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REPORT ON STUDY OF MARKETING STRATEGIES OF MICROSOFT SUBMITTED BY  ABHINEET SRIVASTAVA SRIVASTAVA B.COM (HONS) ENROLLMENT NO- A7004614101 Under guidance of: Faculty Guide Mr. Samarth Pandey  ABS, Lucknow (DISSERTATION REPORT IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE AWARD OF FULL TIME B.Com (Hons) (2014-17) AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH LUCKNOW 1 DECLARATION Title of project report ““Report Report On Study Of Marketing Strategies Of Microsoft” Microsoft ” I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard I declare that (a) The work submitted by me in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree B.com (Hons) assessment in this Report on Study of Marketing Strategies of Microsoftis my own; it has not previously been presented for another assessment. (b) I declare that this Report on Study of Marketing Strategies of Microsoft is my original work. Wherever work form other source has been used, all debts (for words data, arguments and ideas) have been appropriately acknowledged and referenced in accordance with the requirements of  NTCC Regulations and Guidelines. Guidelines. (c) I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person to submit it as my own. (d) I have not permitted, and will not permit, anybody to copy my work with the purpose of passing it off as his or her own work. (e) The work conforms to the guidelines for layout, content and style as set out in the Regulations and Guidelines. Date: Name of student:-Abhineet student:-Abhineet Srivastava Enrolment no: - A7004614101 Programme Name: - B.com (Hons.) 2 DECLARATION Title of project report ““Report Report On Study Of Marketing Strategies Of Microsoft” Microsoft ” I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard I declare that (a) The work submitted by me in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree B.com (Hons) assessment in this Report on Study of Marketing Strategies of Microsoftis my own; it has not previously been presented for another assessment. (b) I declare that this Report on Study of Marketing Strategies of Microsoft is my original work. Wherever work form other source has been used, all debts (for words data, arguments and ideas) have been appropriately acknowledged and referenced in accordance with the requirements of  NTCC Regulations and Guidelines. Guidelines. (c) I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person to submit it as my own. (d) I have not permitted, and will not permit, anybody to copy my work with the purpose of passing it off as his or her own work. (e) The work conforms to the guidelines for layout, content and style as set out in the Regulations and Guidelines. Date: Name of student:-Abhineet student:-Abhineet Srivastava Enrolment no: - A7004614101 Programme Name: - B.com (Hons.) 2 FACULTY CERTIFICATE Forwarded here with a summer internship report on “Report “ Report on Study of Marketing Strategies of Microsoft” Microsoft” submitted by Abhineet Srivastava Enrollment NO A7004614101 student of BCOM (hons)3rd Semester (2014-17) This project work is partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelors Of Commerce (honors) from Amity University Lucknow Campus, Uttar Pradesh. Asst. Prof. Mr. Samarth Pandey AMITY UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW CAMPUS UTTAR PRADESH 3 AMITY UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW INTERSHIP PROGRAM AND CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT This AGREEMENT is between the office of the register Amity university Lucknow and Abhineet Srivastava a student presently studying at the Amity University Lucknow The student named above desires to undertake summer internship / training program as intern in the institute / Department / Center B.Com (Hons)Amity University as a part of his studies. The competent authority of the institute where the student is presently studying has officially recommended the student, confirming his antecedents, track record and good moral character. CONFIDENTIALITY: Confidential information means any information of a secret or confidential nature relating to the internship / training workplace. Confidential information may include, but is not limited to, trade secrets, proprietary information, customer information, customer lists, methods, plans, documents, data, drawings, manuals, notebooks, reports, reports, models, inventions, inventions, formulas, processes, software, software, information system, system, contracts, negotiations, strategic planning, proposals, business, alliances, and trading materials and / or any other intellectual property of the University. The student / intern agrees to observe the confidentiality requirements of the Amity University, its Disciplinary procedure in all respects and any additional requirements set out by the Amity University. Specifically, the students / intern agrees to observe confidentiality in the following respects. As University intern, I agree that: 1. I will use confidential information only as needed by me to perform my legitimate duties as intern. This means, among other things that. B. I will not seek confidential information for which I have no legitimate need to know, C. I will not any way divulge divulge share, copy, release sell loan revise, revise, alter or destroy any confidential confidential information except as properly authorized within the scope of my internship: D. I will not misuse confidential information or carelessly care for confidential information; information; and 4 E. I will strive to protect the privacy of all confidential information that I come into contact with. 2. I will safeguard and will not disclose my access code or any other authorization I have that allows me to access confidential information. I accept responsibility for all activities undertaken using my access code and other authorization. 3. I will report to my Head / supervisor activities by any individual or entity that I suspect may compromise the confidently of confidential. Reports made in good faith about suspect activities will be held in confidence to the extent permitted by law, including the identity of the individual reporting the activities; 4. I will be responsible for my misuse or wrongful disclosure of confidential information information and for my failure to safeguard my access code or other authorization to access confidential information. I understand that I have no right or ownership interest in any confidential information referred to in this agreement. The University may at any time revoke my access code, other authorization or access or confidential information. At all-time during my internship with Amity University, I will act in the best interests of PMC. I have read and understand the above definition of “ confidential information “ I a gree that I will not at any time, both during and after after my enrollment in University University Internship, communicate or disclose confidential information to any person corporation corporation or entity. entity. It is understood that any breach brea ch of confidentiality will result in immediate termination of the internship and that a report of the breach will be made by the concerned Head of Institution. 5 I HAVE READ THE ABOVE CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ITS TERMS.AGREED Signature:- Abhineet Srivastava (PRINTED FULL NAME)  ___________________________________ (DATE) Signature of Authorized signatory of the institution (Institution deputing the students) ACCEPTED REGISTRAR AMITYUNIVERSITY, UP Lucknow 6 Certified that this report is prepared based on the summer internship project undertaken by me in Report On Study Of Marketing Strategies Of Microsoft from 10thAugust 2015 to 19 thOctober 2015, under the able guidance of Asst. Professor Mr. Samarth Pandey in partial fulfillment of the requirement for award of degree of B.COM(Hons) 3rd SEM from Amity University, Uttar Pradesh. Date.______________ Signature Signature Signature Mr. Abhineet Srivastava Asst. Professor:-Mr. Samarth Pandey Professor  –  V.P Sahi Student Faculty Guide Director (ABS) 7 AMITY UNIVERSITY WEEKLY PROGRSS REPORT For the week commencing :- 10 Weeks  Name of the student Abhineet Srivastava WPR NO-----------------Enrolment No:- A7004614101 Programme :- B.Com (Hons) Name of NTCC- Company Report Organization Name:-Amity University Lucknow External Guide’s Name:-Mr. Samarth Pandey Project Title:-Report On Study Of Marketing Strategies Of Microsoft Targets for the week Achievements for the week Future work plans Discover the Objectives of Project. Brief Study Organization. The To Start With Report and Study Its Objectives. Discovering The Data And Analyzing the Data. Preparing The Data For Final Submission. Studying The Data For Further Information. Making And Finalizing the Report. Completion of the project according to the module. Approval Of The Project and Receiving Faculty’s Feedback. Of Signature of the student:……………………… Name of the student: Abhineet Srivastava 8 Acknowledgement This project report would not have been possible without the support and guidance of my teacher. I would express my heart-felt gratitude towards and, without whose guidance and support, I would not have been able to understand the objective of the project and this project would not have been complete. He has been really understanding and supportive in explaining all the details with patience. I would express my gratitude towards him for taking time out of him schedule to guide me during the report. 9 PREFACE Project Report a very vital part of curriculum B.Com. (hons) is the stepping-stone to management career. In order to achieve practical, positive and concrete result, the classroom learning has to be effectively supplemented in relation to the situation existing outside the classroom for developing healthy managerial and administrative skills in a potential manager. As an integral part of the course curriculum, all B.Com. (hons) students are required to undergo project Report in any organization. The main objective of this Project report is to supplement the student’s theoretical knowledge with a practical exposure to the working environment of an organization. This  programme enhances the student’s capability to cope up with the uncertainties and challenges, which are the part and parcel of every organization. I feel highly gratified in this report. It has been my constant endeavour to present this report in the most systematic and analytical manner. 10 S.NO TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. 1. Executive Summary 12-18 2. Synopsis 19-22 3. Introduction 23-28 4. Definition Of Marketing Strategies 5. Description of Marketing Strategies 6. Review of Literature 7. Study Area/Company Profile (Microsoft) 34-53 8. Research Methodology 44-45 9. Result and Discussion & Recommendation 10. Bibliography 11 29 30-32 Executive Summary Microsoft is unique in history. By virtue of its dedication to providing complete PC user desktop solutions, Microsoft has revolutionized computing by making it available on every desktop. PC solutions are  positioned to promote ease of use. The company has developed a group of products that provide incredible functionality, are intuitive to use, and are at the same time widely available to users because of the low cost of products. Rules-based configuration enables implementation of large numbers of products by a great variety of consumer and business customers in many different countries. Limiting end user software operations to very simple, understandable, well defined tasks make computer use achievable. This is the genius of Microsoft. Microsoft Revenue Microsoft has published its Q4 2014 earnings report, and the company has made $4.6 billion in net income on $23.38 billion in revenue. Revenue has increased compared to $19.9 billion from the same  period last year, and net income decreased only slightly compared to last year's $4.97 billion. In all, the earnings don't seem to hold many big surprises  —  at least not compared to the massive layoffs it recently announced. Stronger-than-expected PC demand helped Intel’s latest quarterly earnings, and it has also impacted Microsoft’s. OEM revenue for Windows increased by 3 percent this quarter, further hinting that the decline of traditional PC sales might be starting to slow down. Some of that increase is likely thanks to  businesses refreshing their PC hardware as Windows XP entered end of support back in April. As Microsoft battles to focus its efforts on mobile and the cloud, it is still attempting to push the Windows Phone platform. The company reported selling 5.8 million Lumia phones a nd 30.3 million nonLumia phones "following the completion of the NDS acquisition." Although that may look like a 21  percent drop for Lumia sales year over year, those sales numbers only account for two of the three months of this past quarter. Microsoft has now acquired Nokia’s phone business, and it plans to  focus solely on Windows Phone for the low- and high-end over the next 18 months. 