Gurus Chasing Geniuses

It's hard to see how Microsoft's "gurus" can make much of a dent in consumers' perceptions that its Windows platform is less user-friendly than Apple's. When you're talking about 150+ gurus trying to cover not only hundreds of Best Buy stores but also many other retailers of PCs, this is a Band-Aid approach to the problem. You can't walk into an Apple store without being able to encounter their "geniuses," and the latest Apple TV ads play up this advantage. (Not sure what advantage is spelled out by the new Seinfeld/Gates spots.)

If Microsoft really wants to reinvent the in-store experience for PC retailers, they need to do a couple of things:

1. Help ensure that the store associates are consistently trained on the benefits of Windows, regardless of whether they're selling HP, Sony, or other brands.

2. Take a cosmetics-department approach to the business, by subsidizing a lot more "gurus" with a lot more payroll. Just peeling off some of the $300 million TV budget for this purpose would do a lot more good than watching Bill Gates adjust his pants.

Richard Seesel, Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC

Any time you can find someone on the floor who actually knows the product, it has to help sales. The difference between Apple and the MS "gurus" is that the Apple geniuses are not there to sell or get people thinking "Apple." They are the face of a company to solve any problems. I've never heard them try to sell anything.

It sounds like MS is really just taking their sales reps and putting them in the stores. Not bad but hardly a fair comparison to "guru" status.

Bob Phibbs, President/CEO, The Retail Doctor & Associates

There are no questions that MSFT is at a brand disadvantage to AAPL, that ad mavens are questioning the campaign (and equally excited to be questioning Crispin & Porter, the MSFT ad agency that is doing work that a lot of other agencies wish they had done) and that AAPL has crafted a very Mac-like experience at retail. Or that the big box CE retailers often provide a less stellar and equally less-branded experience.

At the same time there are clearly some quality issues with AAPL hardware and complacency, potentially on the part of AAPL, is a very dangerous thing.

Given these facts and the low expectations, I would not discount MSFT or their commitment to making it work. While it won't make up for the shortfalls of Vista, the power of marketing and people that connect with customers--coupled with the size and distribution advantage that MSFT could realize--should put some real pressure on AAPL.

Benchmarking Nordstrom is exactly what they should do in terms of customer experience.

Phil Rubin, CEO, rDialogue

The gurus are there to inform consumers about Microsoft products. While this is good, it is nothing like Apple's geniuses or Nordstrom's personal shoppers.

Apple's geniuses are there to solve problems with Apple products. According to the Microsoft press release, this is something that the gurus will not do. It will be interesting to see how they respond when asked questions about problems consumers are having with Vista.

Unlike Nordstrom, where sales associates and personal shoppers are empowered to make decisions regarding consumers issues, the gurus cannot make any decisions, because they are none in retailers controlled by Microsoft.

The gurus are a step in the right direction, but they are not the solution for Microsoft's Vista woes.

Max Goldberg, Founding Partner, The Radical Clarity Group

The gurus have an uphill battle ahead of them. This is something Microsoft should have implemented decades ago. Thorough product knowledge and skilled communication can help the gurus overcome the negative stigma Windows has. Apples are awesome but PCs still win on price and compatibility.

Doron Levy, President, TheMortgageMachine.ca

I was once told that gurus are a good deal like diapers -- they should be changed as often and generally for the same reason. This is another example of Microsoft playing "almost catchup" with Apple. It should be as big a success as Vista.

Ryan Mathews, Founder, ceo, Black Monk Consulting

I don't see the Microsoft gurus having much of an effect. First, customers would prefer to talk with a guru that is employed by the store - a sales associate that can provide unbiased information about products and software offered by different manufacturers. Would you rather have a Nordstrom salesperson helping you or a Ralph Lauren salesperson? Second, many customers are well informed about the different offerings, have experienced using Microsoft software and know the problems. They don’t need a Microsoft guru to get them to think Microsoft.

Barton A. Weitz, Professor, Exec. Dir. - Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research, University of Florida

I agree that the Gurus have an uphill battle, although it certainly is a step in the right direction - if they keep them after these product issues are resolved.

