A slice

The better stories of late have focused less on the macro (exports are up/down, companies are hot/cold) and more on how markets work. Consider, for instance, the whole idea of test marketing: A company wants to launch a really new product, be it a flavored coffee, a sandwich, a compact car, whatever. So, they often sell it on a limited basis in a large, metro area -- or several -- to see if anyone bites.

This saves the money of doing a national launch and tells the company if people are likely to cotton to whatever the new thing is, or not. Marisol Rueda found a great example of this going on in DF in her story about Microsoft's launch of digital TV software.

The great thing about this story, besides explaining how a giant like MSFT thinks, is that they chose a supposedly developing market for a cutting-edge, and expensive, new product. There are all kinds of reasons: Too much competition in USA, perhaps, or maybe the Mexican cable companies were willing to deal. No matter. Gates & Co. were in Mexico to try their hand, and we got a great slice of business strategy as a result. Good work, Marisol!