1. Long-term marketing strategy of "cultivating the market"
Unlike a considerable number of domestic enterprises that pay more attention to short-term interests, are impetuous and lack long-term marketing planning, Microsoft
Have a long-term strategic vision, do not rush to make short-term profits, value long-term interests, and be psychologically prepared to bear operating losses for several years. When Microsoft entered the China market, it adopted a long-term marketing strategy of "cultivating the market" in view of the harsh marketing environment of the whole software market, that is, it took various measures to purify the whole software market, promote the healthy development of the market, and make the market cake bigger together with other partners. In view of the special situation that China market is different from the United States, Microsoft has taken a series of effective measures.
(1) Develop a localized version of the software, that is, the Chinese version of the software. The so-called "localization" means that Microsoft not only sells existing products abroad, but also modifies fonts, input methods and other related technologies to redesign products according to the unique needs of the local computer market. Microsoft's approach is to jointly develop localized products with the best in the domestic software industry. For example, Microsoft's cooperative development units include Tsinghua Software Center, Xintiandi, Lenovo, Pioneer and other well-known domestic manufacturers. Through full cooperation with domestic partners, Microsoft spares no effort to develop local language versions, because it knows that only when users understand Microsoft products can they buy Microsoft software and become Microsoft customers.
(2) Provide users with comprehensive services. Since the establishment of Microsoft China Representative Office, Microsoft has held many large-scale technical lectures in major cities in recent years, including technical lectures for developers and technical seminars for users. , to provide a full range of services for users in China. At the same time, authorized technical support center (ASC) and testing center are set up to help users solve technical problems encountered in the process of product use and development in a timely and accurate manner.
(3) Establish Microsoft University and Microsoft authorized training center. Microsoft cooperated with Tsinghua University and formally established Beijing MSU at the end of 1992 to develop short-term advanced technical training courses for domestic scientific and technical personnel and users, so as to improve their software development ability and users' software application level. At the same time, Microsoft has established dozens of Microsoft authorized training centers all over the country, and the training targets are end users and people interested in Microsoft products. Its purpose is to let students know how to effectively use Microsoft products to improve work efficiency and solve technical problems encountered in software use.
(4) Cooperate with publishing units in China to compile and distribute various technical materials. In addition to organizing special columns to publicize products in the news media, Microsoft has also cooperated with Tsinghua University Press, Hope Company, Electronic Industry Press and other publishing units to launch more than 40 kinds of Microsoft Chinese books, and cooperated with Microsoft World magazine to launch a special issue "Microsoft Special Issue" to highlight products.
(5) Cooperate with China software manufacturers to open up the software market. Microsoft has been cooperating with some powerful domestic software manufacturers to expand the software market hand in hand. In 2002, Microsoft signed cooperation agreements with China 12 independent software vendors. Microsoft strongly supports these partners to develop application software and explore the software market with them. Microsoft also signed cooperation agreements with six domestic software manufacturers (cosix, Shenyang Dongda Alpai Software Co., Ltd., Peking University Founder Group, Sichuan Top Group, Hangzhou Xinli Electronics Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Kingdee Software Technology Co., Ltd.) to strengthen enterprise service cooperation and provide enterprises and users in China with application solutions and related services with excellent performance and price. These powerful measures have promoted the cultivation of China software market to some extent.
2. Reverse marketing strategy of "putting first and collecting later"
At that time, due to the weak awareness of users of genuine software in China, the imperfect laws and regulations on intellectual property protection in China, and the insufficient crackdown on pirated software by relevant departments, the phenomenon of software piracy in China market was very serious. Microsoft wisely adopted the reverse strategy of "release first and then collect", which not only eliminated competitors one by one and gained a monopoly position in the market, but also gradually improved the popularity of Microsoft software in China and expanded the potential users of Microsoft products.
The so-called "first release" means that Microsoft adopted a "tolerant" attitude towards rampant software piracy in China market when it entered China. Software piracy harms not only the interests of Microsoft, but also the software manufacturers in China, which are Microsoft's competitors. The input cost of software products is high, but the manufacturing cost is almost zero, and the marginal cost of selling one more product is almost zero. In a few years, pirated Microsoft software eliminated local software that could compete with Microsoft products one by one. With the help of piracy and no consumption of marketing resources, Microsoft easily eliminated most of its competitors. When Microsoft entered the China market, the software market in China was just emerging, and there were many large and small software companies. As an imported product, Microsoft's products are not well-known in China. In terms of office software, WPS of Jinshan Company in China is very popular, and the office software used by most users in China is WPS. In terms of operating system software, the operating systems of Chinese platforms such as UCDOS also account for half of the domestic operating system software. The simple operation and friendly user interface of Microsoft products made domestic users like Microsoft products quickly, especially the introduction of Chinese Windows3.2 and Office, which made domestic users abandon UCDOS and WPS and use Microsoft products instead.
Microsoft's laissez-faire and even disguised encouragement of piracy have made Microsoft's products a household name and greatly improved its popularity in just a few years. Piracy only makes Microsoft lose short-term profits, which is tolerable for a multinational company with deep pockets like Microsoft. For most weak companies in China, piracy is simply a "nightmare", and it is impossible to resist the damage and impact brought by piracy. As a result, most of Microsoft's competitors in China were forced to withdraw from the market in just a few years. At present, in the field of office software, Microsoft's competitors are only WPS of Jinshan Company, the former market leader, which is struggling to support. In the field of personal computer operating system software, Microsoft is almost a monopoly.
The so-called "post-collection" is actually "settling accounts after autumn". Software products have the characteristic of locking users. Once users use the last software, when they switch to other products, they will have to pay higher switching costs. Once you become a user of Microsoft software, because of the high conversion cost, people are unwilling or difficult to switch to the software of Microsoft competitors, so that Microsoft can pursue the legal responsibility of pirated users through legal means, or increase the use cost by upgrading products. Microsoft entered China for several years, and began to crack down on piracy when its competitors were almost eliminated. 1February 1999, Microsoft sued two companies in China for the first time in China. The Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Beijing Haisida Technology Development Company and Min 'an Investment Consulting Company to 540,000 yuan and 253,440 yuan respectively, and publicly apologized to Microsoft in designated newspapers. Of course, Microsoft's strategy of "publishing first and then collecting" has been criticized in China, especially in May 1999, when Microsoft sued Beijing Duya Technology Group for infringing the copyright of computer software, the Du Ya incident was heated up, attacked by the media and became the target of public criticism, which damaged Microsoft's image in the eyes of Chinese people to some extent. However, from the point of view of commercial competition, Microsoft's practice of using piracy to destroy its opponents first and then crack down on piracy to protect its legitimate rights and interests does not violate China's laws. Realizing monopoly is the dream of most enterprises, so the reverse strategy of "putting it first and collecting it later" formulated by Microsoft in view of the specific marketing environment in China is extremely correct. In fact, Microsoft's strategy of "putting it first and collecting it later" is also fruitful. Now the PC operating system software market in China has been monopolized by Microsoft, and Microsoft is also the leader in the office software market.