To me, what is interesting about the Guru idea is the possibility of extending the idea into an online avatar experience. The avatars could have more flexibility than an actual person, if AI is used in their development. Personalities could be created to suit the user. As consumers interact with the Guru avatar, the software could adjust its responses to suit the mindset of the user - perhaps using say, a Myers-Briggs model. This extension would also round out the consistency of the Microsoft (or Nordstrom) brand experience.

Liz Crawford, President, Crawford Consulting

It is telling that Microsoft is in a position where it needs to take this action. Apple's reputation, its word of mouth, is so superior to Microsoft's that a number of former PC users are discovering Macs, and happily using them for business applications.

I have to wonder how effective this program will be; savvy customers should quiz these gurus on the massive storage and memory outlay required by Vista.

Cathy Hotka, Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates

If Microsoft wants to pursue Apple's tactics in marketing strategy, they should make it better and make it their own. I anticipate that gurus will be as disappointing as Jerry Seinfeld's first Microsoft commercial.

Joanna Kennedy, Sr. Marketing Analyst, Tomax Corporation

Microsoft is throwing good money after bad with the in-store "guru" concept, and my hunch is they will quietly phase out the program within a year. Apple is masterful in their approach to retail and is simply a brand experience juggernaut that won't be affected by a small number of sales people with new titles. I can't wait to see Apple's ad campaign making a mockery of the gurus.

Jeff Hall, President, Second To None, Inc.

This is a very reactive move and it is generally the proactive movers who are the winners. All the language in the discussion question is very questionable to me. The Nordstrom service model is very, very 1990's and few hold them up as a 2008 leader in this area. Guru's will be perceived as clearly "copycat" and in the Best Buy environment they will not be able to perform at anywhere near Apple Store level. This action will make both Best Buy and Microsoft look like copycat losers as opposed to innovating winners.

Michael Tesler, Founding Partner, Retail Concepts

This should be an excellent move for Microsoft, as long as they don't send out that Microsoft guy that is on the Apple commercials. And, they won't. I imagine the Gurus are more likely to be in jeans than ties. They certainly will be tech savvy, but able to dialogue with those of us who are less so. And most importantly, they will be able to answer shoppers' questions in a positive yet truthful way.

These gurus are not there to talk to the tech pros or those who know computers inside and out; they are there to give us confidence that we won't experience the horror stories we've have heard about Microsoft products and that we can use MS systems and products confidently.

Since Microsoft is the leader in PC operating systems, they certainly have the most to lose. Consider, if Apple made a 10% gain in their computer sales, it would have a tremendous effect on the company's bottom line. The loss as a percent of the Microsoft operating system's business would not look so bad, but the absolute magnitude of the monetary impact would be similar.

New operating systems are gaining ground, if slowly. Each will have a competitive advantage to Windows. The gurus must communicate that the competitive advantage is negligible to anyone other than a professional user and that there is a greater advantage in the breadth of products that are compatible with Windows. If they are successful doing that alone, this strategy will produce a big win.

Gene Detroyer, Professor, Entrepreneur, Adviser, Consultant, Independent

If I need a guru, a genius, a geek or a genie to explain the mysteries inside my computer and keep it working properly, there just might be something fundamentally wrong with it. Heroic customer service is a wonderful thing - unless the heroism is made necessary by built-in shortcomings and excess complexities of the product. Marketing work-arounds won't make this go away.

James Tenser, Principal, VSN Strategies

About time . . . you have to wonder what took so long . . . analysis paralysis??

Lee Peterson, EVP Creative Services, WD Partners

If anyone remembers, Apple tried this approach in Circuit City around 1997. The results were that the "Apple reps" were not always there when the consumers with questions were. The regular employees did not understand the machines well and most of them were not working or were in strange formats when the "Apple reps" came back. The regular store reps were reluctant to answer questions about the products because it was now "someone else's job." It was a first step in an evolutionary strategy to where they are today. Starting back that far in the strategy doesn't put Microsoft in a good position.

Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D., President, Global Collaborations, Inc.

Microsoft seems to be playing two games here: "Me-Too" and "Catch-Up". It has rolled out an ad campaign starring Jerry Seinfeld, and they are me-too ads. Yes, I find them funny, but they are funny without making me want to buy anything related to Microsoft. If anything, the only thing that I thought of buying was the full set of Season 6 of Seinfeld.

