Microsofts Ads Are Hurting Apple: Survey

Chart: Silicon Alley Insider.

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, and are successfully 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,” said Ted Marzilli, global managing director of BrandIndex, just now when I phoned him up.

YouGov is an international market research firm based out of London. Its BrandIndex survey queries about 5,000 people online from a pool of about 1.5 million. 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, Mazilli 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.

Via Silicon Alley Insider.

This article is copyright Cultomedia Corp.