12 13 Unfortunately, details on Surface sales are a mystery. That’s no surprise as Microsoft still refuses to  provide sales figures, but Surface accounted for $409 million in revenue this quarter. Microsoft's decision not to ship its Surface Mini hit revenue for Surface overall, as the company admits that current year cost of revenue related to Surface includes a "decision to not ship a new form factor." Elsewhere in hardware, Microsoft sold 1.1 million Xboxes during the quarter, though it did not specify how many were Xbox Ones and how many were Xbox 360s. Either way, the Xbox One has fallen behind Sony’s PlayStation 4 US sales for six months in a row. Microsoft continues to do well with its server and cloud offerings, both of which are increasingly important businesses for the company. Revenue has increased 11 percent to $13.48 billion overall. That's a mix of its Azure cloud service, Office 365 for business and enterprise, Windows volume licenses, and  products like Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync. With commercial cloud revenue growing by 147 percent, Microsoft's cloud performance is still the most impressive growth point for the software maker as it continues its focus on cloud and mobile. Even on the consumer side, Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers now total 5.6 million, that's an addition of 1 million subscribers this quarter. Microsoft’s latest earnings come as its new CEO, Satya Nadella , attempts to steer the company in a new direction. 18,000 job cuts are planned over the next year, with most affecting former Nokia employees as  part of the $7.2 billion acquisition. Microsoft Operating System And Application Strategy :Since its inception in 1975, Microsoft’s mission has been to create  software for the personal computer that empowers and enriches people in the workplace, at school and at home. Microsoft’s early vision of a computer on every desk and in every home is coupled with a strong commitment to Internet related technologies that expand the power and reach of the PC and its users. Microsoft strives to produce innovative products that meet customer evolving needs. Large corporations used multiple versions of Office during the deployment phase. Upgrades depend on the time it took to install large numbers of desktops and end users. The Office 97 service upgrade included Word 97 binary file converter that simplified the sharing of documents across multiple versions of Word. Shell Oil deployed Office 97 on 10,000 desktops in the same day. Microsoft has built in market protection because of the diversity of its Windows operating systems. The products go beyond full functionality to a level of product complexity that delivers enormous simplicity to users. No competitor can hope to deliver comparable functionality even if the operating system code is available. Microsoft dominates by virtue of its comprehensiveness. Microsoft has positioned to 14  provide a robust, scalable, and global directory service. Active directory is being positioned to be integrated with new and existing applications. NT is positioned to minimize costs, improve functionality, and increase the ability to respond to moves and changes. Consolidating directories and implementing a global directory service represents a feature of NT. Therein lies the vulnerability of Microsoft as well. Some competitors may implement network computing more efficiently than does Microsoft. Microsoft is tied to a large, immutable operating system that is not yet stable. Success has pushed out competition in many client segments but that situation could change. Now, competitors can only hope to provide products that supplement Microsoft functionality rather than compete directly with it. The 3Com Palm operating system is more efficient than the Microsoft CE operating system. Linux is emerging as a market force. Real time operating systems are gaining a market presence. Companies now seek to ally with Microsoft to achieve a market presence. Microsoft seeks to harness critical forces in the personal computing and digital technology revolutions by creating a plethora of partnerships represent the primary strength of Microsoft. Microsoft has been able to ally with the developers who define PC technologies, and the customers who use PC technologies. Competition Our server operating system products face competition from a wide variety of server operating systems and applications offered by companies with a range of market approaches. Vertically integrated computer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Oracle offer their own versions of the Unix operating system preinstalled on server hardware. Nearly all computer manufacturers offer server hardware for the Linux operating system and many contribute to Linux operating system development. The competitive  position of Linux has also benefited from the large number of compatible applications now produced by many commercial and non-commercial software developers. A number of companies, such as Red Hat, supply versions of Linux. We compete to provide enterprise-wide computing solutions and point solutions with numerous commercial software vendors that offer solutions and middleware technology platforms, software applications for connectivity (both Internet and intranet), security, hosting, database, and e-business servers. IBM and Oracle lead a group of companies focused on the Java Platform Enterprise Edition that compete with our enterprise-wide computing solutions. Commercial competitors for our server applications for PC-based distributed client/server environments include CA Technologies, IBM, and Oracle. Our web application  platform software competes with open source software such as Apache, Linux, MySQL, and PHP. In middleware, we compete against Java middleware such as Geronimo, Wild-fly, and Spring Framework. 15 Our system management solutions compete with server management and server virtualization platform  providers, such as BMC, CA Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and VMware. Our database, business intelligence, and data warehousing solutions offerings compete with products from IBM, Oracle, SAP, and other companies. Our products for software developers compete against offerings from Adobe, IBM, and Oracle, other companies, and open-source projects, including Eclipse (sponsored by CA Technologies, IBM, Oracle, and SAP), PHP, and Ruby on Rails, among others. Our embedded systems compete in a highly fragmented environment in which key competitors include IBM, Intel, and versions of embeddable Linux from commercial Linux vendors such as Metrowerks and Monta Vista Software. We believe our server products provide customers with advantages in performance, total costs of ownership, and productivity by delivering superior applications, development tools, compatibility with a  broad base of hardware and software applications, security, and manageability. Competitors to Windows Commercial are the same as those discussed above for Windows in the D&C Licensing segment. Office Commercial revenue growth depends on our ability to add value to the core product set and to continue to expand our product offerings in other areas such as content management, enterprise search, collaboration, unified communications, and business intelligence. Competitors to Office Commercial includes software application vendors such as Adobe Systems, Apple, Cisco Systems, Google, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and numerous web-based competitors as well as local application developers in Asia and Europe. Cisco Systems is using its position in enterprise communications equipment to grow its unified communications business. Google provides a hosted messaging and productivity suite. Web-based offerings competing with individual applications can also position themselves as alternatives to our  products. We believe our products compete effectively based on our strategy of providing powerful, flexible, secure, easy to use solutions that work well with technologies our customers already have and are available on a device or via the cloud. Skype competes with a variety of instant messaging, voice, and video communication providers, ranging from start-ups to established enterprises. Our Microsoft Dynamics products compete with vendors such as Oracle and SAP in the market for large organizations and divisions of global enterprises. In the market focused on providing solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, our Microsoft Dynamics products compete with vendors such as Infor, The Sage 16 Group, and NetSuite. Salesforce.com’s cloud CRM offerings compete directly with Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premises offerings. Commercial The principal products and services provided by the Commercial Other segment are: Enterprise Services, including Premier product support services and Microsoft Consulting Services; Commercial Cloud, comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure. Enterprise Services, including Premier product support services and Microsoft Consulting Services assist customers in developing, deploying, and managing Microsoft server and desktop solutions and provide training and certification to developers and information technology professionals on various Microsoft  products. Office 365 Commercial is an online services offering that includes Microsoft Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, and is available across a variety of devices and platforms. Dynamics CRM Online is designed to provide customer relationship management and supply chain management for small and mid-size businesses, large organizations, and divisions of global enterprises. Revenue is largely driven by the number of information workers licensed. Microsoft Azure is a scalable operating system with computing, storage, database, and management, along with comprehensive cloud solutions, from which customers can build, deploy, and manage enterprise workloads and web applications. These services also include a platform that helps developers build and connect applications and services in the cloud. Our goal is to enable customers to devote more resources to development and use of applications that benefit their businesses, rather than managing on-premises hardware and software. Competition The Enterprise Services business competes with a wide range of companies that provide strategy and  business planning, application development, and infrastructure services, including multinational consulting firms and small niche businesses focused on specific technologies. Competitors to Office 365 Commercial are the same as those discussed above for Office Commercial. 