Buy essay on Pricing strategies for Microsoft Windows 7

All organizations and companies face the task of making marketing and price strategy for its products or services. In order to sell a product or service on the market, the company must assign to them the price that would be acceptable to customers, otherwise they will not be able to successfully sell it on the market. Therefore, the organization must choose the correct pricing. Price maintains its position as a traditional element of competition policy, has a very big influence on market position and profits. (Trout, p.14)
Under market conditions, pricing is a very complex process, subject to the interaction of many factors.
Prices and pricing policy are the one of the main components of the marketing strategy of the firm. Prices are in close dependence on other factors of the company, the level of prices largely depend on achievable business results.
The decision of company management about pricing strategy is influenced by many internal and external factors. Marketing goals and costs of the company are only a rough guide for determining the prices of goods and services. Before establishing the final price, the firm also takes into account the degree of state regulation, the level and demand dynamics, the nature of competition, the needs of wholesalers and retailers who sell products to consumers. ( Kotler, 2002)
First of all, the company has to decide exactly what goals it seeks to achieve with a particular product. If the choice of target market and market positioning of carefully thought out, then the approach to the problem of prices quite clear. For pricing strategy is mainly determined by pre-deciding on the positioning in the market.
To formulate a good marketing strategy, managers usually gather information, analyze it, find some ideas, evaluate them, select and implement their selected destinations.
One of the best ways to generate information about the company is the matrix – SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threat). Let’s make a matrix for Microsoft.
Strengths:
-reputation in the market
-large share of the market
-secret innovative technologies
– good advertising Weaknesses:
– Monopoly
– High expectations of consumers
Opportunities:
–Advantages of an innovative product
– Access to new markets Threats:
– Reduce of demand for new specific products
– Competition of new companies

In fact, the matrix rather successfully depicts our situation on the market and the company’s position on it. But it would be a mistake to rely only on these data to determine the company’s strategy, because there are a number of parameters, not reflected in this matrix.
Fairly obvious first step of the company: the company has a reputation of the leader and monopolistic position in the market. The company is now dictating its terms and the consumer market. The second step of the company – an aggressive advertising policy. The main thing – to convince the consumer that the product produced by the company, exactly what he needed, and that fully meet their needs.
And the third step: Microsoft makes a product standard. The result is that the lion’s share of personal computers is running on Microsoft operating systems and uses software that is compatible only with these operating systems. Consequently, competitors, willy-nilly to make software compatible with operating systems Microsoft. And, quite naturally, competitors can not compete in this field with Microsoft, because the program codes used for writing operating systems the company keeps in a secret.
Lets assume what are the benefits received by citizens and organizations, buying licensed software is Microsoft’s 7? Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional for home and business users Version 7 will give comprehensive opportunities for work and entertainment, suitable enterprises. It can be put on a home computer, if the user is an administrator or placing increased demands on privacy and data. The competitive advantages of products are also:
– the user receives a new product technical support, quality service and the opportunity to communicate directly with the «Microsoft»;
– a variety of licensing schemes – to buy in installments or to pay immediately, to rent or to buy the product in full possession;
– the company «Microsoft» provides timely updates in full, providing service and information support.
So in Microsoft company managers are confident that Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional will satisfy the needs of most users in the world, numbering over a billion.
Conclusion
In market economies, the success of any enterprise depends on how correctly they will set prices for their products and services. Today, the price can be determined by the number of production costs of goods, but tomorrow it may depend on the level of behavioral psychology buyers. Consequently, the entrepreneur in setting prices for goods should take into account all factors influencing its level, and set the price so as to make a profit.

References
Kent B. Monroe. (2003). The Pricing Strategy Audit. Cambridge Strategy Publications, p. 40-42
Kotler P. (2002). Marketing management. Prentice Hall; 11 edition
Trout J. (1998). Prices: simple guidelines to get them right. Journal of business strategies. November-December. pp.13-16