The Mojave Experiment was an

advertising campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

conducted by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

for

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

in 2008. The campaign was part of Microsoft's efforts to change what it felt was an unfair negative consumer perception of the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

. ''Mojave'' spanned a series of advertisements that consisted of individuals being shown a demonstration of Windows Vista by Microsoft; however, the operating system was

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

in disguise as a new version of Windows codenamed "Mojave," which was not revealed during the demonstration. Prior to the demonstration, participants generally gave a negative assessment of Windows Vista. In contrast, reviews for "Mojave" were positive, with participants stating that they intended to use or purchase the operating system for themselves; the same participants were astonished when they were told that "Mojave" was Windows Vista. The campaign implied that negative consumer perception was largely the result of preconceived notions about the operating system.

Test procedure

The Mojave Experiment is a public

case study A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular f ...

to determine computer users' thoughts of

, in the absence of prior experience. The study begins by asking the participant's thoughts of Windows Vista, with their answers based solely on their knowledge from

word of mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...

. They were then asked to rate Windows Vista, from 0 to 10. Next, the participants were introduced to Windows "Mojave." This was Windows Vista,

to prevent preconceived bias. The users were guided by a Microsoft assistant to test "Mojave." After the test, the participants were then asked to rate "Mojave," from 0 to 10. It was then revealed to the participants that "Mojave" was simply Windows Vista, rebranded.

Reception

Technology bloggers and journalists criticized the experiment, for several reasons, such as that the hardware and software were already set up, so the users did not have to install applications or device drivers, which were the typical source of compatibility issues.

References

{{Microsoft Advertising campaigns Marketing techniques Microsoft advertising campaigns Windows Vista

Test procedure

Reception

See also

References