Microsoft Corporation Marketing Strategy

Microsoft Corporation Marketing Strategy Marketing is an integral part in an organization; when devising the marketing strategy to adopt marketing managers need to understand the target market of their commodities. Different products are likely to have a number of customers in different parts of the world; marketers need to segment the market and decide the specific area, age-gap, economic status, and the social well being of the market to focus on.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Microsoft Corporation Marketing Strategy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Market segmentation is a marketing approach where managers establish their market segments or focus market: focus market is a homogenous subset of the main market, which share similar characteristics that make then demand/require similar goods. Whether in the service or good industry, companies need to have effective marketing policies; Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational headquartered in Redm ond, Washington. To sells its products; which are services, the company has enacted effective marketing policy (Anctil, 2008). This paper discusses the marketing approach as adopted by Microsoft. Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an international developer, manufacture, supporter, seller, and licenser of a wide range of products and service for the computing industry. Although the company is located in the United States, it fetches its market from different parts of the globe; with the wide market the company has an aggressive marketing team. The company was initially incorporated to sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800 on 04th 1975 however with innovationa dn invention, the company advanced its services to market MSDOS in the mod 1980’s. some of the competitors that the company has to contend with include IBM and Apple Inc. Describe the main line of business of the company Microsoft Corporation manufactures and sells operating systems for information comm unication gadgets like computers and laptops; currently the company has five main products divisions as Microsoft Business Division, Windows Windows Live Division, Online Services Division, Server and Tools, and Entertainment and Devices Division. Names four of the countries in which the company operates Microsoft operates in the following nations: United States, United Kingdom, China, and South Africa.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Marketing Mix for Microsoft With the similarities of a market segment, an organization is able to develop effective marketing strategy where focus shifts to devising the correct method to sell and address the needs of the target market. One common method in contemporary business environment to strategize for target market sales is the use of marketing mix (marketing mix looks into four main areas of the established market as price, p romotional, places, and product). In a nutshell, a marketing mix is meant to ensure that products are well promoted to customers, they are available when required by customers and they have a price that reflect the quality of the products/services must add value to consumers/users. Competition Although Microsoft Corporation is a leading developer, seller, and marketer of operating systems, the company has a number of competitors which include IBM, Apple, and Google, Linux Operating System, Mozilla, and Opera. To cub competition the company always improves its products with time. Target market Target market refers to the specific class of people with certain homogenous characteristics that a company focus on; After developing a marketing segment, Microsoft next step is to develop mechanisms to enable sales in the target market. Microsoft target market are manufactures and users of electronic gadgets that use their operating systems; to sell to the market, the company ensures its has an effective marketing campaign. For instance when selling to computer manufacturers, the management uses word of mouth to sell the products. The company’s effective marketing mix ensures that goods are available to the target customer, when they need them and they are affordable. Having the marketing segment in mind, then the company can know the kind of products that will be produced (Campbell, Edgarm Stonehouse, 2011). The following chart shows how a marketing strategy can be developed:Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Microsoft Corporation Marketing Strategy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Product strategy With advancement in information technology, research and development department at Microsoft have taken the initiative of undertaking wide research and coming up with products that are more user friendly and can handle more information transmitted via computers. With the product strategy, the company e nsures that it develops high quality packages are sold to customer; the success of the company is dependent on the quality and reliability of the products; when products are of the right quality and meet the standards of the people, they are likely to be competitive amidst competitor products. When a company is developing a product, there should be the need that the product is supposed to fulfill. The company ensures that it improves one product after the other, for instance since MsDos, there have been other better versions of operation which include window XP, Window Vista, Window 2003, and Window 7. Distribution strategy To reach to the target customers, the company has devised different method to reach the target customer; depending with the products/ the services, the company sells them in disks and over the internet where someone can download and use the services. The method of distribution enables the company to reach its target customers with ease; with the option of downloa ding a software, the company has been able to sell its products in different parts of the world successively (Kotler Denize, 2008). Communication strategy Having products and services is the start point, the company has to ensure that it communicates to the target customer of the existence of the products/services. To undertake this role, Microsoft uses a mixture of approaches. Marketing communication denotes the planned activity of disseminating certain information to a target audience in order to create a favorable and receptive scenario for certain a product, service or idea.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The most basis method that Microsoft adopts is the use of word of mouth; the approach is used for corporate customers where marketers physically sell the products to the companies; with the advent of competitive corporate culture, the relevance and urgency of marketing the method is effective to sell wide range of the company’s products. According to marketing gurus a well-designed and thoroughly crafted marketing communication strategy can provide a definite competitive advantage to an organization; at Microsoft, the marketing department is given the mandate of determining the best communication strategy that the company should implement. Microsoft marketing department looks at the prevailing corporate scenario, and then c up with the best policy to sell its services (Kotabe Helsen, 2004). Pricing strategy Microsoft sets prices that are competitive in the market and offer maximum returns; it ensures that the products reflect quality it is the policy of the company that pric es set should be attractive to the customers. The cost of services can break or make a company, it is likely to make services/products competitive and convincing the customer to buy them is fast. The company sets its prices using premium pricing approach and price skimming strategy. price skimming strategy and premium pricing approach are pricing methods where a company sets products prices at relatively high prices than that offered by the competitor; the strategy is particularly effective with unique or new products in the market. Price skimming strategy is an approach used by companies with strong brand name in the approach, Microsoft is one such company thus it uses the method to reach to target customers. The company use its name to charge expensively for their goods, as people will believe that they have good services; it also a strategy to capture the high-class people in the economy that think that expensive is quality. The reason for the pricing model and skimming method is because the model rewards a new innovation in a product which conforms to the nature of Microsoft; Microsoft has a strong brand name thus it can effectively use price-skimming strategy. According to marketing theory of brand extension, price-skimming strategy can be an effective method of pricing when the company using it has a strong brand name; Apple falls in the category (Fred, 2008). Describe any differences observed in the implementation of this concept, from one country to another Although Microsoft Corporation has a centralized marketing team, the company takes into account cultural, ethnical, and social-economic differences in different countries. With the above understanding, marketing campaigns are custom-made for different countries. For instance in developing countries where access to computers is limited, the company has concentrated on disk-software sales while in developed countries the company uses downloaded software method. References Anctil, E. (2008). Marketing and Advertising the Intangible. ASHE Higher Education Report, 34(2), 31-47. Campbell, D., Edgar, D.. Stonehouse, G.(2011). Business Strategy: An Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Fred, D. (2008). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Kotabe, M., Helsen, K.(2004). Global Marketing Management. New York: John Wiley Sons. Kotler, P., Denize, A. (2008). Principles of Marketing. Frenchs Forest NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

