One of the strengths of this strategy is that if the customers like the business ‘s new product, they are going to like the company even more and trust them which will lead to a deeper and stronger relationship between them and the business.
Market development
Market development is when a business tries to find new customers for the product that they already have.
In this case, for the surface tablet. Microsoft used market development to sell the surface table by introducing it and selling it to their software or X box buyers. They’ve also introduced it to other tablets or computers buyers from their competitors.
One of the strengths of this technique is that it allows them to get more customers and expand their market which obviously leads to growth of the company.
A weakness of the techniques is that it may not always work or give out the result that people expect. The customers who are offered the product could simply pass out on them if they don’t like the products or if they don’t think they have enough money to afford these products
Ansoff’s Matrix
They used four categories in a matrix to show how there are different opportunities in the new and existing products and markets. The four categories are
- Maintain or increase the market share of current products – sales promotions, advertising
- Secure dominance of growth market
- Restructure a market by driving out competitors – this can be done by using more strict and aggressive promotional campaign
- Increase usage by existing customers- e.g. introduce new loyalty schemes
Survival strategies
Survival strategies are measure that a business has to take when they are having difficulties in order to survive,
In 2012/13, Microsoft was forced to cut down their prices to a weak performance in the sales of their first version of the latest operating software which was built for mainly for touch screen devices. That same year their PC division also suffered a weak performance in sales.
One of the most well-knows products from Microsoft (Xbox One) has seen its price cut due to the fact that customers were keener to buy the same kind of product (Play station 4) from their competitors Sony. This was cause by the big difference in price between the two company‘s similar product.
This technique has mostly weakness because the business loses more money instead of making some by cutting down their prices and they don’t get make profits at all. The only positive that can come out of this is that it allows the business to survive.
As a strength, we can that the technique is useful because if does help the business get out of trouble and figure where they ae currently standing and correct their mistakes. Some times business are even able to start from a fresh page
Brand building
This is when a business decides to design and create new brand. This process can be long as enough time is needed in order to come up with a meaningful name slogan and image relevant to the message they are trying to put across for their product
Microsoft built their brand according to the business’s needs and expectations. “Your Potential. Our Passion.” They believe giving power to people through technology will help them to understand and unleash their potential. They used this slogan to promote their aims and built brand
One of the strengths of this technique to Microsoft is that it is important to because of its popularity and the fact that it is easily recognisable by customers and not just in one continent but globally. As a business they are know how people are aware of their brand when purchasing products.
A weakness for this technique to the company is that it might not always do what it says it does, the way it deals doesn’t correspond to what the logo indicates. That is a big turn off for the customers and it could drive them to other companies
About 25 years ago, Microsoft started as an operating system company, and then with time they have gradually extended by making other products. The first products they sold had the Microsoft brand on them and that was their original logo.
Brand positioning
This is when a business decides to design and create new brand. This process can be long as enough time is needed in order to come up with a meaningful name slogan and image relevant to the message they are trying to put across for their product.
Microsoft built their brand according to the business’s needs and expectations. “Your Potential. Our Passion.” They believe giving power to people through technology will help them to understand and unleash their potential. They used this slogan to promote their aims and built brand
On strength of this technique to the business is that the meaning the Microsoft brand pleases the customers and is something that they really like and feel like it is aimed at them, they will always buy the products of that brand and might even become loyal to the brand.
A weakness is that if the business doesn’t not get the meaning right, customers might not like it and therefore will not buy their products
Brand extension
Brand extension happens when a business uses its name or brand to create and develops new products in a different product category than the one they usually operate in.
A few years ago, Microsoft decided to enter other markets by designing and creating phones (windows 8) and tablets (surface) with the same logo on them. These products were part of the brand extension from Microsoft who was primarily in to the operating systems and Microsoft office only.
One benefit of this technique to Microsoft is that it allowed the business to grow and expand by entering markets that are totally different than the domain. By doing so their brand gets bigger and more popular which gives it more value in the minds of customers. This causes the brand to become easily recognisable to customers and competitors.
Another strength of this technique is that it could spur more product sales from the company. This is because when trying to purchase a product, customers will have in mind this brand first because of how big it is, so most people will end up buying Microsoft products.
Also the bigger a brand is, the more trust customers have in it because they believe the brand offers better quality products.
Relationship marketing
This is when a business identifies a long-term relationship with a customer and uses it to attract more customers and make more profit
Microsoft does offers deals for their valuable customer, they have introduced customer relationship management (CRM) which they use to reduce prices and increase profitability by automating business process that satisfies customers pays back their loyalties. They are always promoting long-term relationship with their customers. Microsoft tends to focus more on the relationship marketing as a business strategy.
One of The strengths of this technique for the business is that it attracts more customers which helps the company grow and expand. It also helps businesses gain the trust of their customers which is always a vital thing for the company
Although this technique does not have many negative points about it, one weakness i can spot is that if the company offers too many deals on their products because of the good relation they have with them, they might not obtain sufficient benefits or revenue on their sales which could put their business at risk.
Relation between transaction marketing and relationship marketing
The main difference between these techniques is that, the transactional marketing focuses on a special point which is to increase the sales of the business where as the relationship marketing is more about developing a relationship the customers.
The strengths of the relationship marketing is that the business gets to keep the customers for a lifetime which in return will always help to increase the business’s sales and profits
Transactional marketing
It is a strategy that is used in business to target customers in making a one off sale transaction. The purpose of this technique is to increase a business sale by boosting the volume of single sale instead of forming a relationship with the customer
My business, Microsoft has used not used transactional marketing as they care more about their customers and for that reason they use relation marketing where they can show their gratefulness to their customers.
However, transactional marketing does have its positive and negative points. Some of which will be described below.
One positive point about this technique is that it allows businesses to boost their sales by boosting the volume of single sales. This leads the business to obtain an overall increase in their sales and maximise their profits
One weakness of this technique to the business is that they can’t rely on it to increase their sales because if these one off sales do not happen, there will be no boost in their sales and without boost there will be no increase in their sales.
Value of lifetime customer
Life time customers are really important to Microsoft because they guarantee a percentage of the sales. The business can always relay on them to keep the sales up and generate benefits even in hard time. A weakness of it can only occur if the company loses these valuable customers as their commitments cannot always be trusted especially with competitor always looking to get more customers.
Businesses like Microsoft sow their gratitude to their lifetime customers by making them offers on the products they buy. Some companies have loyalty cards with discounts on them, these cards are offered to the most loyal customers in exchange of their loyalty and devotion towards the business.
Strengths of this is that it promotes further the name of the business and enables them to attract more and more customers. Growth and expansion is also another strength of this method because the more promotion it make for the company, the more customers it is going to attract. And the more customers are attracted the larger the company will get and this will lead to expenditure and growth.
One of the weaknesses of this strategy in that it is not guarantee, loyal can always leave the company for another after getting all the discount they want or if they find a company who they believe offers better products.
Also, another weakness of this strategy is that a company offering g too much discount or offers could lose out on making enough benefits for the business to prosper
by
serhad1234hotmailcouk (student)
