Contextual Marketing and Windows Vista

Michael Gartenberg | September 20, 2005, 09:56 AM

I've been asked if I really said that Windows Vista was going succeed or fail on marketing. Absolutely, but it's not just about marketing to be clear. Marketing alone won't make this product succeed, it needs to be a good product first and foremost. The good news is that everything I've seen shown so far indicate that there's some really good stuff coming down with Vista (and Office 12 as well). That's why marketing is going to be key to how well Vista does in the marketplace. The problem is that this going to be a contextual product, there's no killer app per se, but lots of different things that add up to a whole greater than the sum of any part.

This isn't new. The DVR experience such as TiVo or MCE is a contextual product. If you look at what features consumers prize, you would see that they're broken down based on context.

No one feature leaps off the page but they are evenly split among consumers. If you're watching live TV, the ability to pause and rewind is killer. If you're recording a show, it's the EPG that is important at that time. If you're watching a recorded show, then commercial skip is the killer feature. None of these in an of itself makes for a killer feature but rather the combination of contextual features makes for a compelling experience. Except that it's really hard to sell context. That's one of the reasons why there are so few DVRs sold in the market but those who do have them love them so much. (getting cornered by a TiVo or MCE owner at a cocktail party, is like getting cornered by an insurance salesman).

That's going to be the Vista challenge. Creating a a strategic marketing message that encapsulates the different contexts in which Vista excels for both business and consumer users. How well that message is crafted and communicated will determine ultimately how well Vista does in the market.