17 Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s online offerings primarily compete with Salesforce.com’s on-demand CRM offerings. Microsoft Azure faces diverse competition from companies such as Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce.com, VMware, and other open source offerings. 18 Synopsis External Environment General Environment Economic Environment: The factors that impact Microsoft’s operations include personal income, the Unemployment rate, and interest rates. All of these factors can have influence on the purchasing power of consumers and firms. Companies using software tend to choose less costly ones to replace Microsoft. Also, households are likely to spend less on computer products because of the current recession. Global Environment: Since early 1990’s, Microsoft has become the global leader of software services and Internet technologies for the computing industry. Sales for the global software and service industry stood at $2,330  billion in 2009. Though it experienced decelerating growth in the recent years, it is forecasted that the industry will experience 50% growth and sales will reach $3,400 billion by 2014. Sociocultural Environment: With the rapid development of computer technology, people can easily talk and see each other via the Internet. This new style of communication gives Microsoft an chance to promote MSN and Skype which offer convenient and cost-saving ways for keeping in touch with families and friends. Demographic Environment: Globalization and the diffusing of technology drive significant changes in the demand of IT products. Africa currently has the lowest penetration of Internet use. Asia has the largest amount of Internet users. However, Internet users only represent 20% of the total Asian population. This shows a huge potential market for the IT industry to expand in these areas. Political/Legal Environment: The general environmental factor that highly affects Microsoft is political. The U.S. Justice Department filed antitrust charges against the company in 1998, claiming that Microsoft had stifled Internet browser competition and limited consumer choice. In March 2004, the European Union (EU fined Microsoft and ordered it to take out its media player software f rom European’s Window version. Microsoft already reached the settlement for the first case, but a worst case scenario would be that, these legal actions can cause Microsoft to be split up. Technological Environment: Microsoft strongly depends on its technologies. The market requires the most advanced technology to meet the consumers’ preferences and competition with other rising companies, such as Google and Apple, is intense. Google’s web browser, Google Chrome, is compatible with all operating systems. Ap ple’s main selling point is that its operating system is not as vulnerable to attack by virus and hackers as Microsoft’s operating system. 19 Industry Environment Threat of New Entrants: The threat of new entrants for Microsoft is very low. In fact, Microsoft has  practically been a monopoly company. It held over 90% of the market share with their operating system and browser. Competitors have a hard time accessing the market due to economic, technological or legal  barriers. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The main suppliers for the industry are hardware device suppliers and software tool suppliers. Principle hardware components are mainly obtained from a sole supplier (Intel). The power of suppliers is strong because of high importance of inputs. Bargaining Power of Buyers: The main buyers in the industry are corporations, individual consumers, as well as government bodies. These  buyers could be divided into two segments: (1) lower end buyers who are small businesses that serve local or regional firms; (2) upper end buyers that include large corporations and customers for whom a name reputation carries importance. The buying power of these customers is limited because there are few alternatives. Microsoft’s reputation in the industry helps gain a competit ive advantage Threat of Substitute Products: Threat of substitutes always exists. Apple is one of its most important threats. Microsoft’s  profitability suffered when better Apple software came into the market. Microsoft has always positioned itself at a lower price than Apple to retain their position in the software market. Rivalry among Competing Firms: Competition among existing rivals is forcing to new product development, discounting, advertisement, and service improvements. The dominant players like M icrosoft continue to intensify competition in the high-end market from the diversification and other fields. The low switching cost and high exit barriers also add to the rivalry. Thus, there is moderate competition in the industry. Internal Analysis Resources Tangible Resources: For Microsoft these include: 1. Financial Resources: Microsoft has produced not only continuous huge positive net income, but it has also increased cash flow. Therefore, it owns sufficient cash reserves (Julian, 2010). 2. Physical Resources: Microsoft has placed regional operating centres in strategic geographic locations that service all aspects of customer interactions including vendor management and logistics. These operational centres are located throughout the world. These operational centres also serve as data centres. 20 Intangible Resources: For Microsoft these include: 1. Human Resources and Innovative Resources: Microsoft is able to retain its current talented employees and attract new ones. These employees are capable of contributing creative ideas to the company. The company also acquires new ideas and scientific capabilities by making several strategic acquisitions (Julian, 2010). 2. Reputational Resources: As mentioned before, Microsoft’s product has a s trong brand name among customers, especially enterprises. Capabilities Research and Development: Microsoft is able to do comprehensive and intense Research. The company is also able to develop new products frequently and continuously. Marketing: As an upgrade replacement of XP, Microsoft introduced Vista. Nonetheless, this operating system did not meet the consumers’ preferences. After that, Microsoft introduced Windows 7, which not only helped the company revive but also enhanced its image (Julian, 2010). Core Competencies Microsoft is one of the dominators in the software market. It is strong financially. Therefore, to keep its  products attractive and ahead of many competitors, the company is able to spend a large amount of capital on R&D. Also, Microsoft possesses a strong brand name around the world; consumers are familiar with its  products. Current Situation Microsoft, whose assets were valued at $41 billion, as compared to only $8.5 billion in unsecured debt received an AAA rating from financial service companies S&P and Moody's. Consequently, in February 2011 Microsoft released a corporate bond amounting to $2.25 billion with a relatively low borrowing rate (Sifert & Rigby, 2011). Microsoft is challenged in many areas. For instance, Firefox has blunted Internet Explorer's dominance. Microsoft’s Bing has never managed to come close to the kind of usage obtained by Google, the world's largest search engine. Microsoft's Online Services Division has been continuously losing money since 2006. Most recently, Online Services lost $726 million in the first quarter of 2011. This follows a loss of $2.5 billion for the year 2010 (Siegler, 2011). For the first time in 20 years Apple surpassed Microsoft in Q1 2011 quarterly profits and revenues. This was due to a slowdown in PC sales and 21 continuing huge losses in Microsoft's Online Services Division (which contains its search engine Bing). Microsoft profits were $5.2 billion, while Apple profits were $6 billion, on revenues of $14.5 billion and $24.7 billion respectively (White, 2012). Main Strategic Challenges Leverage Bing to Generate More Profits to be successful online, Microsoft needs to do a better job of leveraging Bing and increasing its web-advertising revenue. For too long, Microsoft performed poorly in web-advertising. In contrast to Google's advertising platform, Microsoft’s service falls behind in almost every area. The company needs a strategy to fight Google's domination over the Internet and ad based revenue generation. Create Solid Marketing Campaigns Apple's "I'm a Mac, I’m a PC" ads have proven extremely successful. Over the past few years, Microsoft has tried to match their success with marketing campaigns of its own; however, they never worked out. In order to motivate consumers to use Windows and Bing, Microsoft needs to spend time in the coming years developing marketing campaigns that appeal to consumers, package its products in a good light, and show consumers the benefits of using Windows and Bing. Without doubt, the development is challenging. Gain Market Share for Hardware Devices, According to International Data Corporation’s data, Windows Phone has only 2% global market share in the third quarter of 2012 (Computer World, 2012). The consistency of the low market share in the recent years may indicate the unpopularity of Windows-based phones. Recently, Microsoft has also released a new tablet called Surface. The same issue may exist in this new device as well. In order to compete with other similar products, the company needs to prove that their tablets compatibility and manageability are as good as they claimed. Solve Security Problems The popularity of the company’s software products makes it a major target for hackers. Its operating system, chatting software such as Messenger, Skype, and Explorer are victims to hackers and spammers. Mostly, the company patches its software only after finding out that users are being attacked. The company needs put more effort on  proactively fixing its security holes and improving its response time to security issues to better protects its users. 22 Introduction Microsoft’s ambitions have been anything but small since its inception in the early 1980’s. Microsoft’s is the world’s number one software company and has controlled an overwhelming share of the personal computer operating system market. Microsoft’s products do not stop at just an operating system; the company supplies the world with a number of other products including their Office Software Suite, their video game console Xbox, CRM Applications, server and storage software, and Zune, their digital music  player. The company has had acquisitions to bulk its presence in markets such as online advertising, mobile devices, and enterprise software. Microsoft Corporation’s headquarter is in Redmond, Washington and started mainly as a software development company creating operating systems for personal computers (PCs) and office productivity software for PCs. Today this company is developing and supporting many software products for various computing devices worldwide. MSFT (2006) identified Seven Major product segments within the Microsoft Corporation: 1) Clients 2) Servers and Tools 3) Information Worker 4) Microsoft Business Solutions 5) MSN 6) Mobile and Embedded Devices 7) Home and Entertainment The Microsoft technical innovations and its leadership in consumer markets and corporate markets make them a redoubtable competitor in this information age. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing a little history Microsoft, their Technological Strategy, the company’s core competencies, industry dynamics, sourcing and innovation, and their strategy to protect their innovations. 23 Bill gates Microsoft has been an iconic brand of our era. There are 100’s of lessons which business graduates can learn from Microsoft. However, here we present 8 marketing strategy lessons from Microsoft. 