Great Depression in America essays

Great Depression in America essays The Great Depression is probably one of the most concerning events in American history. It is also proof that capitalism was not a perfect type of government, as everyone believed. The American depression started in a different way than it did in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was the main event that forced them into depression while a stock market crash was the main event which forced America. Everyone was putting their money into the stock market. People had a large margin to buy stocks with and their credit was up and up. Unfortunately, the only way to from the top, was down. In this case, very down with the stock market crash of October 24, 1929. This infamous day was to be remembered as "Black Thursday". Herbert Hoover has been accused of being a do-nothing president who allowed the country to continue to slide into its worst depression ever. Although Hoover actually did take some action, but that it was too little, too late. Hoover did intervene after the Stock Market crash, but the acts passed by Congress and signed by Hoover were the worst kind of intervention. As he was trying to help, he had made the problem much worse. For example, his most famous mistake was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. This act was placed in order to raise tariffs and promote deficit spending. A tariff does exactly the wrong thing, inflation. Other acts passed during Hoover's administration had similar effects of either raising prices or keeping them artificially high when they should have been dropping. All in all, it's not that Hoover was a "do nothing" president, it's that he intervened in exactly the wrong way. Ironically, FDR, the president who put in so many government programs himself, was elected as President after Hoover. He would try to change the government by taking over and changing things to his way. Although, he would try not to adopt the Menshevik, Soviet Union tactics, in doing so. His main c ...

