A Microsoft Marketing Mishap

There are many examples of disasters when it comes to international marketing. Most are related to differences in language, or in some cases customs. The latest example, from Microsoft, was perhaps more avoidable.

In a bid to promote their business products, Microsoft used the following image in a series of adverts in the US:

Nothing wrong with that perhaps (although that looks suspiciously like an Mac laptop!). Microsoft decided to use the same image to promote the products in Poland, but can you spot the difference?

The ethnicity of the man in the middle has changed. Microsoft explain this as an attempt to reflect the ethnicity of the Polish market more accurately. So why not use a different image? Surely a firm of Microsoft’s stature could afford another photoshoot?

Perhaps more ironic, though, is that the giant IT company is showing very bad photoshop skills. Not only does the changed face not look very realistic - if you look closely they might have put a different head on the shoulders, but they haven’t changed the hand! Something of an oversight if you are changing the colour of the skin.

Who said marketing was easy?