1) Network Marketing –  The first and most known strategy of Microsoft is Network marketing. This is  because each windows product is compatible with another windows products. Your office documents can  be opened on most computers because of the number of people using Microsoft. Thus it has established the concept of Network marketing perfectly. 2) Regular Product Launches –  Microsoft is present almost everywhere, be it the music market with its Zune, the computer peripherals market, it is the market leader in operating systems, it has its own tablets, it has revolutionized gaming with XBOX 360, it is now involved in Cloud computing and it generally comes out and gives tough competition to the current players in the market. This expansion helps build up the deep pockets of Microsoft. 3) Follower Strategy –  One problem in the strategy of Microsoft has been that it has had a follower strategy in the past decade or more. It has rarely come out with an innovation. Check “Microsoft office” from 2003 to 2010. You will see that except for graphics, they have been almost the same products over and over again. In hardware too, there has hardly been an innovation in Microsoft. I-pod launched in 2001 and Zune launched in 2006. Need we say more? 4) Learning and Adapting –  If you look at Windows, you will find that XP had the most security holes, Windows Vista had several too, Windows 7 has quite less security problems and Windows 8 too is expected to be even better in security. Thus Microsoft is learning fast and adapting to the environment. Microsoft knows that nowadays people need security and it is providing the same to them. 5) Build a Cash Cow –  Even though I am repeating this point, but this is important. Microsoft has a cash cow –  operating systems as its backup. And its whole empire is built on the basis of this cash cow. 6) Be Customer Focused –  There are a lot of jokes about the customer service of Microsoft but if you really look at it, then the reason why Microsoft is actually working is because help is available offline as well as online. Your computer might crash for any reason, but generally you are able to specify the reason for the crash and if you are a techie you will be able to rejuvenate it. Even a 10 year old nowadays knows how to correct windows. 24 7) Ease Of Use –  Make products which can be used by the youngest to the oldest in the easiest manner. Like Nokia in mobile phones, Microsoft OS is known for its ease of access. The start button has been revolutionary. 8) Build Brand Equity –  Today, Microsoft is amongst the top 10 companies in terms of its brand equity due to many different consumer and business to business products that it has. Building such a high brand equity has paid off for Microsoft with it becoming a highly trusted household name. Microsoft is a largest software company in the world and founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 (Microsoft Corporation 2004). Microsoft is incorporated as limited company in United Kingdom (Microsoft Corporation 2004). Nowadays, Microsoft becomes a monopoly company in the market (Lewis 1999). Mission and value of Microsoft state that are "to assist public and company in business during the world realize their full potential" (Microsoft Corporation 2010d). For software companies as large as Microsoft, the responsibility is most important on the social and people. The President for Latin America, Hernan Rincon (2007) claimed that how Microsoft initiatives are real differences for individuals, communities, business, and entities countries in Latin America and Caribbean that is, the responsibility of Microsoft Company. Thus, as a global company would make sure the information technology's contribution goes well away from the business that includes Microsoft's social and economic impact on society (Rincon 2007). At Microsoft as largest as software company would have impact society and stakeholder. Typical of stakeholder are divided internal and external that including employees, customers, suppliers, government, civil society and shareholders. As an international company, more or less has improved and impacted their decision-making in business by stakeholder engagement that is also helping Microsoft address the changing expectations of society and community (Microsoft Corporation 2010e). Besides, most important for a company is customers and partner experience(CPE), so that Microsoft in order to satisfy their customers and partners and make approach as well as to focus on improving the experiences of customers and partners that including listen to customer and partners, feedback and customer and partner ready (Microsoft Corporation 2010e). Employees, government and community engagement with nongovernmental organizations (NOGs) are also the stakeholder among (Microsoft Corporation 2010). Porter and Kramer (2007) state that while facing an importance of an issue, the stakeholder of company does not obligatory indicate to its. Hence stakeholder may no authority manage the company as well. 25 In addition, technology skills training, strengthening NOGs through technology, and engaging e mployees are provided to support for communities by Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation 2010). These three ways are under the Unlimited Potential (UP) of Microsoft that helps to improve or develop the underserved communities around the world. Main of UP is focus on enabling jobs and opportunities, fostering local innovation and transforming education to economic and social development, which programs such as workforce development, strengthening NOGs through information, disaster and humanitarian response and so on (Microsoft Corporation 2010), it helps to take relevant, reachable, and affordable technology for people who lack to it’s in the world (Gates 2007) . Besides, from environmental and infrastructure barriers, in this particular, have to find out technologies fitted to specific needs and languages (Gates 2007). The Chairman of Microsoft Corporation (Gates 2007) claimed that "All human beings deserve a chance to achieve their full potential and bringing the benefits of technology". Therefore, Microsoft is giving more chance f or people around the world to develop technology as well as good. Furthermore, technology skills training such as for workforce development, with partner to create relevant training opportunities that would be believed that to help foster social and economic opportunities for change lives of people and communities (Microsoft Corporation 2010). Besides, the purpose of workforce development is affording the organizations that job to make sure that individuals have information technology (IT) skills (Microsoft Corporation 2010). For instant, Microsoft has supplied more than US$ 350 million and software grants to more than 1,000 community partners that through Community Technology Skills Program Recipients of UP (Microsoft Corporation 2010). As large as Software Company of Microsoft would afford more programs or centres to community to help people develop technology skills such as Community Technology Centres, Digital Literacy Curriculum, Unlimited Potential Community Learning Curriculum, Expanded Job Skills Training Programs, and others (Microsoft Corporation 2010). In case, Microsoft never have a ppears in the world, today's people and social may underdevelopment. Hence, workforce development is an important key for economy's growth and technology improvement. Likewise, Microsoft is attaches great importance to the strengthening NOGs through technology. The objective of Microsoft is helping NOGs set free technology to move forward to social and economic development. Microsoft also provides a all-inclusive set of services, products or goods, relevant tools to  NOGs and communities that are the approach by using Microsoft's strategy to ensure NOGs admission to access to secure IT, optimizing the delivery of IT solutions and transform through innovative technology (Microsoft Corporation 2010f). In brief, NOGs made productivity and overall effectiveness increasing, and enlarge goods and services to communities in need (Microsoft Corporation 2010f). 26 Similarly, nowadays, number of Microsoft employees is more than 56,104 in the world (Microsoft Corporation 2004). Microsoft is providing Microsoft Poll (MS Poll) for feedback, suggestions that is  presented to their employees who in an unbiased manner (Microsoft Corporation 2010). Cusumano and Selby (1995,21) discuss that Microsoft should find smart and knowledgeable employees, people who like to become Microsoft's employees that should be experience in work, skills and passions (Microsoft Careers Australia 2010). Thus, employment opportunities had increased as Microsoft provides job opportunity to society as well. Specially, Microsoft's employees make an extraordinary impact by engaging with their communities, and also provided several programs to support their worker done well and balance work with their working such as giving programs, volunteering program, united way loaned executive program and work with Microsoft volunteers (Microsoft Corporation 2010). Most of these  programs are relating strategic community and connecting to local communities. For an example, Microsoft in Canada promotes a productive work environment by supporting the diversity of its workforce, and dedicated to affording equal employment opportunity to their employees and applicants (Microsoft Careers Canada 2010). Therefore, Microsoft should provide training to employees to improve skills as soon as possible. More importantly, Work Life balance play on important role in employee's management as the idea of Microsoft from employees are most valued asset (Microsoft Corporation 2010). Hence, Microsoft affords more flexible programs, tools and resource to help their workers in order to balance between job and  personal life (Microsoft Corporation 2010). In the same way, Microsoft also has provided more programs for their employees that including flexible work arrangements, financial planning, employees development, long term care for extended family members, and so on (Microsoft Corporation 2010). These programs will been helping Microsoft's employees to engage in a challenging career and balance their Work Life needs, so that Microsoft Company has to create a healthy, flexible and productive work environment (Microsoft Corporation 2010). As employees of Microsoft Company have to work well, thus able to deliver the best goods and services for society. CEO of Microsoft said that employee's responsibility is an important for understanding and complying with the Standard of Business Conduct, applicable government regulations and Microsoft policies as well (Ballmer 2009). In addition, safety and security is compulsory needed for Microsoft. As software company of Microsoft is  promoting a safe online experience and protecting personal and business data of users that is in order to make more users safety and raise online trust (Microsoft Corporation 2008). Particularly, safety and security is not an easy problem for Microsoft, its must attain these approach including developing innovative technology solutions, enforcement, effective legislation and so on (Microsoft Corporation 27 2008). Similarly, security for virus hinder the development of Microsoft, so that, Microsoft founded in experience as the purpose of Microsoft Security Response Alliance (MSRA) is developing a strong, valuable alliances that allowed secure response for improvement Microsoft security and  products.