Microsoft’s customer caricatures, for all the world to watch

By now everybody has seen the painful Microsoft sales “motivation” video about Vista SP1. Like most of these kinds of corporate videos, it’s hard to imagine provoking a response in its intended viewer other than a general feeling of malaise because one’s life has led to this moment. (If you haven’t seen it, go here and wince.)

I missed the marketing problem here, though, until Rob Sama, who’s not a marketer by trade, pointed it out:

But what strikes me about this is the extent to which Microsoft disrespects its customers. If this video is to be believed, the typical corporate buyer is a stereotypical caricature of the fat businessman in a suit, easily angered and kinda dumb… And if you are the boss, the guy who makes that buying decision, is that how you want to see yourself portrayed?

I did note that the tone of the video wasn’t, Hey, now we can solve problems for more customers! but rather Now they HAVE to buy it!

This was, of course, meant to be an internal piece. Guess what? Nothing is an internal piece.

There are always going to some documents and some discussions that you don’t want your customers to see. That’s inevitable. And sometimes they’ll get out, and that’s embarrassing. But why would you make your life harder by creating fluff pieces that present them as nothing more than purchase order generators whose purpose is to get you to your quote? What does that say about a company’s attitude?

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