Target Markets

Microsoft has two very substantial target markets for its business. Its first substantial target market is for corporate business around the world. Microsoft windows is the preferred operating system in the corporate world in today's age. Most businesses use Microsoft software for a very wide variety of reasons from organizing data to it just simply being easy to operate.

Another Target Market for Microsoft is Teenagers. Microsoft Xbox 360's product lines most convenient consumers are from teens. Teens are the ultimate buyer of games for this console. Simple reasons being that teens have more time on there hands than adults and have less responsibility. Microsoft makes an exponential profit from these video games from teens. Especially from Microsofts most popular game franchise today HALO

Business Marketing

One big part of the Microsoft Corporation success is its strategic alliances with other companies. Microsoft gained partnerships with many companies such as Facebook, Motorola , EMC and etc. Microsoft isn't just making friends to make friends now. The companies Microsoft are doing business with have something that Microsoft lacks and viceversa. 


Microsoft's alliance with Facebook plays a big role for both sides. Microsoft pays facebook to display ads on its websites. Over 60 percent of the Facebook community is from outside of the u.s which means that Microsoft is gaining publicity and potential consumers worldwide from advertising on Facebook.  On the other hand Facebook is gaining publicity from Microsoft from its Facebook applications and ads on Microsoft products. These two companies work hand and hand to maximize profits for there companies. 


Microsoft biggest alliance is with IBM. There alliance has a joint demand. where there was a demand for IBM the demand for Microsoft's operating system was there. Whenever an IBM computer is sold Microsoft is making profits.


For all businesses to be successful u need strategic alliance. A business cant produce everything it needs for its business from scratch. Investments and partnerships are needed. Your business is going nowhere but downward if you try to b a loner in the business world. 

Retailing

This past week i visited a few retail stores around the Bronx that have the Microsoft office software in stock. The three stores i visited were Best Buy, P.C. Richard and son and Walmart.

To my surprise Walmart Department stores held the best prices for Microsoft office software. Microsoft Office Home and Student software was listed for $119.99, while at both Best Buy and P.C Richards prices for the same product was $149.99 . 

Personally, i thought Best Buy would have the best prices for Microsoft software. Because its name being "Best Buy" simply fooled me into believing that its prices would be better than the other two department stores. I did notice that in Best Buy, Microsoft products were advertised more though. Xbox 360 was advertised lots more than the competing PlayStation 3 and Nintendo wii and Microsoft vista and office was advertised lots more than competing apple software. There were lots of bill boards and posters throughout the store advertising Microsoft. In Walmart store i went to Microsoft was advertised about just as equal as apple. while checking out some computers i noticed that 2 sales guys were recommending to a customer that Microsoft computers over apple computers tho claiming it to be more convenient. 

I believe personal opinion or belief really helps things sell in retail as well. because a lot of the time in these stores employees get the question of which do you prefer and go based on the answer that is given. They could of easily said apple computers were better and still made a sale for about the same but they didn't. they based it on opinion's of there own and there own personal experiences. Its almost as if Microsoft has extra advertising for free for putting in a good word.

Global Marketing

China is one of the largest markets for Microsoft to this day. After all its population holds over 1.3 BILLION people and it has one of the largest growth rate for computers and Internet use in the world. There demand for the adoption of information technology increases extremely quickly leading to Microsoft  to strategically jump in to fulfill China's needs. China's electronic market, mainly its mobile electronic market is the largest in the world. 

Microsoft focus is trying to make a impact in China's mobile market. Being that approximately 70 pct of the market is controlled by China Mobile, Microsoft feels there is plenty of lead way to join this market. But into doing so you will need concrete understanding of the requirements of potential Chinese consumers. For example China's cellular phones far outnumber its personal computers which means that cellular phones come to a much more convenience to people. Cellular phones are really one of the most important things to the Chinese, its part of there everyday life and somewhat defines the people in china. This simply means Microsoft cant just make any kind of cellular phone and try to sell it in China because it simply wont sell. They need to shape there product around what the Chinese consumer wants. A sell phone in China could be whatever a person needs it to be from a GPS system to a Internet source or means to communicate with others. The only way Microsoft will succeed in the Chinese market is by proving to them that there product is of VALUE to them. 

Microsoft Windows Mobile Phones seemed to have played its part in doing just that. They partnered with Samsung, Motorola, and  China Mobile to customize the phone interface for Chinese users.  Microsoft Touch series was also a big seller in the Chinese mobile market as well. They also got into business with D.Phone which is the largest phone retailer in China and the largest IT distributor in China, Digital China. Now that Microsoft is a success in China's market there next goal is to be an even bigger success. They believe that there product can be good enough to be number one in the mobile market and they continue there push forward to finding out the deeper unique characteristics of the Chinese  so that they can make Microsoft's the Chinese mobile markets foundation.

Consumer decision makeing

Belief - : anything believed or accepted as true

Belief reflects on the value of the consumers. As for Microsoft belief plays a significant role. Belief isn’t a factual thing; it’s more of an opinion. But belief can contain facts to influence an opinion. Microsoft’s corporation provides a product that consumers find valuable which is also more of a personal opinion. Some people think burger king is better then McDonald’s just like some people think Apple OSX is better than Windows. Microsoft as well as every other company key to progression is influencing people to believe there product is "the better product," by shaping there product around what the people would expect and want. 


If you believe windows is no good why would you purchase it?

Amazon.com customer reviews on windows 7 shows perfect examples of why opinion matters to a company. A product review on January 22, 2010 stated:

"I bothered with upgrading my computer with the hope of seeing a brand new Windows. I've never been disappointed before - from Dos to Windows 95, from Windows 95 to XP, from XP to Vista, there has always been lots of new, fancy stuff for me to explore and enjoy. 

Not Windows 7. It is almost identical to Vista in every way."

     This particular person believes that Windows 7 is no good as you can see. His belief on the product is that it simply repeats itself from the previous version. He explains his loyalty for windows briefly saying he always updated his software since Windows 95and that he had more value for windows previous software then he did this one. Being that this new Windows 7 software is a repeat in his opinion of Windows Vista, shows hes disappointed in this product. Which mean he lost value for this product. Which also means Microsoft might be potentially loosing a customer.

This customer review on the product is the complete opposite. A customer review on October 22nd 2009 by Anonymous stated: Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it - upgrade today. "Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it's beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2."  

     As you can see this customer is in love with this particular product. He or She believes that this new windows is faster, manages files better and easy to use, while the other review states that it’s simply just a repeat of an older version of Windows.

Microsoft product isn’t perfect and never will be perfect as far as opinions are concerned for the simple fact that there is other competition. But they must find a way to alter the opinions of those who dislike the Microsoft products and focus more on understanding personal feelings as best they can.