Bill Gates: The Life and Business Lessons of Bill Gates by George Ilian

Author:George Ilian [Ilian, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs
Publisher: GeorgeIlian.com
Published: 2015-01-31T08:00:00+00:00

Branding

“If I were down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.” – Bill Gates.

When it comes to business and everyday life, paying close attention to branding is an indisputable key to success. Public perception is one of the driving influences of popularity, and Gates’ experience with this – both in terms of his own branding and Microsoft’s – has indicated just how important this can be. Gates is a man with a healthy respect for the importance of good marketing, once stating in an absolutist fashion “if you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.” During his time at the helm of Microsoft, Gates was closely involved with the company’s marketing strategy, including right from the company’s inception. In the early days of Microsoft, Gates would personally spend hours planning and delivering the company’s PR strategy. Initially, this involved spending a great deal of his time travelling long distances to pitch Microsoft products to potential buyers. Later, this role was expanded as Gates became the face of Microsoft by participating in a large number of interviews as the company began to enjoy early success. He went on to appear personally in print advertisements for various Microsoft products, and at the height of the company’s success, in high budget television commercials. In 2008, Gates appeared alongside comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a series of Microsoft commercials, which were seen as a direct response by Gates’ company to the ‘anti-Microsoft’ Apple campaign from around the same period. Although the $300 million campaign received mixed reviews, it nonetheless highlighted Gates’ own personal commitment to the value of marketing.

A more clearly successful instance of Gates’ personally driven marketing approach can be seen in the official launch of Windows 95. Long before the black turtleneck and Levi 501 jeans-wearing Steve Jobs’ made Apple product launches the annual must see tech event, Gates poured huge resources into launching Microsoft’s groundbreaking operating system with a huge amount of fanfare. Microsoft spent $300 million on the marketing campaign for Windows 95, and roped in celebrities like Jay Leno and the Rolling Stones to aid in its promotion. Following its launch, Windows 95 was a huge and unprecedented success. It has been purchased by hundreds of millions of consumers and has been run on billions of terminals. Perhaps most importantly, the operating system brought in billions of dollars in revenue for Microsoft. How much of its success was due to its accompanying marketing campaign is hard to quantify, however, it is certainly reasonable to suppose that it had a significant effect in making it perhaps the single most popular operating system ever. What’s more, Microsoft’s Windows 95 campaign was perhaps the first major example of making the previously unexciting concept of tech release dates and carnival of entertainment of sorts. It set a model which many, including Steve Jobs and Apple, would later emulate as a core part of their own companies’ marketing strategies.

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