The Guru strategy is 100% catch-up; trying to mimic what Apple has done with its geniuses. But the geniuses have been living Apple products from when they were kids. You can tell just by speaking to them that this is true. I'm sure that the Microsoft Gurus will be people that answered an ad, went through a few days of training, and then sent out to the stores. This strategy can't be effective long-term.

I would be a lot more impressed if Microsoft found its own strategy that was unlike anything that Apple is doing, to really help set itself apart. But innovation has never been their strong-suit. They did not invent GUI, they did not invent the browser, they did not invent word processing software, and the list goes on. I doubt that this new strategy will be cool, and be the solution provider that will work.

Joel Warady, Chief Marketing Officer, Enjoy Life Foods

OK...I guess someone has to just come out and say it. Microsoft "gurus" are just not going to have the cool that Apple "geniuses" do because you're dealing with a different pool of job applicants. The Apple ads portray cliché characters, yes, but there's a lot of truth in these profiles. (That's usually where clichés come from.) Apple products have always been leaders in creative professions -- graphic design; animation; music. Kids come out of art schools and digital media departments knowing and loving Macs. The PCs are for the computer science departments, engineering and all other. Mac people tend to be socially aware, socially adept and in tune with cutting edge popular culture, i.e. cool. Microsoft has to try something, but cool shouldn't be attempted.

Rick Moss, President, Founder, RetailWire LLC

Microsoft is missing an important point here. It makes software; not PCs. Its nonsensical ads are doing nothing to drive demand for anything with the possible exception of the demand for a DVR so I can skip them. As a software manufacturer, I think it could better serve retailers by working the consumer end. Save your 150 gurus. Put an accessible and polite person on the other end of my phone call to tell me why my print drivers refuse to stay installed with Microsoft Vista. Give the sales associated in-store a cool little business card so I can call said polite person later. Gurus I don't need. A better customer experience interests me.

John Gaffney, Senior Analyst, Retail Touchpoints

Wow! All the experts have commented, but no one seems to be looking in the right place. What do the Microsoft customers want?

What they want is something that is EASY to use, and something that works like an appliance. Well, the entire computer/software industry seems to ignore this wisdom and has for about 15 years.

Microsoft isn't in a position to provide the solution that Apple can due to the fact that they don't make toasters, just bread. Apple makes toasters and bread and has the advantage of being able to optimize both by designing them to work together. The Apple genius functions to fine tune the toaster and the bread, but the Gurus' only have the bread to work with. If they know everything about the bread they still won't know anything about sound cards, modems, etc. It would seem to me that MS is trying to play catch up in a race they refuse to run.

Why aren't HP, Dell, Toshiba and the other box makers supplying geniuses or gurus? I don't believe MS can do anything meaningful at retail. Their span of control is too narrow. The opportunity to over promise and under deliver would seem to be HUGE!

Ed Dennis, president, Dennis Enterprises

Customers expect store associates to be objective, and not selling only one product or software over another. And 155 staffers in Best Buy stores seems minuscule to me.

This is a far cry from a Nordstrom personal shopper who will go all over the store and offer you a choice of brands to make a satisfied customer.

Odonna Mathews, President, Odonna Mathews Consulting

If Microsoft spent $300 million on better product design (reliability, simplification, and testing) they'd be a lot better off than spending $300 million on marketing. Microsoft today is like GM or Sears in the 1960's: they're doing great financially but they're sowing their own seeds of destruction.

If Apple sold its operating system for the same price as Vista, and if it was usable on the same machines as Vista, their market share would zoom like the market share of imported cars vs GM (and zoom like the market share of Walmart and Target vs. Sears). Probably Apple could charge double the Vista price and its market share would still zoom.

What software product besides Vista has customers demanding a downgrade? Vista is the #1 Apple salesperson. Vista is the #1 biggest embarrassment in software. No one who's wasted hour after hour trying to get Vista to work properly will laugh at the Seinfeld ads.

Another great use for $300 million: hire Steve Jobs to fix Microsoft. He'd be cheap at ten times the price.

Mark Lilien, Consultant, Retail Technology Group