(Microsoft Corporation 2010). Besides, as a global company, Microsoft has been produce more  products in the society for consumers such as business software, developer tools, entertainment, hardware, home and education software, and more. Today's most of people are using products of Microsoft to complete their job as well as good. On the other hand, the report of Financial data since year 2005 until year 2009, all of data are increasing for each year except the year 2009 that the revenue, operating, net income and undiluted earnings per share was decreasing (Microsoft Corporation 2009). Besides, inventory are no inventory carried by Microsoft, because its product sold out efficiently, and also the debt of Microsoft is free, there is no long and short term debt in this case (Kennon). It is an impossible Microsoft that encountered the issue of bankruptcy (Kennon) As a global company, CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer said that "Addressing global warming is a responsibility we take very seriously at Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation 2009)". Software and technology would help business and people around the world to improve the environment (Microsoft Corporation 2009). The purpose of Microsoft is to decrease the impact of their operations and products, and to drive responsible environmental leadership (Microsoft Corporation 2009). Today's Microsoft is the challenges of IT business, data centre manager and industry, Microsoft was practicing for several years that in order to protect the environment and helps teams aligned with ten core strategies and goals such as focus on effective resource utilization drive quality up through compliance, embrace change management and another seven core strategies and goals (Microsoft Corporation 2009). For instant case, the objective of Microsoft's meeting is to know whether the new management skills are developed and professional relationship are strengthened, as Microsoft can analysis on professional development and culture to make decision (Microsoft Case Study 2008). On May 2008, Microsoft Australia Changed the format in order to satisfied competing needs that achievement such as maximizing customer-facing time to increase the  productivity sales, support and market teams, reduce travel and entertainment expenses and reduce their carbon footprint, and also support from information technology during the meeting (Microsoft Case Study 2008). 28 Definition Of Marketing Strategies  Definition:- “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably ” A marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A  marketing strategy should be cantered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. A marketing strategy is most effective when it is an integral component of corporate strategy, defining how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena. Corporate strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. As the customer constitutes the source of a company's revenue, marketing strategy is closely linked with sales. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement. A marketing strategy can serve as the foundation of a marketing plan. A marketing plan contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing strategy. For example: "Use a low cost  product to attract consumers. Once our organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer's interaction with the low-cost product or service." A strategy consists of a well thought out series of tactics to make a marketing plan more effective. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results. A marketing strategy often integrates an organization's marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. Similarly, the various strands of the strategy, which might include advertising, channel marketing, internet marketing, promotion and  public relations can be orchestrated. Many companies cascade a strategy throughout an organization, by creating strategy tactics that then  become strategy goals for the next level or group. Each one group is expected to take that strategy goal and develop a set of tactics to achieve that goal. This is why it is important to make each strategy goal measurable. 29 Description of Marketing Strategies The definition of marketing rightly emphasizes the focus of marketing on the customer, while at the same time implying a need to link to other business operations to achieve profitability. This definition highlights four questions which need to be included within marketing plans:  Identifying –  how can we define groups of customers as market segments and personas?  Anticipating – How can we use market research to identify changing and future customers’ needs and wants?  Satisfying –  how can we assess the drivers of customer satisfaction which encourage customer loyalty and recommendations?  Profitably –  how do we select the right mix of services and marketing communications using different channels to maximise our return-on-investment? Types of Marketing:- 1. Social Marketing- It refers to the design, implementation and control of programs to increase the acceptability of a social cause or practice among people e.g. No Smoking campaign in Delhi University,  publicity campaign for casting vote. 30 2. Augmented Marketing:-It refers to providing additional services by way of innovative offerings and  benefits to the customers to increase his level of satisfaction e.g. free home delivery service by Supermarkets. 3. Direct Marketing:-Marketing through various advertising media that interact directly with consumers, generally calling for the consumer to make a direct response, e.g. Catalogue Selling, Mail-order, Telecalling and TV shopping. 4. Relationship Marketing : - Marketing through creating, maintaining and enhancing strong long-term relationships with customers in order to win his loyalty e.g. a restaurant can build relationships with customers by sending him wishes and discount offers on his birthdays. 5. Services Marketing: - It is applying the concepts, tools and techniques of marketing to services like  banking, insurance, retailing, educational etc. 31 6. Person Marketing: - It consists of activities undertaken to create, maintain or change a ttitudes or  behaviour towards particular people like politicians, sports stars, film stars, professionals to promote their careers and income. 7. Organisation Marketing : - It consists of activities undertaken to create, maintain or change attitudes and behaviour of target audiences towards an organisation. 8. Place Marketing:-Place marketing involves activities undertaken to create, maintain, or change attitudes and behaviour towards particular places e.g. tourism marketing. 9. Differential Marketing :-A market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to target different markets through different strategies or offers e.g. Hindustan Unilever offers different types and qualities soaps for different markets and customers. 10. Synchro Marketing: - It refers to balancing the fluctuations in irregular demand for a product due to seasons, timings etc, through flexible pricing, promotion and other incentives e.g. heavy off-season discount on woollens may increase its demand to some extent. 11. Concentrated Marketing : - A market-coverage strategy in which a firm focuses on only one or few markets. 12. De-marketing:- Marketing strategies to reduce demand temporarily or permanently, not to destroy demand but only to shift it e.g. Super stores may offer no discounts on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays to reduce overcrowd. 32 Review of Literature In 2014 Microsoft increased its marketing budget to 10% compared to the previous year to reach $1.4  billion reflecting advertising of Windows 8 and Surface.Since the appointment of Satya Nadella as CEO Microsoft marketing strategy has changed to become less ‘hostile’ abandoning kinds of advertising that ‘attacked’ competitors in a direct manner. For example, a marketing campaign known as ‘Scroogled!’ launched in 2012 informed about Google’s decision to display pai d advertisements to search results related to shopping. ‘Scroogled’ was launched to ensure the shift of some Google users to use Microsoft’s Bing search engine, but Nadella stopped this and some other similar campaigns as an attempt to improve the image of the company. Viral marketing represents another technique effectively integrated within Microsoft marketing strategy. Most notably, viral marketing video for Xbox featuring Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard and Spock actor Zach Quinto has proved to be highly successful. It has been estimated that one out of 34 people who watched this video shared it, further contributing to its growing success. Another noteworthy example of Microsoft’s use of viral marketing relates to Skype Opera, where animated characters illustrate its functions and capabilities in an entertaining manner. Advertising Print and media advertising is placed at the core of Microsoft marketing strategy. As illustrated in Figure 2 below, Microsoft’s print and media advertising campaigns mak e an appeal to needs, wishes and aspirations of target customer segment and positions Microsoft products and services as efficient tools to  be used to satisfy them. Some of Microsoft’s TV advertisements such as “the apps you want” 30 -second commercial that promotes unified Windows Store within Windows Phone and Windows 8 have become viral videos in social networking sites mainly due to engaging presentation of information. Moreover, as an unprecedented move the company has placed a Wi-Fi-Enabled print advertising promotion in a special edition of Forbes magazine targeting a selected group of subscribers. Ultra-thin router and battery placed within pages of magazine granted the possibility of free internet browsing for about 3 hours. 33 Sales Promotion Sales promotion is used by Microsoft in a frequent manner in both store formats  –  physical and online. Sales promotions are facilitated via temporary price reductions, coupons and trade-ins of other products. Depending on the impact of a wide range of internal and external factors and according to its marketing strategy, Microsoft introduces sales promotions in relation to all products categories in general during festive or any other special periods or the company may introduce sales promotions in relation to se lected  product categories only. Range of the most notable sales promotion techniques previously employed by Microsoft include securing $650 price reduction for a brand-new Surface Pro 3 tablet if customers trade in a MacBook Air laptop sales productivity campaign offering combined price of $65 monthly for Office 365 Enterprise E3, Power BI and CRM Online Professional business solutions. Microsoft’s online sales promotions are announced within ‘DEALS’ part of Microsoft online store.  Microsoft Corporation Report contains more detailed analysis of Microsoft marketing strategy covering issues of Microsoft’s public relations, events and experiences and direct selling. The report also comprises application of SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces and Value-Chain  Analyses on Microsoft, along with analysis of company’s approach towards Corporate Social  Responsibility (CSR). 34 Company Profile (Microsoft) Microsoft Corporation - Leading developer of personal-computer  software systems and applications. The company also publishes  books and multimedia titles, offers e-mail services, and sells electronic game systems, computer  peripherals (input/output devices), and portable media players. It has sales offices throughout the world. In addition to its main research and development center at its corporate headquarters in  Redmond, Washington, U.S., Microsoft has opened research labs in Cambridge, England (1997) Beijing, China (1998) Aachen, Germany (2003) Sadashivnagar, Bangalore, India ( 2005) Cairo, Egypt (2006) Cambridge, Massachusetts (2008) Herzliyya, Israel (2011) and New York, New York (2012). 