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"Bungled branding" of Live services has hurt Microsoft, CNet News.com reports

Jan 27, 2007 2:31 am by Kip Kniskern | 6 comments

In an article following the release of Microsoft’s First Quarter Earnings Report, CNET News.com reports that “Microsoft’s Live branding has been tremendously confusing and has hurt the company”. According to the article:

“While Microsoft doesn’t break out the financial figures for its new Live services from its established MSN content services, both of which make up its Internet services business, it’s likely the newer brand is what is weighing things down.
“Microsoft’s Live branding has been tremendously confusing and has hurt the company, and it is very likely contributing to the situation they are in right now,” said David Smith, an analyst at Gartner. “They’ve created another brand and have not differentiated it.”
It’s too early to pass “final judgment” on the strategy, Smith said. But now is the time for Microsoft to clearly explain its strategy, he said.”

In a related article, also on News.com, while Microsoft continues to invest heavily in search, they admit to losing market share:

“On the search side you are correct we lost market share,” Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said in response to an analyst’s question on the company’s earnings conference call. He said he is “clearly not happy with that.”
Liddell said Microsoft continues to “take a long-term view of this business” and that the company is making progress in some areas. The company also hopes this year to turn the tide in its revenue per search query. “We still expect to get revenue per search equal to where we were a year ago by the end of this year,” he said.

Microsoft continues to take a long term approach to Live services, and as we have been saying at LiveSide, it’s still very early in the game. We’ve also said however that the approach to Windows Live branding has been unclear. We agree with Gartner’s Smith that the time is now to clearly explain Windows Live brand.

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tophtucker
I almost feel like they should re-combine Live and MSN. I’m not sure how this is going to work. Besides, even if they *do* manage to get people to figure out Windows Live, it’s still wordy. “Windows Live Search Maps” is a lot harder to say than “Google Maps” or “Yahoo! Maps” or “Mapquest.” And if they drop the “Windows” there’s just more confusion with all the other “Live” products. We now have Xbox Live, Office Live, Windows Live, and Live for Windows (aka Xbox Live on the PC).
http://www.joerm.com JoeM
I always thought of it as Live Maps, or Live Local or Virual Earth. But that is just me
http://khristopherr.spaces.live.com Khristopher
Good. I’m glad. The whole Windows Live brand was a huge mistake. I think they’re realizing this now. Windows Live is supposed to be Web 2.0 and for the people rather than the company doing what they want. Well… when they first started this whole Windows Live initiative, people were saying it was a bad idea and they didn’t listen to the people. Now it’s too late.
mrmckeb
I hope the Live brand hasn’t been tarnished by this. XBOX Live is a strong product for Microsoft.
LosHavros
Put simply, it should have remained ‘MSN’ as MSN has a big brand recognition. People still refer to messenger as ‘MSN’. The Windows Live branding has been a mistake, but the actual services are useful and innovative.
rb1385
I agree with LosHavros. The Windows Live branding just seems like such a waste of time to me, especially since Microsoft doesn’t seem to be able to explain it to customers or themself.
Some of the service are cool but why in the world didn’t they just continue with the MSN brand in place of stripping it and starting another brand that no one really understands, except for the geeks and programers who are using the developer gadgets.
Customers want convience, speed and ease of use.