I'd like to see Microsoft get really aggressive marketing Windows Phone 8.1

[ajst222]

Windows Phone 8.1 is undoubtedly a large jump from Windows Phone 8, and Microsoft needs to let people know. Lately their "Honestly..." campaign hasn't been bad by any means, but it hasn't been outstanding. I think they need to make this big. What really comes to mind would be "Don't fight. Switch" and then of course the lovely spoofs Microsoft did with Siri.

I think heavily marketing Cortana against Siri would be huge. Apple our a lot of emphasis marketing Siri for their iPhone 4s launch, and Microsoft needs to do the same to show the world what they have in store. And since Google hasn't really done much marketing Google Now, Microsoft has a decent chance and making Cortana look like the "premier" personal assistant.

Since Windows 8 launched, I can't praise Microsoft (and Nokia) enough for their marketing as they have done a great job. However, since Windows Phone 8.1 just might be the upgrade to put Windows Phone smack dab in the mix with iOS and Android, I just think they need to do something big.

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk

 

[Parishrut]

For that Cortana will have to be better than Siri.

 

[colinkiama]

Yeah, bash other platforms! But it won't be like scroogled since the other platforms have more market share. Bashing FTW!

 

[ajst222]

Yeah, bash other platforms! But it won't be like scroogled since the other platforms have more market share. Bashing FTW!

There's a difference between bashing using satire to market a product. I'm calling for the latter. It's not bashing. Scroggled was more like bashing because it was almost going out of it's way to go after Google without any real humor. The "Don't fight. Switch" and the Siri spoofs were much different.

Not sure why you're bringing market share into this, but how about the "Get a Mac" campaigns from Apple. Those were hilarious and that's because they were satirical. That's what I would like to see.

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk

 

[ajst222]

For that Cortana will have to be better than Siri.

Well I'm not calling for that now as it's in beta, but that's not necessarily the case. You don't need to have the best product to have the best marketing, and that's what it really comes down to when you have a competitive product.

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk

 

[sahib lopez]

I agree msft should show cortana front and center against Siri. It would show that windows phones aren't all about taking pictures but as a more personal phone with a better voice assistant than Siri.


Sent from my iPod touch using WPCentral Forums

 

[prasath1234]

I do not think they will beat Android people are now days lag tolerant ND they want anything that is bang for bucks in India.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[snowmutt]

I have loved the "split screen" commercials they have been using, where on one side someone is describing what they want in a phone, on the other they show the WP being promoted performing that task. Very effective.

As for satire- over and over, research shows 2 things sell:

1) Humor.

2) Kids and puppies.

I am all for the humor side of this. No need to get nasty, but funny sells. Make people chuckle, and your product is associated with a feel good moment. That puts it in a positive sense.

Not sure how they could work puppies into a tech commercial.

 

[ajst222]

I have loved the "split screen" commercials they have been using, where on one side someone is describing what they want in a phone, on the other they show the WP being promoted performing that task. Very effective.

As for satire- over and over, research shows 2 things sell:

1) Humor.

2) Kids and puppies.

I am all for the humor side of this. No need to get nasty, but funny sells. Make people chuckle, and your product is associated with a feel good moment. That puts it in a positive sense.

Not sure how they could work puppies into a tech commercial.

I think the "Honestly..." (split screen commercials) are good, but nothing out of the ordinary. That's why I'm calling for satire. They need to be aggressive with it meaning they need to market it everywhere...not sure where people got the idea I wanted bashing. Marketing that is vicious or nasty usually doesn't go over well. As far as puppies go, I'm sure someone can come up with something

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk

 

[bionicgt]

I hope to see a lot of promotion for it !!!

 

[iamakii]

Good lord I hope Microsoft finally sees the light. People should be informed how awesome this OS is.

 

[rodan01]

I don't think that's going to happen. This is a question about marketing spending to Amy Hood in the Earnings Call:

John DiFucci - JPMorgan
Great, thank you and welcome Satya. I am going to give Amy a question here for numbers. Amy, we see our sales and marketing expense declined 7% year-over-year in this quarter. Can you remind us if there is anything unique last year or is this just better controls? And along these same lines free cash flow, excluding acquisitions grew 2%, which is a bit of a surprise, given the direction the company is going and the first time in seven quarters we have actually seen growth in free cash flow. So, can you tell us how we should be thinking about this going forward?

Amy Hood - Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, John. I was getting lonely. I didn’t have any questions. So I appreciate it. Let me start with your first one, which was there any sort of unique thing that resulted in that comparable in sales and marketing. We didn’t have more a launch expense going on a year ago, but we also focused on rationalizing and focusing our marketing dollars in quarter. So I don’t – I think it’s a combination of both. And I would probably say more of the latter, which is really thinking and prioritizing more effectively throughout the year to earn the highest ROI on the dollars we are spending. We also did invest in sales year-over-year. So most of that is specifically around marketing, so I want to make sure that you understand that where we see opportunity, we are investing in our selling engine to get it, which is, I think an important caveat to make sure is clear when you see year-over-year sales and marketing decline. The second half of that, in terms of cash flow, I think as we remain focused on prioritizing and really thinking about the return on the dollars we spend, you did see also as I talked about earlier margins increase year-over-year. All of that had a positive impact on cash flow.