Why your Brand needs Halo Products
In October 2016 Microsoft did something unprecedented. They unveiled the Microsoft Surface Studio. In a single product launch — they tried to change the perception of the entire Microsoft brand.
Microsoft was a brand known for software. This was the brand that made Excel, Word and Internet Explorer. Software products used ubiquitously across the planet. Most desktop and laptop computers on earth use Windows as their operating system and Microsoft is one of the reasons why almost everyone ended up using a personal computer — led by Bill Gates’ vision to put a computer on every desk in every home.
But Microsoft was never considered cool. Nobody stood in line for a week to get the first copy of Windows Vista. A fact Apple understood so well and used cleverly in the hugely successful Mac vs. PC ads
Apple’s ads were developed by TBWA\Chiat\Day with clear orders from Steve Jobs to demonstrate Mac’s superiority over the PC.
This was the year 2005 — following the incredible success of the iPod, Apple was a brand the mainstream public were taking an interest in again. The Macs had just got Intel chips and were just as good or even better than the PCs.
According to a Campaign US interview, Scott Trattner — then a creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day said that they noticed people were buying PCs because they were given PCs at work creating a cycle where they didn’t know they were buying PCs.
Apple wanted to break this cycle with the famous ‘Mac vs PC — get a Mac’ campaign. Thus playing with the perception of Windows as a boring corporate computer you used to do spreadsheets while Macs were better at life like in this commercial which was used to launch the campaign.
It didn’t help that Mac already had a great reputation in the creative disciplines — being the computer of choice for graphic designers, filmmakers, web designers, animators and so on. Helped partly to the fact that the Mackintosh popularized the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Desktop Publishing (DTP) was first made possible on Apple devices. Photoshop launched in 1990 as a Mackintosh-only software while Mackintosh users started installing Adobe Illustrator 1.0 as early as 1987.
The zeitgeist was Microsoft was uncool; Apple wasn’t.
Microsoft didn’t really mind this perception at that point. They were doing phenomenally well selling Windows operating systems to OEM partners and Microsoft Office suites to both Windows and Mac users. The iPhone hadn’t launched and they had a 95% share in the consumer computing market as of 2004.
What happened next is modern tech history. The iPhone came out in 2007 — radically transforming the way humans interacted with devices. That success was followed by the iPad and conversation about Post-PC devices. Microsoft tried hard to be a player in the mobile world with their Windows Phone OS and an ill-fated $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s hardware division only to fail miserably.
Throughout this period that 95% share of the market had fallen to a lowly 14%. Android grew on to dominate the market with a 48% share of the market.
Steve Ballmer was out and Satya Nadella was in. Microsoft needed to shake itself up and rethink its position in the Tech world.
Much has been written about this, but one of the most noticeable moves made by Microsoft was to launch the Surface line of devices — the first time Microsoft was to get into manufacturing devices. The devices initially didn’t do well but were met with rave review on their innovative hardware.
So in the October of 2016 with the launch of the Surface Studio, Microsoft was in to do something it had never done successfully in its entire history. It wanted to be perceived as innovative, desirable and ultimately — cool. It was ready to take the fight to Apple’s target demographic — Creatives.
The Surface studio was a sleek 13mm thin 28 inch gorgeous touch-screen display with all the computer bits neatly packed into a small box at the bottom of the screen. The bottom bit was connected to the screen with a beautiful, glossy, shiny chrome hinge that allowed the screen to be tilted down town be converted to a tablet that could then be used to draw on. It was breathtaking.
It was unveiled with this beautiful video set to a remix of ‘Pure Imagination’ from 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. With CGI shots of the hinges and screws — it showcased a radical new device that lets creatives do what they want seamlessly.
If you look closely at the spec sheet of the Microsoft Surface there are some surprising omissions. The Studio uses Intel’s Skylake Processor — launched on 2015 and GPUs from Nvidea’s 900 series which was launched in 2014. The Microsoft Surface Studio ships with a 1 year old processor and a 2 year old graphics card. It also has no USB-C ports — something almost every new device has for the past year.
Why would Microsoft use old components on a brand new computer that is supposed to be revolutionary?
I have a theory — Microsoft isn’t looking to sell millions of these 3000$ computers. They want to change a perception that has followed Microsoft around for decades. They want Microsoft to be perceived as desirable and creative.
With Apple being accused of being not creative enough in 2016 — this was the right time to do this.
What Microsoft launched was a halo product. It’s hard to underestimate what effect a great halo product has on how a brand is perceived.
Look at Porsche — their entire line-up is built around one specific car — the legendary 911. Launched in 1963, much of the car hasn’t changed over decades. It’s still a rear engined sports car that guarantees maximum driving pleasure. Whichever car they launch, be it big SUVs like the Cayenne — they still retain that distinct Porsche styling and a guarantee that they are the best drivers cars in that segment. There’s a bit of 911 DNA is every Porsche product.
Some brands have more than one halo product. Mercedes Benz has the S-Class and the G-Class. Two cars that communicate two values that Mercedes-Benz wants to pontificate. The S-Class is the ultimate luxury vehicle desired by politicians, dictators, and CEOs around the world. While the G-Class or the Geländewagen is a vehicle with strong military heritage and has been practically unchanged since 1979 — a totem for military reliability, precision, performance and ability.
Some brands have halo products which are not their top of the line/flagship products. The BMW 3-series practically invented the sports sedan segment in 1975 — a car that was meant to be driven as a sports car yet providing all the comforts and amenities of a 4 door sedan. Through all its other vehicles and its tagline — The Ultimate Driving Machine — BMW makes sure to make cars where drivers come first — much like how the 3 series pioneered.
Compare these brands to say, Lexus, Infiniti and the modern Cadillac. Do they evoke the same clear distinct emotion? Halo products are essential to communicate the emotional core of the brand. They guide customers into what to feel about the brand.
A Halo Product can also work wonders for small and medium sized businesses. The story of a single-branch cafeteria in Dubai is interesting for this very reason. The UAE has thousands of such cafeterias. They’re mostly run by immigrants from the South Indian state of Kerala. All of them have almost the same menu — you get tea, burgers, fresh juices and sometimes Shawarma.
Tea is integral to Emirati culture as well as to immigrants from South Asia who made up much of the cultural mix. While most cafeterias across the emirates didn’t do much to differentiate themselves from each other. One of them decided to concoct a distinct recipe with Saffron in milky sugary tea and decided to get it registered and trademarked and refreshed their identity with the Saffron Tea as their halo product.
