Leeds Business School Student Group Final Report



Microsoft Email ClientSeptember 4th 2009-December 9th 2009University of ColoradoScott Butler (Scott.Butler@colorado.edu 602-989-9059)Min Choi (hemocue@ 303-319-9413)Nick Shaver (nick.shaver@colorado.edu 720-933-6545)Charles Sims (charles.sims@colorado.edu 720-938-1701)MicrosoftPaul Major (paulmaj@ 425-706-2798)Table of ContentsProject SummaryProject PlanWork Breakdown Structure2Project Objectives and Background3Deliverable.4Project Schedule5Scope6Roles and Responsibilities7Understanding HotmailAssumptions8Current Email Market9Stakeholder Analysis10Examples of situation that dealt with the similar problem11Tests and FindingsFocus Group Analysis15Survey17Survey Report20Survey Analysis27New Busy SWOT Analysis29Recommendations and Suggestions30Supplementary Documents32Work Breakdown Structure-33643041898Project Objectives and BackgroundObjectivesIdentify new and validate known perceptions of Hotmail in the market.Identify new and validate known product differences from free email providers most notably Gmail, AOL and Yahoo.Provide Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis of marketing decisions on whether Hotmail product should be left alone, abandoned, or fixed.Provide one final marketing campaign suggestion based on the Hotmail client’s concurrent research and parameters, and project team’s primary and secondary research obtained throughout the semesterBackground“Transitioners” is a term used to describe the email user population between the ages of 18-22 years old. This audience is an important segment to target for acquiring new accounts because during this stage they typically transition from an assumed email account (ie, under their parents account, college or university account) to a personal account they actively choose. In this space, Microsoft has seen only moderate growth in capturing Transitioners, whereas Google seems to have significant growth – this has an impact as Transitioners move to the later stages in their life cycle, as they will be more likely to stay with an account (or brand) that they already know. Microsoft would like to better understand the reasons why Transitioners choose one account over another (ie, critical mass on functionality, “friends are doing it”, etc.), as well as obtain strategic direction on how to capture more interest and market share from the Transitioner audience.DeliverablesProject SummaryProject PlanAssumptionsCurrent Email MarketStakeholder AnalysisExamples of situation that dealt with the similar problemRisk assessmentsSurvey ReportNew Busy SWOT AnalysisRecommendationsMeeting MinutesProject ScheduleActivitiesDueByInitiatingGet to know the project and prepareMonth of SeptemberGroupFocus GroupDevelop focus group guided questions with VersusMonday, 10/5/09GroupRetain incentives from PaulMonday,10/5/09PaulIdentify possible set backsMonday,10/5/09NickDetermine location + participantsFriday,10/2/09Charles, MinFinalize preparationsFriday, 10/9/09GroupConduct focus group10/12/09 -10/23/09GroupAssess results & determine extremities Monday, 10/26/09GroupCreate a reportMonday, 10/26/09GroupSurveyGenerate survey criteria from resultsMonday, 10/26/09GroupDecide on formatMonday, 10/26/09GroupObtain Paul’s sign offDuring the week of 10/26PaulProduce final draftMonday, 11/9/09GroupFinalize PreparationsWednesday, 11/11/09GroupConduct survey11/18/09 – 11/30/09GroupAssess results & determine extremitiesMonday, 11/30/09GroupConclusionFormulate recommendationsMonday, 12/4/09GroupGet Paul’s sign offBy 12/7/09PaulFinalize deliverablesWednesday, 12/9/2009GroupFinal PresentationWednesday, 12/9/2009groupScopeIn-ScopeConduct first hand research with peer groups and document results. This includes focus groups, surveys, etc. Provide recommendations/results on existing market ideas provided by the client.Provide recommendations for new methods of targeting the Transitioner audience.Document the top 5 most important features of an online email tool for the Transitioner audience.Out-of-ScopeEvaluate the impact of other online communication methods, like Twitter, on the email market.Focus on any market outside of the Transitioner group. Significant research on product differences (Google vs. Hotmail)Scope ChangeDetermine best option going forward: Leave Hotmail alone, fix Hotmail’s image, abandon Hotmail for new free email service from MicrosoftDetermine differences in perceptions and product differences of Hotmail (IN OLD SCOPE, INCORPORATE WITH NEW)Provide detailed SWOT analysis of options discussed aboveProvide marketing campaign suggestionRoles and ResponsibilitiesMin Choi (Management and physics)- Our leader in research based studies as well as our marketing contact for focus group creation. His main goal is to provide a back-story to this project as well as information on what has been both successful and unsuccessful in the past. For the first deliverable due he will provide 5 examples of research relating to this project, a risk management plan, as well as a cost benefits analysis with Charles Sims. The main focus he is concerned is creating a successful base on which we are able to accurately build our project. Charles Sims (Management and Entrepreneurship)- Our communications leader who will facilitate communications between Microsoft and our group. Since he has project experience from the past he will delegate tasks and decide where the group’s priorities lie. For the first deliverable he is responsible in creating the stakeholder analysis, delegating roles and responsibilities, as well as part of the cost-benefit analysis with Min Choi.Scott Butler (Management)- Our leader in project management, Scott will provide the grease to the gears, making sure all the parts are integrated smoothly into the final deliverable. He has provided insight as to the most efficient ways of producing our information and estimations, as well as providing the group with proper protocol used in the implementation of every step. For the first deliverable, Scott will create the assumptions known for this project, as well as our overall outline for necessities to come. Over the course of the beginning stages of the project, Scott will relate all in class notes and directions to a manner in which our project can emulate. Nick Shaver (Accounting)- Our leader in computational awareness, Nick will provide insight as to how each example will relate in the real world. Although he is not responsible for the sole creation of any one of the first deliverables, he will work with each of the other group members to consolidate and form all drafts of deliverables into final products. His expertise in the field of real world mechanics will help the rest of the group comprehend how their raw data will provide useful in the long run. Paul Major (Microsoft)- Microsoft’s liaison between our group and the task as hand, Paul will provide all available data for both past and present projects relating to our project. Both he and his contacts in other departments as well as Versus here in Colorado will