You’ve heard it before: Image is everything.
Now, we know this is certainly not true. Substance, beneath the image, is really what matters. But what does a person see first: The substance, or the image? Well, if that’s the question, than surely image is everything.
Microsoft has learned this as news comes of their acquisition of Mojang, the company behind the runaway smash hit (for years now), Minecraft. Microsoft reportedly bought the company for $2.5 billion. It’s a kids game…one, if played, is very simple. It has block, Lego-like graphics which, by today’s standards, can be termed, simplistic.
Why would Microsoft, who themselves have a very sophisticated gaming system in the Xbox One, buy such a simplistic software game? Well, image is everything…
When you have millions upon millions of kids (and I’m sure a few adult-sized “kids,” as well) playing this game for hours on end, well…it makes sense for a company like Microsoft, who are so desperately in need of an image overhaul, to buy the game. Now that they control it, they can drive its players back towards their own company.
In other words, Microsoft will be the cool kids on the block…and if they are the cool kids on the block, then people will (hopefully) check them out a little bit more. You see, image is everything.
There is much to learn from this blockbuster acquisition. Namely, what we see here is a company who:
- knows where they stand in the public eye
- knows where the public eye has placed its own interests
- knows how to turn that public eye back towards them
- knows how to keep that public eye focused on them
- knows how to stay in the conversation
That’s really what’s going on here. Microsoft desires to stay in the conversation, in the public consciousness, in public opinion. In a market overrun today with all sorts of technological wonders—from new platforms to new gadgets, to new phones and new systems—a company like Microsoft, who has a vested interest in all of these areas, must stay on the lips of people.
So how will they do it? They buy Minecraft. They know where their people are at…and they know how to get them talking about Microsoft.
Do you know where your people are at, and what are you doing today to get them talking about you?
[sc:mbtc]
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