Don’t Punk Your Own Product

Ever since Windows Vista's release, it's gotten bad review after bad review. To make matters worse, a recent study released by InfoWorld reports 35% of Windows Vista users are downgrading to Windows XP! As a counter-ad campaign, Microsoft launched "The Mojave Experiment."

The experiment took a bunch of regular XP users who were afraid of Vista and told them Microsoft was going to show them a secret new operating system called "Mojave," but it was really just Vista in a different box. Unsurprisingly, these people mostly said they liked Vista.

Coming from a family of scientists, I can’t help but attack the validity of the ‘experiment’ on two grounds.

The Placebo Effect

When I was a bartender in college, I would always run into customers who thought their drinks weren't strong enough and wanted to be over-poured. I quickly learned that I could just take the drink behind the bar, stir it and hand it back. They would invariably exclaim, “Thanks so much. That’s much better.” That’s the Placebo Effect.

If we are told something is new-and-improved, it’s human nature to prime ourselves to believe it (Check out Blink by Malcolm Gladwell to learn more).

No Control Group

The second reason this ‘experiment’ isn’t scientifically valid is that there is no control group. There is no group to compare against to rule out the Placebo Effect. What they could have done was video XP people on XP machines disguised as the new “Sahara” OS and compared their reactions to the “Mojave” group’s.

So What? Don’t Punk Your Own Product!

So the "data" gathered from this "experiment" are not scientifically valid. So what? This is a viral marketing activity designed to look like a scientific experiment. Who would look at the Pepsi Challenge taste tests as scientifically relevant? It’s just a promotion.

What’s really interesting about The Mojave Experiment is how Microsoft is trying to combat bad publicity by essentially saying, "Try it yourself. Don't just listen to the negative reviews." That’s a campaign strategy--not a strong strategy, but a strategy.

However, the tactic of ‘Punking’ your own product, rather than promoting its benefits, well, that’s not strong. Look at Apple’s ads and you’ll see that each and every one of them promote their product’s benefits.

Benefit-focused advertising is Marketing 101 and Microsoft should know better by now.

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