3. STRATEGIC FACTORS
•Brand name recognition
•Usage of installed user base to
promote future products
•Easy to use products
•Widely used user-friendly products
4. STRENGTHS
• Flexible workforce
• Revenues and profits on the rise
• Strong distribution channels
• Financial performance
• Strong management
• Diversified operations
• Strong focus on research and development
Editor's Notes
To compete in today’s technology manufacturer markets, Microsoft has to use keen marketing to help solidify its position. Although Microsoft tailors its marketing strategy to each individual product. For example, Windows 8 was marketed as intuitive “all in one” operating system. However there are a few broad general strategies that Microsoft implements.
Microsoft has over 88,000 employees worldwide and of those 54,000 are in the United States. They have a proven strength in leadership and they only hire the best of the best to lead within the company. In order to bring on the talent to the team, Microsoft had to re-think their staffing practices in order to attract talent from their competitors such as Google or Apple. In order to do this, they re-designed their careers page to be more modern. Where before they had different webpages for different departments throughout different regions, now they have one simplistic page for all the different branches of the company. Secondly they had to find a more direct message to potential talent to attract them away from competitors such as Google or Apple. They did this through social media. They saw this as a way to communicate more effectively and give real work flow examples through Youtube videos for example. Ultimately this is all to spread their company culture of a family work environment, an environment of a company with many different functions yet everyone plays such a vital role.
Microsoft systems are used on almost 70 percent of computers worldwide. This brand recognition means that Microsoft has the ability to charge premium prices from its customers, and the strong brand name also helps Microsoft in launching new products in the market. . Microsoft's products are used in critical functions by individuals, businesses and governments. Since the company's current products are well received in the market, Microsoft has the option of using the installed user base to launch new products.
With the inner strength of the company solid and operations booming around the world it is proven that Microsoft has the ability to operate across cultures in a highly globalized and diversified marketplace. Microsoft’s focus on research and development enables them to pursue a wide array of technologies and put out superior products.
You can see that in 2004, Microsoft revenues were four-times more than that of Apple; however, in 2015, Apple generated 2.5-times more revenues than Microsoft.
