Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, University of Phoenix, language: English, abstract: In todays hyper-competitive world, organizations must fight tooth and nail to become successful in an industry, and work even harder to maintain that success. Each component of an organizations business must be as efficient and effective as possible, in order to create sustainable competitive advantages. This includes marketing strategies. Marketing strategies must be developed and implemented to utilize an organizations strength to take advantage of the opportunities the company has identified, while protecting it from any outside threats. Microsoft Corporation has been extremely successful for doing just that. This paper will give a brief overview of Microsoft Corporation, a discussion of marketing strategies in general, and finally what strategies Microsoft has used in the past and the present to reach the pinnacle of their industry.