provide much of the raw data that we will collect to produce our surveys and focus groups. Through his expertise in the field and our willingness to commit, the relationship between the University of Colorado and Microsoft will prove to be pertinent to Microsoft’s decision for a new email utility.AssumptionsG-mail is leading Microsoft Hotmail in brand attractiveness.Microsoft is looking to attract more users in the transitioner category.The primary way to attract transitioner customers is by making hotmailNew and improved features play a crucial role in the decision making process of a typical e-mail user.By increasing the number of transitioner users, Hotmail will obtain a larger market share in general.The scope of the project solely focuses on the transitioner group, not the population in general.The primary focus of the project is to obtain an understanding of people’s perceptions of hotmail.The secondary focus of the project is to make a recommendation as to how Microsoft can improve this perception.Microsoft will provide the group with all necessary materials, within reason.The large size of Microsoft’s resource pool allows for considerable flexibility in the group’s recommendation to the company. Microsoft is willing to listen to prospective changes in the naming of their Hotmail service. is the primary name that Microsoft would like to use in the case of a renaming. is virtually unknown to both the transitioner group and the population in general.Current Email MarketEmail is one of the favorite activities“Email” accounts for the most time spent online.Hotmail, Microsoft’s consumer email brand, has a vast customer base of over 350 million active users.Out of the 350 million users over 80 percent use Microsoft related products including MSN search.Current Email Market continuedHotmail is doing OK so far. How about in the future?In the email market, Hotmail holds the #2 spot below Yahoo. Google’s Gmail has rapidly moved up and has just passed AOL to take the #3 spot. At current growth rates, Google will surpass Hotmail by the end of 2010.If Microsoft loses out the free email battle they have the potential to lose many more customers in their other departments including MSN search.Stakeholder AnalysisGiven the nature of Microsoft, there is not one single department that will solely benefit from the recommendations given in our project. This is mostly due to the nature of the internet being vast and intertwined. If our project is successful both Bing and Windows Live will be greatly benefited while keeping online email customers connected with Windows, an important marketing tactic. Not only will Microsoft as a company benefit, its customers and potential customers will receive a much more useful internet experience.Bing is Microsoft’s newest endeavor and is aimed at being one of its strongest assets on the web. Bing is a search engine that has simplified “Search Overload” to hopefully gain market share through users who would rather have the most pertinent information in front of them rather than the many possible indications the user meant. Bing’s relationship with an email provider like .live could help integrate the internet experience for customers and provide linking which means that Microsoft could subtly direct users where most profitable. Windows Live is another key element that would be affected by the creation of a viable email server. Like Hotmail, Windows Live is a portal in which users connect through email, messaging, and media. If Microsoft was able to create an email server in which users relied heavily on all ancillary services provided by the parent company, then services like Windows Live would become a necessity of the common internet user due to the integrated form. Finally the most obvious stakeholder in our project will be the customer, because through us they will be able to mold a highly productive medium with which they can be more productive, protected, and providing with friends and family. Not only will this project recommend solely what information the targeted user has provided, it will also issue a feasibility analysis to estimate the likelihood of these recommendations to greatly affect the market at the costs projected. This project has many facets not discussed in this report but by trying to narrow the scope to the most desirable stakeholders our project has the ability to create a common sense of goals and problems with the project at hand. After speaking with Paul, we have concluded that our project should focus mainly on benefiting Bing, Windows Live, and the end consumer.Research ExamplesBrowser WarSummary: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) managed to overcome the power of Netscape’s Navigator in the earlier web browser war. Netscape was dominating the web browser market marking over 80% of market share in 1996. Netscape claimed that they even had a technical edge over IE at that time. Microsoft started to fight back based on their enormous resources from Windows and alliances with companies such as AOL and Apple. IE was a default web browser on the Mackintosh for several years as a result. However, the most important movement that changed the tides was that Microsoft started to bundle up IE as a part of Windows, which was already dominating the operation systems market by over 90% of market share. So IE could rapidly catch up and begin to lead over any other web browsers in the market.leftbottomConclusion: Windows is still a dominating operating system, so Hotmail can find a way to collaborate with Windows.Samsung TV vs. LG TVSummary: Former LG produced the first TV in Korea and dominated the TV market for Research Examples continuedseveral years, but soon Samsung took over and eventually became top TV maker not only in Korea but also in the was first developed in England in 1926, and the first Korean TV was produced 40 years later by GoldStar Company (former LG) affiliating with Hitachi Electronics. Samsung was not even in electronics market at that time. GoldStar was only one company that makes TV, so it of course monopolized the market. The monopoly continued until 70’s when Samsung penetrated the market by purchasing a semiconductor manufacturer in Korea. GoldStar had all kinds of edge over Samsung including technology, design, experience, and so on. The only thing it overlooked was semiconductors which are core components of TVs. As time goes, Samsung started to dominate the Korean TV market since GoldStar needed to buy semiconductors for TVs FROM Samsung’s semiconductor manufacturer. Eventually, Samsung became number one TV maker in Korea and in fact now is number one in the world in terms of the number of TVs sold.Conclusion: Hotmail should focus on its core function, emailing, as well as any marketing campaign.Video tape format WarSummary: Sony’s Betamax vs JVC’s VHS. VHS became standard even though it was technically not as good as Sony’s Betamax.Home VCRs first became available in the early 1970s — such as a?Philips?VCR model, released in 1972. The first system to be successful with consumers was?Sony's?HYPERLINK "" \o "Betamax"Betamax?in 1975. This was quickly followed by the competing?VHS?