Microsoft Canada Executive Summary
Microsoft Canada is preparing its marketing plan for the Xbox over the coming year. The Xbox was launched the previous year and positioned as the complete home entertainment solution combining video gaming, the Internet and DVD playback. The Xbox is the most robust gaming console on the market, but faces stiff competition in its product category.
The Sony Playstation 2 is the market leader with over 50% of the console market. Microsoft also faces competition from Nintendo and their GameCube. Microsoft’s goal is to become the market leader in the category by dethroning Sony.
In order to accomplish this goal Microsoft Canada must develop its marketing plan for 2002. Specifically, Microsoft must decide which target market to focus their efforts on. Specifically, they need to decide whether or not to continue focussing their attention on the male 16-24 year old “heavy gamer” which is also the target segment of Sony. Or, do they shift their focus to the lighter user and try to develop a niche strategy.
The backdrop of the targeting decision is how to position the Xbox. Microsoft could choose to position the system simply as the most powerful gaming console available, or they could also choose to focus on the complete functionality of the product including online gaming and DVD playback.
Considering the various opportunities and challenges, Microsoft should continue to focus its campaign on the heavy male user since this demographic are typically the trendsetters when it comes to the industry and are best equipped to appreciate the gaming advantages of the system.
By targeting this segment while focussing marketing efforts on the superior technology of the product along with the online gaming functionality, Microsoft should be able to differentiate itself from the Playstation by offering gamers a more technologically advanced gaming system with an online gaming feature not available from Sony.
Problem Statement
Microsoft is faced with a key decision on how to market the Xbox product in the second year of its launch in Canada. Specifically, Microsoft needs to determine how to position the Xbox and which market segment they should target. The goal is to gain market share versus their competitors and most specifically Sony. Once positioning and target market are determined, Microsoft Canada must then decide ...
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The backdrop of all the marketing efforts must be the positioning of Xbox as the most robust gaming system along with the online gaming functionality. Advertisements showing males of the target age playing online from different locations with each would be a key message.
In store demos at the various retailers, especially over the holidays should be a priority. Since purchase after trial is highest, this needs to be a core tenet of the marketing plan.
The holiday season, as mentioned, is key. So during September to December, advertising spending and frequency in all aspects should be at its highest level. Double the advertisements at the very least should be considered. Furthermore, continued bundling with other retailers is another key strategy. Microsoft could also consider bundling services closer to the holiday season such as free membership to the Xbox.ca “Gamers Zone” for a year with the purchase of an Xbox to drive sales, and further promote the online abilities of the system.
The end result, if the campaign is successful is that consumers will see the key benefits/differentiators of the Xbox versus Playstation and will choose to purchase the superior product .
Many people agree that Sony’s Playstation 4 is better than Microsoft’s Xbox One and vice versa. I have been gaming since I was seven years old and still am today. The first gaming console I ever had was the original Xbox. Throughout the years though, technology has improved vastly. The last generation of game consoles gave the industry a much needed boost and gave the consumer another commodity. With the eighth generation of consoles just arriving, a lot of people are wondering which console to buy. There is, however, more than just the choice of games. There’s differences in processors, graphics cards, hard drives, design, operating systems, ports, versatility, stability, controllers, and, of course, the games.
The Xbox One is my personal favorite gaming system. The reason the Xbox One is my favorite is because I have been a loyal Xbox user for 5 Years now and I cannot think of using any other system then the Xbox, it would feel like I was cheating on my wife. Enough about me and my personal opinion though, let’s dive into the specifics of the Xbox One! The Xbox One is exactly $400.99 US dollars at your local Best Buy Store. When you buy the Xbox One Don’t only get the console but you also get the Kinect and a controller. We will get more in depth with the Kinect and the controller later but right now I would like to focus on the console. The Exact dimensions of the Xbox One are (LxWxH): 13.1" x 10.8" x 3.1" / 33.3cm x 27.4cm x 7.9cm. If at this moment your like, John I don’t know how to read dimensions, that’s ok let me simplify it for you, it is a very sleek and compact machine. Here are the basic specs of the Xbox One. It has a 8GB DDR3 system memory 5GB’s of that memory you can use toward you games, the other 3GB’s are used for the console’s operating system...
Do you or any of your friends play video games on a console? If you ask gamers the question, “gaming console you like the most?” they will probably say Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Xbox and PlayStation are known as the most popular gaming consoles of all the time. These two consoles have been competing for a very long time for the throne of the best game console since 2001 until now. In this article, we are going to find out which console has the best advertisement, We are going to determine this not by the console’s hardware, not by its cool features, and not by what exclusive games they have. It is because to grade the games and features are good or bad is kind of difficult because everyone can has different games
As many as 20% of females in their teenage and young adult years suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa (Alexander-Mott, 4). Males are also afflicted by these eating disorders, but at a much lower rate, with a female to male ratio of six to one. Those with anorexia nervosa refuse to maintain a normal body weight by not eating and have an intense fear of gaining weight. People with bulimia nervosa go through periods of binge eating and then purging (vomiting), or sometimes not purging but instead refraining from eating at all for days. Both of these disorders wreak havoc on a person's body and mental state, forcing them to become emaciated and often depressed.
In the console-gaming world people know Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft may be the largest and richest software company in the world, but it’s unknown when it comes to console gaming. Microsoft is counting on the Xbox to change that perception. Gamers may not be willing to take a chance with the Microsoft Xbox, even if it is far superior to any console ever made. Nintendo Gamecube is nothing if charismatic. Nintendo’s new machine is half the size of any other console and looks like a toy with its brightly colored plastic shell and handle. It’s destined to be home of such popular games as Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and Kirby. Nintendo Gamecube seems mismatched as it goes up against the Microsoft Xbox and the Sony Playstation 2 (a multimedia mayhem that Sony says it’s supposed to be “The Future Of Entertainment”). All this makes you think; what makes Nintendo believe it can possibly go up against the ultra-sophisticated Xbox.