Understanding what it means to be a Christian Essay

Understanding what it means to be a Christian - Essay Example Did Jesus need to be born of a virgin as a condition of his being a savior? Virginity being a very personal and unseen condition, how did the bible determine if this was truth? Speaking of bible and the truth brings us to the third and last topic: does the bible have authority? Is it truly God’s word as Christians have been claiming from time immemorial? The classic story of a young boy illustrating the depth of the mystery of the Holy Trinity by attempting to fill a small sand pit with all of the water from the sea depicts the magnitude of God’s wisdom and the limits of human understanding. Jesus Christ was known to be the son of God, the only begotten son sent as the sacrificial lamb to save the whole world from the curse of sin by dying on the cross then resurrecting from the dead after three days. This sums Him up as being not only God nor only man but both. As Jesus Christ, he is totally human yet possessing Godly attributes and power setting him apart from ordinary men. His feats prove that He is â€Å"not of this earth† baffles the understanding of the people who witnessed him perform miracles and speak with power. Documented in the bible were many statements that concern the deity of Christ. From the old testament to the new testament, prophets have proclaimed his coming or exalted his name in praise. Isaiah, b orn hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth called Him â€Å"The Mighty God† (Isa.. 9:6). Paul was â€Å"looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ† (Titus 2:13). Paul also quotes in his teachings an early church doctrinal statement, â€Å"God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory† (1 Tim. 3:16). Jesus himself introduced that He was the son of God, although knowing his metaphoric language, He did not do so directly. He testified that â€Å"Before Abraham was, I

Sports Manufacturing in India and China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Sports Manufacturing in India and China - Essay Example Additionally China is developed and has a he population. These would all serve to provide market for the product. The report also recommends that supplier locations be made when examinimg suitable places to invest. Foreign direct investments may be defined as investments that are usually one in a different economy from the investor's and are normally long term. Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) will only be acknowledged as such if the mother company has considerable control over the operations of the foreign company. The UN defined 'considerable control' as the possession of ten percent of the company's shares. They must have the ability to vote and affect decisions within that company.1 Around thirty years ago, foreign direct investment was left to the United States mostly. This was because they had not participated in the Second World War. Consequently, they had some spare resources over and above those ones available to other countries of the world. The dominated this position until the eighties. Some Asian countries began emerging and by the nineteen nineties, China was recognized as one of the not influential lucrative markets for foreign direct investments. India is also another emerging economy and is also considered as one of the most lucrative countries to invest in. A survey conducted by Kearney in 2005 found that China was the best destination for foreign direct investment. The second nation was India and The US came in at a distant third. The statistics also testify to these findings. In the year 2006, China's FDI surmounted to a whooping 18.5 billion dollars and this was an increase of almost six percent. In relation to that, China authorized about twelve thousand seven hundred new companies to be created in the country. Additionally, there were about eight hundred and thirty seven million dollars that were put invested in China by American investors. This goes to show that the environment in China and India is quite favorable for investment. 2 2.0 Description of an imaginary sports manufacturing company 2.1 Product Sports manufacturing companies have numerous ranges of products which they can produce. Some of these include tennis rackets, rugby balls, soccer balls, cricket equipment, bowling balls and many others. However, for purposes of this report, there will be more emphasis on the manufacture of bowling balls. Bowling balls come in different varieties. They are usually differentiated by the sort of materials that are used to make them. Some may be made out of polyester while others may be made of other chemical elements such as Urethane. These varieties could be use as product segments by the imaginary company. The products must also be superior to the rest; quality assurance. Bowling ball manufacture requires consistent and creative use of technology in the production process. There are always new methods of production that are entering the market on a daily basis. Consequently, there is a need to ensure that one's company is well informed about these production processes and that they can implement them a soon a possible. Superior bowling balls are normally maintained by creative engineers. Therefore the imaginary company is characterized by a solid and reliable research and development team. 3 The imaginary company also has to make sure that it lays produce products that are consistent in nature. This means that

