The Xbox Launch in Korea

In August 2002, Microsoft approached the one-year anniversary of its video game console, the Xbox. The first wave of console systems were available in the U.S., Japan, Europe and Australia, and the second wave of rollouts was targeted four Asian markets: Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Dan Adelman, business development manager for the Xbox and Brenda Ng, Xbox’s consumer strategy and research manager, considered the marketing data for the Korea launch. They needed to analyze the findings of the first report and to identify issues to resolve in a second, follow-up marketing study. Over the course of the next few months, Adelman and Ng would direct the Xbox team in identifying console purchase drivers, deciding what segments of gamers to target and the message to send to the target segments. The questions before them were as follows: · What information does the first study provide and how does it help the Xbox team to make their decisions? Do they agree with the recommendations? What additional information, if any, is needed in order to make a recommendation on the marketing strategy for the launch in Korea? What kind of study should be commissioned to help fill in the gaps?