Microsoft’s Ads Are Hurting Apple: Survey
UPDATED: YouGov sent a little more info about the survey’s other metrics — posted after the jump. Basically, Apple still leads on quality and reputation, but MS has caught on value, satisfaction and willingness to recommend.
Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunters” ad campaign is hurting Apple, according to a new consmer survey by YouGov BrandIndex.
Redmond’s new ads portray consumers rejecting Apple’s laptops as too expensive. Though clearly a defensive reaction to Apple’s successful “Get a Mac” ads, they are nonetheless reinforcing the stereotype of the “Apple tax,” says YouGov.
“With the Laptop Hunters campaign, Microsoft is making an impact on the perceived value score in the mind of consumers, particularly young consumers,” Ted Marzilli, global managing director of BrandIndex, said on Tuesday afternoon when I phoned him up.
YouGov is an international market research firm based out of London. Its BrandIndex survey queried about 5,000 people online from a pool of about 1.5 million, Marzilli said. It claims to be representative of the U.S. adult population.
Its latest survey shows a clear uptick in Microsoft’s “value,” and a clear downtick in Apple’s. The change coincides with Microsoft’s high-profile campaign.
Marzilli said the ads are clearly hurting Apple’s “value,” which he defined as a measure of “what you get for your money, not expense.” In other words, consumers think they will get more for their money if they buy a non-Apple machine, Marzilli said.
Marzilli said the movement was not huge, but was “statistically significant.”
However, it should be noted that Apple wasn’t hurt in other metrics measured by the survey — such as satisfaction, quality and reputation.
“If you look at some of the other metrics, Apple typically fares better than Microsoft,” Marzilli said. (Unfortunately, Marzilli didn’t have the data to hand. He promised to send me an email, and I’ll update this post when I receive it).
Alos, Marzilli said it’s unclear if changing consumer perceptions will continue over the next few months or have any impact on sales,
“It’s too early to tell,” he said.
UPDATE. As promised, Ted Marzilli sent info about the other metrics:
Apple has and still leads on: Quality (although MS has closed the gap) and Reputation.
MS has recently overtaken Apple on: Satisfaction and Value
MS has recently caught up to (i.e., virtually tied) on: General Impression, Willingness to Recommend
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