tivo case
...ion habits 5. Improving television viewing was not on the top of most peoples priority list so the drive to embrace the new product was not high 6. lack of adequate awareness for the product because the company was not advertising and rather relied on manufacturers representatives who could not give TiVo the amount of support that it required to push sales volumes high 7. The fact that TiVo was new in its category with no reference point would discourage or delay skeptical consumers 8. The early adopters were not doing a good job of enlightening others of the benefits for TiVo despite the fact that they were very satisfied with it 9. The fact that TiVo required a telephone line was also added expense Who is Tivo best suited for? : TiVo is best suited for everyone who considers television viewing a source of entertainment. This included people who have special television programs that they may be missing because they are unavailable to watch at the time these programs are aired by the television networks and families whose members have different viewing preferences. For these families, TiVo helps reduce conflicts relating to what program is watched at a particular time and for other people it liberates their daily lives because they are no longer under pressure to watch their favorite programs at the time when the networks air them, they can now watch these shows at their own time. Analyzing the situation from the stand point of the networks, the advertisers and the cable/satellite companies Question 2: what do they want TiVo to be? Thinking about the competition: What are Microsoft¡¦s potential strengths and weakness in the market? The televisions networks: The television networks want TiVo to serve as a system that would complement their business rather than compete against or jeopardize it. They want TiVo to serve as a system on which they can leverage to conduct more targeted advertising and be able to market advertising slots more effectively, they also want TiVo to be an avenue through which they can monitor viewership of their programs and therefore put more strategic plans in place to increase market share and gain competitive advantage. The advertisers: The advertisers want TiVo to be a device with which they can conduct more personalized and targeted advertising. They also want to be able to use TiVo¡¦s technology to monitor consumer preference trend analysis pertaining to different types of adverts in order for them to know which adverts to continues and which to discontinue. The cable/satellite companies: The cable/satellite companies want TiVo to complement their services and assist them to gain greater market share because they can combine their variety of channels with the independence that TiVo offers to come up with a product that is even more appealing to consumers. What are Microsoft¡¦s potential strengths and weakness in the market? Microsoft¡¦s potential strengths are as follows: 1. The company had the benefit of introducing its digital video recording device through one million consumers who currently subscribe to its WebTV subsidiary 2. Customers could be offered a unique combination of services all at once; electronic mail, internet surfing, interactive television as well as personal video recording 3. The company already has a good brand name that gives consumers confidence in its products 4. The claim of its product being more technologically advanced than Tivo including features that allowed of two shows simultaneously Microsoft¡¦s potential weakness as follows: 1. The company was coming in late into the digital video recording business 2. Digital video recording business is not Microsoft¡¦s core business and it is not experiences in this new business area 3. Microsoft¡¦s product announcement and marketing communication¡¦s continued emphasis on UltimateTV¡¦s technological advances over others seemed to be an indication that it was going to introduce the product at a high price Question 3: How would you describe and characterize TiVo¡¦s action plan as given at the end of the case? How do you evaluate the planned communication campaign? Does your situation analysis suggest an alternative plan? How would you describe and characterize TiVo¡¦s action plan as given at the end of the case? : TiVo¡¦s action plan as given at the end of the case is as follows: „« Possible merger with DirecTV „« Price reduction from $999 for the 30-hour set to $399 and discontinuation of the 14-hour set with the rest of its inventory used promotional purposes „« Use different media to pass on different messages to consumers „« Introduce four sets of hilarious television commercial to promote the product The possible merger with DirecTV is a good option to adopt because DirecTV already has a large client base which TiVo could leverage on it introduce it products to a large number of customers. The program and channel variety which DirecTV offers combined with the independence which TiVo gives to customers would be an awesome combination, sure to be a huge success in the market. The price reduction is a good idea because the initial pricing of $999 for a new product without and reference point for advertising would scare away a lot of potential customers. It is a welcomed development. Using the remaining 14-hour units as promotional items is also a very good idea because ...