Hello my good fellow GAFfers, let me share my small impressions from
Portugal.
The Marketing and Communication to announce and promote the hype for the console was really low. I understand they may not have the budget to spend on massive campaigns because we are a small country, however, even on free services in the social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc the Marketing was poor and its management was terrible, unfortunately. Their own interest was lacking and I believe consumers noticed that, which is a shame.
To begin, they started doing a countdown on Facebook, but not even that they did it right. We all know the day it was coming. Microsoft knew, consumers who were interested knew, everyone knew, well aside perhaps of the Marketing department who was running their Facebook page. Let's see:
Hey guys, 5 days remaining to the Official release of Xbox One in Portugal! (they were wrong).
Four days remaining (guys, can't you count? That's wrong...)
Oh wait, they realised they were wrong! Hope people didn't notice, let's Time-travel one day and expect our consumers do not see that we can't even count days properly. Let's skip a day and do the countdown correct! And with that...
Only two days remaining:
And then One:
And then it was officially released. Congratulations!
You can read "2014 Welcome to Portugal"
Midnight launch and dedicated space inside the stores:
Yesterday there was a midnight launch in some retails stores, FNAC being one of the biggest they promoted the launch of the console with just some signs on the door and via social media in a very light form. From all the stores available, as far as I know, only one had a proper launch which was in your capital. If you went to any other store in any other district you would get there by midnight buy a Xbox One and it was done.
The space dedicated to their console and games selection were the smallest. I took no picture even if I was there yesterday (I'm sorry for no visual proof) but to give you an idea, they had something like two rows of games for the PS4, 3 rows for the PS3, 3-4 rows for both the Wii and Wii-U. In the centre they have Steam cards and a row on PS Vita consoles, games and accessories. Behind this centre row there is one, single row for the Xbox One console, games and accessories. Not only it was the smallest row but it was the less visible point and from a Marketing point-of-view, the less appealing place to have your product (in a corner, at the end of the rows, behind another row in the centre).
For that one event people could be there starting 5PM and could get a chance to be a winner of one (1) Xbox One. Besides to have a chance of getting this console you could try FORZA 5 (as well FIFA15 and Sunset Overdrive) and beat the time of a Portuguese professional racer. See below:
Even if this serves no official numbers, the Facebook event showed quite a low number of people interested. In the picture below you can see 45 people stating that they will attend, 7 maybe and 71 that were invited:
Early sells & breaching contracts:
Even if some major stores like FNAC created special events to launch the console at midnight that didn't stop other retailers to breach their contract and start selling the console earlier than expected. Not only this is an illegal move, it's also a "under the carpet" move to try and sell the console earlier to those that want, getting this way a couple more units sold first to those that didn't want to wait for the official midnight launch. The following picture was taken (not by me, not my photo) from another decent size retailer called "Worten". Again, this show lacks of professionalism from the stores where all that matters is making some quick money by selling products earlier. Same happened with many wanted games in the past (FIFA, COD, etc).
The Professional/Business side:
During this last, previous month I had the privilege of working inside a Government institution from our State. As you may expect it's a big facility with lot's of Official Sponsors, partners and so on since, well, like I said it's from the Government so everything is big.
Microsoft is one of their official sponsors for one specific program. A program I was working on a decent-sized project so I sent an e-mail to one of the Marketing members to ask for informations regarding the Xbox One as well other professional questions regarding our partnership and also requesting a meeting to their facilities.
Now, it was not the first time I contacted them and it was not the first I would have been to Microsoft's Headquarters. I was the happy winner of a creative writing contest to which I won the very first place. I got an Xbox 360, a Kinect, some months worth of Live and other things. Months later I attended a meeting with their Xbox Product manager. It was an honour to have such meeting and after getting to know to facility, the staff and after a couple of hours talking about the Xbox brand in Portugal I heard some nice words from this person: "
Could you please give us our address? I would like to write a personal recommendation letter for you. We are a big company so I believe such letter could be a big advantage in today's competitive market." I was in shock and said yes. Two weeks later I had this letter and a couple of games as a small gift.
I mentioned all this and more. Got
zero replies from them. They not only ignored a potential consumer, they did worst! They did not answered a official member from a partnership from the Government itself! Just in case to make it sure I sent the e-mail more than once from my personal e-mail but also from my professional one (the one that was labelled as the Government company I was in). When they don't even answer "big" companies like these and when they ignore such things I have to wonder why or how this professionals got a job in Microsoft. I was forced to fill a report stating that they did not answered our requests of a meeting to provide information for our project and how negative impact it got due to being an official partner from the State, yet, they gave no signs of life. I tried, I really did but it was out of my reach since I could not get a single answer. It was truly a shame and I did not expect such treatment from a business point-of-view.
I have to question... how they intend to make money with this console with barely Marketing and communication management?
How can they be the professionals we expect to be when they do not answer their official partners who are not just a tiny company but instead a Institute from the Government itself! I would love if such post could arrive for those in charge in Microsoft HQ. I used to be a decent consumer from them, I have a recommendation letter from them, which is a rare opportunity in here, believe me. Regarding the professional/business side... well, silence it's the worst form of keeping your official partner interested. Pure lack of professionalism and love for the job if you ask me. Many opportunities were lost, the project I was working on the previous month was canned because silence was all I got and I had to work on a "Plan B" in a really tight schedule.
Best of luck Microsoft, you sure are going to need it in this territory.