Money versus actions
There’s an interesting article from the Economist this week on Bill Gates and the future for Microsoft. I was skimming through it when one particular point caught my eye,
Microsoft will launch a $300m rebranding campaign later this year. To make Microsoft hip again, the firm has hired one of America’s coolest advertising agencies, Crispin Porter+Boguski.
I don’t think dumping money into branding will help MSFT become hip again. At the end of the day consumers can see through false messages.
Unless Microsoft backs up the branding dollars with openness, supporting the tech community, and innovating in a way that users really find engaging and attractive all the dollars they spend on branding might have been better spent as a grant to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