(Video Home System) format from?JVC, and later by?Video 2000?from?Philips. Subsequently, the Betamax-VHS format war began in earnest. Other competitors, such as Sanyo's?V-Cord?and Quasar's "Great Time Machine" quickly disappeared.Sony?had demonstrated a prototype videotape recording system they called "Beta" to the other electronics manufacturers in 1974, and expected that they would back a single format for the good of all. But JVC in particular decided to go with its own format (despite Sony's appeal to the?Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry) thus beginning the format war. (Wikipedia)VHS eventually takes the market over BetaMax by increasing the accessibility of VHS with renting system, while Sony tries to make people only own the media. Also, JVC cooperated with RCA, which at that time was a top electronics company, so they could easily get reputation in the market. Conclusion: Hotmail should increase the accessibilities for target market.Research Examples continuedMSN Messenger vs. Nate On (Korean IM)Summary: A Korean messenger took the lead over MSN messenger, the world leading instant messenger, by affiliating a social networking website.SKT is a telecommunication company which owns the largest cell phone carrier. They developed an instant messenger software, Nate On, and it soon took over the market, which MSN was dominating. The reason people moved from MSN to Nate On was that SKT combined IM, cell phone (text and multimedia messages), and Korean style blogging system called “mini-hompy”. Conclusion: Hotmail should consider affiliation with other systems.Coke vs Pepsi cola (Cola war)Summary: Pepsi caught up with Coca-Cola by starting so called “Cola War” which not only increased the market share of Pepsi, but also increased total soft drink market size.In 1970s, Pepsi started a campaign called “Pepsi Challenge”. It was a simple blind taste test between Coke and Pepsi. However the consequence was enormous since Pepsi claimed that the taste of Pepsi was more preferred than that of Coke. The campaign also attracted many people’s attention. As a result, the soft drink market size has increased as well as the reputation of Pepsi, and Pepsi eventually became a rivalry with Coke.Conclusion: Hotmail could use a similar strategy which would emphasize features better than competitors’ so that it can bring people’s attention as well as edge over competitors. This is also somewhat similar to what Microsoft does in search engine market. (Google vs Bing)Reference: Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 July 2004. Wikimedia Foundation. 10 Aug. 2004 < Chung-hoon, Wohn Dong-hee, “Nate On increases lead over MSN Messenger” Jong-Ang Daily. May 30th, 2005 < Group AnalysisBetween the dates of 10/11 and 10/21 we conducted a focus group on behalf of Microsoft to study preliminary questions about Hotmail. To gather our pool of participants we offered the video game Halo ODST as payment for their time. Throughout the course of the project, 18 total participants were studied and valuable results achieved. The conclusions from this study gave us the tools needed to create the survey in the next step. The points covered in the focus group were carefully chosen through a combination of suggestions by Paul and assumptions by our group. These topics included background of the participant, email usage, image retention, technological adeptness, and finally recommendations for both the consumer and the email provider. The reason we including recommendations for both the consumer and provider is so we can understand if and how one were to recommend this service to another and how one would change the service if they had complete control over features and usability.Throughout the course of the study, through Paul’s suggestions, the topics covered change slightly. At the beginning our conversation was very open ended in the sense of letting the participants discuss all the different brands while after a couple sessions we decided to focus more on Hotmail and how to make it the best brand of email. We were not looking to sell hotmail to these consumers but rather have them help us brand and sell it to their peers. This approach turned out to be the missing piece we had been looking for. Not only were we able to understand the participants reasoning for not having hotmail we learned valuable lessons on how to entice users in their same demographic. The focus group not only gave us valuable information but also helped us gain meaningful insight where we had not previously expected. Many of the participants equate Hotmail with Dial-up while feeling that the new age of broadband was better paired with Gmail. This image of Hotmail being a dinosaur intrigued us since it once held the largest number of active users on the internet. One other surprising fact we learned was that the participants claimed no allegiance to any provider but instead felt that whichever email provided them with the highest security, most professional image, and ease of use, they would gladly change without a second thought. This discovery means that Hotmail does not have as much of an uphill battle as we first thought. Now that Hotmail has upgraded both its security and ease of use, the final piece to the puzzle is its image, and although many think they would never change their minds about having a hotmail account, minimal alterations to its image could prove vastly effective.Focus Group Analysis continuedAt the beginning of the project we had the strongest feeling that Hotmail was dying with age, but now just through the findings in our focus group, Microsoft has a good chance of reviving this once great empire. They already have upgraded the mechanicals behind the scenes, now one last push to upgrade the image in front of the scene will prove to be Hotmail’s best chance at overcoming its image deficiency and winning back the majority of the internet’s email consumers. We recommend that by using Microsoft as the medium on which Hotmail is presented, the image of stability and security will prove to overcome the outdated image of Hotmail. Only through this medium will Hotmail be able to succeed at the lowest effective cost to Microsoft. SurveyAgeGenderMajorEmail Provider (circle all that apply)HotmailGmailYahooColorado.eduOtherOn a scale from 1-5 how technologically adept are you? (1=worst 5 = best)Read the following statements and answer the proceeding questions belowPowerful free email with security by Microsoft Free, Fast and Social E-mail ExperienceTrusted E-mail with Powerful Spam ProtectionYour E-mail and More On-the-Go.How believable were the preceding statements about Hotmail? (on a scale from 1-5 1 being the least believable and 5 being the most believable)_______________Overall, how much do you like the preceding statements about Hotmail? (on a scale from 1-5 1 being the least likeable and 5 being the most likeable)_______________Based on the preceding