Sony Integrated Marketing Communications - Case Study Example

Contemporary issues in Marketing for Sony Integrated Marketing Communications And Globalization Table of contents Chapter Introduction to the Brand..03 Part 1 Chapter 2: Evolution of Marketing.06 Chapter 3: Integrated marketing communications at Sony.09 Part 2 Chapter 4: Future of Marketing at Sony and Globalization Issues Future of Marketing at Sony..14 The Blue Ray marketing14 Globalization.15 Challenges faced due to globalization...16 Conclusions...17 References.19 Chapter 1 Introduction to the Brand Sony: The Audio Visual Entertainment Brand Sony is one of the electronic brands which have been known by people all around the world. The brand has been manufacturing all kinds of electronic products for the customers present all around the world on a global scale. The brand has been responsible for making movies, music and even the TV shows that have been found to be very popular among the viewers and the listeners. Sony based in US is one of the right arms of SONY in Japan. The Sony Corporation had its foundations laid down in year of 1946. Sony is known all around the world for the best quality of audiovisual brand of the electronics, which have gained popularity all around the world in a great manner (Viagas, 2006, p.32) The 2008 fiscal year of Sony ended in the month of March and the audit reports show that annual sales that were made by Sony in the year of 2008 equaled about $US90bilion which is a great amount. The number of employees that Sony has equals to about 190,000 people located in the manufacturing factors and in the offices all around the world. Sony is one company which has gained the success that it truly deserves and it has been known that it is one of the companies that is public in nature. It has got hold on the shares in four of the major stock exchanges in the worlds which include the stock exchanges based in New York, London, Tokyo and Osaka. In addition to this Sony is the brand with has about 1006 of the total subsidiaries located on an international scale (Squire, 2001, p. 22). Sony has been counted many times as "the worlds first" eleven times in a row in the corporate history which is truly an achievement for the organization like Sony. Chapter 2: Marketing in Sony The marketing orientation evolved the ideology of marketing providing the newer way of thinking to people. It included the point that the customers or the consumers are the entities who are much more important than the profitability as customers are the stakeholders for the organizations. It is being said that the marketing is still evolving and the better changes are seen in the field of the marketing these days. It is said that these days are the days when the evolution of marketing has entered into fourth stage. The fourth evolutionary stage of the marketing is known as the personal marketing orientation and this is the one that is considered to be the better approach as compared to ones in previous (Abramson, 2003, p. 44). The fourth stage is the one that makes the point that the individual based marketing is the key to the successful marketing and by proper utilization of this stage and with proper understating this is the way that can be used to reach the customers on an individual basis. The marketing thereby can be done on an individual basis which seems to be a better and an integrating marketing approach (Shaw, 2005, p. 93). Since the start of the term of marketing, it has been seen that changes have been occurring in the field of marketing leading to the strategic approach being adopted by the marketers in many ways. The marketing that has been recognized in previous times as the business approach has been to make more and more of the profits has now changed to the one that has been to attract more and more customers so as to gain the view point of the product or the firm itself (Hollensen, 2008, p. 11). The main responsibility of the marketers based at Sony is to expand the brands name across the borders a bit more. It includes the fact that the marketing at the corporate level is varied out at all of business levels. It includes that the value that brand has should be increased as much value as possible. Thereby this will help in an enhancement of the relationship of the brand with the customer (Rothacher, 2004, p. 101). It has been noticed that Sony has an integrated and an evaluated strategic approach towards the marketing of the products in the global market. To reach the global and an internationally located market the marketing strategies are properly being built and implemented at Sony (Harris, 2002, p. 66). Chapter 3: Integrated Marketing Communications at Sony Integrated marketing communications is the term that describes the strategic approach towards marketing of the product. By using this technique in communication, it can be made sure that the customers can be reached by the use of advertising campaigns using the media. The communication strategy should be inclusive of the fact that the message that is to be spread should be as consistent as possible (Onkvisit, 2004, p. 200). The integrated marketing communication is composed of sales promotion, advertising campaigns, public relations and this is inclusive of direct marketing. The four elements that have been notified have very important roles in the marketing campaign and they need to be integrated in a well-established manner in campaign and none of these four elements are to be ignored for the achievement of proper and thus successful marketing (Nesheim, 2005, p. 123). The four components that have been described can be dealt in the strategic manner by the firms and organizations. Advertisement campaigns are the main area that attracts the customers and that makes sure what company is giving to the customers. Integrated marketing communication is one strategy that is applied by the marketers to launch their products in international markets. The international markets are the targets for