35 Founding and Early Growth:In 1975 Bill Gates and Paul G. Allen, two boyhood friends from Seattle, converted BASIC, a popular mainframe computer programming language, for use on an early personal computer (PC), the Altair. Shortly afterward, Gates and Allen founded Microsoft, deriving the name from the words microcomputer and software. During the next few years, they refined BASIC and developed other  programming languages. In 1980International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) asked Microsoft to  produce the essential software, or  operating system, for its first personal computer, the IBM PC. Microsoft purchased an operating system from another company, modified it, and renamed it  MSDOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System).MS-DOS was released with the IBM PC in 1981. Thereafter, most manufacturers of personal computers licensed MS-DOS as their operating system, generating vast revenues for Microsoft; by the early 1990s it had sold more than 100 million copies of the program and defeated rival operating systems such as CP/M, which it displaced in the early 1980s, and later  IBM OS/2. Microsoft deepened its position in operating systems with  Windows, a graphical user interface whose third version, released in 1990, gained a wide following. By 1993, Windows 3.0 and its subsequent versions were selling at a rate of one million copies per month, and nearly 90 percent of the world’s PCs ran on a Microsoft operating system. In 1995 the company released Windows 95, which for the first time fully integrated MS-DOS with Windows and effectively matched in ease of use  Apple Computer ’s Mac OS. It also became the leader in productivity software such as  word processing and spreadsheet programs, outdistancing long-time rivals Lotus and WordPerfect in the  process. Microsoft dramatically expanded its  electronic publishing division, created in 1985 and already notable for the success of its multimedia encyclopaedia, Encarta. It also entered the information services and entertainment industries with a wide range of products and services, most notably the Microsoft Network and MSNBC (a joint venture with the National Broadcasting Company, a major American television network). As a result, by the mid-1990s Microsoft, which became a publicly owned  corporation in 1986, had  become one of the most powerful and profitable companies in American history. It consistently earned  profits of 25 cents on every sales dollar, an astonishing record. In the company’s 1996 fiscal year, it topped $2 billion in net income for the first time, and its unbroken string of profits continued, even during the Great Recession of 2008 – 09 (its net income had grown to more than $14 billion by fiscal year 2009). However, its rapid growth in a fiercely competitive and fast-changing industry spawned resentment and  jealousy among rivals, some of whom complained that the company’s practices violated U.S. laws against unfair competition. Microsoft and its defenders countered that, far from stifling competition and technical 36 innovation, its rise had encouraged both and that its software had consistently become less expensive and more useful. A U.S. Justice Department investigation concluded in 1994 with a settlement in which Microsoft changed some sales practices that the government contended enabled the company to unfairly discourage OS customers from trying alternative programs. The following year the Justice Department successfully challenged Microsoft’s proposed purchase of  Intuit Inc., the leading maker of financial software for the PC. Chasing The Internet:Partly because of its stunning success in PC software, Microsoft was slow to realize the commercial  possibilities of network systems and the Internet. In 1993 it released Windows NT, a landmark program that tied disparate PCs together and offered improved reliability and network security. Sales were initially disappointing, but by 1996 Windows NT was being hailed as the likely standard for PC networking, quickly surpassing Novell’s NetWare in market share. Microsoft did not move into Internet software until a new venture, Netscape Communications Corp., had introduced Navigator, a Web  browser program that simplified the once-arcane process of navigating the  World Wide Web. In a violent change of course, Microsoft quickly developed its own  browser, Internet Explorer, made it free, and moved aggressively to  persuade computer makers and Internet service providers to distribute it exclusively. By 1996 Microsoft was bundling Explorer with Windows OS and had begun the process of integrating Explorer directly into Windows. In response, Netscape accused Microsoft of violating its 1995 consent decree and sued; those efforts helped to persuade the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen a broad investigation of Microsoft. In 1999, following a trial that lasted 30 months, a judge found Microsoft in violation of the  Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the breakup of the company. In 2001 an appeals court overturned the breakup order but still found the company guilty of illegally trying to maintain a monopoly. The company’s legal woes continued in 2004: the European Union (EU) levied the largest fine in the organization’s history,  €497.2 million ($611 million), in retaliation for what were described as Microsoft’s near -monopoly  practices. In February 2008 the EU imposed an even higher fine, €899 million ($1.35 billion), on the company for having defied the EU’s 2004 antitrust decision against Microsoft for illegally bundling multimedia software with its Windows operating system to the exclusion of competitors. 37 Entry into Gaming and Mobile Phone Market:In 2001 Microsoft released the  Xbox, an electronic game console that quickly captured second place in the video gaming market. In 2002 Microsoft launched Xbox Live, a broadband gaming network for its consoles. A more powerful gaming console, the  Xbox 360, was released in 2005. In an intensely competitive market, where the Xbox faced strong pressure from the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation, Microsoft struggled through the years to make consistent profits from its console. For example, in 2009 the company cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite by as much as 25 percent in order to pick up market share. The move was successful; by 2010 the Xbox 360 was the most-used game console in the American home. But at the same time, the price cuts also led to a 6 percent drop in revenue in Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD). Other EDD products also struggled. The Zune family of portable media players introduced in 2006 failed to challenge the market dominance of Apple’s iPod. The Windows Mobile OS, used in smartphones made  by a variety of vendors, including HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung, trailed in market share in the United States behind Research in Motion’s  BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone. In 2009 Microsoft ceased  publishing online and disc versions of its  Encarta encyclopaedia, but its dictionary of the same name was still available online. Further Development in Operating System:Microsoft began planning a major replacement for all of its operating systems in 2001. The project, codenamed Longhorn, encountered numerous delays, in part because of efforts to address the public’s growing concern with computer security and consumers’ desire for PCs to have greater integration with a full range of entertainment equipment within the modern electronic home. The company started over, and the new operating system, renamed Vista, was released to other software developers late in 2006 and to the general public in 2007. Like most new operating systems, Vista met with initial problems involving incompatibilities with older computer peripherals. More problematic for the new operating system was its “bloated” structure, which required a very fast  microprocessor and large amounts of dedicated computer memory for proper functioning. Its high threshold for adequate system resources deterred many companies and individuals from upgrading systems from earlier, and perfectly serviceable, systems such as Windows XP (derived from the term Windows Experience). In addition, consumers were baffled by the numerous Vista options — Home (Basic or Premium), Ultimate, Business, and others — while business users (Microsoft’s core market) balked at its major change to the user interface and were unwilling to port their internal applications to the new system. 38 Microsoft’s corporate users had other reasons to stick with Windows XP. Though still problematic compared with other operating systems, XP was significantly more secure than its predecessors. XP was also faster and much more stable than Windows 95 or 98, and it ran tens of thousands of software  programs written specifically for it, which made business users reluctant to switch operating systems. It can be argued that customer satisfaction with XP is what killed Vista among business users. PC makers, who were contractually required by Microsoft to ship products with Vista, were compelled to offer “downgrades” from Vista to XP, and user appreciation even compelled Microsoft to extend its official support of the older OS through 2014, three years beyond its normal support policies. Adding to Microsoft’s OS problems was increased competition in the marketplace. Apple’s  Mac OS X, riding on the huge success of the iPhone and iPod consumer products, grew in popularity. Linux, long an operating system for the technically adept, began to appear in more user-friendly versions, such as Ubuntu, and by the end of the first decade of the 21st century,  Linux had captured one-third of the growing low-cost netbook market. Yet, despite its problems in the marketplace, Microsoft remained the dominant supplier of operating systems. Windows held a worldwide market share of 86 to 92 percent, depending on the research analysis. With the release in 2009 of  Windows 7, the replacement for Vista, to critical praise by reviewers and analysts, Microsoft’s lead remained intact. Following the release of  Windows Phone, Microsoft underwent a gradual rebranding of its product range throughout 2011 and 2012 — the corporation's logos, products, services, and websites adopted the  principles and concepts of the Metro design language. Microsoft previewed Windows 8, an operating system designed to power both personal computers and  tablet computers, in Taipei in June 2011. A developer preview was released on September 13, and was replaced by a consumer preview on February 29, 2012. On May 31, 2012, the preview version was released. On June 18, 2012, Microsoft unveiled the  Surface, the first computer in the company's history to have its hardware made by Microsoft. On June 25, Microsoft paid US $1.2 billion to buy the social network  Yammer. On July 31, 2012, Microsoft launched the Outlook.com webmail service to compete with Gmail. On September 4, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Server 2012. In July 2012, Microsoft sold its 50% stake in  MSNBC.com, which it had run as a joint venture with NBC since 1996. On October 1, Microsoft announced its intention to launch a news operation, part of a newlook  MSN, at the time of the Windows 8 launch that was later in the month. On October 26, 2012, Microsoft launched Windows 8 and the  Microsoft Surface. Three days later, Windows Phone 8 was launched. To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft 39 opened a number of "holiday stores" across the U.S. to complement the increasing number of "bricks-andmortar" Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012.On March 29, 2013, Microsoft launched a Patent Tracker. The Kinect, the motion sensing input devices by Microsoft, which was first introduced in