
“The Mojave Experiment:” Bad Science, Bad Marketing - bazookaaa
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/07/mojave-experiment-bad-science-bad.html
======
scott_s
I didn't think anyone would expect a marketing campaign to even approximate a
valid scientific experiment.

~~~
mattmaroon
Is he anal, or an Apple fanboy? Or both? There's probably a large purple
center on that blue/red Venn diagram.

------
sant0sk1
Bad Science? Yes. Bad Marketing? No.

~~~
krschultz
I disagree, it is bad marketing because Microsoft is hitting the wrong market.

The people who make their decisions based on what Dell defaults to are going
to end up with Vista - because that is their only option now. There was a time
when they had a choice between XP or Vista with a new computer, now you have a
choice between Vista or no computer.

So this campaign is aimed at the people who actually make an informed decision
and influence large purchases - basically IT guys since businesses are the
ones still using XP/2000. Insulting their intelligence is not an effective
strategy.

~~~
sant0sk1
This marketing is combative of Apple's anti-Vista marketing. The goal is to
change the perception of the general populous which (due to brilliant ads by
Apple) believe that "Vista sucks".

This marketing campaign will resonate well with every person who has concluded
that Vista sucks without ever giving it a chance. I have a feeling that is a
massive target audience.

~~~
yummyfajitas
_The goal is to change the perception of the general populous which (due to
brilliant ads by Apple) believe that "Vista sucks"._

I don't think it's because of apple ads at all. Most people have an early
adopter or someone who recently bought a new machine in their circle of
friends. And a big chunk of those people have had problems.

So most people are 1-2 steps removed from someone who doesn't like vista (my
dad says copying files is slow, for instance). So I suspect this marketing
won't even really work that well. The issue isn't whether vista is prettier or
"faster", the issue is whether vista will be broken on my machine.

~~~
thebigshane
I think it works when the 2nd half of the marketing campaign pushes the idea:
"Vista SP1 has fixed most of those issues now". (disclaimer: I have no idea if
that is true or not, but it should work as a marketing campaign)

~~~
calvin
Trying to upgrade from Vista to Vista SP1 is what drove me back to XP. I
wanted to do a fresh reinstall w/ Vista SP1 and the installer told me "We're
sorry, you can't install to that drive because Vista is already installed."

It had other foibles as well and managed to crash due to driver conflicts and
other issues. All in all, I much more satisfied being back on XP even though
I'm missing out on some of Vista's new eye candy.

------
mattmaroon
I hate bad science too, when it's sold as science. For instance the arguments
put forth by creationists.

When it's an ad, well, it's just an ad. I don't think those Apple ads with
John Hodgman are going to be published in any scientific journals any time
soon, but they're still great ads.

I'd say this is an effective ad. I can't think of a better way to get the
message to people that Vista is getting a worse reputation than it deserves.

------
Maascamp
This is a childish rant. I'm surprised it was posted and actually voted up on
HN. Maybe things are starting to slide around here.

------
eru
Would have been better without the rant. That is, if the author had just
concentrated on exposing the bad science.

~~~
mattmaroon
I'm not sure exposing bad science in marketing campaigns is really a
worthwhile endeavor.

~~~
eru
Makes for better reading than a rant.

------
mynameishere
I suspect Microsoft uses good science in its internal studies.

