Microsoft Sponsorship

In the following paper I will analyze the sponsorship activity of Microsoft in UK schools in 2005 that gave Microsoft some unique access to future and current users of Microsoft products.
1.Product / Service Category: Microsoft products: Operating systems, like Windows XP, Vista, Microsoft Office software.
2.Marketing Overview. Microsoft provided its Operating Systems and Office software to selected UK schools free of charge in order to build loyalty among young students.
3.Sponsorship Objective(s).

1. 1. Introduce Microsoft products in school to prompt students and other users (like teachers) to buy Microsoft products for home/personal use.
   2. Sales increases
2. 1. Build loyalty early in the life.
   2. Awareness
   3. Image building
   4. Relationship Building

4.Sponsorship Target Market:

• Microsoft picked UK schools in order to build loyalty among students and professors there.
• Young adults.
• Teachers

Since all people use computers to a certain degree, all computer users are potential Microsoft users/clients.
5.Sponsorship Strategy & Tactics:
Microsoft sponsorship fits the Sports Event Pyramid  even if sports are not a part of sponsorship. It appears to cover local (selected London schools) and regional by making this sponsorship opportunity open to other schools. In terms of fit on the Sports Event Pyramid, I think the Sponsor selected this level of event in order to remain focused on a specific market in a specific area. One can assume that this area was not buying much Microsoft products.

6. Results. It appears the Microsoft succeeded in providing schools with its products. In fact as one can see from the article schools that planned to use Open Source software (because it was free) agreed to use Microsoft software after it donated it to selected schools. Students and teachers who use the software are expected to get used to it and purchase the same software for their personal computers at home.
   7.Summary

I believe that Microsoft succeeded in this sponsorship activity tremendously. Software is something that people need to get used to in order to use it. Schools that did not have money to buy Microsoft products wanted to switch to using open source software. That would mean that people were likely to use the same software at home. Microsoft gave away free software to these schools and even presented free tutorials on how to use it more effectively. The students and other users(professors) were likely to use the same software at home.

References:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/03/11/ms_specialist_schools_deal/

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