Many have scoffed and scolded Microsoft for their new $300 million marketing campaign, but I applaud them. Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s first TV commercial for Microsoft was a smashing success, IMO. It created buzz and left many wondering what their next move would be and that was the whole point. I, for one, cannot wait to see what Seinfeld and Gates will do next.
However, I’m not so sure about Microsoft’s initiative to bring 155 ‘Gurus’ into retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City to assist potential customers in a face-to-face situation by the end of the year. 25 of these so-called Gurus have been tested out in the US and Europe since last year. The main objective will be to help answer questions about PCs, MS products and offer demos to try and tie everything together, so consumers are aware of what they’re getting themselves into. It could and should work, but I think a showdown between the Geek Squad agents and Gurus would create more buzz.
These sound less like Geek Squad agents and more like the Apple Store Genius folks. MS again stealing ideas from Cuppertino.
You know I hate to say it, because in all honesty I am a bit of a MS fanboy. I own two vista laptops, and use only Windows Mobile phones….that being said this does totally sound like a Mac Genius rip-off. And seriously, when you walk into best buy and circuit city, and there are about 40 MS laptops and 4-5 apples laptops, do you really need some pushy MS guy selling you on the laptop that is $400 cheaper than the Apple one?
Yes, yes, it’s a clear-cut clone of Apple’s Genius’ and I was trying to steer clear of that comparison, but you guys caught me. You wouldn’t want to see a throw down between GS and MS?
Are you guys serious? A ripoff of the “Genius’s” at the Apple store?
A) They work in retail, so MENSA probably isn’t beating down their door, and
B) Since when is having trained sales people in your stores such a novel concept? Sales people who can also work on their products have been around a while…possibly (definitely) since before Apple launched their first store.
Apple is a great innovator, no doubt about that. But to start crediting them with concepts that have been around for so long is silly. And to accuse M$ of copying Apple is, in this case anyways, also silly.
Maybe they modeled the training or approach after Apple’s “Geniuses”, but Apple didn’t come up with the concept.
That being said, it would be funny to see the role of the “Guru” degenerate into a Geek Squad employee specializing in Microsoft products. When people start bringing their buggy Windows machines in to get fixed, and that starts taking up the majority of the “Guru’s” day, it might defeat the purpose.