Chapter 16: Integrated Marketing Communication

Promotion is key in a products marketing mix. Without it consumers would not be aware of current products/services on the market. Promotional integration in Microsoft's Xbox 360 is important due to the fact that the Xbox 360 is a technological product and needs promotional depth in order to shed light on the systems functions, specs as well as other properties that are not grasped at first by the naked eye.

The Microsoft Xbox 360's competitive advantage over it's competitors the Sony PS3 and the Nintendo Wii are the following:

Xbox 360's competitive advantage over the Sony PS3:

-High Grossing (Xbox Exclusive) Franchises such as: Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Kinect Adventures, and MineCraft which have combined sales that Exceed more than 70 million copies sold as November.

-First to the punch: The Xbox 360 was the first system to integrate Netflix as a part of the overall gaming experience. The fluidity of Netflix is therefore maximized due to the fact that it has been on the system longer and patches were created to fix any errors in comparison to on the Nintendo Wii and The Sony PS3 which experience lag from time to time.
-Xbox Live: The Xbox Live online service is the premier online service for gamers of all kinds. The Xbox Live service has dedicated servers that allow it to run smoothly and with minimal lag so that players can stream data and play games with other players across the globe seamlessly with no problem.
Microsoft uses different types of promotional tools within its promotional mix. Some of these include:
Advertising-The Xbox 360 advertises it's console the Xbox 360 through commercials, blogs, websites and word to mouth communication.  

Sales Promotion-The Xbox 360 is on sale for the holidays. On the official Microsoft website the Xbox is available in Holiday Bundles that start at $249.00 that is $50.00 off of the retail price. The holiday bundles come in 3 forms.
-Xbox 360 Slim 250GB console $249.00 with 2 games (Kinect not Included)
-Xbox 360 Slim 4 GB console $249.00 with 2 games (Kinect Included)
-Xbox 360 Slim 250 GB console $349.00 with 2 games (Kinect Included)

The methods in which Microsoft reaches potential and existing customers is through the process of communication.
Communication-The process by which meanings are exchanged or shared through a common set of symbols.
Mass Communication-The way that Microsoft is able to reach many of it's new and existing customers is through the web. There are more than 1 billion internet users across the world and with this huge pool of people to work with the world wide web serves as a very important tool in reaching potential customers.