. ANALYSIS OF CURRENT BRAND POSITIONING AND SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES
BRAND POSITIONING
Brand positioning is essential to the success of any firm because it delivers a perception into the consumer’s minds which differentiates them from their competitors. Microsoft began to grow their brand over 20 years ago with Bill Gate’s an underlying vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home”. This resulted in Microsoft developing into a huge multinational company with personal computing at the forefront of their business. Microsoft dominated this industry for many years which is reflected in the high brand recognition of Microsoft products worldwide.

However, this dominance has slowly evaporated and Microsoft has failed to react to new trends such as the rapid expansion of the Smartphone and tablet industries. It appears that Microsoft’s failure to respond to the market trends can be attributed to an over confidence by Microsoft in their brand positioning while their competitors have been developing software in new dynamic ways and diversifying their products.
Microsoft is now presented with a problem. Their vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home” has essentially been achieved and their consumers are now looking to new technologies to satisfy their needs. Microsoft needs to restructure their brand position in order to facilitate this which the public is beginning to see. The announcement that Microsoft’s CEOSteve Ballmer will retire in the next twelve months and the recent €5.4 billion acquisition of Nokia’s phone business reflects this. The firm is heading in a “new direction” and it is essential that Microsoft develops their brand positioning in line with this as they attempt to shift towards a services and devices firm.
With the recent acquisition Microsoft has inherited the Nokia Lumia range. A Smartphone range which focuses on the convenience of use, poking fun at the iPhone and Android counterparts while emphasising the lightness of the phone and quality of the camera. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft develops their brand positioning in the future. Will they continue on with Nokia’s vision or will they attempt to secure a competitive advantage in a new area?
Microsoft released the Microsoft Surface in 2012. The tablet failed dramatically with the company incurring a loss of $900 Million worth of stock. This failure could have been easy to predict as there was no real creative vision associated with the product. The product was advertised as a medium between being used for work and leisure activities. This lack of creativity resulted in there being no place for the tablet within the market as people continued using their iPads for leisure and their MacBook Air for work. The surface 2 has recently been introduced and it is vital that Microsoft ensure this time that their brand positioning exposes a new niche in the market.
SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES
Microsoft only recently attempted to infiltrate the tablet industry with the Microsoft surface last year. The company’s mission statement which states “at Microsoft, Our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world realise their full potential” illustrates their segmentation strategy. Microsoft didn’t focus on a particular segment within the market but rather focused on the entire market. While, this strategy worked for many years for the company in terms of personal computing due to the monopoly they acquired it proved to be unsuccessful when applied to the tablet industry. Microsoft failed to adequately research the demographics, psychographics or the behaviour of the consumers within the industry which resulted in a target market which was too broad. Last month, Microsoft unveiled the Microsoft Surface 2. The product is targeting users who prefer to use their tablet for work purposes over leisure with built in Microsoft software, high storage and durable battery. The emphasis that the Microsoft Surface 2 is a “tool not a toy” provides a clear idea that Microsoft is targeting professionals who are interested in productivity. For now, we will just have to wait and see if Microsoft’segmentation strategy proves to be successful over the upcoming year.

THE BRAND AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES EXPENDITURE, MEDIA MIX, REACH AND EFFECTIVENESS. As a result of the wide spectrum of products Microsoft offers, they communicate to a wide customer base. The company has implemented successful brand and communication strategies throughout their range of products which vary across software, entertainment, devices and gaming etc. The modern media mix typically used by Microsoft includes television campaigns and the internet to generate reach, mobile to drive engagement and social media to spark conversations and generate virility. However, in contrast with the other sectors they operate in Microsoft holds a smaller market share in the smartphone and tablet industries. This means that Microsoft needs to implement branding and communication strategies that focus on gaining new customers rather than customer retention. The Microsoft Surface was launched with a television campaign that branded it as a fun device with several dancers on top of tables dancing to the tune of the integrated keyboards clicking on to the tablet which was similarly followed by the Surface pro which also featured dancers but in a business environment. Although there was a strong investment in this campaign and it reached a large audience it proved to be ineffective with the company retracting €900 million worth of stock. Unsurprisingly Microsoft shifted to an informative television campaign for the upcoming launch of the Surface 2 which has rebranded the product as productivity focused tablet by focusing on the tablets features in comparison with their competitors. The Microsoft Surface also has independent profiles across the three main social media platforms; which are Facebook, twitter and YouTube. The Surface Facebook page has 465,725 likes with 17,260 people talking about it, the Twitter page has 259,361 followers and the YouTube page has 72 posted videos with 45,378 subscribers as of 13th October. The Surface YouTube page divides its videos under the headings “Surface commercials” and “Life with Service”. The commercial videos are reposted television advertisements which gather extra exposure. The “Life with Service” videos coincide with the rebranding of the Surface as they give real life examples of people using them in their various working fields which range from an adventure photographer to a medical student. In comparison with their competitors, Microsoft is not gathering the same exposure through social media. Apple’s iPad Facebook page has 8,481,852 likes. Microsoft needs to gather more interest in their social media sites in order to utilise social media as effectively as their competitors.