Sony Should Fire Whoever Buys Ad Space For Them

12:51 am EST November 8th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

So, I subscribe to MacLife magazine and I got the most recent issue in the mail today. I just opened it up and started flipping towards the table of contents where smack dab on page three is a two-page advertisment from Sony. At first glance I assumed it was for one of their home electronics products but then I looked closer.

Yes, folks, Sony bought a two page spread in MacLife magazine advertising the Sony Vaio Laptop. In big letters it says “Sony recommends Windows Home Vista Premium”. Is there any way they could waste their money any more than burning it?

This isn’t said as an Apple fanboy but at someone practically interested in advertising and marketing. You don’t advertise the Dallas Cowboys Fan Club in the pages of Washington Redskins Monthly, do you? How many people who have already made the commitment to read MacLife magazine are going to see this ad and say “You know, I’m clearly an Apple fan, and I have this spiffy Macbook laptop but I’m going to junk it and buy this overpriced Sony laptop with the widely panned Windows Vista on it”? None!

Also, even in the world of PCs, does anyone actually fall for Sony’s marketing spin on their machines? I’ve looked at them lots of times (there’s a Sony Store in the Pentagon City mall) but for the life of me I can’t figure why you would pay Sony so much more for a laptop when right across the street there’s a Best Buy with machines that are just as good for less.

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7 Responses to “Sony Should Fire Whoever Buys Ad Space For Them”

  1. Jay says:
    November 8, 2007 at 8:24 am

    I have a subscription to PC Magazine. For the last three months on the back has been a full page ad for the iMac.

    I’m sure there’s some market research that goes into these decisions, but I’ll be damned if I know what those results show. I’m sure both mags are happy to take the money regardless.

  2. Rheinhard says:
    November 8, 2007 at 10:06 am

    I agree with your sentiments, Ollie, but I am grateful to Vaio for one thing… my best friend from High School (whom I’ve been evangelizing the Mac to for years), had a fancy Vaio PC which became so slow and crapulent that it finally pushed him over the edge far more than any of my discussions had been able to, and I helped him set up his new brushed metal iMac 2 months ago!

  3. SpiderJ says:
    November 8, 2007 at 10:21 am

    I think Rheinhard hits the nail on the head…the marketing attempt is to reach those MacLife or PC subscribers who might be having bad experiences with their current machine and could be considering jumping platforms entirely.

    Mac advertises in PC because when somebody’s crappy Vaio gives them another blue screen of death, they suddenly find themselves looking at the back of the magazine and thinking “That’s right. A Mac.”

    Sort of like, if you’ll forgive the return to political talk, Dean and Emanuel’s strategy of spending money in traditionally red districts to try and turn them blue. “Tired of your crappy Republican Congressman? Try Brand Democrat.”

  4. stoic says:
    November 8, 2007 at 10:27 am

    Could be they’re trying to attract people who own both types of systems (OS X and Windows). We’re a mixed-systems family here.

  5. drinkof says:
    November 8, 2007 at 10:29 am

    “Also, even in the world of PCs, does anyone actually fall for Sony’s marketing spin on their machines? I’ve looked at them lots of times (there’s a Sony Store in the Pentagon City mall) but for the life of me I can’t figure why you would pay Sony so much more for a laptop when right across the street there’s a Best Buy with machines that are just as good for less.”

    Say one works for an entity (Pentagon? A state or municipal agency? A large corporation?) with more money than sense, and your agency or company has an open account with Sony as an ‘approved provider’. This tracks back to the old mini-computer or early random PC days (pre-PC’s as a commodity) when setup and service really mattered, and reflects both institutional inertia and, of course, the self-interest of the preferred providers.

    Did I mention that these providers somehow magically hire guys from agency / corporate purchasing as they revolve out the door?

    So meanwhile, 3-4 people a day come in the store, but what they ‘buy’ (with taxpayer / corporate money) is equipment that is overpriced, with huge relative margins.

    Remember “ReGo”, the ‘reinventing government’ emphasis headed up by Nobel Prize and Oscar winner Al Gore? One of the small things they put in place was allowing federal workers to purchase ‘stuff’ from Staples and OfficeMax rather than waiting 2 weeks to pay double from a federal approved purchaser. Want to bet how far that’s been rolled back?

  6. Jay says:
    November 8, 2007 at 11:39 am

    Stoic makes a good point. I am going to be buying a Mac soon largely because I used a friend’s one time and mess with Garageband which is an AMAZING application. But I won’t get rid of my PC when I do.

  7. Benny says:
    November 8, 2007 at 2:25 pm

    Good analogies, OW. However, I might pick up a copy of the Washington Redskins Monthly if Jerry Jones wanted to burn some excess cash in putting an ad in there just to stoke the rivalry fire. :-)