statements, how interested are you in finding out more about Hotmail? (on a scale from 1-5 1 being the least interested and 5 being the most interested)_______________Survey continuedHotmail : Powerful free email with security by MicrosoftGmail: A Google approach to email.Yahoo! Mail: Now you can fire up a more powerful email.AOL Mail: The same secure email that AOL members have depended on for years is now free for everyone.Rank the Preceding tag lines in order of likeability (on a scale from 1-4 1 being the least likeable and 4 being the most likeable)____________Rank the Preceding tag lines in order of believability (on a scale from 1-4; 1 being the least believable and 4 being the most believable)____________Rank the Preceding tag lines in order of uniqueness (on a scale from 1-4 1 being the least unique and 4 being the most unique)____________Survey continuedTHE NEW BUSYThere’s a new class taking over America—the Busy Class. Almost everyone is busier than ever before, but there is a growing group of people who are reveling in their busyness—the New Busy. The Old Busy would waste time diving into a phone book looking for a friend’s phone number, use a rotary phone to dial, leave a long-winded message on an answering machine, then wait for a response from that friend. The definition of busy has changed for the better. The New Busy have all of their acquaintances two tiny cell phone buttons away at all times. The New Busy always take a working lunch—even if that ‘work’ is catching up with an old friend or today’s headlines. The New Busy fill every crevice of their calendars with the people and things that inspire them. The New Busy find creative ways to thrive on the energy of a full schedule.Do you feel that this passage is accurate ?Does this passage resonate with you personally? HEY, IT’S YOUR FRIEND HOTMAILThe nineties are making a comeback and not just the Kurt Cobain-revival looks that are taking over city streets. Everyone’s reconnecting with old friends on Facebook and finding out just how everyone’s changed, evolved or in some cases devolved. And that's kind of fun.Hotmail has grown a lot over the past 10 years, so judge us for who we are, not who we were. Sure now you’re a suave, sophisticated young professional, but remember when you drank wine out of a box, listened to the Backstreet Boys and had Nader bumper stickers on your car? You’ve come a long way since then and so has Hotmail. Your old friend Hotmail is coming back around and you’ll find that we’re better in every way. But we’re still totally approachable and not too cool to admit that we’ve seen every episode of Party of Five. We’ve seen a lot of changes on the Internet, and because of all our experience, we’re a better email. We’re Internet survivors. You could even say we grew up with the Internet. In fact, Hotmail is basically the greatest hits of e-mail. All of the best stuff you know and even things you're going to want. We were there for you when you got your first email address and now we’re ready to get reacquainted. So go ahead, hit send.Do you feel that this passage is accurate ?Does this passage resonate with you personally? Survey ReportSurvey Report continuedSurvey Report continuedSurvey Report continuedSurvey Report continuedSurvey Report continuedThe New BusySurvey Report continuedHey, It’s your friend Hotmail.Survey AnalysisFollowing the conclusion of the focus group sessions and the subsequent meeting with Paul Major to go over the results, it was determined that the next step in the project would be to move forward with a survey in order to establish some quantitative data. The primary purpose of the surveys was to establish quantitative data about the perceptions that were revealed to the project team during the focus groups in order to formulate a recommendation regarding Hotmail’s marketing strategy. Once again, Halo ODST video games were used to incentivize participation in our research. Mr. Major’s main concern involving these surveys was to figure out a way for Hotmail to resonate emotionally with potential customers in the transtioner age group.The initial part of the survey was used to gather background information about survey participants to ensure that they fall under the crucial transitioner age group. Without such information, it would be impossible to determine whether the data being gathered by the survey is relevant to the scope of the project. After this initial question set, the next questions in the surveys were aimed at confirming the focus group results about the public perception of Microsoft’s Hotmail. Not surprisingly, the statistics obtained from the survey mirrored the results obtained during the focus group sessions. Our conversations and meeting with Paul guided the final set of survey questions. During these discussions, Paul revealed four possible marketing strategies to increase the emotional appeal of the Hotmail brand name. Of these, the two most promising were selected for further exploration in the survey and made up the material for the final four questions. The survey was kept open for a 2-week period, during which time a total of 133 surveys were collected on the internet. At the end of this time period, the project team determined that the data gathered had yielded strong, sufficient evidence to support analysis. Primary analysis revealed that the vast majority of survey participants identified themselves as being between the ages of 18-22 years, falling within the transitioner age group and, consequently, the scope of the project. From here, the project team was able to analyze the data from the questions aimed at determining the perception of Hotmail in the transitioner market. The data revealed a remarkably positive perception of the Hotmail e-mail brand, confirming the potential viability of improving the Hotmail brand in the future through marketing. Survey Analysis continuedNext was the analysis of the final set of questions, geared towards establishing the marketing recommendations portion of the project. During our conversations with Paul, two marketing strategies, titled “the New Busy” and “Hey, it’s your friend hotmail,” were selected for closer examination with the survey. The initial results from the “new busy” marketing strategy were promising, revealing that the description seemed accurate to the participants. However, given the data, the strategy did not appear to resonate emotionally with the Transitioners. The results from the “hey, it’s your friend hotmail” strategy were far less promising.The results of the survey proved extremely useful in gathering knowledge about the Transitioner perception of Hotmail. With this data the project team was able to formulate recommendations regarding the improvement of the Microsoft Hotmail brand name.New Busy S.W.O.T. AnalysisStrengthsNew busy is accurate in this eraHotmail is still leader in active accounts (350 Million)Recent Microsoft success have bolstered Microsoft brand (Windows 7, Bing)WeaknessesAlthough accurate, “New Busy” doesn’t resonate emotionallyHotmail