Microsoft’s Next Search Move? Bing Merchandise.

By  |  Friday, June 19, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Bing LogoYou have to give the Bing faithful some credit. These folks are a persevering bunch and despite indications that it’s not doing all that much better than Windows Live did, they’d have you believing its the second coming of Google. Well, now the company is going full bore now and plans to offer merchandise to promote its new “decision engine.”

That’s right. Want a nice t-shirt emblazoned with the Bing logo? According to sources at Microsoft, its coming. How about a nice coffee mug or mousepad? That will probably be on its way too.

(This seems about as well thought out as Microsoft’s attempt at making dorkiness fashionable through its own line of clothing introduced last December.)

Call me crazy, but what is the point of this other than to appease the Microsoft fandom? Who really would want to buy this stuff? Is Redmond that desperate to beat Google that it would do just about anything to get the Bing name out in front of consumers?

There is such a thing as over-saturation in marketing. It’s probably the most feared event among public relations professionals: where a brand is in front of the consumers face so much that it actually begins to drive them away.

Bing seems awfully close to this. Google did not get to where it is now through a $100 million ad budget: it just worked well for consumers, who gravitated to it naturally. Microsoft seems to think it will just be able to advertise it’s way into contention.

Unfortunately for them the world does not work like that.

 
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4 Comments For This Post

  1. Bingy User Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    So you don’t call a 22% increase statistically significant?

    http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/6/Bing_Continues_to_Show_Growth_in_Search_Activity_According_to_comScore

  2. JustCallMeBen Says:
    June 21st, 2009 at 3:36 am

    MS is doing the only thing it’s good ad: instead of drawing users to them (by, for example, offering a superior product or fair prices :p), it’s putting itself out there getting in everybody’s face, hoping people will choose them, just because it’s there.

    It’s working with IE and all Windows-bundled apps, so MS continues to use this strategy. But it won’t work here: people are already using google. The average consumer doesn’t want to switch, since switching scares them and the power-user won’t switch to bing cause power-users want to make their decisions themselves.

    This is why Live search failed, and this is why Bing too will crash and burn 🙂

  3. evankline Says:
    June 21st, 2009 at 8:42 am

    You’re looking at this from the point of view of someone who already knows about Bing. I think the idea is to get the name out there to the non tech geeks. It’s not about having clothing for those who want it. It is just one more part of brand recognition.

  4. melatoninlady Says:
    August 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 am

    Microsoft Bing would be the closet competitor of Google. but i still use Google because it shows more relevant results on the serp.

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  1. Microsoft Subsidizes iPhone 3GS | Technologizer Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    […] from the purchase price for AT&T customers. Happy shopping. Could I also interest you in some Bing merchandise? Share/E-Mail |  Read more about: Apple, Apple. iPhone, Bing, iPhone, […]