After much research concerning the case of Microsoft v. the government we as a group have decided that our presidential candidate should support governmental intervention concerning Microsoft’s monopolizing business practices. The overwhelming amount of evidence against the unlawful tactics that Microsoft uses to gain complete control of the computer market proves that something must be done to allow more competition in the industry. Such an intervention could possibly stimulate more employment, greater opportunity for radical innovation, and increased probability for lower prices. We will argue this claim with evidence acquired via the Internet and various periodicals. Though there may be substantial amount information that may defend Microsoft’s legitimacy, the claims against Microsoft and those who are being negatively affected stand to outweigh the positive attributes considerably.
Worthern further advances her claim by utilizing specific experiences of different professors. For example, she states the encounters from a Math professor Mark Tomforde as well as an English professor Angela Jackson- Brown to provide different perspectives to support her claim of the exacerbated use of informal language in conversing with professors. Professor Mark Tomforde reflects a moment,“There were also the emails written like text messages. Worse than the text abbreviation was the level of informality, with no address or sign off.” Through the narration of Professor Tomforde, who has taught over twenty decades, Worthern presents a believable witness of the transformation of how students address to the professor. It highlights students’ informality has exceeded the limit of being acceptable in a college environment in addition to the gradual disappearance of the value of respect. Similarly, Professor Jackson-Brown recalls, “deference has waned ...I go out of my way to not give them [ the students] access to my
Bulimia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness. People who suffer from bulimia binge eat regularly and try compensating for their behavior by over exercising, purging and fasting; according to the National Library of Medicine a significant number of people with bulimia also have anorexia (Nordqvist, 2009). There are many warning signs and symptoms that come along with bulimia such as: binge eating, purging, over exercising, constant change in bodyweight, disappearing after eating to the restroom, depression, and damaged teeth (Nordqvist, 2009). Not only does bulimia affect ones physical appearance but it also affects a persons state of health because there are many consequences that come along with this disorder such as: sto...
Eating disorders are much more dangerous than they may appear. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness and is the third most common chronic illness among teenagers. Anorexics have a form of body dysmorphic disorder; they look at themselves and see themselves as being overweight. The affected often grossly restrict the amount of food they eat and usually over-exercise. “The warning signs of anorexia nervosa are being underweight, refusing to eat, over-exercising, unhealthy skin, hair and nails.” Also there have been studies that have shown ones with anorexia nervosa are likely to later develop bulimia nervosa. Bulimia is usually much more difficult to detect that anorexia. Bulimia nervosa is bingeing, consuming large amounts of food, and purging, vomiting back up. Bulimics often feel out of control and will use bingeing and purging to control something in their lives. “The warning signs for bulimia are weight fluctuations, over-exercising, sneaking food and unhealthy skin, hair, and nails” (“Self Image and Media Influence”).
Many people confuse courage for not being scared of what could happen, Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important that fear.” Courage isn’t being able to act like nothing will scare you or make life more difficult, it’s the ability to realize that something will be difficult or scary and you overcome the difficulty. Courage is the ability to overcome hardship, not avoid it or create more of it to make yourself seem more
The following paper analyzes the initial release of Microsoft's XBOX 360 gaming system release into the United States and the changes that occurred with the supply, demand and pricing of the product in the months following its release. The social science of economics tells us that supply, demand and price are closely related to one another and have a significant on how much of a particular good is purchased and the rate at which it is purchased by consumers. The XBOX 360 phenomenon is a solid example of the impact that changes in supply, demand and price have on the marketplace and the rate at which goods are purchased.
Slow food movement was first brought up by an Italian, Carlo Petrini. He came up with this idea when he saw a group of young kids sitting in front of Spanish Steps and eating McDonald’s enjoyably. Then he decided to start the slow food movement to resist the fast food and preserve the traditional cuisine. Today, there are more than 150 countries joined in this movement.
As mentioned earlier, besides developing operating systems, today Microsoft is involved in production of variety different things. It produces variety of different software for desktops and servers, it also stood up to one of its rivals “Google” by developing “Bing” internet search engine. On other hand Microsoft also became very successful in video game industry by developing Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. Recently company started producing Windows Phone OS in a deal with Nokia, which almost led to Microsoft buying Nokia. Besides all that company’s newest addition is Microsoft Surface tablet computers. Even though Microsoft is very successful in new developing new projects, there have been times when corporation’s reputation was strongly shaken.
The harsh conditions they had to face to stick up for what they believe in were terrible. Although we still see some of it today, in Jesus’ time, the mass murdering and persecutions were ever more prevalent. In Psalm 21:1 of the Bible, it states that “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”. Even though people were literally going to be killed for their Christianity faith, these people had the courage to accept their fate and trust in the Lord to save them. In most cases, like stated before, this would be something very challenging to face up to and they had to be fearful knowing their lives were on the line. If people were to be this courageous today, I believe that the world would be a better
Microsoft has a lot to gain from outsourcing the Xbox production to Flextronics. Microsoft’s core competency is producing software, not hardware. So by the Law of Comparative Advantage, it is best for Microsoft to let someone, who is good at producing hardware, produce the Xbox. Flextronics not only offers their expertise in hardware, but also their network of connections worldwide which reduces production costs, thus making the market value of Xbox lower and more affordable. Because of Microsoft’s web-based information system, they are able to share information with Flextro...