November 2010 was upgraded for the 2013 release of the eighth-generation Xbox One. Its capabilities were revealed in May 2013. The new Kinect uses an ultra-wide 1080p camera, it can function in the dark due to an infrared sensor, it employs higher-end processing power and new software, it can distinguish between fine movements (such as a thumb movements), and the device can determine a user's heart rate by looking at his/her face. Microsoft filed a patent application in 2011 that suggests that the corporation may use the Kinect camera system to monitor the behaviour of television viewers as part of a plan to make the viewing experience more active. On July 19, 2013, Microsoft stocks suffered its biggest one-day  percentage sell-off since the year 2000 after its fourth-quarter report raised concerns among the investors on the poor showings of both Windows 8 and the Surface tablet; with more than 11 percentage points declining Microsoft suffered a loss of more than US$32 billion. For the 2010  fiscal year, Microsoft had five product divisions: Windows Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division. On September 3, 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy Nokia's mobile unit for $7 billion. Also in 2013, Amy Hood became the CFO of Microsoft The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) was launched in October 2013 and Microsoft is part of the coalition of public and private organizations that also includes  Facebook, Intel and Google. Led by Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease internet access  prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income. In line with the maturing PC business, in July 2013, Microsoft announced that it would reorganize the  business into four new business divisions by function: Operating System, Apps, Cloud and Devices. All  previous divisions will be diluted into new divisions without any workforce cut. On February 4, 2014, Steve Ballmer stepped down as CEO of Microsoft and was succeeded by Satya  Nadella, who previously led Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise division. On the same day,  John W. Thompson took on the role of chairman, with Bill Gates stepping down from the position to become more active within the company as Technology Advisor. 40 On April 25, 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia Devices and Services and formed a new subsidiary, Microsoft Mobile Os. On September 15, 2014, Microsoft acquired the video game development company Mojang for $2.5  billion, best known for its wildly popular flagship game Minecraft. On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced the release of their first  Interactive whiteboard, The Surface Hub. (Part of the Surface family) In Q1 2015, Microsoft is the third largest maker of mobile phones selling 33 million units (7.2% of all), while a large majority (at least 75%) of them do not run any version of  Windows Phone –  those other  phones are not categorized as smartphones by Gartner –  in the same time frame 8 million Windows smartphones (2.5% of all smartphones) where made by all manufacturers (but mostly by Microsoft) Microsoft Competitors :The Windows operating system faces competition from various software products and from alternative  platforms and devices, mainly from Apple and Google. We believe Windows competes effectively by giving customers choice, value, flexibility, security, an easy-to-use interface, compatibility with a broad range of hardware and software applications, including those that enable productivity, and the largest support network for any operating system. Competitors to the versions of Office included in D&C Licensing include global application vendors such as Apple and Google, numerous web-based competitors, and local application developers in Asia and Europe. Apple distributes versions of its pre-installed application software, such as email, note taking, and calendar products, through its PCs, tablets, and phones. Google provides a hosted messaging and  productivity suite and distributes its productivity services through the Android and Chrome operating systems. Web-based offerings competing with individual applications can also position themselves as alternatives to our products. We believe our products compete effectively based on our strategy of  providing powerful, flexible, secure, and easy to use solutions that work across a variety of devices. Windows Phone operating system faces competition from I-OS, Android, a nd Blackberry operating systems. Windows Phone competes based on differentiated user interface, personalized applications, compatibility with Windows PCs and tablets, and other unique capabilities. Our Xbox Platform competes with console platforms from Sony and Nintendo, both of which have a large, established base of customers. The lifecycle for gaming and entertainment consoles averages five to ten years. Nintendo released their latest generation console in November 2012. Sony released their latest 41 generation console in November 2013. We believe the success of gaming and entertainment consoles is determined by the availability of games for the console, providing exclusive game content that gamers seek, the computational power and reliability of the console, and the ability to create new experiences via online services, downloadable content, and peripherals. In addition to Sony and Nintendo, we compete with other providers of entertainment services through online marketplaces. We believe the Xbox Platform is effectively  positioned against competitive products and services based on significant innovation in hardware architecture, user interface, developer tools, online gaming and entertainment services, and continued strong exclusive content from our own game franchises as well as other digital content offerings. Surface devices face competition from computer, tablet, and other hardware manufacturers, many of which are also current or potential partners and customers. Our phones face competition primarily from Samsung and Apple, as well as many other mobile device manufacturers. We believe our phones will compete by being tailored for virtually every demographic and geography worldwide, offering unique industrial design and imaging technologies at high and low ranges of price points, and by incorporating Microsoft’s digital work and digital life experiences. We face competition for our Resale products and services from various online marketplaces, including those operated by Amazon, Apple, and Google. Our search and display advertising business competes with Google and a wide array of websites, social  platforms like Facebook, and portals like Yahoo! that provide content and online offerings to end users. Our success depends on our ability to attract new users, understand intent, and match intent with relevant content and advertiser offerings. We believe we can attract new users by continuing to offer new and compelling products and services. We differentiate our offerings by providing a broad selection of content that helps users make faster, informed decisions, and take action more quickly by providing relevant search results, expanded search services, and deeply-integrated social recommendations. 42 Competitors to Office 365 Consumer are the same as those discussed above for Office Consumer. Competitors to Studios are the same as those discussed above for our Xbox gaming and entertainment  business, as well as game studios like Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard. Our server operating system products face competition from a wide variety of server operating systems and applications offered by companies with a range of market approaches. Vertically integrated computer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Oracle offer their own versions of the UNIX operating system preinstalled on server hardware. Nearly all computer manufacturers offer ser ver hardware for the Linux operating system and many contribute to Linux operating system development. The competitive  position of Linux has also benefited from the large number of compatible applications now produced by many commercial and non-commercial software developers. A number of companies, such as Red Hat, supply versions of Linux. We compete to provide enterprise-wide computing solutions and point solutions with numerous commercial software vendors that offer solutions and middleware technology platforms, software applications for connectivity (both Internet and intranet), security, hosting, database, and e-business servers. IBM and Oracle lead a group of companies focused on the Java Platform Enterprise Edition that compete with our enterprise-wide computing solutions. Commercial competitors for our server applications for PC-based distributed client/server environments include CA Technologies, IBM, and Oracle. Our web application platform software competes with open source software such as Apache, Linux, MySQL, and PHP. In middleware, we compete against Java middleware such as Geronimo, Wild fly, and Spring Framework. Our system management solutions compete with server management and server virtualization platform  providers, such as BMC, CA Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and VMware. Our database, business intelligence, and data warehousing solutions offerings compete with products from IBM, Oracle, SAP, and other companies. Our products for software developers compete against offerings from Adobe, IBM, and Oracle, other companies, and open-source projects, including Eclipse (sponsored by CA Technologies, IBM, Oracle, and SAP), PHP, and Ruby on Rails, among others. Our embedded systems compete in a highly fragmented environment in which key competitors include IBM, Intel, and versions of embeddable Linux from commercial Linux vendors such as Metrowerks and MontaVista Software. We believe our server products provide customers with advantages in performance, total costs of 43 ownership, and productivity by delivering superior applications, development tools, compatibility with a  broad base of hardware and software applications, security, and manageability. Competitors to Windows Commercial are the same as those discussed above for Windows in the D&C Licensing segment. Office Commercial revenue growth depends on our ability to add value to the core product set and to continue to expand our product offerings in other areas such as content management, enterprise search, collaboration, unified communications, and business intelligence. Competitors to Office Commercial includes software application vendors such as Adobe Systems, Apple, Cisco Systems, Google, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and numerous web-based competitors as well as local application developers in Asia and Europe. Cisco Systems is using its position in enterprise communications equipment to grow its unified communications business. Google provides a hosted messaging and productivity suite. Web-based offerings competing with individual applications can also position themselves as alternatives to our  products. We believe our products compete effectively based on our strategy of providing powerful, flexible, secure, easy to use solutions that work well with technologies our customers already have and are available on a device or via the cloud. Skype competes with a variety of instant messaging, voice, and video communication providers, ranging from start-ups to established enterprises. Our Microsoft Dynamics products compete with vendors such as Oracle and SAP in the market for large organizations and divisions of global enterprises. In the market focused on providing solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, our Microsoft Dynamics products compete with vendors such as Infor, The Sage Group, and NetSuite. Salesforce.com’s cloud CRM offerings compete directly with Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premises offerings. 