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A comment on Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work by philwelch on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @11:34AM (#616953)
Wal-Mart is already an anti-brand among the market segment that would buy Gucci. Target may have a better chance, but Wal-Mart is too solidly right-wing, rural, downscale, and outright unpleasant to shop in to really threaten an upscale brand. I don't know Gucci (I'm not upscale enough for it) but most upscale brands are also more durable, while Wal-Mart's products are invariably designed to be cheap and fall apart in a few months so you can go back to Wal-Mart and buy another.
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Re:Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work by zaidf on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @11:53AM (#616990) 

  Wal-Mart is already an anti-brand among the market segment that would buy Gucci.
Kinda like Microsoft is an anti-brand to Apple fanboys. But both Apple and Gucci's customer base have a slice of customers that are on the edge and not necessarily fanboys.

A campaign like Microsoft's is often targeted at a very specific segment of the customers who are convertible(ie. not the Apple fanboys).

I only know this from my marketing analysis class where we studied similar case studies.

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Re:Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work by philwelch on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @12:12PM (#617031)
"Kinda like Microsoft is an anti-brand to Apple fanboys. But both Apple and Gucci's customer base have a slice of customers that are on the edge and not necessarily fanboys."

These are two fundamentally different markets here. Computers (even Macs) are cheap enough that they aren't as stratified as fashion. A Mac might cost twice as much as a PC (though it really doesn't), but clothing can vary by entire orders of magnitude in price. If Gucci loses customers it will be to a rival premium brand or a midscale brand, not bottom-of-the-barrel Wal-Mart.

The auto industry is similarly stratified, and I understand it a little better than fashion, so let's discuss that. The strata (pre-GM/Chrysler meltdown) were about like this:

*

*

Aston Martin Maybach

Bentley Rolls-Royce

--------------------------

BMW Mercedes-Benz Lexus

--------------------------

Audi

--------------------------

Cadillac, Acura

-------------------------- | ------------------

Lincoln | VW, Honda, Toyota

-------------------------- | occupy all three

Mercury, Buick, Chrysler, | strata

upscale Ford/Chevrolet |

(Eddie Bauer Explorer, |

Corvette) |

-------------------------- |

Ford, Chevrolet |

*

*

These strata are probably wrong but they're illustrative. I think Audi might be moving closer to the top tier, and I wasn't sure where Rolls Royce belonged but I made a decent guess.

No one says "I'm going to stop driving my Maybach and get a Ford Focus" unless they go bankrupt from buying too many luxury cars. Audi or even Acura could pick off Lexus/BMW/Mercedes drivers though. And someone who stretched too far and got an Audi might get a VW next time. But you're not going to have the lowest tier directly challenge the highest tier. In the PC market, Apple and Microsoft are already adjacent tiers, because there's no room in the market for any tiers above or below them. But the PC market is a lot flatter than other markets.

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Re:Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work by axod on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @01:51PM (#617222)
Don't fall into the trap of labeling people "fanboys".

I do agree though. It follows that once you realize how fantastic most Apple products are, it's likely Microsoft will look like utter garbage in comparison. Just like once you've driven a Ferrari, driving a Ford Focus will probably be a pretty rubbish experience.

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Re:Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work by jamesbritt on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @01:57PM (#617241)
"... while Wal-Mart's products are invariably designed to be cheap and fall apart in a few months so you can go back to Wal-Mart and buy another."

Maybe I don't shop enough at Wal-mart's, but I've not experienced that. They do sell some low-cost/low-quality items, but they also have name-brand items, but typically cheaper than, say, Safeway or Walgreen's.

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Re:Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work by philwelch on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @02:10PM (#617277)
If you're sure it's the same item, that's fine. Then again, they also sell cheaper versions of the same brand (Levi's for instance) that are pretty crap.

I actually went to Wal-Mart yesterday. There are things they do right (logistics) but in general, I don't buy a product at Wal-Mart unless I'm absolutely certain it's completely identical to a product I can get somewhere else, and that I know is durable.

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