Live from Microsoft, It's Xbox Live!

Redmond, Wash. -- For the initial launch of Xbox in 2001, Microsoft Corp. flexed serious merchandising muscle by flooding stores with neon green displays and placing thousands of kiosks. This year, stores are using neon orange displays as the company rolls out its next gaming phase -- Xbox Live.Microsoft launched 7,000 permanent displays, updated its interactive kiosks and created more than 30,000 temporary and pre-awareness displays for Xbox Live. The displays and product packaging use an orange color to stand out at retail, but more importantly, they explain exactly what Xbox Live is."We actually thought this was more complicated than the initial launch because there was a lot of education that had to be done," says Bill Brownell, director of retail marketing, Xbox. Xbox Live is a subscription-based, broadband online gaming arena. Consumers purchase Xbox Live starter kits and any other needed accessories, such as an Ethernet cable, to hook up their Xbox consoles to the Internet via a high-speed broadband provider. The kits include a one-year subscription and an access code that allows gamers around the world to play a variety of games against each other in one online arena. Players can seek out friends or opt to play strangers within a specified skill level. An included headset enables voice communication between players. "It's international. If you and your buddy went off to college, and you're in Seattle and he's in New York, you could be on every night talking for an hour and a half and have no phone bill because you're chatting through the Internet," Brownell explains. "You don't even have to play a game. You can just chat."The P-O-P wasn't designed to teach hardcore gamers how to hook it up, but to explain why Xbox Live is different than competitive services, Brownell says. "Clearly the P-O-P needs to drive consumers once they hit the store. There are other factions at Xbox that are working on getting them to the store. Sony and Nintendo are doing the same thing. But once they get there, it's the P-O-P that will sway the consumer as to what they're going to walk out with," says Kris Ringenbach, visual merchandising manager.Xbox Live launched in November 2002. Pre-awareness displays hit six weeks before the launch date, and permanent displays rolled out with the product. Pre-sell P-O-P included shirts, hats, lanyards, posters, a versatile counter card and a 3-foot by 4-foot big box display. The counter card display is a smaller box display with an optional easel on the back. The front has a flap that opens and explains Xbox Live.With help from display manufacturers, permanent displays made of metal, plastic and wood components were customized for each retailer. The main manufacturers were Harbor Industries, Grand Haven, Mich., and DCI Marketing, Milwaukee. Jake Jacobsen, merchandising operations manager, says there were a couple of inline and endcap concepts at the beginning and then retailers worked to customize them for their stores. "We were very strict with the logo, the colors and the branding," Jacobsen says. "Beyond that they had quite a bit of leeway to offer suggestions as far as how it fit on the type of fixturing they had, size constraints, height constraints, things like that. We were very willing to work with them and I think they appreciated that."Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Toys 'R' Us, GameStop, Electronic Boutique and CompUSA carry larger programs. Brownell says most retailers ran either a large component display or at least had brochures, since Microsoft didn't want to put Xbox Live in a store without any in-store support. Permanent counter displays that held brochures and smaller flipbook displays that allowed consumers to read about the service were also created.Rather than reference the displays built for the initial Xbox launch, the Xbox team valued the lessons learned during the first campaign. "Having good vendors that worked with the accounts and made sure what they made fit was the most important lesson learned. We didn't try to make one size fit all, because it just doesn't," Brownell says.

Live from Microsoft, It's Xbox Live!

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