Microsoft will continue their push during 2010 for all of their products and will spend the same amount of money trying to get the word out through adverting. Microsoft finds itself in a difficult position as it enters into 2010 and needs to push the envelope in order to stay on top with some of their products while also pushing consumers to use others. While Windows and Office remain as the main cash cows for the company, according to their chief marketing strategist, David Webster, much remains to be done to get consumers to try their other products.

In a recent article he states the following:

Webster notes that while many people use Office for mundane tasks, the software also has surprising uses, ranging from a person who plans race course tracks in OneNote to people designing needlework in Excel. One friend of Webster does his Passover seder in PowerPoint with embedded sound clips from Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments.”

“Office has a richer story to tell than we sometimes give them credit,” he said. “People actually do a fascinating array of things.”

One of the challenges for Webster and his team is that Microsoft’s marketing dollars are split between categories where it is the 800-pound gorilla–like Windows and Office–and those where it is the upstart, such as Bing and Windows Phone. Although it is nice to be the leader, Webster says that products like Bing give the company more of a chance to experiment with new types of advertising.

On the phone front, Webster notes that Microsoft has a challenge in going up against Apple, which is both the market leader and spends a fortune on its advertising for the iPhone. But he said, the big brands–Apple, BlackBerry, and Android–have kind of established their niche in the smartphone market.

“We’re coming back to this party after the other guys have already played their hand,” he said. “From a design standpoint, they are all more or less locked into the decisions they have made.

I do agree with Webster when he stated that most people do mundane tasks with Office. I mainly have Office on my system for two reasons. One is that I received a free copy for being a beta tester and second, many of the newsletters I receive are in Word format. I rarely use the program to its full potential any longer, since I seldom do PowerPoint presentations. I do however using Outlook ever day and have always like the way Outlook works.

As far as using Bing goes, I have been using Google for so long, I have no intention of changing. Same goes for Internet Explorer which I haven’t used in five years or more and still prefer the feel of Mozilla Firefox.

I believe that Apple has a superior product in their iPhone that no one is going to be able to come close. Just my 2 cents.

Comments welcome.

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