Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

"Business Marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption." Microsoft took the gaming experience to a whole new level. By using the internet Microsoft made a world where gamers of the same platform can interact via microphones and cameras. While playing "online" you can also interact with your foes and or allies depending on the game your playing. Strategic alliance is a cooperative agreement between business firms. Microsoft have plenty of strategic alliances. For example they have strategic alliances with the creators of the Halo and Gears of War saga. Halo and Gears of War are games exclusively for the Xbox 360. This gives Xbox a big advantage over Sony's Playstation 3 because not only are these games are exclusively for the Xbox 360 but they are also competitive games. Competitive gamers tend to buy more and more quantities then casual gamers. I myself am a competitive player and i have 3 copies of the Halo game.

Ch 8- Segmenting and Targeting Markets

“Marketers use segmentation bases, or variables, which are characteristics of individuals, groups, or organizations, to divide a total market into segments.” When it comes to Geographic segmentation Microsoft Focuses more on the United States then in Japan. The reason for this is that the Japanese people are loyal to their beloved Sony PlayStation 3. They are loyal to Sony because, the PlayStation 3 has many role playing games that are specifically for the PlayStation 3. The Japanese gamers love role playing games that is why Microsoft released Tales of Vesperia, which was a role playing game made for the Xbox 360 to try to win over the Japanese. When it comes to demographic segmentation, age, gender and income are taken into consideration. Age is used on the games created for the Xbox. For example most first person shooter games are rated M for mature which means that u have to be 17+ to even buy the games in store. Other games are labeled E for everyone, T for teen, and E+10 for everybody over 10 years old. Gender comes in play when new applications are added to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Applications like Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Zune, etc are all targeted at the females who live with the male gamers.

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

Microsoft starting the Kinect is a perfect example of new product development. The Kinect is Microsoft's response to Nintendo's Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo Wii replaced the traditional gamepad or controller with a motion sensing controller. Microsoft's Kinect eliminated the controller altogether. The Kinect is a add on for the Xbox 360 that uses a sensor.a microphone and a camera that allows to interact with the system through gestures spoken commands and movements. By starting the Kinect Microsoft is offering new a whole new way of gaming  and a new way of communication. For example, busy mothers that don't have time to go to the gym, can workout in the comfort of their own living room with the game Your shape: Fitness evolved. The Kinect can also be used to video chat with your love ones due to the camera that it has.

Microsoft wants to the Kinect to make their way into the lives of the gamer. They are doing this by bundling up the Kinect with the console. If the Kinect is bundled with the Xbox 360 then this forces the buyer to use it at some point. Microsoft is not giving up on the Kinect, And if all goes well then the Kinect will be very succesful

Ch. 16 -Integrated Marketing Communications

Promotional strategy are all of the promotion elements in one: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. Microsoft does not use interpersonal communication. Interpersona communication is direct faee-to-face communication between two or more people. The reason Microsoft doesnt use interpersonal communication is because they dont sell the produts themselves. They sell there product through retailers like Target, Bestbuy, Gamestop, ect. Microsoft uses mass communication to reach out to their target market. Mass communication is the communication of a concept or message to a large audience. Microsoft uses mass communication using devices like televesionand radio and even the newspaper.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

When it comes to packaging, Microsoft creates different colors for the different versions of the Xbox 360 consoles. The Arcade edition Xbox 360 comes in a green box, the Pro edition Xbox 360 comes in a white box and the Elite edition Xbox 360 comes in a grey box. What all of these packages have in common is the green and yellow spiral which is used to represent the Xbox 360. These boxes are made to withstand most situations because if not then Microsoft would not be able to ship them across the world.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has one flaw and one flaw only. It is called the rings of death. Microsoft covers 1 year of warranty from the day you originally buy the console. At first the y repair whatever problem the system may have. After a few times of repair if the problem continues they will give you a new console.

Ch. 18 - Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales promotion is a short term incentive that motivates consumers or members of the distribution channel to purchase a good or service immediately, either by lowering the price or by adding value. One way that Microsoft uses sales promotion is by selling xbox 360 bundles. The bundles can include anything from a T-shirt to a game to a limited edition style Xbox 360. For example when a new game comes out, depending on the popularity of the game, limited edition style Xbox 360s are made using designs that represent the game. The following two images are limited edition consoles. The first one is the Modern Warfare 2 style Xbox and the Grey one is the Halo Reach edition.

Another way that Microsoft uses Sales promotion is by offering discount that are only available for gold subscribers. The Xbox live 1 year membership as of November 1 2010, increased from 50$ to 60$. While being a subscriber you will be able to renew your membership for a low price of 45$ for a 1 year memberhsip.

Ch. 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

Microsoft uses institutional and product advertising. I found three commercials that were focused more on product advertisement. All three commercials are targeted at different parts of the world. All of these commercials are unique in its own way and some address problems going on in society.

The first commercial ad i found was made for gamers in Asia. At the end of the video one of the guys get shot while imitating a deer in hunting season. Then it reads "It's safer on the sofa". This ad is basically saying that staying home and playing can be safer then playing in the outdoors.

The second commercial ad i found was made for gamers in Asia. The commercial is trying to explain that not only is the Xbox 360 a game console but it is a new way of life. They describe the Xbox 360 using the words "world and amazing". "welcome to the amazing world of Xbox 360"

The final video i chose was actually a series of commercial starring Jane Lynch. I chose the video that describes some of the features of the Xbox 360 like online communications with other subscribers and social networks like twitter.