Maguindanao Massacre Essay Example for Free

Maguindanao Massacre Essay Stories and worldwide condemnation of the Maguindanao massacre still grapple the Filipino people in disbelief. Focusing on the victims that include lawyers and journalists in the company of scions of a political clan, the manner of mass execution was the most gruesome, so animalistic, and the most barbaric act of the new century. Fifty-seven of them, men, women, and children were killed and decapitated; bodies were mangled and riddled with bullets. This satanic act was allegedly masterminded by the incumbent mayor of the place, who is said to have been able to command and give orders as he pleases even to the extent of a massacre. The idea of good governance, rule of law of human rights and democracy has hardly been heard in existence in this far-flung poor province in Mindanao. Politicians are motivated to run for public office to absolutely control and influence the civilians and the police. The existing system is heavily politicized making the police underdogs of the politicians. Thus, anybody who wants to seek justice feels the absence of any protection mechanism. Government tried to calm the situation by asking the allegedly mass murderer to surrender; but will his victims get justice? Praying for justice to prevail in this country, Lasallians were called to express indignation to this assault to humanity. Students wore black ribbons on their chest to sympathize with the victims and their loved ones, and to shout and rage against the inhuman act. They lit candles and prayed for peace, and were in one in expressing the gloom and grief the whole country has experienced. We call on the wheels of justice to move swiftly without deception of wealth and power. Otherwise, record of inhumanity of the sadistic, brutal, and cruel Maguindanao massacre may be enhanced when the Government still fails to mete out the punishment for the perpetrators.

The Death of woman Wang Essay -- essays research papers

The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts. Chapter one, The Observers, in the Death of Woman Wang demonstrates the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History helps the reader to understand and literally penetrate into people's lives. The use of records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 and rebels rising vividly described by Feng the extent of suffering the people of T'an-ch'eng went through. Jonathan Spence stresses on how miserable the two-quarter of the seventeen-century were to the diminishing population of the county. The earthquake claimed the lives of nine thousand people, many others died in the White lotus rising, hunger, sickness and banditry. P'u Sung-ling's stories convey that after the loss of the wheat crops there were cases of cannibalism. On top of all of this came the slaughtering of the entire family lines by the bandits. The incredible records of women like Yao and Sun in the Loca l History present the reader the magnitude of savagery the bandits possessed. All of these factors led to the rise of suicides. The clarity of events Spence given to the reader is overwhelming. On the other hand, Spence losses his reader as he introduces the spread of Confucius and other superstitious believes through out the county. He states that the Local History states that people became unusually superstitious in parts of T'an-ch'eng. Later on he presents the Confucianism and it influence. Confusion especially occurs then he quotes from many different sources and chapters. For inst... ... to the husband. Yet the reader is presented with woman Wang, who ran away with another man from her husband, Jen. Some of the reasons of her departure could have been neglect from her husband, that she had bound feet and that she had no children. Her actions contradicted any moral wife at that time. After relentless pursuit of happiness woman Wang returned home, there she met her death. The Legal Code justified certain parameters of vengeance on behave of the husband toward his adulterous wife. Nevertheless, Jen was not allowed by the law to simply slaughter his wife. Moreover Jen accused an innocent Kao, for which Jen could have been sentenced to death. Were woman Wang's actions right is for the reader to decide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ultimately, The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is a timeless, educational, historical novel. Spence purpose to enlighten the reader of the Chinese culture, tradition and its land were met through the use of sources, like the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang will captivate any reader's attention.

