Microsoft Office team has been the development of marketing
communication plan for new product, Office 2007. Office was a mature
and widely-accepted product, and evvidence that custumers need to
upgrade because of Office 2003 had failed to meet expectations for
cereating desire upgrade
Jordan Passon-advertising director for MO looking for plan to finalize
the components of the campaign
1989-2002 : An Integration Revolution
The first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Poin.
The market leader for word processing application was Wordperfect and Lotus
1-2-3 led for spreadsheet applications-microsofts did not lead in any category
In early 1990s, Office became the best-selling productivity application, and had
more than in a 95% share application suite
2003-2005 : Serving the Information Worker Segment
One segment of Microsoft produst is dedicated to Information Worker (IW).
IW segment was responsible for developing and delivering technologies that
focus on improving technologies for information workers in corporation
On 2005 (Office 2003) the IW segment revenur reflecting slowing annual
growth
Theme
Goal
Advertising and
Promoting
Result
A world of Work
To change IWs Perception of their current Office
version from good enough to not good enough
anymore
Budget $30 million for campaign, 29% for digital
elements, 71% for traditional media
Traditional media improved recognition in many
counttries. Digital element special programs
drove nearly half of referral traffic, but they did
so at a much higher cost than research
Advertising heavy-was sucsessful in improving
awareness, but no movement toward perceptionchange goals
MICROSOFTS
MARKETING
QUESTIONS
Did We Have The Right Target Audience?
Was The Perception Change Too Hard To
Effect?
The target is right audience, but less-than-effective approach.
The launch had used copy-heavy advertisements that tried to explain too much,
rather than intruguing viewers and motivating them to learn more about the
product.
Microsoft had underestimated the impact of confusion among its target users.
For example, almost 60% user held the misperception that the current version of
office at that time was Office XP, rather than Office 2003.
People believe
the new version
was Ofice XP
Overestimated impact of advertising
Underestimate
confusion
among target
user
Advertising tried to explain too much rather
than intriguin
Undersestimated the need to experience before
purchasing
Targets
IWs segmentation, who had generally high levels of PC
skills and positive attitudes about the potential
technology and productivity
Goal
The team aimed for increase of 10% points in unaided
new version awareness of Office 2007, and shift of 6%
points in the I need Office 2007 perception
Metrics
Engaged in corporate-level marketing efforts aimed at
other segment, including IT and business decision
makers (BDMs) for Office 2007
Campaigns
Market segments
IWs
Superior
engaged (+/14%)
Earlier
adopters
Influencer in IT
decisions
BDMs
Enthusiastic
practicals (+/18%)
Not experts in
IT
Corporate-level
marketing
efforts
Willing to
spend on it.
Little emotional conection with Microsoft
Possitive attitited about technology increasing productivity
Mostly males (63%), maried, high income, live in or around urban centers
+/- 400 million worldwide
10% increase in unaided new version awareness
6% increase in the I need Office 2007 perception
GENERAL
STRATEGY
Moto:
Seeing is believing
Print
Televition
Billboards
Etc.
Digital
&
Analog
Promotion Mix
OOH (Out Of
Home)
1
2
Determining (and budgeting for) the optimal mix components
Determining (and budgeting for) the optimal mix components
Considerations:
Very important! Lifetime of office, already
20 years in the market
and other available
(google)
IWs perception of
Microsoft (update was
not necesary)
1. More expensive to develop
2. Effectiveness not yer proven
(possible diminishing returns)
Designing efective digital expericences
Digital vs. Traditional
Traditional
campaigns
Exposure-based
Boarder reach
Suitable!
Microsoft
nature is
Digital
New trend
Experience-based
x
Deeper and enduring
interactions
Digital (standard)
Broarder reach
Low cost
Analog
In store display
Office 2007 Digital Experience
Interactive (Flash-based)
Noninteractive (Video based)
Registration required
Free, web-based,
downloadable browser plug-in
Registration required
Full software free trial
Office 2007 Digital Experience
GENERAL ISSUES
1. Tradeoff depht and comprehensiviness
2. Effect on perceptions of each option
3. How those complement (or crash) with each
other.
i.e. Wathcing video was enough so they dont
want to try it?
4. Placement options:
Office2007.com
Broarder Reach: MSM, social media
(Facebook)
IWs segment: CNET.com (technology
focused)
5. Determine the sequence audicence access
experiences:
?: Online users more from demo -> test drive
-> download trial
Office 2007 Digital Experience
Interactive (Flash-based)
Noninteractive (Video based)
Office 2007 Digital Experience
Registration required
Free, web-based,
downloadable browser plug-in
Measuring impact of the digital experiences
How to know the effectiveness of
each digital experience?
Experience point system based on
their projected impact
Demo: 1 point
Test drive: 7 points
Downloadable: 14 points
Could they have a general currency?
How to test all their hypotheses?
Considerations:
Digital is a new
territory
Individual and
collective impact
Return on
investment
