Introduction
Marketing plan is the key strategy required for a company’s penetration into existing market. It involves all the necessary expenses and actions planned, required for the effective confirmation of a company on a market. The aim of this paper is to analyze the marketing plan of the Microsoft Windows Company in several financial dimensions.
Marketing Plan
The new production of Microsoft Windows company needs to be promoted, and the promo campaigns are required. Hence, the company allocated $ 500 million for promoting Windows Vista, however, this campaign has not achieved its aims, as the market penetration of Vista was estimated as 32.42% against 62.85% of Windows XP. Hence, the aim of the marketing plan for Windows 7 is to achieve at least 75% sales level. The estimated sales volumes are lower than 1 800 000 copies, which is 45% lower in comparison with Windows XP Sales. Hence the sales volumes reached $ 540 000 000. The number of upgrades is unknown, however, the estimated incomes offered by Zarowin (2010) analysis are close to $ 250 000. The estimated sales of Windows 7 are $ 6.2 billion. In fact, up to 2.5 million downloaders were registered for the first week after its release. In general, the total amount of Windows software users is estimated as 90% of the OS market. However, some researchers (Zarowin, 2009) claim that this number is overestimated, as increasingly wider audience prefers free and open source OS with free software (Linux, Android and some Unix based OS). Moreover, the European market is constantly penetrated by Apple Mac OS, and the market share of Windows may decrease to 75% y the end of 2010. Though, most agree that the times of Windows’ monopoly have ended, Windows is aiming to stay the leader of the market, as Open Source projects.
Strategy Implementation
As the company is aiming to save the leading position on the market of Operation Systems, the implementation strategy should be reliable and properly based. The market demand for OS products is high, and it is increasing constantly. The planned market share is 91%, however the company will not be able to preserve these values without essential promotional expenses. Hence, the estimated market share ranges from 82 to 88% in accordance with the most optimistic estimations.
The expected revenues per customer are lower in comparison with Windows Vista product, however, it is expected that Windows 7 will be more trusted, and more customers will wish to update their systems through internet. Hence, the expected revenues are ranging from $ 100 to $ 274, and $ 50 per internet update. Windows Vista users have an opportunity to upgrade to Windows 7 for $ 50. The expected costs are closely linked with promo; however, the company needs to arrange proper and reliable promo in order to restore the reputation of a reliable OS developer after Vista failure. The expenses expected are close to $ 400 000 for promo, however, Microsoft Windows Corporation does not disclose the detailed data associated with promo expenses, as the financial management team clearly realizes the growing competition from the side of open source OS, and Apple as one of the largest and the most powerful competitors on the market of paid OS. Being a monopolist costs high, and Microsoft will have to bear these expenses in order to stay on a leading position.
Reference List
Zarowin, S. (2009). Update on Windows. Journal of Accountancy, 180(2), 65.
Zarowin, S. (2010). Software 2009: The Market Narrows, but Products Improve. Journal of Accountancy, 202(4), 34.