is a step behind GmailCurrent perception of Hotmail is negativeFew barriers to entry in free email market Homogeneous free email productWeak link between Hotmail and MicrosoftOpportunitiesHotmail taglines tested well, meaning consumers are open to a Hotmail rebrandingAccuracy numbers indicate there is an open window for marketing to emotionally connect consumer with “New Busy” with new marketing conceptMicrosoft has opportunity to play underdog (Google = evil empire)Room to grow Hotmail/Microsoft connectionThreatsOther large email services (Gmail, Yahoo) can get to it firstCustomers don’t want to be labeledSmall group of strong competitorsGoogle/Gmail connection much stronger than Microsoft/Hotmail Marketing RecommendationTop RecommendationDevelop a marketing plan that makes stronger connection between Hotmail and MicrosoftConvey the mobile perception of Hotmail sticking with the idea of New Busy“Windows Live Hotmail: A click away from Windows? to the new world.”At the beginning of this project, our group was presented with the challenge of capturing a larger market share in the free email market of the Transitioner age group. After exploring three options of whether to do nothing, start a new free email brand, or fix the Hotmail brand, we concluded that fixing the Hotmail brand is the best choice.After the conclusion of the project we have reviewed our data and have developed a threefold recommendation. The first step Microsoft must take to revive Hotmail would be to integrate it into the Windows operating system. The second step would be to improve the image of Hotmail through third party sources including advertising and marketing campaigns in the same manner Microsoft did to promote Bing. Finally Microsoft needs a method of holding onto their customers thereby growing their overall consumer base by staving off the massive amount of inactive accounts. These three objectives can be reached by establishing a “New Busy” marketing campaign that resonates an emotional connection between consumers and the Hotmail. There’s a new class taking over America—the Busy Class. Almost everyone is busier than ever before, but there is a growing group of people who are reveling in their busyness—the New Busy. The Old Busy would waste time diving into a phone book looking for a friend’s phone number, use a rotary phone to dial, leave a long-winded message on an answering machine, then wait for a response from that friend. The definition of busy has changed for the better. The New Busy have all of their acquaintances two tiny cell phone buttons away at all times. The New Busy always take a working lunch—even if that ‘work’ is catching up with an old friend or today’s headlines. The New Busy fill every crevice of their calendars with the people and things that inspire them. The New Busy find creative ways to thrive on the energy of a full schedule.Microsoft is known for windows, and although Vista has had a rocky relationship with consumers, critics say Windows 7 will alleviate all woes against Microsoft. Hotmail needs to utilize this advantage due to the low cost of implementation and the high potential benefit. We recommend that Microsoft mimic Apple’s approach to email addresses and to set up your operating system you must sign up for a Hotmail account. Then to be able to mate the consumer with that email address, Windows should require the user to use that email to access their accounts as well as installing new programs. By using this tactic, the Hotmail image is no longer seen as a disposable account and therefore will require the user to regularly access it. Marketing Recommendation continuedAfter Hotmail has gained its useful advantages through Microsoft Windows 7, they then need to broaden their horizons by marketing Hotmail to a larger audience. Their first steps need to be in developing a way for the “New Busy” to resonate with the Transitioner audience. Our survey of college aged students revealed that they strongly agreed with the idea of the “New Busy” but also indicated that they had no emotional connection to it. On the contrary, the students emotionally connected to the buzz words currently being used, but there is no connect with those and the “New Busy”. Microsoft needs to parlay the success of Windows 7 and Bing while also finding buzz words that resonate the “New Busy” idea emotionally with the Transitioner demographic, and then slowly grow out from that point on. By gaining the competitive advantage over other providers in the Transitioner demographic, Hotmail will have the upper hand in gaining market share for the other demographics as well due to the tendency of the older and younger demographics being taught by the email “prosumer”. Finally after Hotmail has gained it’s market back, they need to work on the large number of accounts that are left inactive. Through both incentives for long time consumers and updating the features regularly, Hotmail will be able to hold onto the traditionally disloyal Transitioner group. This ability hotmail will have to grow its market share will prove immensely beneficial to the other web entities Microsoft employs due to the interconnecting nature of the web. Not only will hotmail benefit itself through these recommendations, but a very small fraction of Microsoft’s overall budget could greatly benefit its online division and therefore is a vital tactic it must use to its advantage. Meeting Minutes and Communications9/11/09RE: Hotmail project?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Friday, September 11, 2009 4:23 PMTo: Nicholas Dalton Shaver (shavern@Colorado.EDU)CC: chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); butler4@ (butler4@); hemocue@ (hemocue@)Great to hear from you all and I am looking forward to it as well. My Monday has a few openings - how would 10:00 am PST work? Should be 11:00 your time. P -----Original Message-----From: Nicholas Dalton Shaver [mailto:shavern@Colorado.EDU] Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 2:23 PMTo: Paul MajorCc: chazzwillie15@; butler4@; hemocue@Subject: Hotmail project Mr. Major, As you know, myself and three other students have been assigned to aproject commissioned by Microsoft as a part of James Marlatt's projectmanagement course. We are all thrilled at the prospect of working with you andyour company. As such, we would like to get started as soon as possible andfeel that the best way to proceed is to set up a conference call at a time that isconvenient for yourself. The general consensus in the group seemed to be thatMonday was the best day for all of us to meet and get in touch with you. If youcould get back to us some time before this upcoming Monday, it would be agreat opportunity to get a jump start on the project. Best Regards,Your project team. Nick Shaver(805)-231-2860 Meeting Minutes and Communications9/19/2009Hotmail project?From:ChoiMin(hemocue@) Sent:Saturday, September 19, 2009 1:08 PMTo: paulmaj@; shavern@colorado.eduCC: chazzwillie15@; butler4@; jdavenport@; bmontgomery@Dear Paul, I am sorry for getting back to