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Microsoft bribing people to come to store grand openings
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How pathetic is this?
2,000 people line up for O.C. Microsoft opening
About 2,000 people waited in line for the Thursday opening of the Microsoft Store at the South Coast Plaza shopping center.
The Costa Mesa store is one of eight in the world and the second in Orange County. Microsoft opened a location at The Shops at Mission Viejo Oct. 29, 2009 ? a week after it opened its first store in Scottsdale.
“South Coast Plaza had one of the biggest crowds so far for a Microsoft Store opening,” said Microsoft spokeswoman Caitlin McCabe. By comparison, the Apple store opening at Los Cerritos Center last June also had about 2,000 people waiting in line for the opening, Megan Richardson, marketing manager for the Cerritos center, previously said.
Microsoft advertised that the first 950 people in line for the Costa Mesa store would each get two tickets for a Selena Gomez concert at South Coast Plaza Saturday. It also lined up other celebrities for the Costa Mesa opening. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, shoppers got a chance to play Kinect with Lamar Odom and Khlo? Kardashian. (Come back Friday for a video of Odom and Kardashian at the store.)
Microsoft celebrated the opening of the Mission Viejo store with a Justin Bieber concert for its customers. “We don’t have a specific number from Mission Viejo, but we’ve had at least 1,000 or more people cheering on each store opening since 2009,” McCabe said. The other Microsoft Store locations are in Lone Tree, Colo. (June 10, 2010); San Diego (June 24, 2010); Oak Brook, Ill. (Nov. 4, 2010); Bloomington, Minn. (Nov. 6, 2010) and Bellevue, Wash. (Nov. 18, 2010).
Ha, free Selena Gomez tickets, she’s huge with the teenies, and Justin Beiber? He’s bigger than Jesus right now. I could open a turd smoothie store
and Beiber would bring in thousands of “customers.”And how about the pic of the store employee, acting all Ballmery. Lame. Do you MS lametards have any shame at all? Why not just change your logo to a fruit?
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We filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them. — Steve Jobs, 2007
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What happens three months later? I saw the huge MSFT store going up at the Mall of America and I saw pics of the large opening day crowd. What’s the story today? I assume they are shamed in comparison to the Apple store across the hall, but have not seen any comments.
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In a cold, snowy week in January this year, I visited the Mall. Traffic in the mall and in the 2 stores was on the light side. Customers in the 2 stores were roughly 50/50.
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MSFT retail openings follow a proven recipe of promotion over product. The sustainability of these stores is in question until lightening strikes and MSFT reinvents itself. Kinect was a big holiday hit, but the margins on this won’t pay for the t-shirts worn by MSFT employees.
The retail store traffic at MSFT, in its own backyard, is fairly decent. However, MSFT is not even in a horse race when you compare the number of customers leaving the store with purchases. MSFT has things to BROWSE by PC customers (don’t forget the 90% market share). Apple has things to SELL.
The lines for the iPad 2 had to hurt MSFT morale, knowing that they were unlikely to ever see lines in front of MSFT storefront again without free tickets to Mylie Cyrus. Unlike an under-capitalized entrepreneur, MSFT has the deep pockets to subsidize this misadventure for years to come. MSFT HQ no doubt justifies it as part of a longer term strategy to build something in the future that can be supported by a retail store. “Hope springs eternal” comes to mind here.
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DawnTreader
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Though unintended, the Microsoft retail stores are an admission of a failure in lack of originality. Beyond even that it reveals a corporate culture that still “doesn’t get” Apple. I’m convinced now the top tier of Microsoft management has convinced itself Apple’s success is due mostly to smart marketing and hype.
It’s unfortunate such a wildly successful company can’t see past the limitations of its eroding OS monopoly and use the enterprise’s resource to do something truly innovative in emerging product markets.
The company is more than a year behind in smartphones, is non-existent for all practical purposes in the consumer tablet market and is lucky Google has blown it big time in foisting Android on the public absent what should have been a major global initiative in support of the Chrome OS. Ultimately it’s Google Microsoft needs to worry about, not Apple. Retail stores don’t matter in that battle royal.
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I’m convinced now the top tier of Microsoft management has convinced itself Apple’s success is due mostly to smart marketing and hype.
