Between the price, size, and perceived lack of usefulness, the rationale for buying a home computer system in the 1980s and early 1990s was lacking. This was especially true before the arrival of the civilian internet in the mid-1990s.
Computer manufacturers had to figure out how to sell these machines to people who weren’t already “power users.” (business executives who could afford to equip themselves with a home office). They had their work cut out for them.
Selling the “Personal”
In the early days of the personal computer, manufacturers targeted power users, gamers, and geek-hobbyists (these users were already basically amateur electricians who enjoyed building their own computers with soldering irons and spare parts).
Some ads, as for the Commodore 64 — my dad’s (and thus our family’s) first home PC, incidentally — promoted its low-ish price point and ease of use.
Generally, ads for computers were more text-heavy than we’re used to today, and would have appeared more in magazines than on TV. Of course, some, such as Apple’s “1984” spot, remain famous because they appeared on TV (in this case, during the Super Bowl). The Apple ad was important because it made computers seem anti-authoritarian, even a little rebellious, and, of all things, stylish. That wasn’t an easy sell.
Other ad campaigns, such as IBM’s (in a belated attempt to challenge Apple), were a little random, in one case featuring Charlie Chaplin. Despite IBM’s market lead, Apple’s efforts are more remembered today, perhaps because of the underdog mythos cultivated by Steve Jobs and, again, that sense that a computer could be…fun.
Other companies’ ads used every possible appeal from celebrity endorsements (like the cast of M*A*S*H) to more logical appeals, including the idea that a computer would help a family save money by tracking its monthly food budget. By the 1990s, ads pushed the decreasing cost of getting of a PC and their comparative “portability” (and by portable, these were more “luggable” — you could lug a 12-pound computer onto a plane). Also, users could play increasingly sophisticated games on them; popular ones included Prince of Persia, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and later on, Myst, Age of Empires, and Civilization.
Some machines highlighted their emergent, but practical, applications (ranging from calculators to spreadsheets to calendars) and hence their capacity to enable office work from home, still a quasi-alien concept for most people at the time.