44 Research Methodology The Research Methodology Used Is Descriptive Research And Netnography. Descriptive research is used to describe characteristics of a population or phenomenon being studied. It does not answer questions about how/when/why the characteristics occurred. Rather it addresses the "what" question (what are the characteristics of the population or situation being studied) the characteristics used to describe the situation or population are usually some kind of categorical scheme also known as descriptive categories. For example, the  periodic table categorizes the elements. Scientists use knowledge about the nature of electrons, protons and neutrons to devise this categorical scheme. We now take for granted the periodic table, yet it took descriptive research to devise it. Descriptive research generally precedes explanatory research. For example, over time the periodic table’s description of the elements allowed scientists to explain chemical reaction and make sound prediction when elements were combined. Hence, descriptive research cannot describe what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research cannot be used to as the basis of a causal relationship, where one variable affects another. In other words, descriptive research can be said to have a low requirement for  internal validity. The description is used for  frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey investigation.  Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up with examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the findings are. Netnography is the branch of  ethnography that analyses the free behaviour of individuals on the Internet that uses online marketing research techniques to provide useful insights. The word “netnography” comes from “Internet” and “ethnography” and was a process and term coined by Robert Kozinets. As a method, “netnography” can be faster, simpler, and less expensive than ethnography, and more naturalistic and unobtrusive than focus groups or interviews (Kozinets, 2009, del Fresno, 2011, del Fresno 2014).  Netnography is similar to an ethnography in five ways: 45 1. It is naturalistic 2. It is immersive 3. It is descriptive 4. It is multi-method 5. It is adaptable It provides information on the symbolism, meaning, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups (Kozinets, 2010) or online communities consumption unrelated but online sociability based on the exchange of information (del Fresno, 2011). Netnography is focused on cultural, symbolic information insights. Advantages and Limitations Of Nenotgraphy :- Compared to surveys, experiments, focus groups, and personal interviews, netnography can be less obtrusive. It is conducted using observations in a context that is not fabricated by the researcher. Netnography also is less costly and timelier than f ocus groups and personal interviews. The limitations of netnography draw from its more narrow focus on online communities, its inability to offer the full and rich detail of lived human experience, the need for researcher interpretive skill, and the lack of informant identifiers present in the online context that leads to difficulty generalizing results to groups outside the online community sample. However, these limitations can be ameliorated somewhat  by careful use of convergent data collection methods that bridge offline and online research in a systematic manner (Kozinets 1998, 2002). Researchers wishing to generalize the findings of a netnography of a particular online group to other groups must apply c areful evaluations of similarity and consider using multiple methods for research triangulation. Netnography is still a relatively new method, and awaits further development and refinement at the hands of a new generation of Internet-savvy ethnographic researchers. However, several researchers are developing the techniques in social networking sites, virtual worlds, mobile communities, and other novel computer-mediated social domains. 46 Result And Discussion / Recommendation Marketing Strategies: Strategic planning in marketing is concerned about the overall direction of the business. But it also involves decision-making about production and operations, finance, human resource management and other business issues. The objective of a strategic plan is to set the direction of a business and create its shape so that the  products and services it provides meet the overall business objectives. Marketing has a key role to play in strategic planning, because it is the job of marketing management to understand and manage the links  between the business and the environment. The challenge faced by marketing management in a multinational business, with hundreds of business units located around the globe, producing a wide range of products. In this situation, management keep control of marketing decision-making in such a complex organisation. And all of this will need a well-organised marketing planning. The important of marketing strategy:It provides direction and momentum to the organisation, encouraging new ideas, and also developing a sustainable competitive advantage. In construction companies, step of strategies use can be different and they need to analyse the most effective way to achieve objectives. Therefore choice of the strategies should be choosing correctly and they must be carefully analysed on the cost and the benefits inherent in the implementation of each. 47 Process that need to be taken in choosing strategies To start a mission and vision the company need to defines a long-term aspiration. It explains why we need to do it, what are we doing and the ultimate good we want to achieve through our success. Think of own vision as the picture of where we ultimately want our work to lead us. The survey of the environment of the company need to be done and determine the exterior parameters such as the general market attributes, characteristics of competition, and others. Then a survey of various internal parameters of its activities such as the production process and the related activities and other identified factor and enumerated factor. 48  Next, is establish the grand strategies for the companies, normally SWOT analysis can be effective. ‘It is a general tool designed to be used in the preliminary stages of decision-making and as a precursor to strategic planning in various kinds of application. On other hand, a company can establish their grand strategies by growth strategies: 1. Improve an existing product or service to attract more buyers. 2. Increase its promotion and marketing efforts to try to expand its market share 3. Or expand its operations, as in taking over distribution or manufacturing previously handled by someone else 4. Expand into new product or services. 5. Acquire similar or complementary businesses. 6. It can merge with another company to form a larger company. It can either by using stabilities strategies: 1.  Non-change strategy 2. Little-change strategies By using defensive strategy: 1. Reduce costs 2. Sell off assets 3. Gradually phase out lines or services 4. Divest part of its business 5. Declare bankruptcy 6. Attempted a turnaround What is SWOT analysis In a study by (Pearce 1992), SWOT analysis is described as a methodology allowing enterprises to understand and plan to use their strengths to exploit opportunities, to recognize and repair or avoid their weaknesses, and to defend against or sidestep any known threats. It is commonly accepted that an enterprise’s strengths and weaknesses demonstrate the enterprise’s internal characteristics and are controllable and that an enterprise’s opportunities and threats are determined by external factors  on which the enterprise has no direct control but can react to its own advantage. (Porter 1989) introduced a factor analysis method. By using this method, factors affecting an enterprise’s SWOT are grouped into profiles of assets, skills relative to competitors, and the competitive environment with its attendant risks and 49  potential rewards. This method has been widely quoted in previous studies on business competitiveness and found to be effective. Strengths The Strengths can be considered as anything that is favorable towards the business for example: 1. Currently in a good financial position (few debts, etc) 2. Skilled workforce (little training required) 3. Company name recognized on a National/Regional/Local level 4. Latest machinery installed 5. Own premises (no additional costs for renting) 6. Excellent transport links (ease of access to/from the Company) 7. Little/non-threatening competition 50 Weaknesses:Recognizing the Weaknesses will require you being honest and realistic. Don’t leave anything out as this is an important part as to realize what needs to be done to minimize this list in the future. Here are a few examples: 1. Currently in a poor financial position (large debts, etc) 2. Un-Skilled workforce (training required) 3. Company name not recognized on a National/Regional/Local level 4. Machinery not up to date (Inefficient) 5. Rented premises (Adding to costs) 6. Poor location for business needs (Lack of transport links, etc.) 7. Stock problems (currently holding too much/too little) 8. Too much waste Opportunities Keeping in mind what you have listed as your Company Strengths, SWOT Analysis can now influence the Opportunities for the business. These can be seen as targets to achieve and exploit in the future for example: 1. Good financial position creating a good reputation for future bank loans and borrowings 2. Skilled workforce means that they can be moved and trained into other areas of the business 3. Competitor going bankrupt (Takeover opportunity?) 4. Broadband technology has been installed in the area (useful for Internet users) 5. Increased spending power in the Local/National economy 6. Moving a product into a new market sector 51 Threats The final part of the analysis will also be seen as the most feared- the Threats. It has to be done a nd therefore taking into account what you have listed as your weaknesses, the threats will now all seem too clear. Examples 1. Large and increasing competition 2. Rising cost of Wages (Basic wage, etc.) 3. Possible relocation costs due to poor location currently held 4. Local authority refusing plans for future building expansion 5. Increasing interest rates (increases borrowing repayments, etc) 6. End of season approaching 7. Existing product becoming unfashionable or unpopular Establish strategies by forecasting:By (Rob J Hyndman November 8, 2009) Forecasting is a common statistical task in business, where it helps inform decisions about Scheduling of production, transportation and personnel, and provides a guide to long-term strategic planning. However, business forecasting is often done poorly and is frequently confused with planning and goals. They are three different things. Forecasting is about predicting the future as accurately as possible, given all the information available including historical data and knowledge of any future events that might impact the forecasts. There are 2 type of forecasting: 1. Trend analysis –  a hypothetical extension of a past series of event into the future. 2. Contingency planning  –   also known as scenario planning& scenario analysis is the creation of alternative hypothetical but equally likely future conditions. Formulate of strategy planning 52 (Porter, 1985) Michael Porter argues that businesses must focus on areas of capability where they have a distinct advantage relative to their competitors in their target markets. They need to concentrate on one type of competitive advantage to achieve a distinct position in that market. 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