The Perils of Punditry

The Economist’s Microsoft After Gates briefing mentions that the company has hired “one of America’s coolest advertising agencies, Crispin Porter+Bogustki” to launch a $300M ad campaign.

I’m left wondering how this $300M, no matter how adroit the folks at CPB are, will change attitudes toward Microsoft. They’ve tried repeatedly to change their public image. They even tried to disassociate themselves with the Zune in the bizarre ad campaigns for the device.

A $300M marketing campaign will work wonders if Microsoft comes out with some new products that show a new product development philosophy. If Microsoft continues to turn out bloated monolithic apps with overly complex UI, I’m scratching my head as to how Microsoft will ever be thought of as anything but the General Motors of computing – big, financially successful, and representative of a bygone era that is rapidly coming to a close.

If you’ve read Naked Conversations, the blog marketing book by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, you know that blogs are a great way to interact directly with customers. You also know that to do it right you need to be accessible and open to criticism.

Ken Case, the CEO of software maker Omni Group, demonstrates how to effectively respond to criticism and engage with customers in a constructive fashion. In Matt Neuberg’s review of OmniFocus, Case deconstructs Neuberg’s review. He is thorough, thoughtful, and respectful, and he doesn’t pretend that OmniFocus is a perfect product.

Things get interesting in the comments to the post. Instead of merely posting his thoughts then retreating, Case stays engaged with his readers and encourages them to continue their own critiques of the product. He’s not asking for punishment, and he explains the reasons behind some of the company’s design decisions, but he appears to honestly welcome direct, detailed feedback from customers. I happen to use three of Omni Group’s applications pretty much every day: OmniFocus, OmniGraffle Pro, and OmniOutliner Pro. But even if I didn’t like Omni Group’s applications, after reading Case’s blog post I’d likely want to give them a try.

No spin. Just direct, respectful interaction with customers and critics. If only we had more of that online and in the physical world.

Tip o’ the hat to John Gruber’s excellent Daring Fireball blog for the link to Case’s post.

Image Credits

Cropped version of having a discussion by Erik Kristensen - http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikkristensen/293638211/ - Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license 

My friend Charles writes:

Boy, there’s just a sort of background hum in everything about getting too big and trying to be too many things.

IBM was crushed in the 80s and had to reinvent itself.

Microsoft looks like a utility that occasionally tries to dress up for the ball and ends up wearing last year’s Prada knock-off from the Dress Barn.

AOL was so ahead of the curve back in the day that it ran itself into a ditch.

Sun was the backbone. Now, it’s a cup of coffee.

Yahoo opened the door to wasting your whole life online until Google made general portals irrelevant.  (We waste away, all the same.)

Facebook and MySpace have the kids enthralled, but it still feels like kid stuff.

Apple looks like a juggernaut today, but….

So let us not badmouth the Yahoos of the world too much.  In their day, they rocked.  Now, they’re rolled.