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OK, if you’ve been within 10 feet of me, or the internet equivalent of one degree of separation over the past few months, you know that I have been “living with Windows Vista” and it is completely horrible. Crashes, file loss, slowness, lots of software incompatibility, and the feeling that no one at Microsoft will help (I haven’t specifically asked, but I did ask my computer manufacturer about installing XP, and didn’t hear back). Honestly, do you think they would listen to me tell them that they need to completely overhaul the OS they spent so many years developing?

I recently saw that Microsoft has launched a new marketing campaign called The Mojave Experiment, which is basically the “Pepsi Challenge” for Vista. Basically, they tell users that there is a new version of Windows called “Mojave”, and show the users how it works, and they’re all very impressed and surprised to find out later that it’s Vista, since they’ve heard such negative things about it.

Now, I SWEAR I had a completely open mind when I tried Vista, I was even a little excited to see what a new operating system would do. After months of frustration, and feeling like I have invested so much on software for the Windows platform, I am seriously very worried about my choice. Honestly, I would have chosen a Mac hands down if I had known it would have been this bad. Interestingly, you can do all sorts of cool things on a Mac like run windows . . . which is intriguing option, getting you around any software issues you might run into. Plus, macs are cuter and cooler (this is good marketing, by the way).

Why is this Mojave Experiment bad marketing on Microsoft’s side? Well, they’re battling Word of Mouth advertising, as people like me are telling EVERYONE how bad it is–and I’ll admit it, I am using internet/social media such as Facebook and Twitter to complain (check out the latest Twitter “Windows Vista” Search). Part of it is the daily frustration, part of it is to try to turn the tide so that they will do something about it. Also, when I’m waiting for Vista to respond, I’m here waiting at my computer, and my Twitter window is there waiting to “listen” to my complaint. What MS doesn’t fully realize is that word of mouth advertising can be 10’s of THOUSANDS of times more effective than any advertising they can do, according to the book Word of Mouth Advertising. Think about it. How many Ads have you been exposed to over the past week on the radio, TV, billboards, etc. 100? 500? Do you remember any of them? Did someone suggest a product or movie to you over the past week–just once, and you remember it, right? So, they’re going to have to spend a lot of money advertising to overcome people who have used Vista, are frustrated, and are spreading the word.

Microsoft needs to realize that this problem isn’t going away. Yes, they can get a computer up and perfectly running with Vista and impress a few people. Whether those people will still be happy once they install and run the program is a VASTLY different question. The Pepsi Challenge doesn’t apply here. They need to go back to their PRODUCT and improve it, there is absolutely no question about it. This is at the heart of good marketing. Changing people’s opinions and perspectives is VERY hard. And, as you can see here, this marketing campaign is just spurning people like me on, to use the power of word of mouth advertising even more, because we FEEL AS THOUGH MICROSOFT IS NOT LISTENING.

I honestly think MS’s foibles with Vista will adversely affect business over the next 5-10 years, if they don’t do anything drastic to fix it (remember XP stayed around for 7 years). Yes, I think it’s that bad. And honestly, I don’t have time to complain about things that are working, so know that I’m not just blowing smoke through broken Windows.

P.S. upon further research, I found that in the Malcolm Gladwell book Blink he points out that the Pepsi Challenge was actually misleading because people prefer Pepsi’s sweetness when they have the initial sip, but prefer the satisfaction that comes from drinking a can of Coke. The similarities to the Mojave experiment are intriguing (a test of Vista in a controlled environment is a “sip”), and I’m not the first one to realize this. Criticism of the Mojave Experiment has also filtered up to the NY Times.