[Sigia-l] WhatsWrongWithU

[Will Parker]

On Feb 6, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:

> So like any other "user-centric" company Microsoft has decided to  
> blame the
> user: they've launched "WhatsWrongWithU.com". No, I'm not making it  
> up. You
> can go there, email Microsoft and tell them what's wrong with you.
>
> Has anyone seen another example of a site purely dedicated to blaming
> (potential) customers for not buying a company's product?

Umm -- any website of any computer security vendor?

> Or is this pure,
> edgy, counter-culture Redmond genius at work again?

You're funny. Counter-culture at Microsoft consists drinking a quad  
tall mochachino and unleashing your inner howler monkey at the  
afternoon staff meeting. I happen to live less than a mile from the  
local zoo, which harbors a troop of howlers, so I can attest to the  
aural and behavioral similarities.

Getting to specifics, WhatsWrongWithU.com is looks like the filler  
that results from "third bullet point on the right and straight on  
til morning" strategizing by people whose families have lived in The  
Suburbs for three generations.

More seriously -  Microsoft's advertising these days, like IBM's  
before it, is to real marketing as Muzak is to Tom Waits, and there's  
a fundamental reason why the edgiest marketing efforts of both  
companies wind up feeling so flat.

They are designed to neither confuse nor offend their  _real_  
customers -- the officers of large corporations.

- Will
Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier