame ass stores are going to go down in flames...... This idea is about as good as the Zune.....
Z
That's why I don't think they'll have a genius bar or tech support area.
If there are genius bars we Mac folks should support this venture and all go with known Windows issues to ask them as soon as they open.
This is a freakin riot! Steve Ballless and Swill Gates wouldn't know a truly original idea if it bit them in the ass.....
The only way any of this will work would be if they actually made a decent product that wasn't a complete pile of SHIT! If they did that then maybe some of these lame ass ideas would work....
They should call these Hindenburgs (sp?).... because these lame ass stores are going to go down in flames...... This idea is about as good as the Zune.....
Z
Their next 'idea' will be to get their customers to 'love' their M$ products, you know like we Mac users love our Macs, iPods and iPhones. Look out for heavy M$ investment in love inducing phemerones that can be distributed via holding a mouse.
Oh for christ sake, this is getting ridiculous.
Tell me about it, it's like they have no shame.
That, and MS's total long-established obliviousness to the concept of "cool." Bringing in a "Dreamworks" animation guy won't help.
I've (for whatever reasons) enjoyed every Pixar film and (for whatever reasons) have never even been able to sit through any of the Dreamworks cartoons. The talent gravitating around Steve Jobs have always "gotten it," while the nerds and suits agglomerated by Gates, Ballmer and Co. never have.
Microsoft Bob, "Clippy," etc. I rest my case. Ohhh, but wait, Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes at the recent TED conference to give the comfortable a "a genuine 3rd World fear of malaria experience," now that was cool. If cool means bizarre.....
All in all, I believe this "me too," Apple-emulating, catch-up effort will be nearly as successful as the Zune.
http://digitalclips.com/M$.jpg
Its interesting reading all the comments and how everyone is so negative to the idea. Though for some of us that actually use both a PC and Mac might be a good idea. I am not going to ridicule it till they announce what products they are going to sell.
Keep laughing but it might actually be a success.
For one if they had an equivalent of the Genius bar, that would do wonders for them, cause these shops would be a central point for users to come with questions about windows os. It basically gives Microsoft a way to interact with their clients at a retail level.
Also who knows what products they might have up thier sleeve for these stores.
Now that Apple has become popular i find them acting more like Microsoft and Microsoft acting like the old apple. Apples behavior around the Iphone is pure old Microsoft. For some of us who are old school Apple users, today's apple is not the same, they got a taste of Big corporate $$$ and things are changing...
Clap for yourself, you can soon begin going to your Microsoft store.