Those are harsh words, coming from you DT. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft’s top management could be so delusional. And yet all the evidence points in that direction.
Saying that Apple is successful because of smart marketing and hype is like saying that the Roman’s conquered the known world because of their snappy uniforms.
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DawnTreader
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I’m convinced now the top tier of Microsoft management has convinced itself Apple’s success is due mostly to smart marketing and hype.
Those are harsh words, coming from you DT. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft’s top management could be so delusional. And yet all the evidence points in that direction.
Saying that Apple is successful because of smart marketing and hype is like saying that the Roman’s conquered the known world because of their snappy uniforms.
The retail stores are a knock-off of Apple’s design, Windows 7 mimics OS X and Windows Phone 7 has gone nowhere to-date due to an aging licensing model. The evidence does indicate the company seeks to mimic Apple without underlying changes needed to the corporate culture and approach to the market. Again, if it wasn’t for Google’s Android/Chrome OS blunder, we’d be looking at an even more challenging situation for Microsoft.
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Though unintended, the Microsoft retail stores are an admission of a failure in lack of originality. Beyond even that it reveals a corporate culture that still “doesn’t get” Apple.
It’s actually quite pathetic how they have copied Apple, down to the colorful T-shirts worn by employees.
To make matters even worse, it’s as if Ballmer looked at Apple stores’ success - and failed to look at Gateway stores’ failure - and just assumed, “hey, we can open retail stores too, and bam, profits!” As if what’s actually in the stores doesn’t matter. And you know mall traffic people will just wander in, thinking it’s an Apple store, and ask employees where the iPads are. Perhaps lamer MS wanted this, so they can try to sell their own rip-off tablets, but it really is just sad.
It’s one thing to blatantly copy. It’s another to do it so badly even the casual observer shakes his head at the pathos.
And I have to make another comment about this douchebag employee. How many times did Microsoft PR hacks make him practice his histrionics before the actual opening?
“OK, that was good, but once more with feeling.”“I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Apple.”
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We filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them. — Steve Jobs, 2007
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“OK, that was good, but once more with feeling.”“I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Apple.”
Funny. Actually, all he needs is Garageband—I think there’s more cowbell on an iPad.
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I was at the Fashion Valley Mall here in Sand Diego the day the MicroSoft Store there opened. It was also the day the iPhone 4 went on sale a few doors down from the MicroSoft Store, I took photos of the lines for both events.
The one in portrait mode is the line for the MicroSoft Store, the one in landscape mode is for the iPhone 4. I didn’t do a count, but from what I saw the two lines had about the same number of people, maybe a bit more at Apple. The bridge where I took the these photos is about midway between the two stores. The line for the iPhone 4 was a queued up maybe 40’ away from the Apple Store so as not to block the entrances to adjacent businesses.
My wife shops that mall a lot and I usually get dragged along. I will poke around in the Apple and MicroSoft stores and then sit up near where I took the photos, I can surf Apple’s free WiFi from there. Anyway, the the Apple Store is usually busier, and people are making purchases. The MicroSoft Store is not as busy and people seem to congregate around the game and big screen stuff.
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“Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don’t believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art’s sake.” E. M. Forster
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... like saying that the Roman’s conquered the known world because of their snappy uniforms.
Well, ya gotta admit, that fashion statement was pretty dang intimidating. Some guy with a sword, in a steel skirt and genuine overarmour, with a punkish mohawk on his helmet, if he even glares in my direction, I guarantee you I’m gonna need to change my pants.
Re: the post, I didn’t actually get the title. As I got into it I thought, “Well, good for them. I didn’t expect this. But huh, how come I haven’t already heard about this elsewhere?” And then I got to the red print.
If someone in MS marketing has really been smoking something not legal without a prescription, I wonder if they’re considering having John Hodgman make an appearance at their next opening. Shoot, I might fly from Florida to see that.
[ Edited: 28 March 2011 05:51 PM by cb50dc ] -
If someone in MS marketing has really been smoking something not legal without a prescription, I wonder if they’re considering having John Hodgman make an appearance at their next opening. Shoot, I might fly from Florida to see that.
PC makes appearances at Apple Store grand openings. Here I am with him at the opening of the North County Fair Apple Store. Actually that was a look-alike.
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“Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don’t believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art’s sake.” E. M. Forster
