Comments on: See! See! Apple is the Marketing Bully

By: altar555

altar555 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:43:03 +0000

Microsoft’s newest ad campaign got me thinking again about your post. How many different ad campaigns did they run recently?

-Windows Vista: The “Wow” starts now
-The Mojave Experiment
-Bill Gates with Jerry Seinfeld
-”I’m a PC” ad campaign
-Yet another new campaign (Laura shopping at Best Buy)

By: Downtown Vancouver Realtor Mike Stewart

Downtown Vancouver Realtor Mike Stewart — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:23:34 +0000

I agree with the perception that Microsoft are a bunch of computer engineers, but I would respectfully disagree with Apple being the market bully. Microsoft is the market bully. They have consistently designed their products to ensure their platforms and applications are central to the world of computing even to the detriment of advances and progress. If that isn’t a bully I don’t know what is. And I am lifelong PC guy (soon to be not based on my latest PC experience)

By: altar555

altar555 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:26:32 +0000

Oh BTW, when Apple is spending money on advertising, it seems to be quite effective. Apple’s business is growing, people keep talking about the iPhone, the new Macs, yadda yadda.

On the other hand, Microsoft is spending $300 million just to change Vista’s image. Do you think this ad campaign had a sizable effect on Microsoft’s revenue?

By: altar555

altar555 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:06:21 +0000

Apple’s yearly advertising budget is 1.5% of its revenue (486/32,479). Microsoft’s yearly advertising budget is 2% of its revenue (1,200/60,420). Who is the marketing bully?

By: Sasha Aickin

Sasha Aickin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:08:40 +0000

It occurred to me after I posted that you might have been taking the tack of looking at how much money each company spent on ads as a percentage of its overall spending, so I tried to take a look at that as well. If we take each company’s FY08 revenues minus net income, we get:

Microsoft: $42.7 billion
Apple: $27.6 billion

So in that comparison, Apple spent 65% of what Microsoft spent overall, but only 41% of what Microsoft spent on ads. It still seems like Microsoft is the more ad-focused company, or am I missing something?

By: Sasha Aickin

Sasha Aickin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 06:50:59 +0000

Glenn,

Sorry, but you’re just off-track here; the numbers don’t support your argument at all. As several folks pointed out, and the TechCrunch article updated, Microsoft’s total ad budget was $1.2 billion in FY08. Apple’s was $486 million.

If we compare revenues in FY08 (Oct 1, 2007 – Sept 30, 2008):

Microsoft: $61.72 billion
Apple: $32.47 billion

So Apple had 52% of Microsoft’s revenues with about 41% of its ad budget. On what possible planet does that make them the marketing bully?