most of the organizations and the business firms, so as to expand the businesses and thereby the existing shareholder value (Ambler, 2003, p. 87). An international market targeting is one of the focused strategies that marketers can implements in order to gain maximum possible success in the market. TV, magazines, articles, News and internet have been the main sources for advertisement that has been used by Sony. It has been seen that the target customers that have been kept in mind by Sony have been the younger customers (Europa Publications, 2002, p. 22). Sony has successfully realized the demands the younger customers have including MP3 players, DVD players especially new Blue Ray disc that has grasped the attention of so many younger customers based on the global scale. Sony has been one of those brands that has successfully increased their marketing by increasing the essence of the social media within the customers which makes the customers more attracted towards the products that are related to media (Europa Publications, 2002, p. 55). The marketers at Sony are trying their best to target that kind of the audience which is becoming more evolved day by day when it comes to the use of gadgets and electronic products. These are those innovations that make Sony different among the others. As the other firms need to realize the needs of the customers in the modern world as these are, the firms that still are using traditional marketing strategies, which prove to be a failure for many of the organizations, and this has been truly realized by Sony (Nelmes, 2003, p. 123). To be successful in the market, a brand, whether of any kind, has to build its fan base. The main integrated marketing communication strategy that has been used by Sony includes the use of modern age technology to create more of a fan base. It has been seen by the market researchers based at Sony that the customers having the mutual likes or dislikes in regards to the electronics usually move as one group in the offline or an online manner. These are the groups that need to be targeted and these are the target group of customers that in one manner make the advertising campaigns of the brands much more possible and successful (Nathan, 2008, p. 123). Through main marketing tool, the internet, Sony has been advertising its newer products in a very well integrated manner which has been responsible for not only building huge fan base but has also made people realize the rationales behind the products (Boddy, 2004, p. 44). In addition to this, it has been noticed that Sony is well aware of the fact that the group of customers that it has to target consists of 80% of younger aged customers. This is the group of the customers which are stakeholders for any brand. The technology and the products that are related to technology have always attracted the younger people as compared to the children and older people. The younger customers are the group which are tougher to deal with as the nature of demands that these group of customers have are changing rapidly with an integration of more and more complexity (Nathan, 2001, p. 201). The demands that younger customers have has been realized by Sony and the younger fan base that Sony has today is the greatest by giving younger customers exactly what they needed in the form of most innovated gadgets with style, quality and a standard (Monye, 2000, p. 123). In addition to this these days there is a hyped competition in the market related to the gadgets that are thinnest in size and are lightweight. The younger customers have a belief that the light weight and thinnest of the gadgets are the most stylish innovation of the day. After the thinnest LCD television of Hitachi that gained a lot of hype, Sony came in the market with another innovative product which is thinnest LCD television up till now and it weighs only 26 pounds and these are the innovations that make a stronger market for Sony. Chapter 4: Future of Marketing and Globalization Issues Future of Marketing at Sony These days marketing has taken newer turns as we can see. The marketing these days does not just depend on the fact that people have to be reached on an individual basis but the strategy has been to reach people's hearts and minds by understanding what the customers want in the products. These days in the case of gadgets it has been seen that the higher the integration of the technology, greater the profitability. This is the fact that has been realized by engineers, the higher authorities and the market researchers based in Sony in a very strategic manner (Mikunda, 2006, p. 23). This can be illustrated by the fact that the latest product that has been released by Sony has been one of the most innovative products of modern times. These days every brand manufacturer seems to be challenged in producing the gadgets that are thinnest in size and the lightest weighing. All of these requirements of the customers fit in new LCD television that has been released by Sony that has been named as KDL-40ZX1. This is the LCD television that has broken the records of being the thinnest LCD television by Hitachi. This is an integration of the technology into Sony and its products which says it all as the TV weighs just 26 pounds. The Blue Ray marketing The blue ray disc is the latest technology disc that has a capacity to store 25GB of the data including high quality videos. The laser that is used here is the blue violet laser therefore the name blue ray. To gain more and more market for the blue ray, Sony won the full support of the DVD and PC manufacturers and for this purpose a lot of negotiations were done with both the parties. As a result of all the successful negotiations and the huge lobby formations it was declared by Dell, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung that they were in full support of the blue ray disc format. In addition to this, these are IT based manufacturers who have introduced into the market the electronic equipment that