you so late. It looks like we all are available from 3:30 pm to 6:15 pm on Mondays. (2:30 to 5:15 pm PST)If you are also available in this time frame, it would be great. Otherwise, we will have to split the team so that at least a couple of us can communicate with you on weekly basis.In the past week, we are assigned a couple of mentors from Hitachi Consulting, whose emails are listed in this email.We have also identified the time line for this project when we meet in the class on Wednesday.First of all, we would like to ask you for (as agreed in the project proposal):?1. A list of known perceptions of Hotmail in the market,2. A list of known product differences among the products in the market,3. A list of existing marketing ideas.In the meanwhile, we will be working on examples of projects that are similar to this one, and will start to prepare the first deliverables (including project plan, cost-benefit analysis, and stakeholder analysis).If you have any question please feel free to email any of us.Again, I apologize for the late?response?and the very short notice.?Best,Min.hemocue@Meeting Minutes and Communications9/20/2009RE: Hotmail project?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Sunday, September 20, 2009 10:58 PMTo: ChoiMin (hemocue@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu)CC: chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); butler4@ (butler4@); jdavenport@ (jdavenport@); bmontgomery@ (bmontgomery@)Good to hear from you.? Mondays at the time actually works well for me so lets go ahead and book that.? This Monday (tomorrow) I am only available from 2:30 until about 3:15 or so due to a meeting I have booked that I can’t reschedule at this point.??? Let me know if you all want to meet tomorrow. ?On the data to address 1-3 below, ?I am attaching a recent Brand report that gets you #1 (list of known perceptions).? Tomorrow when I get in I will send you all the product differences (#2).? Lets discuss tomorrow what you are looking for in #3 – I can provide you with a recent Input brief we sent to an ad agency but there might be some other docs that would be more useful. ?Next step – Let me know if you all can chat tomorrow and if you need me to set up a conf call #. ?Talk to you all soon,?P 9/21/2009RE: Hotmail project?From:ChoiMin(hemocue@) Sent:Monday, September 21, 2009 12:12 PMTo: paulmaj@; shavern@colorado.edu; chazzwillie15@; sbutler4@Paul,?In my opinion, we can?try to meet?over MSN messenger first, and go from there.Is paulmaj@ good email address that?I can add in my Messenger?If so, I will go ahead and add you & talk to you in few hours!?Best,?Min.Meeting Minutes and Communications9/21/2009RE: Hotmail project?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Monday, September 21, 2009 1:41 PMTo: ChoiMin (hemocue@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu); chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); sbutler4@ (sbutler4@)Messenger can work.? Address is ?HYPERLINK "mailto:paul_maj@"paul_maj@?9/24/2009RE: Hotmail project?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Thursday, September 24, 2009 5:50 PMTo: Paul Major (paulmaj@); ChoiMin (hemocue@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu)CC: chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); butler4@ (butler4@); jdavenport@ (jdavenport@); bmontgomery@ (bmontgomery@)Here are the other two items you all were looking for. ?Webmail Feature Comparions – this doc has by far the most detailed breakout of the different email providersMarketing Ideas – I might need to provide some context, but this slide was from a Strategy deck where we reviewed set of tactics we had identified and where we landed.?PRE: Hotmail project?From:ChoiMin(hemocue@) Sent:Thursday, September 24, 2009 6:02 PMTo: paulmaj@Dear Paul, Thanks for the items. The one thing I am afraid of is that butler4@ is not actually a member of our group. It should be sbutler4@.So please update the email list.I will talk to you on Monday!Best,Min.Meeting Minutes and Communications9/25/2009RE: Hotmail project?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Friday, September 25, 2009 10:31 AMTo: ChoiMin (hemocue@)Got it.? ThanksP9/28/2009 – Conference callCompetitive comparison -> we already have (emailed on 9/24/2009)Cost-benefit analysis: marketing campaigncost effective: college internship, messenger (campaign social causes -> conducted focus group analysis)Nothing to do with product itself, but about what Microsoft can do to take advantage over competitorsStakeholder analysisWithin MSOther web services like MSN -> primary email accounts gives frequent access to other web-based service in MSSecondary business -> Windows Live (Windows eco system per say) or Windows “registered” usersRisk ManagementFocus group (Evergreen, CO <- person to talk to) Talk to them & see their reaction: risk -> misunderstandingUse creativity!ResourcesOffered some incentives in the pastWait for PaulPeople resourcesMurat – product sideWendy - marketing sidePaul will send us a past focus group dataMeeting Minutes and Communications9/28/2009FW: Hotmail project?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Monday, September 28, 2009 4:36 PMTo: sbutler4@ (sbutler4@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu); ChoiMin (hemocue@); chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@)Hey there.? Per our discussion today see attached for an example from a previous focus group we conducted on Hotmail Positioning.? At the time we were rebranding from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail and it was tied to a feature release.? Goal for this focus group was to understand what kinds of benefits we got from Windows/Windows Live and also how best to position the new features so they resonated.? ??There should be some good learning’s here for the work you all are doing. ??At a high level structure for these focus groups were as follows. ????????? Participants were exposed to 5 individual Windows Live Hotmail messaging concepts(Called Research Stimuli and starts on slide 28) and asked to rate each concept according to its appeal. They were instructed to mark concepts that captured their interest with a “+” sign, and concepts that did not interest them with a “-” sign.????????? Participants were then asked to select the concept they felt was the most motivating.????????? After viewing a 10 minute Windows Live product demo, participants were asked once again to select the concept they felt was the most motivating.????????? Finally, participants were asked to create a collage that summarized in pictures the concept they picked as most motivating .?Again, not looking at you all to replicate this study but hopefully gives you all some ideas.?Talk to you all next week.?PMeeting Minutes and Communications10/7/09FW: University of Colorado Project Management Group?From:Paul Major?(paulmaj@)Sent:Wed 10/07/09 11:17 PMTo:chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); ChoiMin (hemocue@); sbutler4@ (sbutler4@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu); Steve Babb (steve@)1 attachmentMicrosoft...docx?