Ch. 15 - Retailing

When it come to Retailing, you can find Microsoft's Xbox 360 almost anywhere. You can find it online on Ebay, Amazon, Gamestop.com , etc. You can also find it in Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, and or your local video game store. I tend to stick to more towards Best Buy and Gamestop because of the attention that is given to you there. Just the other day I walked into Best Buy to ask a couple of questions regarding the Xbox and i was surprised to see how much the employee knew about the Xbox. What surprised was that he didn't even own one. This shows that Best Buy takes the time out to understand and decifer the most common problems and questions of the Xbox 360.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is known globally to be the superior online gaming console. The Xbox 360 has two memberships. They have the silver which is free and the gold membership which is paying. While playing on a silver membership you cannot play online games or watch movies etc. When comparing this to Sony's (free) Playstation network it can be very easy to pick Sony over Microsoft because Sony's Playstation network does what the silver membership from Xbox cant do. But when you upgrade to a gold membership you can access Netflix , play online, download demos from the soon to come games, access Espn, twitter, Facebook, etc. Now u may be thinking why pay when i can get the same features for free. The Xbox Live has way less lag then the Playstation network and also you have less time down for maintenance and updates. Also most people choose Xbox because of some exclusives for the Xbox including Halo and Gears of war. In conclusion although they both have the same features Microsoft's Xbox dominates when it comes to online gaming.

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Many may not know it, but Microsoft's Xbox 360 lags behind Sony's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's Wii in the Japanese market. The Xbox 360 is not as popular in Japan as it is in the U.S. In a survey posted by Matthew Humphries it shows that 35.71% of the Japanese gamers surveyed said that they don't buy Xbox 360 because they are worried about the future of the console. The Xbox 360 has something known as the 3 rings of death which indicate that the system has a problem. This is a problem that Microsoft has struggled with since its first release. Also 3.57% of the japanese gamers surveyed said that the Xbox 360 has no games that they want to play. This is probably one of the major reasons why the Xbox does not dominate over the Playstation 3 in Japan. The Xbox 360 doesn't have as many role playing games as the Playstation 3 has which the Japanese enjoy. This was proven when Namco released Tales of Vesperia, a game exclusively for the Xbox 360. Tales of Vesperia was released in August 7, 2008. In the week of August 4-10 the Xbox 360 sold 24,962, In contrast the Playstation only sold 9,673. With the sales highly increasing due to the exclusive role playing game Microsfot is considering making more japan specific titles to satisfy the Japanese gaming market.

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is targeted mainly to those people of Generation Y. Generation Y are those who are born between 1979 and 1994. Xbox 360 is targeted to mostly male gamers and also female partners who live with male gamers. The Xbox 360 targets the females that live with the male gamers by adding add-ons like social networks including Facebook and Twitter and by adding Netflix to the console. At the date of release the Xbox 360 was originally 400 dollars. The first generation of Xbox 360 wasn't successful. They eventually caught something known as the ring of death. Which is when 3 out of 4 lights turn red indicating that your system has a malfunction. Microsoft quickly came up with the Xbox 360 Elite. Not only did the Elite have more memory and a stylish black finish to it but it was also cheaper. The Xbox 360 Elite was sold at 300 dollars. A few years after the Xbox 360 Slim was created, but it had problems with the internal wifi. And once again Microsoft fixed the problem.

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Microsft has launched their newest product for the Xbox 360. They call it the Kinect. The Kinect is the first motion sensor game for the xbox 360. It is somewhat similar to Nintendo's Nintendo wii. Except that the Kinect is free of controllers , your body is the control. While creating the Kincet for the Xbox 360 Microsoft kept in mind one of the well known epidemics in America, Obesity. Microsoft created games keeping in mind the obesity problem. You can get a extreme workout with almost any Kinect game. One of the most popular for losing weight is Your Shape fitness evolved. This game gives the player full control of their fitness. In conlusion, not only will you be losin weight by playing this game but you will have fun doing it.

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Microsoft being the last to enter the video game industry had to find innovative ways to compete with Sony who dominated with their playstation 2. Microsoft decided to try new ideas to stand out from its competition. One example is Xbox live. Xbox live is a feature that is only compatible with the Xbox 360. Subcribers of xbox live can interact with other subcribers either if its privately chatting or online gaming. The capabilites of Xbox live up to date is unmatched. Another example is being the only platform to have the games Halo and Gears of war, which are very popular games. Microsoft also decided to have Netflix available for subscribers of Xbox live. Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the first to have Netflix, of cousre now all systems with online availability have Netflix. A few more examples include being able to download demos and game add-ons also available for Xbox live subcribers. In conclusion for being one of the newest members of the video game industry it has made its name as one of the preffered video game consoles.

Week 1:History and mission statement

HISTORY

The xbox 360 (created by Microsfot) is part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. Seventh generation video game consoles differ from other video game consoles. These consoles include online multplayer gaming.The xbox 360 was created because Microsoft's core pc business was slowed, and they wanted to create somehting different that pcs. The xbox 360 took gaming to a whole new level. Microsoft accomplished this by linking the console using the internet. The xbox 360 was launched November,2005. The xbox 360 is available in 3 versions. The core system, the premium, and the elite. The core system is the less expensive of the three versions, followed by the premium then the elite. The core and the premium diffe in that the premium brings a hard drive of 20GB to be able to store downloaded content such ad music, movies and or games.The premium and the elite differ in that the elite has a bigger hard drive of 120GB and the elite has a black finish while the premium and core system are white. Both the premium and elite now include a wireless headset (used for communication) and a wireless control.

MISSION STATEMENT

Microsoft's mission statement is to “Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices.”

Microsoft's mission statement for the xbox 360 is "to provide fun online gaming and interactive gameplay for any age group".