recognizes the blue ray disc format (Taylor, 2005, p.33). Globalization The market analysts say that markets located at an international level are now converging because of the factor of globalization and this has been seen as one of the changes that will help in standardization of global marketing strategies and the activities of various brands. In the past marketers for the specific brand used to conduct researches to create markets across the borders so as the cross culture differences can be overcome. Now, in the modern times, internet and growth of the technology has decreased any possible cross culture differences across the borders so the markets are now considered to be having one culture (Medavoy, 2006, p. 101). Globalization has made the people so interlinked to each other in various ways as the distances have decreased because of internet. As it has been said that the primary customer targets for Sony have been younger aged customers so Sony has been utilizing the tool that younger customer rely on and that has been the internet (Doole, 2007, p. 77). The younger customers seem to spend more of their time on internet as compared to the market analysis for the newer product that might have been introduced by their favorite brands. Therefore internet has been utilized by Sony to give the younger group of customer more than they need. Internet has been used not only to create advertising campaigns but also to increase the consumer fan base (Lenderman, 2006, p. 221). Challenges faced due to globalization Customer relationship management is one of the basic needs for any of the firms to survive in these days, it has been seen that many of the firms do not see that the reality of the customer relationship management is still to be faced in these days of globalization and growth of the technology (Kosser, 2006, p. 33). Along with many other firms and brands, Sony also needs to make newer strategies and restructuring in the organization is needed so as to be in baseline in the world of technology and to maintain the concept of customer relationship management. The main challenge is change that is truly needed in this time. The major change is the internet and as brands have adopted this change therefore it is needed that brands bring changes in themselves so as the success goes on. But the case is opposite. It has been seen that the people in brands fear to make any changes as they have the powers in the current situation so risk takers are very few to make the changes as it is needed (Kitchen, 2004, p. 101). The traditional way to market a product have been emails which the customers often find very disturbing. This needs to be changed. In addition to this, the strategy of "Sell and Tell" needs to be changed and as realized and as demand goes, selling strategy should be listening and learn (Doole, 2005, p. 76). The greater challenge being faced these days is the different ethic groups that reside within the countries. The marketers for any brand need to reach these ethnic groups in there languages and within their culture (Kelts, 2007, p. 123). Globalization at Sony It has been noticed that Sony started from the markets of Japan and successfully integrated itself into international markets and especially the US markets where it reached to customers by fulfilling all the demands that customers were having. The greatest examples are the Playstation, which is one of the most popular and well known products. Sony is among those companies, which have the relevance to corporate media as it is well known that the corporate media is one that makes the incomes of Sony. In fact it is said that the term of "glocalisation" has been termed by Sony as it has been able to market the internationally branded products into varieties of local markets. In this way Sony manages to balance the facts of the homogenization and heterogeneity so that the products appear in international markets without the Japanese signatures. Sony has acquired the interests of Columbia Tri-Star films and television and also CBS in USA in the year of 1989 whereas this is the counted moves in terms of globalization. In the case of industrial manufacturing Sony has been seen to have a global perspective as it has been able to integrate the softwares and the hardwares into the media revolution. Sony has been brewing many advantages from this globalization as the cost manufacturing price is very high as seen in Japan but it is lesser in China therefore the manufacturers for Sony are based in China for the product manufacture (Monye, 2000, p. 104). Conclusions Sony Corporation had its foundations laid down in year of 1946. Sony is known all around the world for the best quality of the audio visual brand of the electronics which have gained the popularity all around the world. The successful brands believe in innovation, as these are the factors that seem to increase the interest of all the work force working for the brand. The lists of the factors also include the higher expectancy of the profits. There is a direct relationship between the innovation and the profits. Sony has an integrated approach towards the marketing of the products in the global market. The customer services by Sony at the corporate level are also highly standardized and the very satisfying for the internationally based customers. It is truly recognized by Sony that true and honest customer service is the best marketing strategy. The integrated marketing communication is composed of sales promotion, advertising campaigns, and public relations. References Abramson, A. (2003). The history of television, 1942 to 2000. Illustrated edition. North Carolina. McFarland. Ambler, T. (2003). Marketing and the bottom line: the marketing metrics to pump up cash flow. 2nd edition. London. FT Prentice Hall. Boddy, W. (2004). New Media and Popular Imagination: Launching Radio, Television, and Digital Media in the United States. Illustrated edition. 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