It has bugged me for quite a while that there is no readily available Zune merchandise. I don’t mean like accessories or other dreck, I mean like shirts, hats, stickers. There’s no way for a proud Zune owner to show they support that product.
Microsoft has a small, strong, loyal following – it echoes of early Apple – and they are not giving these people the proper tools to evangelize the product. It’s really a sub-culture, never getting enough press to excite anyone that isn’t in the culture already.
A perfect example: Christmas 2007. I saw week after week of Best Buy, Staples, and Circuit City ads roll out with mentioning of Apple and Sansa products, but not a single mention of Zune. You’d think it didn’t exist. It was a terrible feeling. Now I know you don’t get placed in those circulars without concessions, so maybe Microsoft wasn’t ready to pay for play yet.
Back to my original point. The Zune has a clever name and a colorful, creative logo. I could see these tastefully embroidered on a black polo shirt. I could see a large Zune logo silkscreened on the back of a tee shirt, or embroidered on a baseball cap. I could imagine stickers in the rear windows of cars, and since I am MS certified, I could easily imagine the name/logo on anything in the MS company store – like other MS brands like XBox. I did request Zune merchandise from the MCP store and asked to be notified if any became available. We’ll see.
We’re trying, Microsoft. Let us help.
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