New Business

Suzy Gonzalez

Com/100

September 5th, 2011
Christine Piatkowski

New Business

Microsoft introduced the Zune mp3 player in 2006. Microsoft hoped that their portable music players would compete against the popular Apple iPod. Though Microsoft introduced innovative technologies in the Zune such as the first to include a Wi-Fi access and built-in FM radio, consumers preferred quantity to quality (Chapin, 2011).
Advertising Media Microsoft has launched many marketing campaigns to promote the Zune. One of its major campaigns occurred in many college campuses across the country. Microsoft would select a group of college individuals to promote the device in exchange of free merchandise from the company. Microsoft also depended on the viral movement to promote the Zune. Videos surfaced online from technological device reviewers that generated anticipation and excitement about this new device. Magazines would also feature articles on the Zune’s capabilities and high-quality characteristics versus the Apple iPod. Microsoft partnered with MySpace to influence the current social media users.
Unsuccessful Advertising Strategies Microsoft’s attempt to stabilize the Zune in the competitive mp3 market did not satisfy consumers. Young college students were an important strategy that Microsoft chose to promote their new product. The iPod was the dominant and popular mp3 player at the moment. The youth makes a product popular because if they promote it other young individuals see that it is what everyone has or is speaking of. This strategy only worked for little time because Apple and other music player device companies introduce newer and better models that surpassed the Zune’s qualities. The viral videos of the Zune were an important strategy for Microsoft because the Internet is the number one source for research, especially for finding customer reviews on technological devices. Television show hosts also mocked the Zune versus the iPod, claiming that the Zune was a joke. This influenced viewers of those shows and consumers not to buy Zunes and caused the drop of revenue. Microsoft's strategy of being all about the music and video was failing, and retailers such as GameStop stopped selling it (Chapin, 2011). Social media platforms currently influence society with news articles and consumer product reviews. What people discuss on their social profiles and how they connect to those social medias affects the products in which they connect. More and more individuals were leaving MySpace and switching to Twitter or Facebook. As MySpace’s popularity decreased, the popularity of the Zune also decreased. Apple introduced the iPod touch and people preferred downloaded apps that allowed social media interaction, gaming options, photo sharing, and listening to music in one device (Wildstrom, 2009), and the Zune only offered music capabilities.
Recommendations for Marketing Microsoft should take into consideration methods of marketing like focusing on the consumer’s popular interests and producing what he or she want to see. Interview the consumers and interview their needs and wants. Sell the product how the consumer wants to buy it. Create the features they are looking for if the competition is not fulfilling those needs. Offer quality for a reasonable amount of money. People want something effective but at low-cost. Microsoft should remain pricing as stable as possible but still be able to compete with the leader of market. It is also important that Microsoft connects with their consumers. Offering good customer service is key to returning consumers. If Microsoft provides satisfaction through their customer service Microsoft’s profits will increase.

Primary Medium Microsoft should take advantage of whatever social media platform is popular at the moment. Facebook is one of the top five highest traffic websites in the world; users spend more time on Facebook than any of the others (George, 2010). Facebook offers something called Facebook Ads. This tool allows people to create virtual ads of any product. These ads appear on the sidebar of Facebook. What is interesting is that these ads are linked to each user’s listed interests and likes on his or her profiles, so the ads that appear on that sidebar will influence the users to buy the products shown on the ads. Facebook Insights is a nice reporting tool as it can give people information about the actual, not targeted demographics and interests of the people clicking on your ads and keywords that drew that interest. This will help individuals narrow or broaden his or her targeting (Jantsch, 2010). This tool tracks the users clicking on the person’s ad, which helps see who and in what part of the world his or her product is the most popular. Google has a similar tool called AdWords that goes hand-in-hand with Facebook Ads. They each offer advertising features, but in the end Facebook ads cost less to run, causing marketers to prefer Facebook ads than AdWords (George, 2010).
Conclusion
The Zune could become a successful product, which can profit the Microsoft Company if it reached consumers through popular social media platforms. The product itself offers good quality and innovative features, some better than Apple iPod’s; Microsoft just needs better marketing strategies to reach the mp3 player consumers. Microsoft should motive the consumer’s needs socially and personally, and promise positive appeals to acquire that popularity needed for his or her product (Beebe, Beebe, & Ivy, 2009).

References
Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Ivy, D. K. (2009). Communication: Principles for a Lifetime, Volume One: Principles of Communication, Allyn and Bacon.
Chapin, A. (2011). Microsoft Zune (2006-2011). Canadian Business, 84(6), 23. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
George, T. (2010). 7 Steps to a Successful Facebook Ad Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.technologyinthearts.org/?p=1600
Jantsch, J. (2010). 5 Steps to Successful Facebook Advertising. Retrieved from http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2010/02/18/5-steps-to-successful-facebook- advertising/
Wildstrom, S. H. (2009). What Could Make the Zune Zoom. BusinessWeek, (4148), 90. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.