(11.9 KB)Hey Steve – Wanted to introduce you to some students from Univ of Colo I am working with on a project.? As part of a Mgmt class, they are spending the semester ?helping me understand how college students are picking their primary personal email.??See attached for first draft of the doc they are putting together to lead some focus groups they will be conducting over the next few weeks.?? Per the chat we had last week, would love any help you can offer on how to structure the focus group, types of questions to ask, etc.??Not sure what you schedule look like but we have a standing weekly call on Mondays at 2:30 PST if you can make that.? If another time works let us know and even some thoughts on the doc would be great.? Thanks Steve.?PMeeting Minutes and Communications10/12/09Conference CallFocus group guide questionIntroducing Steve from VersusGetting focus group participants (incentives)10/13/09FW: Focus Group Guided Questions?From:Paul Major?(paulmaj@)Sent:Tue 10/13/09 2:46 PMTo:chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); ChoiMin (hemocue@); sbutler4@ (sbutler4@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu); Steve Babb (steve@)1 attachmentFocus Gro...docx?(19.3 KB)Thanks Min – Overall I think this looks pretty good.? I made some comments and the are attached in the doc as edits.Steve – See final draft attached and if you have a chance to take a look and provide comments would be much appreciated.? Charles – Let me know some time you would be available for a quick chat with Steve between now and Friday.? I think it would be great if we could do a quick synch with you/me/Steve prior to you conducting your first groups.?PMeeting Minutes and Communications10/14/09Leeds Business School Student Group: First Deliverables?From:ChoiMin?(hemocue@)Sent:Wed 10/14/09 9:26 PMTo:paulmaj@1 attachmentFirst_del...docx?(220.9 KB)Dear Paul,I am attaching the first deliverables. Please consider this as a first draft of the final deliverables.?These might not?relevant?to you according to Hitachi mentors since these are what our Professor asked us to do.Please let me know if you have any concern.Thanks.Best,Min.Meeting Minutes and Communications10/15/09Leeds Business School Student Group: Conference Call Next Week.?From:ChoiMin?(hemocue@)Sent:Thu 10/15/09 11:43 AMTo:paulmaj@Hello Paul,?I am sorry for the?short notice, but I am afraid that we have?cancel the next conference call, since we could not find any other time for our second focus group.If you have anything to say for us, we can always email or we can reschedule the conference call.?FYI, we will conduct focus group on:1. Friday, October 16 from 2pm to 4pm MST2. Monday, October 19 from 2pm to 4 pm MST3. Wednesday, October 21 from 1pm to 3pm MST?Please let me know if you have any concern.Thanks.?Best,?Min.Meeting Minutes and Communications10/19/09Cancelled the meeting because of the second focus group10/20/09From:?charles sims [mailto:chazzwillie15@]?Sent:?Tuesday, October 20, 2009 11:41 AMTo:?Paul MajorSubject:?2nd Focus Group Update?Paul,I have not heard back from you after that first update so maybe it got lost on my end or yours, but I have great news after this second focus group. It went amazing, and we got alot of wow moments out of it. Just a couple of things that we were able to find out.- Hotmail is equated with dial up while Google is equated with broadband- No matter what Hotmail does they would never switch back to hotmail because of the name- They feel that a modern clean look like Google is what is enticing to them since it is simple and easy to use- They have no brand loyalty to Google other than the features/abilities- They threw around the idea of Microsoft having its own extension as a cool feature IE?charles@e.mail?while mail is the equivalent of .com- They felt that the biggest reason they liked Gmail was because of how successful Google is, and if Microsoft Windows 7 is successful then they would consider an email that would relate to that.I don't have the full list in front of me but those were some of the better moments during the conversation, and we will put together a status update to send out on Wednesday with the last focus group concluding on Friday. If there are any questions or concerns that you have, you are more than welcome to shoot me an email and hopefully we can keep you updated.Thanks!Charles SimsMeeting Minutes and CommunicationsRE: 2nd Focus Group Update?From:Paul Major?(paulmaj@)Sent:Tue 10/20/09 1:00 PMTo:chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); ChoiMin (hemocue@)Thanks for the update charles.? I did not get that first update so must have gotten lost.???To your second point around the hotmail name. ??One thing that I would love you to explore for the next is if you give them some context would that make a ?difference.? Brief history is that the Hotmail name is a mashup of HTML and email.? Since Hotmail was the very first web based email the founders could pick whatever they wanted – Since HTML is the what made the web they created the brand out of it.?? Original logo was HoTMaiL – signifying the mashup of email with the web.?Net is that is a fairly involved ?story but makes me wonder if we could play on the fact Hotmail was the first would that help.? Once you get that they hate the hotmail name out on the table, Ask the question “Anyone know where the Hotmail name came from?”.? Answer will that they don’t and then you can go on and explain history I outlined above.? Follow up would be now that you know that, does it make a difference in how you perceive it. ??Make sense??10/27/09Next week - Meet in Boulder on Wed 11/4???From:Paul Major?(paulmaj@)Sent:Tue 10/27/09 11:00 AMTo:Paul Major (paulmaj@); 'ChoiMin' (hemocue@); 'shavern@colorado.edu' (shavern@colorado.edu); 'chazzwillie15@' (chazzwillie15@); 'sbutler4@' (sbutler4@)Hey guys – I have a Biz trip next week that takes me through Denver on Tuesday.? Was thinking that if you all can move your schedules we could make time to meet in person on Wed 11/4 up on campus.? We are about 50% through the semester and would be great to get caught up on the Focus groups from last week and discuss where you all are going next.??Let me know – I am booking my flights today and could meet anytime up until 2:30 or so on Wed before I head to the airport.?PMeeting Minutes and Communications11/5/09Focus Group Notes?From:ChoiMin?(hemocue@)Sent:Thu 11/05/09 8:40 AMTo:paulmaj@Cc:chazzwillie15@; sbutler4@; shavern@colorado.eduBcc:jdavenport@; bmontgomery@2 attachments |?Download all attachments?(29.4 KB)focus gro...docx?(14.9 KB),?focus gro...xlsx?