I had the opportunity to meet up with Microsoft Canada the other day, because they wanted to outline some information concerning the launch of the Zune in Canada. We walked through some of unique features that this portable media player would be able to offer to the marketplace, including a heavy social aspect where music enthusiasts would be able to share their preferences, play counts, and so forth.

In talking about how Microsoft would go about marketing this launch to Canadians, the product rep said that the company was going to go about this as if it were a marathon and not as if it were a sprint. By this, he meant that Microsoft doesn’t plan on having a huge marketing blitz surrounding the Canadian launch of the Zune, but is rather going to focus their energies on firmly establishing the Zune as a viable alternative to that other portable music player that everyone seems to have.

In the long run, this could prove to make better business sense, because you don’t want to expend all of your marketing energies in the first day (or week) of your product launch. It is far more important to sustain your presence in the marketplace and look toward long-term goals. We’ve talked about the importance of planning before and this clearly applies to the marketing and advertising of your company (or product) as well. What are your long-term marketing goals? After all, what’s the sense of getting all sorts of attention in the beginning, only to have that spark fizzle down to nearly nothing a short while afterwards?