America’s Postwar Divide

The end of the Civil War brought opportunities and disadvantages for many Americans depending on one’s race, ethnicity and abilities. Chapters seventeen through twenty of â€Å"The American Nation† explains the changes which occurred in American society post civil war due to industrialism. The following essay examines the barriers created by an inefficient government causing discrimination of the poor in the mid-to-late 1800s. Severe discrimination of minorities and the poor led to a corrupt American government working only to benefit themselves and important wealthy voters.Congress used bribery to ensure their financial needs were met while those of American citizens were ignored. Many tactics were uses to ensure Congress remained Republican, such as criticizing Democrats as rebels and using the â€Å"bloody shirt† as a reminder of the violence and untrusting nature of Democrats during the Civil War (449). Many Americans were distrustful of Congress, and with go od reason. An example of such distrust was seen in Americans desire for American currency to be changed from paper money back to bullion because they feared government would print as much money as necessary to cover an increase or decrease in taxes (450).Civil service reform was a concern during the post Civil War era but the barriers were immense (450). There were many factors contributing to the need for civil service reform. There was a long list of ineffective presidents and the hiring of unqualified lieutenants by politicians because of their involvement in the Civil War. In order to keep their congressional status, politicians needed loyal employees and by celebrating America’s patriots, they were adding on votes to ensure their success.As the author wrote in â€Å"The American Nation†, â€Å"patronage was the lifeblood of politics† (451); basically politicians bribed soldiers with high paying jobs and preferential treatment in return for their votes. Refo rmers wanted nonpartisan professional civil service and both democratic and republican politicians made a mockery of them (451). Although the Reconstruction era looked promising for America’s black men and women, it quickly became a failure. Minorities were treated very poorly postwar.One ineffective president, President Hayes, could have made a difference in the lives of black Americans, but when President Hayes realized his hopes were useless, he did not pursue the problem further (451). Poll taxes created an â€Å"economic barrier† to blacks an poor whites and the Fifth Amendment was not upheld for blacks (451). The literacy tests for the right to vote were rigged for illiterate whites and not for illiterate blacks; giving white votes the majority. Because blacks were treated as stupid and inferior, white law makers felt it was okay to restrict their rights.Rather than improving American society by addressing equal rights and liberties, congress spent their time mak ing sure the rich and the white succeeded by restricting the rights of others who could get in the way. The Civil Rights Cases (1883) and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) gave way to legalized segregation laws in schools, prisons, hospitals and anywhere public services were available. The only way blacks found success was through separatism, where they established communities of their own, and financially supporting the community through black business ownership (453).Blacks were forced to make â€Å"the choice between confrontation and accommodation† (454). Immigrants suffered as well, they were seen as a drain on society and were accused of taking the jobs of other Americans because of their cheap labor (454). Immigrants rushed to America with the rise of industry and manufacturing, yet they could only afford the slums where disease and violence were abundant. This gave them a bad reputation and therefore Americans demanded laws be made to protect their jobs and money from immigra nts.The Plains Indians were removed from their land and many violent attacks caused the death of thousands of Indians. White influence threatened to take culture away from the Indians, as Indians began buying new technologies from Americans. White man wanted to civilize the Indians by passing the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which was a promise of education and some land which resulted in the Indians loss of culture and tax increases on land resulting in a loss of land (462). American greed such as seen during the gold rush, trampled on the lives of the Indians.Rich, powerful industrial leaders took away land for railroad development, killing of the tribes’ food source and killing off most of the Indians (462). Wealth rose among the business tycoons but not for the average American citizen. It was a kill or be killed society. As population increase, food and transport demand also increased, bringing wealth to industry giants (472). Government was so ineffective in creating reg ulations for businesses that many business owners took it upon themselves to fix things, such as seen with the oversupply of cows.However, the ranchers for the most part destroyed their businesses by unintentionally killing their cows with barbed wire fences (473). The exploitation of natural resources brought expansion to American manufacturing, farmers were getting replaced and they lost the respect of many Americans and the government did nothing to help (477). The rise of new and competing technologies made businesses and their products quickly become obsolete (487). Lowering product prices to in order to compete with similar companies caused job loss and other problems in society.Mergers took place without any government regulations and peoples’ jobs were very unstable. The government tried to get their act together by creating business regulations, such as the Sherman Act, which were essentially ineffective (495). Labor unions caused more strikes and violence than actua l assistance for workers. Employees were in constant distress from more skilled workers taking over jobs, employers who could throw them out at any time and union opportunities met with employer disapproval (498). Wealth was unevenly distributing to only a few and the few became smaller with every year (500).The wealthy business owners held ordinary citizens fates in their hands because their money controlled the government and the court systems (500). The middle class society benefited from big businesses and lived well and extremely wasteful (505). New technologies caused many workers the inability to keep up with the needed skills and once new schools and colleges were opened many college grads got the jobs while both male and female unskilled industrial workers suffered low wages and could not live decently (505).The uneven balance of society’s wealth can be demonstrated through the type of work women maintained. Although all women were paid less; middle class women worke d as nurses teachers and lower class as sales and cashier clerks (505). Stability was a problem; middle class workers saved money if their jobs were not stable where stable workers would spend their money (507). Social culture was important to the rich and middle class but the poor were discriminated against enjoying such privileges (516). Even the church discriminated against the poor.Protestants were the only ones to take a step in the right direction and help the poor improve their lives, not with charity but with reform (524). Socialist ideals became popular towards the turn of the century likely because of government’s inability to help all Americans and not just themselves and other wealthy citizens. Society wanted to see welfare, unemployment benefits, nationalizing industries, public housing and many other beneficial programs for the needy and equal opportunities for all Americans (524).