(14.5 KB)Dear Paul,How is your trip going?It was pleasure to seeing you again yesterday. And thanks for the lunch! It was amazing.I am attaching what we got from the first three focus groups. I believe Charles sent you the first thoughts on the second focus group already.And the last focus group went almost identical to the first three, we figured that it will be just?redundant to put them.?Also, I do have a recording from the second focus groups, which we believe the most productive one, so please let me know if you want to listen to it.The excel file is just screening questions.We will work on analyzing this and make a draft of survey questions this week.Please let me know if you have any question.Thanks.Meeting Minutes and Communications11/9/09Conference call cancelled due to Paul’s scheduleRE: Canceled: MSFT/CU Project?From:Paul Major?(paulmaj@)Sent:Mon 11/09/09 7:35 PMTo:ChoiMin (hemocue@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu); chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); sbutler4@ (sbutler4@)Great.? thanks for accommodating and I’m sending out a call starting at 2:30 pst.?From:?ChoiMin [mailto:hemocue@]?Sent:?Monday, November 09, 2009 11:10 AMTo:?Paul Major; shavern@colorado.edu; chazzwillie15@; sbutler4@Subject:?RE: Canceled: MSFT/CU Project?Paul,?How about anytime between 2:30 to 5:15 PST (your time)?on Wednesday? We have Professor Marlatt's at that time, but?we can work on the project in the class period according to the syllabus.?In this case,?I?think?everyone in?our group can make the?conference?call.Please let me know if this works.Thanks.?Best,?Min.??From: paulmaj@To: hemocue@; shavern@colorado.edu; chazzwillie15@; sbutler4@Subject: Canceled: MSFT/CU ProjectDate: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 19:02:16 +0000?Hey guys – I had a last minute conflict come up today and I need to miss today’s call.? You all ready to review the survey?? Let me know some times that work and I can rescdhedule.? How about 10 PST on Wed (11:00 your time)??PMeeting Minutes and Communications11/09/09CU Boulder Project Manegement Group: Survey?From:ChoiMin?(hemocue@)Sent:Mon 11/09/09 10:23 PMTo:paulmaj@1 attachmentSurvey_Se...docx?(17.1 KB)Dear Paul,I have come up with a sample survey. Please note that it has only screening questions for now. ()We wrote 9 questions so far which I am attaching right now.We will work more on this tomorrow, but we would like to know we are going to the right direction.Please let me know.Thanks.Best,Min.Meeting Minutes and Communications11/11/09 Conference CallSurvey format – online surveySurvey questionsBuzz wordsSlogansMain focus – The New BusyResonating the new concept with TransitionersIncentives Package Status11/13/09RE: Leeds Business School Project Management Group: Survey Finalization Needed?From:Paul Major(paulmaj@) Sent:Fri 11/13/09 5:43 PMTo: ChoiMin (hemocue@)Yes.? Sounds good.P?From: ChoiMin [mailto:hemocue@] Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 4:30 PMTo: Paul MajorSubject: RE: Leeds Business School Project Management Group: Survey Finalization Needed?Paul,?Thanks for the corrections. So can we send out the link & start to get data now??Min.?From: paulmaj@To: hemocue@CC: chazzwillie15@; sbutler4@; shavern@colorado.eduSubject: RE: Leeds Business School Project Management Group: Survey Finalization NeededDate: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:25:06 +0000Overall looks great.? Only edits is believable is misspelled a few times.?PMeeting Minutes and Communications?From: ChoiMin [mailto:hemocue@] Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 2:05 PMTo: Paul MajorCc: chazzwillie15@; sbutler4@; shavern@colorado.eduSubject: Leeds Business School Project Management Group: Survey Finalization Needed?Dear Paul,?Please check out and tell us whether the survey is good to go.Note that the HTML tag is not working with the survey website, I could not underline the keywords.Please let me know.Thanks.?Best,?Min.Meeting Minutes and Communications11/16/09 Conference CallConducting surveyIncentives Status Update11/18/09Leeds Business School Student Group: Survey Problem?From:ChoiMin (hemocue@) Sent:Wed 11/18/09 7:53 PMTo: paulmaj@Dear Paul, Today is the third day we actually started to advertise the survey. We have emailed almost 1000 students so far, but we only got 25 responses - much less than we expected.We were expecting at least 10% of the student would respond, but the actual percentage was less than 3%. In this trend, we will end up having only 100~200 responses.To remedy this situation, we will email those students again and will start to advertise in person rather than just emails.?Of course we will keep emailing professors, advisors, and students to encourage the participation.In the meanwhile, I am wondering if you have an alternative solution we might want to try.Please let me know.Thanks.Best,Min.P.S. I just talked to Professor Marlatt, he said he will email you about the software in a couple of days.Meeting Minutes and Communications11/23/09 conference callLow number of participantsPossible solutionsMass email service – costs moneyStudent GroupsContacting ProfessorsMissing Incentives11/25/09Leeds Business School Student Group: Survey Distribution?From:ChoiMin (hemocue@) Sent:Wed 11/25/09 8:31 AMTo: paulmaj@Dear Paul,?I talked about the mass email distribution system at CU. I checked with them, and it turned out we cannot use those system because we are not an university-authorized group. However, I talked with student council and they agree to distribute the link to the list of student groups like greeks, so hopefully we can get some responds out of them.If you have any other suggestion, please let me know.Thanks!?Best,?Min.RE: Leeds Business School Student Group: Survey Distribution?From:Paul Major (paulmaj@) Sent:Wed 11/25/09 11:23 AMTo: ChoiMin (hemocue@)Sounds like a plan.? Lets see what we get with the next email?PMeeting Minutes and Communications11/30/09FW: Looking for status on a package?From:Paul Major (paulmaj@) Sent:Mon 11/30/09 3:15 PMTo: chazzwillie15@ (chazzwillie15@); ChoiMin (hemocue@); sbutler4@ (sbutler4@); shavern@colorado.edu (shavern@colorado.edu)3 attachments | Download all attachments (160.6 KB) image001.jpg (85.7 KB), image002.jpg (69.9 KB), image003.jpg (5.0 KB) Hey everyone – Shipping details are below .? I looked up the status and looks like we have an incorrect address – looks like missing the apt #.?? Hopefully with a phone call you can clear this up. ?PConference callDoesn’t want more quant data, look at our experiences in context with the 3 data points on the sheet and think about where can we goNew busy idea is a hit, point of fact… resonate question shows that yea people think it makes sense but it doesn’t affect them… Microsoft hasn’t translated it to something that makes sense to them. Brand campaign “we understand you”Powerful free email statement works well for peopleTag lines do not Wants to talk to us about 2 things weds Talk about the new busy campaign and tell him what we really thinkWhats good, whats bad, what can be changed Swot strengths weaknesses opportunities threatsPowerful free email with security tagline is best for broad audience but he wants our thoughts on it and give 2-4 taglines or core ideas that we think could resonate better with peopleThink about some more key words that resonate (free, security, Microsoft) ................
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