Here’s the answer – viral marketing. (Oooh just like blogs)
Wait, let’s go back a few notches and let me tell you how the Zune will work. I had actually written about it here, but I believe this deserves some elaboration due to the unique way Microsoft will market this product.
So you have ten songs from the April Boys Greatest Hits and you walk into a room with three of your friends also with Zunes. It just so happens that your other friend (friend number 2) has this album too (April Boys rulez!) which causes an exchange of high fives, pressuring your other friend (number 3) to share in this revelry and he gets beamed the entire album via WiFi which he can listen to for three times or carry for three days, whichever comes first. Since it’s an April Boys album, it would be the former.
The next day, friend number 3 comes with his Zune loaded up with a lot more songs which he proudly wants to share with his friends. The graph of the number of songs bought by each small ecosystem gets flatter and flatter, until everyone has almost exactly the same type of songs in a given demographic. Secretly, Microsoft has some way of determining what songs were bought where, allowing them to introduce album promos and concerts.
Here’s the thing though – you will need a very influential group of early adopters to start the Zune viral campaign. One of my commenters suggested we give Zunes to bikini clad women.
Here are some music blogs that elaborate on the Zune’s specs and functions:
Do you think the Zune will take off in the Philippines?
One reply on “The Microsoft Zune business model”
I’d push this product to the college market heavily. They’ve got all the hours they need and they’re physically able to take advantage of the file sharing/social aspect of the product. Most bloggers we know are holed up in some cubicle doing god know what hehe
>> Do you think the Zune will take off in the Philippines?
Jury’s still out on that one, but they can start spreading the virus by identifying/hitting the spinfluencers now.