Introduction
Microsoft is an American multinational that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers. It is best known for Microsoft office. Other products of the company are Xbox which is a gaming device, bing the search engine, internet explorer the web browser. It also offers lot of business solutions like cloud computing, servers, data base management etc. (Official website of Microsoft, n.d.) Microsoft has also entered extremely competitive mobile handset market also. The focus of the present paper is on the product Xbox One. A marketing issue related to Xbox One is identified, analysed and recommendations are put forward.
Identifying the issue
Microsoft's effort to limit the sales of pre-owned games and linking consoles to a thorough online authentication sphere has been quashed. The customers have shown high resentment towards such decision of Microsoft. The chief reason behind such resentment could be lack awareness and features of the offered products. They are still unsure about the device features and how it is different from other offered products. They should be updated about the advantages associated with the added feature of the Xbox One. They should to able to make a different between the new version of Xbox with the previously available ones.
The importance of customer awareness and satisfaction can be underpinned from the reality that it carries out a part in the company’s promotion and advertising appetites (Hartline & Forrel, 1996). If a particular product or service involves sound customer following, then the company would put in a good amount of resources over short time-periods in order to gain the focus of new buyers and retain existing ones. But, in case of unsatisfied customers, firms are likely to maintain the advertising at a stable speed to draw new customers and to perk up the sales level (Loudon, 2001).
Analysis of the issue
The chief problem is due to lack of awareness about the features and traits of the new product offered by Microsoft. The customers are unable to differentiate between the already existing ones and the new device. They are unsure about the product and its features. Customer satisfaction should be considered as key factor for every business and its success.
The marketers put in a lot of effort in defining their target market segment and then them making them the loyal customers for the company by ensuring they accept the company’s products and services and they are satisfied with these products and services (Reichheld, 1993). Satisfied customers have higher willingness to spend money to buy these products and services. Their negative post purchase dissonance will be low. The advertisements and promotional measures ensure that high level of customer awareness and creating interest in the customers to use the company’s products and services (Hartline and Forrel, 1996). Having loyal customers also helps the companies to reduce their promotional expenses. Then the customer would have to focus its advertising and promotional expenses to acquire new customers and increase revenue (Loudon, 2001).
Customer satisfaction basically refers to the act of customers again and again buying an item or patronizing an organization (Luthans, 2002). Corporations usually develop this loyalty by way of strong marketing and advertising campaigns which impact customers and superior quality services or products (Hartline and Forrel, 1996). Marketing is essential to attract buyers to buy company’s products over other competing products. The significance of brand loyalty results in higher marketplace share, greater profits and superior goodwill amongst customers. Companies would often adopt a series of practices that enhance their loyalty amongst buyers.
Marketplace share signifies the level of a market’s overall sales, which one firm earns at the time when customers make purchases. Moreover, customer satisfaction enables an organization to advertise and market its products or services within the marketplace. Firms are often incapable of capturing a considerable section of marketplace share without updating the customers (East, 2008). In addition, new corporations might have no consumers who are loyal or informed to the company and its items. As a result, developing loyalty by providing superior products or undercutting other firm’s brand loyalty could perk up marketplace portion.
Moving ahead, profit is considered as being the chief reason as to why companies operate within specific business surroundings (Hartline and Forrel, 1996). An organization generates profit by offering products and services to the customers, with profits arising from either a huge sales volume or high level of profit (Dick and Basu, 1994). Brand loyalty makes possible for an organization to generate greater sales via word-of-mouth and advertisement (Luthans, 2002). This enables the corporation to create a loyal customer base by its present consumers.
The first thing the company should do is to bring to the attention of the customers features of the new product and how it is different from the already existing ones. The customers should be in a position to differentiate between the two products. Customer awareness basically refers to the act of customers again and again buying an item or patronizing an organization (Luthans, 2002). Corporations usually develop this satisfaction and awareness by way of strong marketing and advertising campaigns which impact customers and superior quality services or products (Hartline and Forrel, 1996). Marketing is essential to attract buyers to buy company’s products over other competing products. The significance of brand loyalty results in higher marketplace share, greater profits and superior goodwill amongst customers. Companies would often adopt a series of practices that enhance their loyalty amongst buyers. Additionally, the company should make use of effective marketing and promotion techniques in order to highlight features of the offered product in the best possible manner. The maximum resentment has been shown by the customers for remaining online at all times. They should be updated what all they are getting by spending extra.
Recommended Solution
Being a part of a highly cut-throat market, it is important for Microsoft to offer innovative products to its customers on regular basis. Innovation can be described as an activity involving individuals and companies to transform themselves as well as the surroundings. It can even be explained as going against schedule, following prevailing ways of thinking, bringing in new behaviours and even launching fresh standards (Christensen, 2002). Directed through a creative orientation, it occurs due to lack of satisfaction within the present state of art and through leveraging socio-technical new prospects. It is collectively an individual stand, an organizational procedure and a social progress. The concept of innovation refers to an alteration in a service, product offering, business framework or operations that significantly enhances the experience of several stakeholders. In addition to this, innovation is the formation of superior or more efficient goods, procedures, facilities, ideas or technologies, which are accepted by marketplaces, governments and community. Innovation varies from invention as innovation implies to the utilization of new ideas or methods, while invention implies to the formation of the method or idea itself (Christensen, 2002). If the company continues to offer same old products customers might not be willing to buy them since they want something new all the time. As a result, it can be stated that the company’s launch of new Xbox One having such innovative feature is justified but it should bring to the attention of the customers the features of the new product and what they are getting by spending extra.
In context to the organizational setting, innovation might be associated with constructive modifications in terms of effectiveness, output, quality, competitiveness, marketplace share and many others. All companies could innovate, taking in for instance universities, retail, hospitals etc (Christensen, 2002). There exist various sources of innovation and the general basis of innovation include distinct modifications within the industry framework, in marketplace structure, within both local and worldwide demographics, in human insight, feeling and connotation and in the level of already existing scientific knowledge. Moving ahead, innovation is a multifaceted development of findings like new physical regulations and inventions such as new machinery introduced within the social and business surroundings, expectantly resulting in diffusion i.e. use by new customers etc (Christensen, 2002).
References:
Christensen, C. “The Rules of Innovation”. Technology Review 105.5 (2002): 32–38. Print.
East, R. Consumer Behavior Applications in Marketing, 1st ed. Great Britain: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2008. Print.
Hartline, M. D. and Forrel, O. C. “The management of customer-contact service employees: An empirical investigation”. Journal of Marketing 60 (1996): 52- 70. Print.
Loudon, A. Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Application. Tata McGraw-Hill, 2001. Print
Luthans, F. Organisational behaviour (9th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill, 2002. Print.
Official website of Microsoft. Web. 03 November 2014. http://www.microsoft.com/en- in/default.aspx
Reichheld, F. F. “Loyalty-Based Management”. Harvard Business Review 71.2 (1993): 64- 73. Web. 03 November 2014. http://hbr.org/1993/03/loyalty-based-management/ar/1
