Zune, Zune, Zune
January 2nd, 2007 by Chief NutI’m at a TOTAL loss to explain this Microsoft commercial for the new Zune MP3 player. Certainly, we advocate that companies be “bold” and “fearless” in their advertising and overall brand development. BUT, what we mean is to not be afraid of connecting with the target audience emotionally (as opposed to rambling on about products and services). This commercial, however, is simply bizarre and disturbing.
Consider Seth Godin’s comments about why upstart products have such a difficult time kicking the dominant player out of the top seat and you’ll understand the abysmal Christmas sales of the Zune. That fact then explains this … errr, “interesting” photo of an iPod display table at a Tukwila, WA Costco.
The point; If you’re going to try and unseat the dominant player in YOUR industry, you’ll need to do it with innovation, creativity, freshness and ideas from the edge … not “more of the same”, bland, poorly launched, bizarre branding. EVEN if you have a gajillion dollars, like the team in Redmond, it just doesn’t work that way.
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
While I agree that the Zune commercials are not at all effective (ad agency that must be run by a bunch of Ivy-League 20-somethings who spent too much work time updating their MySpace pages), Zune, the product, is excellent. And if it didn’t come from Microsoft, most of the reviews would reflect that excellence.
Gene from ZuneChannel.com
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Thanks for the comment Gene,
I’m not passing judgement on the quality of the product. I can’t do that since I have not (yet) experienced a Zune. I have, however, extensively read product reviews and feature comparisons. It looks like Zune may, indeed, be a VERY high quality product.
The only problem with that is (a la my post, and Seth Godin’s post, etc.) that product excellence may possibly fail when put up against an established industry leader that is ALSO excellent. The only way to buck that is to go beyond excellence and to become remarkable.
January 5th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I just watched that commercial, and I feel dirty. I don’t even know what a Zune is, but I now have an image of a phallus walking around with an eyeball stuck into its, er, head, by a giant, bloodshotted, multi-eyeballed, upside down, flesh-colored Boohbah, and I don’t care to find out more about this Zune thing. In fact, I’m inspired to run in the opposite direction and never look back.
I guess Microsoft gets SOME points for trying to get creative in their advertising. But gee - it just goes to show when you try to be something you’re not, you REALLY miss the mark.
-Lani Voivod
www.EpiphaniesInc.com
“A-HaYourself!”